SORRY!!! But I will finish it all!

Hello everyone!

I know that I am extremely behind on my blog. The Olympics and all the excitement I have had kept me busy! I still want to share all my memories with you however and since I am leaving China tomorrow I will just have to finish all my entries when in the US.

So I hope you all keep reading and checking! More pics and stories are yet to come!!!!

Thanks so much for keeping up with me and I can't wait to be back in the states, but at the same time I am going to miss this and the experiences, the Olympics and the people!

I am so happy the Lord gave me this chance!

August 8th in China, LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!! OMG!!!!

So I woke up today pumped because it was 8-8-08! OMG The Olympics finally were here! WOW! I had to get to work at like 8, I had some breakfast and did some posters and organizing of the help desk and venue before lunch time. We had the usual chinese airline food! haha During lunch Jashin and I decided we were going to try and get on the Olympic green so that we could at least see the birds nest during the opening ceremony! We had to wait until 4 to leave though. We didn't have much to do after lunch but me and some of the other volunteers took a walk around the area where the start point was and the result of this walk was about 1,000 pictures of us near the start point! haha

After taking lots of pictures with the other volunteers I was able to walk over to the post office tent and purchase some Olympic Postcards with the postage date of 8/8/08. I thought those were pretty cool so I picked up a batch for Jashin too. Well after work she and I got on the bus and headed to the nearest subway. We got off the subway line 10 and plopped right into the HUGE opening ceremony crowd!!! It was amazing, as we transfered to line 8 (The Olympic line) we saw all kinds of people from different countries and cultures! It was awesome and the energy was like electricity!

Once we got off the subway we had to go out of the station and up to the ground and go through security to get into the Olympic Line. Because the Olympic line 8 takes you directly into the Olympic Green. We stood in line for about an hour and by that time it was already about 5:30 pm. We got to the front of the line and then were told we were in the wrong line! Good grief...so we had to go to the end line, which was the "volunteer" entrance line. We stood in this line, talking to people surrounding us. There were several chinese people of course, but also people from Hungary, Mexico, Brasil and America among many many others. I was able to also trade a lady for a coca-cola pin while standing here. We were in that line for about 45 mins so by the time we reached the front it was near 6:15. We got angry because we were rejected entry to get on the Green. We seriously were the only volunteers that had been turned away from getting into the green from that line. It sucked that we didn't get in and on our way trying to get into the green we met a girl from Slovakia (or something like that) and she wasn't able to get in either. Her name was Anna. Anna left us shortly after we were rejected from the green line so that she could try to get in another way. Well Jashin and I were rather angry but we hadn't gave up yet, so we headed out to try and get around to another gate and while we were walking some people from Michigan and another few people from Canada decided to follow us. We all tried to walk around but by this time guards and cops had all the roads blocked off and we couldn't get around to another entrance. Then the cops and guards wouldn't even let people stand out on the sidewalk where you could sort of see the birds nest. No they were pushing the crowd to move in the opposite direction, away from the green and the Birdsnest. We felt bad that the other people who had followed us were kind of betting on us to find them a way in to. By the time 7 pm rolled around Jashin and I had no luck even getting close to be able to see fireworks. So we had to say sorry and goodbye to the guys who were following us and then we got in a cab. Jashin and I got back to Renmin about 7:50, we had 10 mins until the start of the ceremony. So we tried to go next door to the hotel where a bunch of people were going to watch it on a projector screen. Funny enough, the way our luck would have it, the projector broke just as we entered the room. So we had like 5 minutes to get to my room! We hurried to my room and caught the beginning of the countdown for the ceremony! We sat in my hotel room and watched all of the opening performances and once the athletes parade started Jashin went to order us pizza. I was able to watch the entire show and then once our pizza got here I was able to enjoy some Papa John's!!! YUM!!! After the athlete parade, Blair, my roomie came back to the room and Jashin left to go finish watching in her room. I sat and watched the rest of the ceremony straight up to the lighting of the torch and the very last broadcasted moment. I was blown away by all the fireworks, cool effects and the dancers and performers. I loved the giant scroll that was the center of the performance! How cool! After the broadcast was over I got in the shower and tried to get to sleep fast because I had to be up and at the bus at 5:30 am the next morning because it was the Men's Cycling Road Race!

August 7th in China, Hanging out and going to Pyros!

Today was a lazy day, I wasn't feeling well again...the food I think. So I just stayed around the room, went to the diner next to the hotel to grab a sandwich and pretty much just watched some movies and got on facebook. I sent out a few e-mails too. Around 5 Allie called me and her and Whitney wanted me to go to Pyros pizza with them. So I got cleaned up and headed out with the group. It turns out Pyros pizza is a lil pub/pizza place that many international visitors go to. It was fun to just hang out, chat with everyone and listen to the music. Heck, I even got up to do the soulja boy dance with Allie! HAHA Yes I am a dork. But I stayed there for a couple hours, just enjoying myself and munching on some great pizza breadstick things and then I took a cab back to the hotel with another girl from MU, named Wendy. Wendy is pretty cool she and I talked about our majors and events we were working and since she has already graduated she is going to get to stay and work the paralympics. I got to bed shortly after getting home and was prepared for the next day because it was 8-8-08!!!!! TIME FOR THE GAMES TO BEGIN!!!!!

August 6th in China, THE TORCH RELAY!!!

I woke up around 9 and got ready to leave the hotel because Jashin and I were going to try to go see the torch relay! This was the first of 3 days that the torch would return to Beijing and make its way to the Birds Nest on the 8th. So we got in the subway and headed out toward the Temple Of Heaven because we knew that was the ending point. We got to the North gate and were told that the torch was actually going to be entering the East gate of the Temple of Heaven (this refers to the huge park surrounding the actual temple so it is HUGE). So we started to head to the east gate which was quite a long walk, but it was ok because we were joined by a couple who is from Kansas! Small world huh? They were very interesting people to meet and talk to. They used to be cheerleaders at Wichita State. They were only in China for a couple of days because they were moving to Korea to teach at a Christian school there and China was just a pit stop. So our group made it to the correct gate that the flame was going to enter the temple of Heaven through and we waited and took in the crowd. While standing there my friend Jashin started to talk to another couple, the husband was english and the wife chinese. They were pretty cool. After a little while this couple informed us that they heard the flame may be driven into the temple of heaven so we might not get to see it, so they lead us and the Kansas couple to another location where the relay would be passing. Jashin and I found a spot along the road when we got to the torch designated pass route. We all stood there for a long time because it was only about 12:30 or 1 and we were told it could be 3 pm before the relay actually passed by. We had pretty good spots until the coca-cola volunteers lined up in front of us with all their flags. I leaned over to Jashin at this point and told her to save my spot because I had an idea! You see just across the street on the corner was a roped off section just for press and media. I had my business cards from KOMU and also my BOCOG credentials that said I was allowed into press areas (even though it really only applied to the cycling road course)! haha Well I showed the guard near the roped off section and he just let me right in, so I hollered to Jashin and she and I were able to be 2 of about 5 reporters in this about 20 foot by 20 foot roped off section. It was sweet!!!! I had a great spot for pictures and we didn't have to be in the crowd! Because the crowd was nuts! There were so many people! People were pushing and shoving and crammed every where just to see the flame!

Jashin and I were in the press area for about an hour when I went and got us some water! It was hot, and we were standing around for a few hours but finally the torch relay party started coming by! As the relay approached we could tell because the cars were stopped from traveling on the roads, even more guards and soldiers were brought in and then the buses carry the people who would be the torch bearers brought them around and dropped them off at the designated passing points! There was one right in front of us! They were marked with stickers on the ground...haha. After the buses then came the vehicles with cheerleaders and load music a cop car and then bam! WE SAW THE FLAME!!! It was amazing we saw the flame being passed from one girl to another then the woman in my picture passed it on to an old man in front of us! THe crowd was going wild, pictures snapping everywhere, cheering, helicopters overhead, camera guys shooting footage! IT WAS AWESOME!!! My best picture is here


After seeing the torch I could really feel the Olympic spirit flowing through me! I was so pumped! Eventually Jashin and I were able to get away from the crowds but not without more than a few pictures! I actually had her take a picture right on the spot where the flame was passed and then I peeled the sticker off the road and kept it! It say on it, number 387 official torch relay Beijing 2008 Olympics!!


So that was a pretty neat momento! After Jashin and I got back toward the subway we decided that we should probably eat something since we had not really had any food for awhile and it was nearing 6 pm!! We went and ate at a KFC nearby and her and I put away an entire family meal! The meal was huge too, haha so I think we scared the chinese people around us with how much we ate, we had 4 hot wings, corn on the cob, 2 breadsticks, 2 drumsticks, 2 wings, and 2 thighs plus a 2 liter of pepsi!!!!
After I got back to the hotel I was wiped out and pretty much just showered was lazy, watch a bit of tv and then called it a night!

August 5th in China, Introducing Multi-tasking!

The next day was just another day of work. I was tired and work ended up being a whole lot of nothing as usual. haha One thing did get on my nerves however, apparently one of the managers had a different idea of teamwork than I did. I had to sit with the other help desk volunteers and the manager told me that she thought I could do a better idea of fitting in with the team. I was upset at this because what they thought was me not doing teamwork was me actually getting tasks done. One thing I have noticed is the definition of team work and how people here view working. We don't all get tasks delegated out and then each complete one to help get everything done faster, no the managers thought because I would do things on my own that I wasn't working as a team. You see working as a team means everyone works on one thing apparently. So if there was a sign needing made on a computer that obviously could only be worked on by one person, the managers thought everyone should help. So many times you would see like 8 people standing around doing nothing while someone did a task to work as a "team". I had to explain to my manager, Christy, why I though it was better for everyone to work on different things. I had to explain the idea of multi-tasking and teamwork like it is in the USA. I was not going to let them think I wasn't working, or doing work the right way. After our discussion I was able to convince them that it was in fact better for everyone to put their time to use and that it was possible to do several tasks at once. This was the most productive day we ever had!!

After a long day of training, and the training meals I was ready to go home. Did I mention this whole time that the meals we have been eating are chinese airline meals? Yeah they are absolutely awful.

Jashin and I left early, around 5 because we were done with work and did not want to sit and wait for the shuttle bus that came at 7 pm. Instead we were able to get ourselves back to the University on our own using public buses and the subway. We only messed up once and missed one subway stop. While on the subway we ran into Matt H. and Justin, 2 other MU guys here. They had been shopping at yashow market so we talked with them as we headed back to the hotel.
Once we got back to the hotel, me and Blair and Quinn walked toward the grocery store and KFC. Blair and Quinn went to the store but I left them as we got near KFC and I went in and bought myself some dinner.
I watched a couple movies then and relaxed because the next day was my day off. Thank goodness!!

August 4th in China, Practice Road Cycling Race!!

We got up early and loaded on the buses at 5:30 am. I made it to the start point where I first grabbed some breakfast and then completed some tasks before our mock cycling race. The other volunteers and I got all our work dome before we opened the media workroom at 8. The mock race start time was 11. So from 8 to 11 we answered questions and helped the other volunteers as they role-played that they were journalists. We had to make sure that everything would run smoothly when the real journalists needed help on the 9th. I was allowed to go get some lunch at around 10:30 and then I had to get ready to lead the journalists to the media shuttle. I waited in front of the media tent and had them all meet there around the start of the race. I was able to see the racers who were going to be riding the course that day as they took off.

After the race started we headed to the media transfer buses that were the only way of transportation to get the journalists to the finish point. Once I arrived at the finish point I was allowed to switch roles with a few other volunteers and I was then playing the part of a journalist. I was able to watch some of the race, enjoy some cookies and coffee in the media lounge, as well as watch an episode of the office on my computer. After the race had been going on for a little while I was able to get into one of the press vans that followed the racers and I was able to see the race take place as well as the full course. The course had to be a killer on the racers, it was so steep and curvy!
After the race had finished I was able to sit in the press conference room and attend the false press conference. I told you we did everything as if it were the real thing. haha, We left nothing out.
After the false race we were allowed to get on the shuttles and head back to Beijing. I was a little lazy that night and pretty much just ate and showered and then got to bed. I had to train and work again the next day.

August 3rd in China, dinner with April and Sophie!

I got up early again today and got out to the parking lot next to our hotel. Today we were all heading out to the Finish point again to train. We tried to get a little organizing done, and a little decorating. This day was pretty slow, I tried my best to keep occupied but they don't have organizational skills at our venue and are not very good at delegating tasks and then also getting them executed. The most I got done today was helping to cover up brand names on outlets with stickers, I am not kidding you. We can't have any brands showing that aren't a sponsor so this is what I did. Then I was asked by the venue manager to make 10 posters to hang up around the venue for the next day. For one, I didn't have any stuff to make posters with and for two I knew I couldn't get 10 done by the next day but I told them I would try. After we finally were allowed to leave the finish point we took the shuttle back to the Renmin Hotel. I then headed to a market with Sophie and April, the two chinese volunteers who had visited me a couple nights ago. They took me to the market to buy markers and pens and paper for the posters. It was nice to walk around and talk with them. After the market Sophie asked if I wanted to join them for dinner. So the two girls and I headed to the Paradiso Cafe. This cafe is the one across the street from my hotel and under the business school. Sophie ended up buying my dinner for me which was extremely nice, and extremely delicious. :) I had a philly cheesesteak sandwich. It was awesome.

The girls and I mostly talked about food, differences in America and China and small talk about work. The girls were very interested in something I told them about... mozzarella sticks! hahaha They had never heard of em, and actually because China doesn't have much cheese they found it really funny that when I was asked about my favorite foods that they all included cheese! LOL

After dinner we headed back to the hotel, where I went to my room and they headed back to their dorms. That night I just relaxed, watched a movie, drew a couple posters of pandas and then got to bed early. The next day was going to be a complete mock rehearsal of the road cycling race! So we could make sure we were fully prepared for the real deal on the 9th!

August 2nd in China, An exam and training at the finish point!

We all loaded on the buses to head to training at the finish point. Blair and I had to prepare ourselves the night before for an exam that we were going to take. So when we got to the venue that was the first thing we did. Let's just say we didn't prepare enough! haha! The exam was all over trivia of Olympic History, and it was rather hard. It was kind of funny though because Blair and I were sitting next to each other when we turned over the exam and we both started laughing at the first question. We looked up from the paper, looked at each other and knew that we were going to be in trouble! But oh well, we weren't really worried because we knew they wouldn't fire us or anything. I mean we speak english and we are needed! HAHA! After that we grabbed lunch, it was airline food, and not just that but chinese airline food. So yeah the food we get during training is not very good. After the lunch we were able to take another tour around the venue which was the exact same tour I had taken a week ago, but oh well. We walked around, looked around the road course and all the buildings and were told after training we could climb the wall. Most of us decided against it because this particular section of the wall is the steepest part and we were just wanting to get home. Before we could leave, however, we sat through a lecture from an Australian photographer who is in charge of photo services. I had to pretend to be a photographer for one of his demonstrations! HAHA Yes it was exciting. Not really. After that training was pretty much over and we were able to get on the bus and head back to Renmin. I was still kind of down on myself a bit and a little tired so I didn't do much that night except eat some papa john's pizza with Allie and Whitney.

August 1st in China, sick day, sorting things out and some visitors!

Today was suppose to be my first day of training at the cycling venue with it all complete and up and running. But in the morning I was so sick still, because I hadn't slept really, that I missed the first day. My managers were ok with it so it was fine. I got up and gathered my composure in order to start trying to work something out to get my money back from the scam artist. I spent most of the morning on the phone with no luck. This woman, or person, whoever they were, they were professionals at this. It was somebody's job to try and get money out of people and they were very thorough with making sure they were untraceable and that I couldn't get the money back. After all my hope was lost again, I couldn't do anything but cry and be upset. I was so upset and felt so dumb for being caught in a scam like this. I made sure to send an e-mail out to the group to warn them against the false adds and the false seller. That is how I found out that she had already got money out of 4 others in our MU group. I went to lunch at the little restaurant next to the hotel again and I had a little bit of a peace come from God. I was sitting in the restaurant and all of a sudden I heard the "Heart of Worship" song. I sat and realized every song playing was a christian song, then I realize that on the wall there was a poster with a bible verse on it. I found a place that was a christian restaurant. So that helped me to relax. After lunch I went back to the room and talked to my mother to let her know what calls I had made and the news I had. My parents weren't mad at me so that was good.

My roomie Blair got back from the first day of training and filled me in on what I had missed, she also informed me that two of the volunteers were going to come by and visit us later. Sophie and April visited our room and were so excited to meet me. They even brought us 4 peaches, half a watermelon and some noodles! how nice of them! They stayed and talked for about an hour. While they were here I also got a visit from a few people in our group. Ted, Beth, Laura, and Elle all brought me some oreos, some chocolate and a jar of orange juice and a jar of apple juice plus some other snacks. It was really nice of them to do that for me and I heard also that a few others had pitched in to buy this food for me. It was nice to know that people cared and were thinking of me. Ted stayed and talked for a while with me, while Blair entertained our two chinese guests. He and the others all were thinking about me and praying for my situation and for my family's loss. This act alone really helped me to recover from the sadness of the previous day.
After everyone left Blair and I were pretty pooped, we watched a little bit of the office and decided to hit the hay.

July 31st in China, sick, sad and scammed!

Today was by far the worst day of my entire trip. I was still sick from the day before, I was able to eat some eggs at breakfast but that turned out to be a bad idea. I tried again for supper to eat some soup and it was ok. I also heard terrible news about one of my second cousins and her family today from my mom. My cousin and her husband were in a car accident with their 2 young daughters 6 and 7. The 6 year old was the only one who survived. It was awful and it happened in Mississippi where they lived. So my mom said her and her sisters were going to drive down to the funeral. This was terrible news that ended up being followed by other awful news. I had been trying to purchase swimming tickets through a site like ebay online and I ended up being scammed by a professional con artist. She had duplicated a site and made it where even though the transaction looked as if I were using paypal, the money actually went right to her account. So I lost quite a bit of money through that. Later I found out that four other people from MU that are on this trip, were scammed by the same lady (well if she is even really a lady) her alias was Beatrice Sanchez so be warned.

This day was just chock full of upset and I really couldn't handle it. I called Micah and my mom upset and just so angry at myself for the ticket scam, and sad about my family and yeah it was bad.
I think I ended up finally calming myself down and trying to prepare my self for things I had to do the next day. I had the number and the way to reach my credit card company as well as the police. I also was going to contact the real website that the lady had duplicated and tell them what happened to let them know someone was pretending to be their site.
After that I was able to kind of get to sleep even though I didn't really sleep, more like just laid there and thought about stuff. Which also in turn did nothing to help my health situation.

July 30th in China, SICK!

So today I woke up in the morning throwing up. Yeah sounds terrific right? Well I pretty much just laid around all day because I didn't feel well. The only time I left the room was to go to the restaurant next to our hotel to get some soup. I was able to get lots of sleep and just relax and recover. I am pretty sure it was the shrimp dumplings from the night before that made me ill.
So yeah not an interesting day.

July 29th in China, Yashow Market with Allie!

Today Allie and I decided to head out to the Yashow Market. We left in the afternoon after Allie got off work. I ate at the Steak Pizza Cafe while I waited for her to get ready and then we headed out. We took the subway down to Yashow which I had to direct us to. It was my first adventure where I was the one leading. Allie had never been to Yashow and I was able to guide us there just by memory!! After we got to the Yashow Market and the area around it we went into the HUGE Adidas store and shopped around a bit, it was 4 floors high so there was a bunch of neat stuff to see. We also shopped around an Olympic store there. When we got into the Yashow Market we looked through clothes, purses, and jewelry...not really buying anything but just having fun and looking around. While we were there we also were able to buy some dvds for cheap. That is one good thing about China, everything is CHEAP! I think dvds are around 1.40 USD each. We ran into a couple guys from Canada and Allie talked to them a bit because she is also from Canada. Then Allie and I looked at the webcams because I have been wanting to buy one for awhile now. After that we headed to the 5th floor of the huge Yashow Market and ate at the canteen on that floor. I had some shrimp dumplings. It was a fun day just shopping around. looking around and being with a friend. After leaving to go home, we took the subway to the hotel and then I watched a few movies and just stuck around the room until I went to bed.

URGENT UPDATE

TOday I am working at the Finish point for the road cycling course and I have just found out that an American was murdered today at the Drum Tower in Beijing. It happened about an hour or so ago. I first learned from one of the journalists whom I am working with. 2 Americans were attacked, 1 died and then the killer committed suicide.

He was a chinese man around the age of 47. I am writing this quick post so that everyone knows I am safe and nowhere near that area! I am also in a very very secure place with guards everywhere.

I will post again about my full day later!
Please send prayers to the family of the murdered American.

July 28th in China, Hair cut and a video!

First thing was first today, I needed to take my laundry to be done. So I got around and gathered all my clothes and headed off to the laundromat. I left there around 11 and decided to go ahead and take a walk to KFC for lunch. I frequently go to KFC, it is cheap, good and really close. Plus I like the walk there. I got my usual too, haha, I get the same meal because it is easy to communicate, I just point to the picture. LOL After getting my food I walked back to the hotel and started a couple projects because I was bored. First I decided to cut my bangs and trim my hair because it was desperately needed! I do this back home though so I wasn't too worried and I also was able to buy a pair of scissors at the market near the laundromat so I was set. Then after my self-haircut, I made a slideshow sort of video for Micah. It wasn't much but it kept me busy for about 2 hours, because I had to go through my pictures and edit it all together. It was fun, I actually enjoy editing video, and audio and all that jazz. I guess I am in the right major for that huh?? Broadcast allows me to do ALL the editing I want. HAHA The only thing that was kind of bad was that while looking through pictures I found one of my friend Kendall. It made me sad because just a couple weeks before I left the US, he was killed in a car accident. :( I miss that kid. So after I found his picture I was glad I had the video to distract me. I finished the video and e-mailed it to Micah and then got a phone call from Allie asking if I wanted to go eat, she was on her way back from work and said she would call when she was ready to leave. After about an hour I called back and Allie had forgot to call me, she felt so bad, but it was no big deal. I walked over to the little restaurant that is located under the business school right across from our hotel and because I had never ate supper there I stuck with something simple. I got a BBQ chicken sandwich and it was actually really good, I will definitely have to go back to that place! After getting back to the hotel I was able to write my mom a big ol' e-mail as well as answer a few that I was behind on, one to my grandma and my little cousin Jessica. I just relaxed and loaded pictures onto facebook and watched a movie after that.

July 27th in China, A walk around the East side!

Today I felt adventurous and felt like exploring a bit of campus that I hadn't seen quite yet. I took off around 11 to head to my favorite dining hall at the Foreign Students building. I had some Kung Pao chicken and it was awesome as usual. This dining hall has the best Kung Pao chicken I have ever had, it is a pity that it will be closing soon during the games. :( After lunch I headed out the East gate and just went in and out of a lot of different shops. I looked at clothes, electronics, shoes, office stuff haha, and several other clothing stores. My favorite stores I found outside this gate were the Olympic store and a bakery. This bakery has the coolest looking cakes. They are so awesome, that I think one day I will go back and take a picture of them! haha After the bakery I walked on down the way to one of the Official Olympic stores. I actually spent quite a bit of time in here and bought some souvenirs for myself as well as quite a few for my friends and family. I bought myself a set of stuffed Fuwa, which are the Olympic mascots. I have kind of been wanting a set of them so I just went ahead and bought them. On my stroll back around 5ish, I got a call from Whitney asking to go eat and I didn't have enough time to get back so I had to decline. Before I got to campus I stopped into one of the electronics stores and bought myself a cheap webcam. I came back to the hotel and tried for about an hour to get the stupid camera to work with my mac, but sadly it didn't, which means I have to return that camera now. Oh well, at least before I bought it I asked to make sure I could take it back. After that I was sort of hungry but not enough to go to a restaurant so I ate a PB and J sandwich and just kind of snacked the rest of the night. I worked on my blog a bit that night to try and get caught up and then I headed to bed a little early that I would have, probably around 11, but I was kind of pooped from walking around and shopping and just exploring all day.

July 26th in China, KTV also known as Karaoke!! :)

Today I didn't do much but clean and e-mail people during the day but in the afternoon I made myself some noodles again. Yeah this was the third time for me to show off my noodle making skills in the water boiler. LOL But that afternoon I started to get ready because our group was going to a KTV club here. KTV means Karaoke and it is beyond popular here. These clubs are everywhere and are very very nice. We all met down in the lobby and altogether there were about 20 of us including our teacher Larry, another study abroad coordinator Emily and Larry's 11 year old son, Jordan. We all started walking our way across campus to the east gate because we had to catch a bus to the KTV. We were all able to get on one bus, which is sort of amazing. LOL The bus system here is also very popular and always crowded. We arrived at a club called "Melody", and were led to our own room. Yes you get your own private fancy room when you go to a KTV club. They are really cool. We all ordered some snacks and drinks and then the singing began. I think I was one of the first, if not THE first to sing a song. I sang "Wanna Dance with Somebody", by Whitney Houston and I think I surprised everyone. For the rest of the night I received comments on my voice and it really made me feel good. We were there for 2 hours and it was non-stop fun the whole time. For the most part we picked songs that everyone knew and so we all just sang and danced and goofed around. Every once in awhile someone would grab a mike and sing on their own but not often. We finished out the night with me and Aja, another MU student on the trip, singing "Bugga Boo", by Destiny's Child. If you don't know that song, just know that it is really, really, really fast. LOL It was fun though and I remembered most of it. After our time was up for our rented room we all headed out to catch the bus again. The singing however didn't stop because it seemed all of us had the song Bye bye Miss American Pie, stuck in our heads! LOL I am sure the chinese people on the sidewalk as well as on the bus thought we were crazy!! After we got back to the University we had to walk back to the other side of campus. Before I went to the hotel me and my friend Ted walked across the street to a mini-market to grab some sodas and snacks. By the time we left there and I got to my room it was around 11ish. My roomie was still gone because she left to go to Shanghai the next day so I watched some tv and enjoyed the room all to myself!!

July 25th in China, Lazy day!

Today I was pretty tired from the activities the night before as well as training so I decided to take it easy. I did some stuff online, uploaded and edited some photos and only left the room once to go buy a coke. I watched a couple movies on my computer and hung out in the room all day. I did have another success of making myself noodles in the water boiler room and just had a nice relaxing day. I also searched for some Olympic tickets online. I was able to be this lazy and such because the day before after training my roomie, Blair, left to go spend four days in Shanghai. I would have went but I couldn't afford it. I was fine with not going though because I would rather buy Olympic tickets with the money I do have, then go to Shanghai, I mean...there is still plenty I haven't seen in Beijing so why would I need to go to a different city. Plus having the room to myself was also quite nice, not that Blair is a bad roommate but sometimes alone time is good. That was about all I did! Like I said this was a lazy day!

July 24th in China, Camping for the final round of Olympic ticket sales!

Today I got up and got around for a short day of training. I was sooo tired but we got to our training site and had a lecture and 2 power points and then we were done. So it only took an hour or so and I was fighting sleep the whole time! haha After that we had the choice to leave or to stay for the free lunch for volunteers half of us stayed. The food was ok, I have had better, but it was free so I can't really complain. After that me and another MU volunteer Furquaan took the bus to head back to Renmin. It took us about an hour to get to the University but that isn't that bad. We talked a lot about what our majors were and what we hoped to do with our degrees after. When we got to the gate of the University we ran into a couple other girls from our group who were heading to an Olympic store nearby. After I got back to the hotel I rested a little before I received a phone call from Allie telling me that her and Whitney heard a rumor that people were already lining up for tickets at the tennis venue, even though they weren't going on sale until the next day at 9 am. Well we thought that we should probably get to the main ticket venue then, because we were wanting baseball and swimming tickets and for sure more people would want those than tennis. So I packed a bag ready to camp out over night and met Whitney, Allie, Mark and Matt in the lobby. We got on the subway and headed first to Wal-mart. We bought some food, some drinks, and some mats to sit on at wal-mart and then we headed out to the main ticket venue. While on the way our friend Eric caught up to us. It was CRAZY! There were people everywhere when we got off the subway and then we turned the corner and our minds were blown! I would say there were between 50,000-70,000 people there. The first person in line had already been camping out for 2 days. It was surely something unlike anything I have ever seen before. We all decided that there was no way, even if we stayed all night, that we would be able to get tickets. So we decided just to sit down on the sidewalk and take in all the energy and the atmosphere. Pretty soon we were a spectacle all on our own! Camera guys were recording us, photographers were taking pictures of us and journalists were interviewing us. Here we were the only non-chinese kids sitting in a group on the sidewalk. Everyone could spot us in that crowd! HAHA Way to go America! So after a little bit one of the guys in our group, Eric, made a sign that said "Line Starts Here", we got a few laughs but not as many as we did once our sign was in Chinese! LOL We asked the help of one of the journalists to write "Line Starts Here" in mandarin on our sign and people were cracking up! I think we even fooled a couple! It was awesome, we definitely felt like celebrities. We were surrounded by a group of like 30 people and we were definitely being targeted by the press paparazzi! I have to say our biggest accomplishment however was getting interviewed by a reporter from the Guardian! Which is like the biggest newspaper in the UK. Our picture made it online as well as 2 quotes from the guys in our group! It was just so amazing, after a few hours me, Allie, Matt, Mark and I all headed back to the hotel. It was surely a night to remember!!!

July 23rd in China, Trip to the Training site!

Today we got up ready to go take a tour of the Finish point venue and area. It is located at Juyong pass at the Great Wall. It was so beautiful. I believe that our event has the best course/venue location. It has been said that this is the postcard event for the Beijing games because throughout the course the cyclists will pass several locations that are historic landmarks of Beijing and the surrounding districts. If you want to read all about the cycling event then click here. At the training site we took a tour of the whole venue, from the media work room to the press conference room and then outside to the press tribunes and finish line. The walking tour took up most of the day. While we were on it we met a lady who was in charge of BOB (Broadcast for the Olympics) she was an interesting lady to talk to, she spoke 6 languages, was from New Zealand, and has been all around the world working on games and championships and things like this. I was able to chat with her about the behind the scenes broadcast set-up. I gave her one of my cards and then we finished our tour which included walking on the course, seeing the finish line and standing on the medal podium, but we couldn't take pics of the podium for some reason. Security guards were everywhere and were very strict about the picture taking. We got to have lunch for free at the finish line restaurant while we were there and it was not bad. It was catered in. After lunch we were allowed a rest, well at least me and Blair were because we are working for VMC (Venue Media Center) not ONS (Olympic News Service). The volunteers working ONS were being trained and Blair and I actually haha, took a nap! LOL Yeah we took a nap on the new carpeted floor of the finish line venue.

We then were able to hear a little about what we would get to do from our really cool boss, named Candy. She is so cute and pretty much my favorite. :) We finally were allowed to leave after the ONS kids were finished with their training. So the whole MU group headed to the shuttle bus around 4ish but haha umm we sort of got lost. We ended up walking about half a mile the wrong way from the bus stop but eventually found it. We rode the bus for about an hour and then moved to a subway and eventually made it back to our University around 6 or so. I got cleaned up from the long day and then made myself some noodles with pasta. Now this was kind of interesting because all we have in the room is a water boiling pitcher. There is not a stove or anything like that. You just plug this pitcher in to the outlet! Haha so I kept having to add water and restart it over and over again to cook my noodles. I was able to find this bag of pasta and single serving sized pouches of Hunt's spaghetti sauce at the local grocery store. But all in all the pasta was a success and some familiar food was just what I needed. After my pasta meal I was able to do some internet stuff and then I watched the movie Wanted before heading to bed.