Wrestling Blogs - Mike Tamillow

I still couldn't get a workout with Larry in the third day I was here. He was arranged for a workout at one of the facilities though. However, he told me that absolutely no one from any country came in to work out when he was set to. Frustrating, because I was brought to be his training partner and coach. Most Olympians want to schedule their own workouts with their own workout partners. If he can't find a workout partner it's not their business to get him a workout. I looked at a few rooms to wrestle in that we could pay a little money to use. Nothing like a wrestling mat but they would work if they had to.

I meet up with Larry that night and we decide to head down to wangfujing street. It is a bit of a ride. It's all lit up when we get there. It's the street with big stores in downtown bejing. We walk around there a little, looking but not buying anything. We head down to get a bite to eat and I order a weird type of milkshake that has green tea mixed in. It was awful. Larry gets cookies and I try to flirt with the girl who sells them telling her 'hau yo' meaning 'good friend' but we found out that was wrong later. Then we go down the street. It's starting to get late so we decide it's time to either find a place to get foot massages or head back home. We spend the next hour trying to hail a taxi or asking people for directions to a foot massage place. Neither turns out the way we want it to. It's even more frustrating because we saw empty taxis with their lights on actually turn them off to ignore us. Geez, nice. Then we go into a little store selling really funky antique stuff. It's like a lot of other stores in the fact that she's willing to bargin. In fact it seems like a good idea to test a bargin anywhere. If they refuse and you really don't want it then ditch it. I've learned some shoody rules I'll have to talk about later. I was getting really excited wanting to buy something and I saw a cane made out of elephant bone. I end up paying whats probably equivalent to 130 USD for it and dropp it on a credit card. Then we go back to finding a cab. More cabs just kept blowing us off. I jump in one and he tells us 'no can't take you there' when we say Olympic village. Looking back on it I would've stayed in his car and not moved until he went if I was there again. For the next hour we look for a cab that will take us back. 15 minutes into it we meet a girl with the blue Beijing 2008 shirt on and she stays with us until we finally find a cab. She was getting frustrated too. We catch a cab back to drop larry off at Olympic village and then drop me off at the hotel. I have a day pass for the next day so larry can get a great workout in.