Thursday night, I decided to change up the routine and went for a stroll by the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube. I haven’t a tripod here, so out of the 180 pictures I took about 50 turned out viewable. Which actually isn’t bad. On the other hand, I did pass some people who made my camera and lens look like cookie-cutter next to a Katana. But hey.

***

“You may call me Joe,” he would later tell me.

Joe, whom I’d passed (by virtue of walking faster) on the way to some place, where I stayed longer than he, and then again on the way back, began this conversation by calling to me, “Excuse me, sir! Why do you walk so fast?”

“It gives me a sense of purpose,” I told him. I think he understood.

He told me, among other things, why Michael Phelps wouldn’t do very well in the next Olympics: too many girls throwing themselves at him after these games. You hear that, Sara? Back off, for the glory of your country.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 11:02 pm and is filed under China, Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.