On August 8th, after finishing my summer job, I flew to Beijing to join Elizabeth and watch the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. We had tickets to two qualification rounds of women's gymnastics and two more for equestrian show jumping in Hong Kong. Beijing was hardly the same city I saw in 2006: everything seemed newer, less congested, and more polite. Only the pollution reminded me of the ordinary city. Before we went to our first event on Sunday, Amy, Elizabeth, and I toured the Olympic Green, a fantastic collection of new architecture which includes Herzog & de Meuron's National Stadium, locally known as the "Bird's Nest."