I can't count the number of Olympic medal ceremonies I've watched on TV over the years. I even got to see one in person when I attended the 1996 Atlanta Games and saw Germany's Isabell Werth on Gigolo win the individual dressage gold medal over the Netherlands' Anky van Grunsven on Bonfire.

As thrilling as that experience was, last night I learned that nothing compares to hearing one's own national anthem played in person. The USA won the jumping team gold medal in a nail-biting jump-off with Canada, and when "The Star-Spangled Banner" rang out for Laura Kraut, Beezie Madden, Will Simpson, and McLain Ward and the stars and stripes were raised, it made for an unforgettable Olympic moment for this American journalist.

Olympic competition is so tightly scheduled that the medal ceremonies are finished practically before the results sink in, apparently even for some of the athletes. After last night's jump-off, the TV cameras caught Laura Kraut turning to Beezie Madden with a somebody-pinch-me-I-think-I'm-dreaming expression and saying, "Oh my God, we just won the gold medal!" The whirlwind of activity is such that it's hard to savor the moment. I hope the riders were able to do so. I know I did.

I see that a couple of blog readers have wondered about the competition schedule and how to access live coverage.

As I write this, the morning of August 16 in Hong Kong, team dressage has ended and individual competition begins tonight with the Grand Prix Special. US riders Courtney King-Dye on Mythilus and Steffen Peters on Ravel have qualified for the Special by placing 25th or better in the Grand Prix. Debbie McDonald on Brentina didn't make the cut. And yes, the mare performed very oddly but all those in the U.S. camp have insisted that Brentina is not unsound.

Individual jumping competition began last night with the first qualifier. So here's what's ahead: August 16: Dressage, Grand Prix Special August 17: Jumping, team round 1 & individual second qualifier August 18: Jumping, team round 2 and medal ceremony; individual third qualifier August 19: Dressage, Grand Prix Freestyle and individual medal ceremony August 20: rest day August 21: Jumping, individual final rounds A and B and individual medal ceremony NBCOlympics.com is streaming live coverage.

Hong Kong is twelve hours ahead of the US East Coast, so a competition that begins at 7:15 p.m. local time will be streaming at 7:15 a.m. that same day on your East Coast computer.

The morning's roundup of sights and observations at and around the 2008 Olympic equestrian events: The transport system.

Inter-venue shuttle buses are segregated by accreditation type, meaning that thou shalt not share a ride with an athlete or a venue worker. Environmentalists would shed more than one tear at seeing full-size motorcoaches idling empty, doors open and A/C blasting, waiting for passengers while would-be riders stand sweating, waiting for their buses -- both going to the same place. Begging, cajoling, and arguing with the security people have no effect.

The Dutch party room. A lounge in one of the official host hotels has been commandeered by the Dutch team, which has rented the space for the duration of the Games. Orange-accented posters of Dutch riders decorate the walls, thereby adding even more lurid contrast to the already over-the-top room, which is decorated with pink and purple upholstered chairs and a truly horrid carpet with hot pink and purple circles and swirls.

Out front is a large Heineken display, and I wonder what it looks like with a few (or more) beers under one's belt. Judging by the fact that the Dutch are nowhere to be found most mornings, my guess is that the effect can be pretty overwhelming. And I'm glad I'm on the twelfth floor of the hotel because the disco music kept several other journalists awake who were situated on lower floors.

When the crowds are away, the riders will play. The victorious German dressage team and its supporters gathered on the apron outside the main arena Thursday night around midnight, after the medals ceremony. There was Isabell Werth, walking over to the party with an official, still in her sweaty white breeches and show shirt. Walk inside the main building and there were the judges, grabbing a snack in the cafeteria at 12:45 a.m. The party went on until about 3:00 a.m., I'm told.

Want to cross the street? Take the "subway." Barriers prevent pedestrians in Hong Kong from crossing at street level (except for when this jogger vaulted a railing and crossed, half-expecting the police to descend). Instead, you're supposed to descend a flight of stairs (or a ramp, for cyclists) and pass through a tunnel under the street (the "subway"), coming up at the other end. The system is handy because you don't have to worry about traffic lights, but it can be tricky if you are directionally challenged, as I am. More than once I have emerged from a subway only to find myself proceeding in the opposite direction from the one I intended, thanks in part to the stairways that double back on themselves.

Interesting local cuisine. I'm reminded of the line by the comedian (I can't remember who it was) who said something along the lines of, "In China, they don't call it Chinese food; they just call it food." The nearby mega-shopping mall, New Town Plaza, has a Starbucks and a Shakey's Pizza; but the streetside establishments are just...food, many with outside floor-to-ceiling tanks housing all manner of sea creatures. Some of the dishes are relatively familiar to one who's visited lots of Chinese restaurants in the U.S., but others are quite a bit more exotic.

A daily special, spotted yesterday on a blackboard: fried spaghetti with ox tongue and tomato. Um, I think I'll pass. Ditto for the carp heads and the pigs' intestines. But my fried prawns in spicy salt were delicious and clear-your-sinuses spicy, served in heaps of panko crumbs dotted with little slices of red peppers. Shoppers' paradise. That mega-mall I mentioned? When I visited, it was thronged with visitors, some of whom lined the first-floor railing watching Olympic sports on a giant screen in the mall's huge open atrium. Equal numbers were dining in the many eateries, which range from the aforementioned Starbucks to every Asian specialty.

And then it was on to six (or was it seven?) floors of shopping, plus a movie theater. Each floor has a theme: electronics, sporting goods and apparel, cosmetics, etc. And each is staffed by young female customer-service guides attired in white newsboys' caps, white knickers, and white knee-high go-go boots.

The glasses. I don't know if contact lenses are popular here among the vision-impaired, but many young Chinese people sport glasses. The current fashion must be thick, black, narrow, rectangular "geek look" frames, for that's all I see on both guys and girls, except for a few girls who choose white frames instead of black. Not a flattering look in either color.

Here at the 2008 Olympic equestrian events in Hong Kong, it's not love; it's commerce -- or, more accurately, bartering.

Pin trading, long a popular Olympic pastime, is alive and well here. People stud their credential-card lanyards with pins, thereby becoming walking bazaars of sorts. Would-be traders eye the merchandise and offer up pins as prospective swaps. You don't need to speak the language to conduct a transaction. Some of the most enthusiastic pin traders here are the young Chinese women who, as part of the massive BOCOG work force, staff the shuttle-bus stops, information desks, and security checkpoints.

Yesterday, on my way out from the press center, I was approached by a checkpoint worker who gestured enthusiastically at my lanyard bling and held up a square pin bearing the Olympic rings, a Union Jack-styled logo, and the words "Team GB" (Great Britain). She chattered excitedly in Chinese, and I couldn't understand a word of it, but the result was that I got on the shuttle bus bearing a brand-new Team GB pin. And somewhere in China, someone is treasuring her new Dressage at Devon (Pennsylvania) pin.

The scenario was repeated just moments later, at the shuttle-bus stop. This time the exchange was conducted in English, and I now have a pretty silver pin from the Swedish equestrian team, and a Swedish groom has a Hong Kong equestrian pin.

2008 Olympic coverage on TheHorse.com:

• All Olympic Show Jumping Horses Pass Vet Inspection
• Surgery on Swedish Olympic Event Horse a Success, Vets Say
• Olympics: Germany is Tops Again in Team Dressage
• Cooling Systems Help Olympic Horses Beat the Heat  

When I visit a new place, or hear about someone else's trip, it's the little details that bring the place, the people, and the experience to life. In that spirit, here are some of the things I'll remember about Hong Kong and the 2008 Olympic equestrian competition.

A global melting pot. Want diversity? Attend an Olympic Games. Different accents and languages everywhere you go, many spoken by the same people. Coming from the city that made headlines for the "This is America; speak English" Philly-cheesesteak-shop debacle, I'm embarrassed at my inability to speak multiple languages and ashamed at how insular my country really is.

It's hot and humid ... in a different way. As an East Coast resident, I know all about heat and humidity. The wet blanket that covers this subtropical city doesn't seem much different at first -- but it is. Damp clothes and towels never seem to totally dry, even in my air-conditioned hotel room. I went for a jog yesterday and was doing fine on the flat terrain, right up to the point where suddenly I couldn't seem to get any air. I was OK, but it's as if the humidity sneaks up on you.

Blowing hot and cold. Want a surefire way to get a chill? Take your sweat-dampened self into any public place, which is air-conditioned to a truly arctic level. The Olympic press center is so cold that journalists can be seen sporting sweaters, jeans, shawls, and jackets in an attempt to keep warm. Frozen fingers clutch hot paper cups of tea, trying to get warm enough to type. The waiting is the hardest part. Almost everything about the organization of these Games is drawing praise from riders, officials, media representatives ... except the transportation system.

The good news is that Hong Kong appears to have commandeered every sparkling clean luxury motorcoach, wrapped it in "Beijing 2008" logos, and put it at the disposal of the accredited masses. The bad news is that someone decided for security reasons to separate those who take the shuttles: athletes, media representatives, officials, and so on. So if you're, say, a reporter and it's late and you've been up since 4:30 a.m. and it's now 10:30 p.m. and you really, really want to catch a bus back to your hotel, but the nearly empty coach before you has been designated "athletes only," then, well, too bad, you'll have to wait 30 minutes until your bus arrives.

This inflexibility, delivered in genuinely distressed tones by the many young BOCOG workers who staff the transit checkpoints, has drawn the ire of more than one well-known official or competitor.

Why have one when you could have three or four? I've never seen so many workers at an event. To ensure that I did not lose my way from the entrance to the Beas River cross-country venue to the shuttle-bus lot -- a distance of perhaps a hundred feet -- no fewer than six people helpfully waved me along. One appeared quite distressed when I diverted slightly from his ideal path.

At a media party at the Hong Kong Jockey Club last night, there were approximately three waiters bearing trays of drinks and hors d'oeuvres to every one guest. It can make for great service, but it's a little peculiar.

What's with the critters? In the same vein as Hello Kitty (which I think is actually Japanese), the Chinese seem wild for cutesy little creatures. The rear shelfs of many automobiles are filled with little stuffed animals. Practically every Olympic souvenir offered at the official venue shop features one or more Fuwa, the five 2008 Games "little children" mascots. No Olympic pins, no polo shirts, no mugs, no posters ... but oversized pens, eyeshades, key chains, cell-phone charms, trinkets, and stuffed likenesses of all sizes bearing Fuwa images.

Wellie boots. Locals clomp around town in Wellies of every imaginable color and design. They may look pretty silly paired with shorts on a sweltering day, but endure one rainstorm and you'll begin to see why they're not such a bad idea.

Umbrellas. They keep rain off when it's wet and sun off when it's fair. Locals carry them everywhere. My umbrella has become like the famous American Express slogan: I don't leave home without it. Those are some of the unique features of this city and country. I have about 10 days to go, so I'm sure I'll be able to tell you about lots more in the days to come. Equestrian competition switches from mornings-and-evenings to evenings only starting tomorrow, meaning that we journalists and photographers might actually get some sleep and may be able to sneak off to do a little sightseeing.

Stay tuned.