I’m now checked into the apartment complex and have checked out the hotel’s media center as well as the Main Press Center (MPC) just outside the Olympic Green. This view looking outside of my room’s window shows the huge lanes and the gray skies that are a staple here in Beijing.

The volunteer staff is doing a great job with hospitality. They are taking great pains to make everyone (at least those of us with credentials) feel welcome. The media center is first rate, with lots of seating, access to wireless service (more on that later) and lots and lots of bottled water.

The “Info2008″ system is a cool feature. There are terminals set up all over the venues and media center with access to all of the schedules, brackets for the events, press conference quotes, and profiles of the athletes. You have to print those out from the terminals (or you could pay a LOT of money to get wireless access to them). I figure that I can type fast enough to get some quotes into my stories, so I don’t need to pay the premium for “cut and paste” access.

I used an online version of this system when I was back home during the Athens Games. It provided lots of quotes that help to spice up the articles and recaps that I would not otherwise have had. This time around I’ll be going and getting those quotes myself!

The fencing venue is closed today due to preparations for the Opening Ceremonies so I have not had a chance ot scope it out yet. Prior photos from Serge at FencingPhotos make it look like a great venue. Tomorrow I’ll get to the venue early to be able to get a good seat, figure out any last minute story ideas and get to work on reporting the fencing news.

The wireless access in the media centers is expensive (they figured that journalists can pay on the order of $10-$20 per day for the entire Olympics) and sometimes the connections drop. I did manage to use Skype to call home and see the kids, which is a great thing to be able to do. Something that was not at all possible a few years ago. I’ll continue to use Skype to keep in touch - 3 weeks away and out of the county is a long time, especially when you’re in a time zone 12 hours apart.

Now I’m off to check out the Olympic Green and see what I can see before the Opening Ceremonies. Check back here for more updates and for news on the fencing events.