The Art of Capitalism

Ya know... for a country that scoffs at capitalism, China gave an impressive display at the Olympics of everything I've been studying for the past 4 years. Supply, demand, competitors... it was all there. (Click on this post's title for a great description of the games.)
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I ventured out on my own the morning after I arrived. I began walking down the street (in English we call it an alley) to the subway but nearly died before I reached the main road. I was sure that heart failure was imminent at the shocking sight of not only a trash can but a recycle bin as well. I was in complete shock. As someone from Seattle (a place where not recycling is considered a mortal sin) I was at a loss trying to figure out what to do. You're suppose to throw things on the ground here! What am I suppose to do now?! ... The problem could wait -- I had tickets to find.
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I got on the subway not really knowing my destination. I figured the stop marked "Olympic Park" was a pretty safe bet. As the cars zipped underground I noticed some German tourists standing nearby-- the flags on their backpacks gave them away along with their red, yellow, and black attire. (One gets quite excited when one sees Westerners in China.) We began chatting. Michael & Evelyn were on their way to buy tickets and I asked if they would let me tag along. They agreed and so we headed to the infamous Line 8 transfer stop. I had such high hopes.
Trying to break through the crowd just to get out of the subway was adventure enough -- there are so many people here and I do not say that lightly. But that challenge was nothing compared to the difficulties that lay ahead. "Here we are," Evelyn announced. With a confused and curious look on my face I thought to myself, "We're just at subway station. Where's the ticket office?" She had read my thoughts. I followed her to a man who was sitting on a step that surrounded the station. This was one of the many ticket representatives. Welcome to Ticketmaster -- Beijing style.
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The hunt was on. I perused the aisles -- window shopping at first -- not quite sure of what I wanted exactly. The prices were outrageous! They wanted 10 times the face value. I was going to have to be smart if I didn't want to leave Beijing without seeing any events or without any yuan in my wallet. I continued walking around but nothing was worth my time or money. Well, almost nothing...
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It was pretty obvious that people were scalping tickets -- no one was discrete about it despite the fact that it was "forbidden". I meandered around the square in search of anyone I had missed (basically hoping that someone would just walk up to me and say 'would you like this ticket?' oh, yes, of course). Then I notice this Westerner walking towards me (they're quite easy to spot in China). The sly devil looked only a few years older than me. He gave me a curious look as if he was trying to decide whether I wanted to buy tickets or if I was just passing through. I thought that the location kind of gave it away but I suppressed my laughter and knew that whatever was about to take place was going to be good. It was.
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As we passed each other, our shoulders only a foot or two apart, he muttered in his British accent, "ya want some tickets, girl?" His ridiculous attempt at anything secretive was too much and I had to laugh. I turned around quickly enough so he could see that "you're ridiculous" look on my face and clearly hear the remainder of my laugh. I looked him directly in his eyes and loudly asked, "what do ya got?" All he had was incredibly expensive fencing tickets but it was worth the good laugh.