An exciting week
It has been an exciting week. I was glad to make the move from Dalian into Beijing so that I could move around freely. I didn’t waste any time either, arriving Sunday afternoon and heading straight to Beijing Normal University (BNU) to check out the training accommodations and food that everyone has been raving about. BNU is set up for Team USA to have a place to train privately. You know me I LOVE to eat and was glad that the food held up to the hype. With an all American staff flown in the USOC outdid themselves. There are smoothies, a pasta station, salad bar and a buffet with a well balanced meal complete with nutrition information. Then there is a grill menu that you can always order from if nothing suits you and if all else fails you can ask for what you want and they will try their hardest to accommodate you. This is also where personal coaches, team alternates along with other stragglers associated directly with team USA but not on staff reside. The 24hr Fitness they have set up for us over here is better than anyone I have ever been into in the states. They definitely did great in finding out what athletes need and making sure that is was all here. It was all brand new and personalized with Olympic rings and USA. I was thoroughly impressed.
The hardest thing I had to deal with thus far in China is getting around. It takes at least 30ming to get everywhere though a cab is very cheap and there is a good chance you’re not going to end up where up want to go. ..
Monday I got to watch the US play Cuba in Volleyball well the third game anyway because my coaches cab brought her to the wrong place so by the time we met up it was almost over. I didn’t get discouraged though as I knew I had time to catch many more events before all was said and done. After a great training session in the afternoon, I grabbed a quick dinner at BNU and headed to women’s basketball. We made it reasonably close to the start of the game but were held up in security because I had a bar of soap and a tennis ball in my bag… (I had showered at BNU and come straight from there with my practice bag in tow.) Apparently I could have thrown those items at the athletes although my bad had all sorts of other contraptions that were could have just as easily gone airborne. Once inside the stadium we head to our seats only the seat on our tickets was in an area that was blocked off. I could see the area where the other athletes were seated and so tried to go sit with them only to be stopped by someone who told me this wasn’t where my seat was. Long story short it was half time before I was able to sit down. I was glad to have seen some of the game and the girls beat china by about 30 points. I thought it was nice to see men’s basket ball out and Dwayne Wade was even mingling with some other countries. So Tuesday I was at it again. Johnson and Johnson scored me some tickets to Gymnastics men’s team final so I departed the village at 9am to meet up with someone who had the tickets at 930. The gymnastics venue is about 15 minutes from the village…. I arrived at 1045!!!! The driver took me to the wrong place and by the time I realized it and we turned around we had to sit in traffic. I did however still manage to catch 4 of the 6 rotations and watch USA capture bronze. In the afternoon I went to the actual track that I would warm up on to get a feel for my surroundings and it officially set off my nervousness. Still not having got enough of attempting to support my fellow members of team USA I rushed to the village showered and ran to the bus for the Boxing competition only there was miscommunication on where we were going and we ended up Workers stadium instead of workers gymnasium!!!! Luckily we were walking distance from where we needed to b. Now late, we sprinted over hoping that we hadn’t missed it. Of course security and finding our seat was no easy feat. We sat down just to see Rau’Shee warren the American world champion who we had come to see exiting the Gym!!!! I was sooo hurt to have tried so hard and just missed him and so that ended my quest to venture out and support other members of team USA until after I have finished competing. With competition just 3 days away it was time for me to wind down anyway so Wednesday I went over and saw my mother who had just arrived Tuesday evening and we headed over to Johnson and Johnson Hospitality which is so nice that I left my mother to go and take care of my body with some much needed massage and when I checked in with her later in the evening she was still there!!
Thursday was my rest day I just milled around the village got so much needed rest and relaxation. I read decorated my room with pictures surfed the web and watched some of the sports on the television.
I am really looking forward to getting on the track and getting this show on the road the last few days leading into a big one are always very hard on me. Well until later….