A day of mixed emotions...

Well, yesterday was a day of mixed emotions.

The day started off really well! I got up and had some breakfast and then did some work in the hotel room. Then, when I was finished I decided that I was going to wonder the city a little bit and get some lunch. So, I walked around Beijing for about 2 hours. There really isn't much of anything in my area so I kind of just wondered and ended up in a really nice, expensive, area that had a lot of America restaurants and stores. So, I had lunch at Pizza Hut! I know! Try new things! But I will tell you it was the nicest Pizza Hut that I have EVER been in!

It was a great experience for me! Going through a big city that I have never been, where I do not know the language and finding my way around and seeing all kinds of new things. I almost was just going to ask a taxi-driver to take me to a restaurant, however I just decided to walk around a little bit. It was eye-opening to see how some of the people in Beijing live. I saw some people who literally live in a hole in a wall. Then I saw some extremely nice places. I saw a lot of the little restaurants that served terrible things on their menu (dog) and I saw some extremely fancy restaurants.

Overall, my ventures was a good one that was topped with a meat-lovers personal pan pizza and diet pepsi for a total of 58 RMD, which is about $9.25 in the U.S.

After that I walked around that area a bit more and it was very Americanized, it ended up being in the area of the hotel that my boss is at. So, after about a 3 hour venture, I went back to my hotel to rest a little bit. This was when I heard the bad news.

In case some of you have not heard, an American was killed and another wounded, as well as their Chinese tour guide, in downtown Beijing. First of all, please keep their family in your prayers. The man and woman involved in the attack were the in-laws of one of the men's volleyball coaches for team USA. The coaches wife was with her parents, but not at the same spot at that time.

So, this was a little scary. Especially since I had just wondered the city for so long. However, I found out at this time that Beijing is one of the safest cities on the Earth for Americans to be in. As they were talking about it, officials from America and China were talking about how attacks on foreigners are extremely rare because they hold extremely harsher punishments than if they were to attack a native of China. So, that eased my nerves a little, oddly.

So, I stayed in my hotel room the rest of the night. I had opportunities to go and do stuff, but I just felt a little bit more relaxed staying in the hotel. So, I did a little bit more work and watched some movies on the China HBO, which annoys the crap out of me because it is in all English but with tons of Chinese subtitles on the bottom.

It was a relaxing evening and I enjoyed the change of pace since we've been going non-stop since we've gotten here.

Right now it is 9:06 am on Sunday. It is raining in Beijing right now so I don't think I'll be venturing out to do anything touristy. I will probably head over to the other hotel to the IBAF office and do a little work just to get out of my room.

Anyhow, hopefully today will be a better day, not that yesterday was terrible or anything. It was just, as I said in the title, a day of mixed emotions. I plan on watching some TV and getting some last-minute stuff ready for the baseball tournament which starts on Wednesday (I can't wait!)! If the weather clears up I might see what Jake and Page are doing and see about getting some dinner with them.

Anyway, I hope all is well back home! I miss it like crazy!! I miss being able to go anywhere and speak in English!!! However, a lot of Chinese speak English fairly well.