Center stage was great but backyard tourism was better

When I and 23 other students from the University of Iowa touched down in Beijing last month, we were instant sensations.

We were among 300-plus international student volunteers, mostly from America, Australia and Great Britain, working side by side at the Olympics, doing everything from journalism and translation to crowd control and stadium maintenance.

But our group had the distinction of arriving a week ahead of anyone else and the media gobbled us up - we were blonde-haired novelties.