At long last...Blue Skies!!
Trip Start
Jul 21, 2008
1
12
22
Trip End
Aug 28, 2008
Beijing,
China
Friday, August 15, 2008
Madonna is about to begin her "Sticky and Sweet Tour", but Gregg and I are in the 4th week of our equally anticipated "Sticky and SWEAT Tour 2008". Whereas Athens left us hot, dry and parched, the Beijing Games are damp, steamy, and oppressively sultry.
We must accept the fact that we will look moist in unattractive places, and have to live daily with jacked-up hair...such is life in Beijing. I guess our bedraggled appearance marks us as foreigners. I was eating alone the other night and the waitress said to me, "I think you are not from Beijing...your skin is wet! giggle giggle giggle..."
And FORGET about being in a hurry with laundry. When we hand-wash our clothes (we are here for 6 weeks), they take at least 4 days to dry.
Many of you have asked if the air "quality" (a term that must be used loosely here) is as bad as has been reported...
Yes.
The smog here makes Los Angeles seem like a Swiss mountain village in comparison. Some days it is so thick that you can barely see half a block. Yuck!!! (choke! choke! gasp! spit!) And don't get me started with the smoking in elevators...
I am sure y'all have heard about the measures in place to improve the air: drivers only allowed to drive on every other day based on even or odd license plates, factories forced to cease production during Games-time, the government seeding the clouds to produce rain in order to cleanse the air...(CREEE-PEEEEE!)
The Politburo must be slapping each other on the back and congratulating themselves today. It is stunning. Well done Chairman!
