Meet Funk. James Funk.

James is of a fast dying breed here in Beijing: he is one of the thousands of foreigners that were shipped over to work on the 2008 Olympics. Funk has been living in the Chaoyang district of Beijing for 5 months, along with some of his other coworkers from an American broadcasting company. He is among various Canadians who were invited to work for the Beijing Olympics and are now looking forward to working for Vancouver 2010.

Working for a Western company and mostly mingling with Western company hasn’t completely prevented him from realizing he’s living in another world. His first “Wow, I live in China” moment occurred when a donkey pulling a buggy full of bricks casually rolled by him on a main road—not exactly something you’d normally see on a modern Canadian street.

He hasn't picked up too much Chinese and cites the culture and language gap as a barrier to picking up Chinese girls. However, James does enjoy the local food (he especially likes eating at small places in the hutong) and exploring Beijing’s nightlife. His favorite spots include ChinaDoll (pre-Olympics—he wasn’t a big fan of how it became during the Games), Song, or Cargo. The place he ends up doesn’t matter too much, though, as his basic goal when partying in the capital city is to have a good time and “get hammer drunk.” Seems as though for some Olympic expats, living here is just fun and Games.

Tracy Winn loves to find the weird and wonderful characters who make Beijing great. Be sure to check out her other blog for more reflections of a laowai on the highway.