Adventures in Guangzhou!

After struggling through three lessons while dreaming of my leftovers in the fridge, I rushed out to the track to do one final pre-meet session. I warmed up, stretched, and did some pick-ups before jogging a few more laps to loosen up. Despite my best intentions, I was getting nervous for the faculty/staff track meet to be held the next day. All I really wanted to do was lounge on my couch and go to bed, but I had no such luck.

Steven and I were informed by Lisa, our foreign affairs liason, that we had to attend a ceremony Friday night. A ceremony for what? She had no idea. Hmmm, sounds... fun? Before meeting up to leave for said ceremony, I decided to continue my binge of western food and made up a huge bowl of pasta. I figured that I should bring it back to my high school & university track days and fill up on a ton of pasta the night before racing. Mmmm. Tomato sauce may be absurdly expensive here but it's well worth it.

Steven and I rushed out to meet up with Lisa who proceeded to hand us enormous gift bags, guest badges, and tickets for the opening ceremony to the International Tourism & Culture Festival, being held at Tianhe Stadium down the road from us. I immediately chuckled about how the addition of Macau makes it an international gathering. After I got over that, I began to dread the whole thing. Steven and I were less than psyched about this affair, given its potential for long-winded speeches in Chinese. We became even less excited when the bus rolled up, filled with various other westerners. I think I can safely say that neither of us have any desire to travel around with a massive horde of white people. It's frustrating to stick out like that and also annoying to have to have the same conversation with a ton of people: so what are you doing in China? how long have you been here? where are you from? blah blah blah. I don't mean to sound cynical, but the majority of foreigners here don't make any effort to learn Chinese, don't care to assimilate, and are generally not the type of people I'm excited to hang out with.

Regardless, we hopped on the bus and were off. The ride from my apartment to Tianhe Stadium should usually take around 15 minutes with light traffic. However, given the rush hour traffic and number of people going to this ceremony, it took upwards of an hour. Ugh. At least the bus was air-conditioned! We got off and joined the sea of people all heading to the ceremony. I had no idea what to expect but I was excited to get inside the stadium. Sure enough, when we got inside to find our seats, the place was brimming with people and excitement. Whatever this was, it was a big deal for sure. We were sitting 3rd row (almost) center which was also pretty cool. Even if it was going to be boring, at least we'd have great seats for the tedium.

I began to flip through the program on my seat as I waited for the festivities to begin. Again, whatever this was, it was going to be big deal. The ceremony was going to include the obligatory speeches by the bigwigs, but it was also going to include a 16-part history of Guangdong Province in song, dance, opera, acrobatics, and drama. Wow. I don't know too much about the ancient history of the place, but I do know that Guangdong has been at the forefront of economic reform and modernization over the past 25 years in China. I don't know how that translates into art, but I was getting curious to find out.

I get the feeling it was showy for the sake of being showy, but right from the get-go the ceremony was completely over the top. There were huge floats for different areas of the province, tons of fireworks, huge lasers, gaudy costumes, excruciatingly traditional music, and about a bazillion performers. I was almost too much in shock the entire time to enjoy it, but I will say this--the gong fu number performed by the Guangzhou Shaolin Gong Fu School was incredible. They put on an amazing display crowned by as musical performance from none other than Jackie Chan! Of all the times to not have my camera ...

The ceremony ended with one of the longest firework displays I have ever seen. It was completely ridiculous. I think I turned to Steven about 10 minutes into it and asked how many farmers in Tibet the cost of the ceremony would have fed. 10,000? 15,000? Just a guess. I'm not sure if I'm making this up in my head or not, but I have to say that despite the impressive length of the fireworks, they still didn't compare to comparable displays in the U.S. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but I think American fireworks are just bigger. Anyone with me on that?

Anyhow, before I knew it the night was getting late and I pretty much went to bed immediately upon returning back to the apartment. This was disappointing for a couple reasons. First, I wanted to go to bed early. Second, I really wanted to watch "Without Limits," the Prefontaine movie. We used to watch it before track meets in high school and I still love the movie. I decided that instead of staying up late, I would wake up the next morning and throw it in before the start of the meet in the afternoon.

It's no surprise that every single American runner in high school or university respects Prefontaine. What do you expect from someone who said stuff like this:
"Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative."
or
"You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement."
I honestly believe that you can't understand Prefontaine or his drive to win unless you are a runner. The same sentiment certainly exists in other sports, but running is just a little different. Competing in a race like the 400m hurts like hell. Your body is certainly not meant to endure that kind of punishment but people do it for the challenge. I do it to prove to myself that I can, as well as to test my physical and mental limits. Like I said, I think you need to be a runner to really get it. That being said, I walked out to the track Saturday with the line in my head from the movie where Pre says "Is there anything worse than being second best?" Hmmm. Can't think of anything...