Friday, August 15, 2008

Day off in the village

Today was an absolutly perfect day to have off back in the Olympic village. The sun was shining, it wasn't too terribly warm, and there were really exciting events to watch! I started the day with a trip to the water cube--not to swim but to watch some swimming finals. I saw the men's 200 m back, the women's 200 m breast, and a couple semi-final events before I headed back to the village to explore. I am so happy for our US swimmers who are doing so well!!

The village is so huge. When I'm walking from my room to the "caf" everyday, I hardly realize that it is really like a small city's downtown! I went into the international zone for the first time, which has, among other things, a book store, a souvenier store, and a couple of cafe's run by Olympic sponsers. Every time I go in an Olympic store I have to stop myself from buying one of every thing inside...even the most tackiest of products is appealing when it has "Beijing 2008" on it! I managed to leave with only a couple items though, which I'll likely never use.

In the afternoon I took it easy. I watched various events on the TV in our room that has a live-feed of any event going on. Some cycling finals were going on as well as a softball game and water polo game. I took a short nap, and found some time to organize and move into my room, which I really havn't had time to properly do since I got here the first time. Anyone who knows me knows that I like being organized, and so it was a big relief to get that done! It was also nice today just taking my time eating lunch and dinner, enjoying the company of my team-mates and meeting other US athletes who stopped by to chat.

Tomorrow it's back to work at the pool...duet competition starts on Monday and teams start 4 days after that. I am so anxious and excited to start! I feel ready to go and show our stuff to the world!

1 comment:

JH said...

I caught a little behind-the-scenes in the village with some softball girls on the local news. Perhaps after your awesome performance later this week you can reward yourself with a free manicure and pedicure. That cracked me up. Glad to see they are treating you guys well - after all you've put in over the years, you deserve to be celebrated during this time!

Keep up the posts - it's so fun to hear your stories. When you talked about eating out and sleeping in I finally had something in common with an Olympian! Glad you got a little time to enjoy some events as a specatator. Those were fun events you caught. We actually got them on NBC back here if you can stay up late. You know, when NBC stopped showing beach volleyball.

Best of luck! Can't wait to see your performance.

Jen H