We had the best of luck when it came to outdoor events. Not one was rained out. Softball was no exception - the weather was beautiful. We actually changed our seats to make sure we were tanning evenly. That never happens in Beijing. One big problem with nice weather is that in Chinese society, a lot of empasis is placed on white skin. My students all think I'm crazy for wanting a tan. Sunny weather brings with it as much umbrella use and rain does. As a result, another factor in moving from our original seats was the number of umbrellas blocking our view.
Some Chinese fans near us got a little upset when we started overtaking their cheers by inserting "USA" in the place where "China" is usually yelled. One girl told us to shut up. But all in all, we had a right to cheer. The USA played fabulously and almost won by mercy rule. It made me wish I had never hung up my softball glove. ;-)
China tried their best to make the Olympics have a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. One way they did this way by introducing mascots ("fuwa" in Chinese). Not one, like Olympics in the past, but five. Their names are BeiBei (a fish), Jingjing (a panda), HuanHuan (the Olympic flame), YingYing (a Tibetan antelope) and NiNi (a swallow). These names are short for "Bei jing huan ying ni", which means "Beijing welcomes you". They have been a huge hit here (my friends and I were the Fuwa for Halloween) and were present at almost every event in life-sized form. At the softball game they kept falling over and couldn't get up. I couldn't stop laughing.
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