Nino Vanin, Saint Joseph's Director of Sales and Marketing for Athletics, is currently in Beijing working in Ticket Operations for the Olympic Games. Vanin will be writing a blog for sjuhawks.com, about his experiences in Beijing. On this page, will also update the progress of Hawk alums Renee Hykel, Mike Teti and Tim Mulqueen during the competition. Hykel is a member of the U.S. Women's Rowing Team; Teti is the head coach of the U.S. Men's Rowing Team; and Mulqueen is an assistant coach with the U.S. Men's Soccer Team.

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Hawks In Beijing...Nino's Blog

August 15, 2008

Ni hao everyone!

Well, I was able to procure myself a ticket to the USA/China basketball game the other night, and it was quite an experience for my first-ever Olympic event. I will admit that I shed a few tears of pride during our National Anthem - I guess I got pretty wrapped up in the whole playing-for-your-country thing, and I got emotional. Add that to the fact that it was basically a home game for the Chinese, and the atmosphere was very electric in the Wukesong Basketball Arena for what turned out to be a good old fashioned blow-out by the red, white and blue.

Since then, I have been slaving away with Cassidy in the ticket office doing our daily thing. I will be going to the USA women's basketball game tonight, which should be fun, and then going to hang out at the USA House.

So...in keeping with the theme of this journal, I must tell you a hilarious story that was told to me yesterday by one of my colleagues. First, a little background: the company I am working for hired 70 local college students who speak both Mandarin and English to work on our transportation team. Their daily job consists of making sure our guests are on the right buses to go to their events; serving as quasi tour guides on buses on the way to the events; and holding up "lollipop" signs after the events so the guests know where to walk to get back on the buses. And I can honestly say that these students are some of the sweetest kids you will ever meet: polite, respectful, always smiling, and just generally excited to be working at the Olympics in their home city.

That said, however, a lot of the things that we say to them get lost in translation. Such was the case two nights ago when two of the girls had to work very late because one of our events went into overtime. We decided to have them stay overnight in the spare bedroom of one of our female staff who was also working late. The girls were given a key to the suite and told to sleep in the room with two beds, which was unoccupied. About an hour later, our female staff member went back to her room to turn in for the night. And to her surprise, she walked into her room, turned on the light, and two little heads popped up from under the covers! Both parties were a bit startled, and the girls quickly realized they were in the wrong room. So they each scrambled out of the bed and began the embarrassing walk to the other room. But in the final funny twist of the story, they had both been wearing the hotel-issue slippers...under the covers!

So...as I read what I just wrote, I sincerely hope that it conveys how funny this story was to everyone here - we all laughed for a good five minutes. It was just another classic example of how the things we say to our local staff are often interpreted in a completely different way - and it happens on a daily basis.

Well, there have been plenty of other funny occurrences and stories that I could write about right now, but I am going to leave the rest of this journal entry to my trusty assistant Cassidy. I think it's about time that she shed a little Aussie light on this whole Olympic experience. So here she is, my friend from down under:

I'm dropping a line to confirm my working partnership with Nino and provide my impressions of China (thus far). Nino and I must have shared a past life of criminal activity, and as punishment for our previous unwarranted illegal endeavours, we are now serving time in "the cell" - a room at the Westin Hotel, Financial Street, Beijing, China. Due to spending 15 or more hours a day in the same room, (more time than convicted criminals spend together in a cell) surrounded by more than 15,000 Olympic tickets, Nino has been forced to learn a new language in order to communicate with his cellmate (me). Neither of us speak Chinese (we hardly need to, because we very rarely leave the cell), and therefore Nino has undergone a crash course in Aussie slang. (I'm a true blue occer in case that fact wasn't already obvious!) I'm pleased to report his accent and new vocabularly are coming along wonderfully and by the time Nino arrives back in the States, you will be hard struck trying to figure out exactly what he is babbling on about!

Another perculiarity you may notice about Nino upon his return will be his `rainman'-type personality. Due to the continuous counting and recounting, code translations of Olympic events, date and time specifics, and more counting and adding up, we have both enveloped ourselves in a world of pure numbers and code talk. In years to come, even though we will not have SEEN any events at the Beijing Olympics, we will still be able to efficiently recall every single code event, the sections in which our clients were seated, and who in fact they were sitting next to!

Outside the 'room of numbers', tickets and Aussie slang, the world of China exists! Beijing itself is the epitomy of megalopolis - everything simply exists - EVERYWHERE! Bless the Beijingers, they think because they live in possibly the biggest megalopolis in the world, that no other city or country exists and therefore everyone, of any colour or creed must speak Mandarin! I guess their reasoning seems logical - however it is totally impractical. Trying to converse with hotel staff to order a Coca-Cola, turns into a 20 minute theatrical performance. You can imagine the sceranio involving taxi drivers! They will nod their head, with a half-cocked smile, trying to convince you they know exactly where they are going....you know you shouldn't, but you jump in the cab anyway, as the driver prattles away in Mandarin. You then wonder why you've ended up at the wrong side of town at 1am in the morning.

This results in jumping back out of the cab onto the curbside, only to be greeted by a bevy of taxi drivers who all stare at your map. (Note: it is written in Chinese) They all converse in Mandarin in order to come to the conclusion that they indeed have no idea where the place of interest you wish to visit exists! You become frustrated with the absolute absurdity of the situation, and then burst into fits of laughter...what can you do?!

A plethora of Beijing absurities exist that I could continue to write about, however I hear the tickets calling, and I know that if I don't count them at some stage today, I will undoubtly suffer from `ticketing abandonment'............Until next time - keep counting those tickets!

Nino & Cassidy J-C