Day 18 - Sexy Owl

Hey Everyone!

Monday, the gymnastics team had the day off.  I went to a shopping district on the east side of Beijing with some friends.  Our first stop was Hooters Beijing  - a new experience for me.  Some of my friends wanted to pick up t-shirts as souvenirs.  I ended up getting a picture with the Hooters staff - a souvenir unlike any other.  Apparently, Hooters Beijing is quite different than Hooters in America.  It is more family-oriented and one friend even has video of the whole restaurant doing a conga line.  Someone told me the sign on the front of the restaurant roughly translates to sexy owl...hence the blog title.

After Hooters, I headed to the world's largest Adidas store - its location had eluded me for a week.  There were signs for the store in Wangfujing - a ways away - but I couldn't find the store...even on the Internet.  The store was four floors of clothes and shoes.  The first floor had an entire section devoted to health exercises.  One section included 10 columns in a circle.  You were supposed to stand inside and when they lit up, you had to touch the light.  There were also lights on the floor you had to step on.  The exercise was supposed to test your reflexes.  I scored in the "poor" category.  With more practice, I made it to "average".  It was hard!  Another station consisted of an interactive mat and computer screen that measured how high you could jump, your balance and how fast you could run.  The running portion involved running in place to see how many times you could step on the mat.  It was quite a workout and I'm sure I looked ridiculous.  Then, the computer printed out your stats.  I apparently have a great BMI, but my speed could use improvement.  It was a nice day off from working!

Ted