[note: the following post is from my contributing writer and favorite travel companion.  Also note the fabulous job he did taking pictures… some of these will be added to my quilt images file… ]

Ni hao.  This is Art and this is my first post to Nancy’s blog.  I haven’t read the blog yet but some of you have told me how much you enjoy it.

I am sports deprived here:  no espn!  At 10 at night when the family is sound asleep, I turn on China TV and watch highlights of pingpong, badminton, volleyball, pool–the kind with balls not Phelps (Oh my, where is the sport in any of this I ask you, i.e.,  tackling, hitting, running, sweating, drama, cheerleaders, instant replay, unions and arbitration).  So, the trip to the Bird’s Nest was fantastic: I walked every section of the stadium and not another tourist in sight.  The giant scoreboards showed highlights of the games–ones I purchased when I left–and with very loud music, all for me.  So I had a blast imaging all of it.  Extraordinary.   But the stadium itself is 100,000 empty seats in search of meaning.  There is very little that happens here.  And the place has a disintegrating feel to it, now just two years after its days of glory.  It kind of feels like a very expensive and impressive but disposable razor.   That said, being there was inspiring and awesome.   In fact, I was in the place for 3 hours.  The “Ice Cube” next door is also open for viewing but I ran out of time.  Next trip, I will report of what the pool looks like.  By the way, the IBM building was built in 2008, too, and that building is one we can see from our apartment.  It is directly across the street from the stadium and I cannot keep my eyes off of it so interesting and intriguing is its design.  The roof seems like it is modeled after the headgear of some ancient Emperor.   What a grand day.   Zaijian.

Arriving at the Nest; it is a 20 minute walk from BISS (the girls' school)...

Up close, outside...

No snow left in Beijing on this day but the Nest is full of it...

Field of snow...

Winter Wonderland demo crew...

Nest angles...

Nest angles 2...

Nest angles 3...

Nest angles 4...

Many problems like this inside the Nest...

View from the nosebleed section...

Canvas roof (quilt image 7)...

View from the Nest...

The torch structure has been moved from inside the stadium to the grounds outside...

The IBM building...