The night of the opening ceremonies at the USA house is a huge partyhouse. USOC staff, workers, volunteers, and some coaches were all watching the show on dozens of TV screens throughout the house. After the end of the ceremonies, our transportation dudes went to pick up the most important VIPS (donors, sponsors, board members) from the bird's nest....however nobody realized that cabs was nowhere to be found after the ceremonies since they were all bottled up near the bird's nest. To make matters worse, literally half of the roads in northern half of Beijing was blocked off due to the massive Olympic traffic.
From a combination of inebriation and lack of cultural understanding, the coaches were putting their lives in danger....standing, swaggering, loitering in the middle of the boulevard trying to stop cabs. Their ignorance of their dire situation was too much for me to bear. Across the street a bar was open and there was a car........the next step was convincing/forcing/subduing the driver and his boss to take us for a ride to the coaches' residence - Beijing Normal University.
After facing many roadblocks because of the Olympic traffic diversion, the driver almost dared to kick us out in the middle of a highway....an act that deserved my utmost censure. After cursing at the driver for a few minutes, he gave up trying to kick us out and obediently drove us till the end. All this time the coaches were asleep from the intoxication. After they arrived at BNU safely, I thought it is time for me to sleep on the streets since there was no cab to be found, and it was 1:45AM. Luckily there was a cab with a passenger kind enough to take me to a more favorable place and I was able to find a cab to get home. I haven't seen these coaches since that night and I don't think they would've remembered this episode the next morning.
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