A funny story...

I am in Beijing right now and I had a chance to go to downtown Beijing today a few hours before the opening ceremonies. The excitement was palpable - the streets were teeming with people from all over the world - and there were many people shouting and yelling in the streets. Today was extremely hot and humid in Beijing - one of those days you started sweating as soon as you walked outside. I was wearing a cut off T-shirt today because of the heat - and my friend Caroline and I spent most of the day walking around Beijing. We had stopped to eat at a sushi restaurant and we were sitting next to Chinese woman who had started a conversation with Caroline and I. As we were sitting down, the Chinese woman looked at me and said, "Are you an athlete?" I was taken aback, and she repeated the question. Needless to say - my ego was stroked - and with a lot of pride - I said, "No - but thank you for asking." I was beaming throughout the dinner and continued to bring up the comment in the conversation. Feeling quite proud I literally bounded out of the diner. Once again I brought up the comment and finally Caroline had had enough. She started laughing and I asked her what was so funny. She told me that in the Beijing paper this past week there was a list of greetings that the local Chinese should say to the foreigners in town to make them feel welcome. Caroline told me that one of the remarks was, "Are you an athlete?". She then began to burst out laughing and admitted to me that she just couldn't tell me this before because I was enjoying the comment so much and seemed so happy. Needless to say - I was a little red in the face, which come to think of it - was an appropriate color for the first day of the Olympics in this country.