CHINA and I

I have been living in Beijing for over a year now. I moved here to be in the most turbulent yet exciting place once can be....Beijing is where it's all happening. While many cities took decades and centuries to build (Rome was definitely not built in a day), modern Beijing is being created within a year. From a flat landscape of the most beautiful imperial temples and palaces, you see fantastic creative buildings rising. Beijing must have the record for most landmarks, the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and now you have the Bird's Nest (Olympic Stadium), the water cube (Aquatic Stadium), the Giant Egg (Grand Opera House) and the Z (CCTV Tower). All iconic structures which symbolize Beijing. Such strong identifiable symbols that you know it cannot be mistaken for any other place when you see them.

I love Beijing and I love the Olympics. Proof of this is that I declined an opportunity to move to Shanghai if only for the Olympics. I also know now that my destiny of being in the Olympics will be fulfilled.

As soon as I learned that tickets were available online, I immediately conspired with friends and family back home (my sis and best friend were flying from Manila for the Olympics) on what events to apply for. The process was arduous as we wanted to make sure we'd see all dream games which would include the opening ceremonies, gymnastics and lots of volleyball and badminton. As 10 were not enough (even as I initially feared the total cost if I got all the tickets), I even asked another friend to order a few more badminton tickets for me. Application done. Come August 28th, my friend emails me that she received an email from the Olympic Committee and that she got nothing but my badminton tickets. She told me to check my email. I did nervously logging into my email account, only to be disappointed with no email. I slept a sleepless night after that hourly checking my emails for THE EMAIL. None came...and day in, day out, zero. Sadly, the website even said, only those ALLOCATED will be NOTIFIED. Spoke to everyone else who applied, apparently, it was one disappointment after another, except for a former Korean colleague who won wrestling tickets (which she graciously offered me as she knew how much Olympic glory meant to me which I couldn't accept anyway), all else got kaput. My Japanese colleague who had 4 applications (hers, her Chinese husband's, her mom and dad in law) ended up with zilch. I though it was an impossible dream. I was ready to pack my bags....from Goodluck Beijing to Goodbye Beijing.

Come September 10th, the supposed last day for payment if you got tickets, I called the Olympic Hotline and asked why I didn't receive any emails. She said, "You should have had whether you won tickets or not, I suggest you email us and wait for a response. To be sure you don't waive your tickets though, I suggest you deposit money in your Olympic Account to be sure it has money if you won. I told her, "This is ridiculous! I only have the minimum required 10 kuai there. Why should I deposit 10,000 kuai if I wasn't sure I got tickets? She said, "I understand it's inconvenient but I suggest you do it." In a frustrated state, I said goodbye.

Considering she said I should have been emailed whether I won or not, I checked my emails for the past 2 weeks once more, zilch, nil, nada....ayaaahhhhhh.... I checked my bulk aka spam mail, it shouldn't hurt....September 9, 8...August 29, 28...hold on....there's one from the BOCOG...I open it, pause, breathe heavily and read, "We would like to thank you for you interest in applying....." (a thank you? this can't be good)...."We are pleased to confirm that you have secured your place at some or all of your selected sessions after a random selection....." (at the very least I got one)....women's gymnastics individual all around, women's volleyball quarterfinals, women's volleyball semifinals and women's volleyball gold medal match, badminton mixed semifinals....(I got 5 events, my Lord, I got 13 tickets). It seems I'm the luckiest person I know. Now I know, China is my destiny. My quest for Olympic glory has been fulfilled. Goodluck Beijing, goodluck Marco.

...1st Pinoy torchbearer since

the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and not

another one in maybe 50 years...

ONE MAN'S DREAM...OUR COUNTRY'S GLORY!

GO PINOY! GO MARCO!

To our God be the glory!