I was curious about how long it would take the average person to get to the opening ceremony, so I joined a regular line (not the press line) at 4:30 p.m. to find out. I wound up standing outside in the heat and humidity for an hour and 45 minutes before I finally cleared security.

The lines were long, leaving people outside to face the mix of a 93-degree afternoon, a hazy day and heavy humidity.

In the time that I waited, I befriended a group of Canadians, Americans and one Finnish woman who were all on a trip to the Games purchased through Jet Set Sports. Here are some of the best quotes overheard while we waited:

“I’ve never seen so many people before in my life. The lines are so long some people may want to go home,” said an anonymous woman passing by on her phone as she walked to the end of the line.

“It’s starting to drip from everywhere,” Kelly said as she dabbed sweat off her forehead.

“That’s real classy,” said Vanessa, her cousin, a student at a college in Dublin.

“In Finland, we have sauna. It’s like this. You go there and put water on the rocks, but it’s better because you don’t stay as long,” Rauni said.

“They should change the slogan. One World One Smell,” Rowan said.

Are There No Vendors In China?

The one thing that surprised me while I waited was no vendors had set up to sell water and drinks to people waiting in line. A vendor would have made a killing even if all he had was a book bag full of drinks.

Preparing Like ‘Ninjas’ To Host The Games

It’s been said that Beijing transformed itself overnight to host the Olympic Games, but two Cal Poly students who spent the summer studying abroad told me that’s what really happened.

I bumped into Arthur and Christine — both rising seniors originally from Orange County — when I made a transfer at a subway station en route to the stadium for the opening ceremony. I was asking them about how they’d seen the city change since moving here more than a month ago.

Arthur said that every day that they came to class something was different on the campus of North China University of Technology where they were studying, which is near the rowing venue. They came home from a class trip at 8 p.m. one night and woke up the next morning to see a giant flower design in the shape of the Olympic mascot.

“It wasn’t there when we came home that night,” Arthur said.

“They’re like ninjas,” Christine said. “You would wake up and things would appear out of nowhere.”

Can’t You Smell That Smell

On the first day I was in Beijing, I kept walking past areas that smelled like pesticides. I had no idea what they were and every time I asked someone about it they said they didn’t know what I was talking about. But I finally got my answer tonight.

Arthur and Christine finally had an answer for me. Apparently, the Chinese have been spraying its trees with hoses to silence the cicadas that are common in Beijing.

Ambush Marketing Amiss

I bumped into my first case of ambush marketing yesterday when I climbed in a cab and saw an ad for photo-card maker Scan Disk staring at me from the back of the passenger seat.

The imagery in the ad showed a diver, volleyball player, people cheering and a soccer player all crammed above a building that looked like the Forbidden City. Beside it, the promotion read: “Each day in August, life will be full of memories with countless beauty, delicacies and sports. … Treasure them using photos, videos and music! Scan Disk helps you capture these moments safely.”

Executives with TOP sponsor Kodak, the Games’ official imaging sponsor, won’t be happy when they hear that.

Getting The Boot In Beijing

Each time I get in a cab here I regret not knowing any Mandarin. Every cab driver starts talking to me and pointing. Usually, I just stare and wait for them to start driving to the address I’ve handed them on a sheet of paper. But that backfired when one kicked me out of his cab last night after I handed him the address to my hotel. Not sure what I did, but it was hot, so maybe I just smelled too bad for him to drive.

Quote Of The day:

“I tell everyone this is my cleansing program. I’m going to come home a lean, mean, fighting machine.” — Joe Goode, Bank of America spokesperson, on the sauna-like weather