Thursday was our biggest day of events. We started the day pretty early because we needed to pick up some additional swimming tickets from the business development director of the US Swim Team, courtesy of my new boss. The challenge was that the hotel was in a completely different section of town, and we had been warned that many of the taxi drivers didn’t know where it was. So I took extra care to have my hotel call the other hotel and get the directions – and then have them written in Chinese for a taxi driver. We wanted to get there early in the morning so as to catch a bus with the friends and families of the US Swim team members. So we got up early and were ready to catch a taxi at 6: 15 a.m. The taxi ride was very interesting.
The first thing that happened when I flagged down the taxi. The taxi driver got out and said “Mor-mon?” A bit startled I said, “what?” and he repeated, “Mor-mon?” I looked at Emily and said to her,,,”yes, but how would he know? What does a Mormon look like?” We looked at our T-shirts which had American flags on them and thought, “this guy shouldn’t even know what a Mormon is…” and then we realized that he was trying in his best English to say “Moment?”, meaning “just a moment” – wanting us to wait for him while he got the luggage out for his previous passengers. We had a good laugh about that.
Then we got inside and started on our way to the other hotel. The taxi’s in Beijing are all metered fares – I had been told that if they don’t use the meter, it is illegal, and that they were especially concerned about this during the Olympics. I looked, and the meter was on. I then stopped paying attention for a little while. About half way through the ride, I looked at the meter, and the taxi driver had shut it off. I immediately told Emily that this guy was trying to cheat us and then tried to address the problem by pointing at the blank meter. It was pretty useless because when I pointed to the meter, the taxi driver thought I was referring to the radio, and then said “U…S…A?”? I nodded and said yes. Then he tried in his very best and said something like, “Fa-llops”? I didn’t understand so he repeated, “Fa-llops”? I still didn’t understand, so he started making swimming motions with his hands, and I finally understood that he was trying his best to say “Phelps”. So I nodded my head, and he raised his hand and showed me 4 fingers and then 8 fingers – which I interpreted as Phelps had won 4 gold medals so far and was trying for 8. He was very excited about this and smiled about 4 times at me for acknowledging this. I wondered what he would think if he knew that he was dropping us off at the hotel where the US Swim Team, including Michael Phelps, was staying. Anyway, it distracted my attention from the fact that he was cheating me at the same time. Finally, we got to the hotel and he charged me 60 yuan, when I knew it should be something like 30. Of course, that translates into $10 dollars instead of $5 dollars…so I just paid it because I didn’t know how to have the argument with him. We went inside the newly finished hotel and had a regular breakfast buffet. Then we met up with our host who gave us tickets to the Friday preliminary qualifying heats in a good section, and got on the bus with the friends and families of the Swim Team and went to the venue.
The first thing that happened when I flagged down the taxi. The taxi driver got out and said “Mor-mon?” A bit startled I said, “what?” and he repeated, “Mor-mon?” I looked at Emily and said to her,,,”yes, but how would he know? What does a Mormon look like?” We looked at our T-shirts which had American flags on them and thought, “this guy shouldn’t even know what a Mormon is…” and then we realized that he was trying in his best English to say “Moment?”, meaning “just a moment” – wanting us to wait for him while he got the luggage out for his previous passengers. We had a good laugh about that.
Then we got inside and started on our way to the other hotel. The taxi’s in Beijing are all metered fares – I had been told that if they don’t use the meter, it is illegal, and that they were especially concerned about this during the Olympics. I looked, and the meter was on. I then stopped paying attention for a little while. About half way through the ride, I looked at the meter, and the taxi driver had shut it off. I immediately told Emily that this guy was trying to cheat us and then tried to address the problem by pointing at the blank meter. It was pretty useless because when I pointed to the meter, the taxi driver thought I was referring to the radio, and then said “U…S…A?”? I nodded and said yes. Then he tried in his very best and said something like, “Fa-llops”? I didn’t understand so he repeated, “Fa-llops”? I still didn’t understand, so he started making swimming motions with his hands, and I finally understood that he was trying his best to say “Phelps”. So I nodded my head, and he raised his hand and showed me 4 fingers and then 8 fingers – which I interpreted as Phelps had won 4 gold medals so far and was trying for 8. He was very excited about this and smiled about 4 times at me for acknowledging this. I wondered what he would think if he knew that he was dropping us off at the hotel where the US Swim Team, including Michael Phelps, was staying. Anyway, it distracted my attention from the fact that he was cheating me at the same time. Finally, we got to the hotel and he charged me 60 yuan, when I knew it should be something like 30. Of course, that translates into $10 dollars instead of $5 dollars…so I just paid it because I didn’t know how to have the argument with him. We went inside the newly finished hotel and had a regular breakfast buffet. Then we met up with our host who gave us tickets to the Friday preliminary qualifying heats in a good section, and got on the bus with the friends and families of the Swim Team and went to the venue.
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