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August 18- We had to get up early for athletics (track & field) today. Again, security took forever and it was quite a walk to the bird's nest. Once we got there, we walked the 124 stairs to the 500 section where our seats were. Women's hammer throw, men's 200 & 400m and men's 110m hurdle qualifiers were all this day. We watched our USA guys qualify for the 299 & 400m. Maybe the best part was when the main track and field guy for China, Adam Pretty (Lu Xiang I think)injured himself before the 110m hurdle heat started. He was China's main chance for a medal in track. When he walked off the field, the crowd was stunned- some of them cried, and most of them left. I think it's humorous to me because he has endorsements to no end here, and now he's not even competing in his sport.

After athletics, we had baseball- China vs. USA! On the way there we saw a man and woman get taken away viciously by police. They were in headlocks and just being treated horribly. We assumed they were scalping their tickets- supposedly illegal but seen everywhere. Sometimes I wish we could have it done to certain people, being in the ticket industry. This time, security was THE WORST. We had about 30 mins to get through security before the game started, but when we got to the closest one to the field, they told us it was closed and had to go to the other one. 50 minutes later, we were finally in- then walked about a mile to get to our seats. We had fun cheering and singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." USA DESTROYED China, but it was still a controversial game. One of our guys took out China's catcher when he was coming home, and in the next inning, the pitcher for China hit a batter in the head. He was tossed out of the game, as was China's head coach. The guy that got hit was down for awhile and had to be taken out of the game. The lady we were sitting next to was so annoying. "This isn't professional" she said when the guy ran into the catcher. "This sport doesn't matter," she said because they were losing so bad. "It's okay, we have 38 medals," talking about how many Golds they have. Then, during the game they announced China had won a gold medal in table tennis. "39! 39!" she yelled- it's sad that gold medals are really the only things that matter to the Chinese. Bronze and silver medalists always have a look of disgust and disappointment on their face when they're on the podium. It's really sad because you think they'd be happy to win a medal- no matter what it was made of.

August 19- We went to gymnastics again today! Men's parallel & horizontal bars, women's beam, and men's trampoline. China won all of the men's categories, figures. The horizontal bar would've easily been won by our US guy- he had a great performance, but being that we're n China, it's rigged. We got second in the event, though. All was not lost for the night, though- We got gold and silver on the beam! Shawn Johnson finally won herself a gold medal! Nastia was great too and got the silver. They were both flawless, but Shawn had more difficulty in her performance with flips and things. It was great to see them up on the podium together and hearing the National Anthem!

After gymnastics, we caught the tail end of the Today Show and was totally on it again! We met up with Megan's friend from her tour, Sarah & her boyfriend Sean, and went to the Heineken House- totally random but fun! It was meant for the Netherlands, but everyone was welcome (unlike our USA house which was for family members of Olympians only). Most everyone was in orange being from Holland, and we danced to techno music (in Dutch) and had some beer. It reminded me of being in Holland!

August 20- Today was a full day out at the diamonds- first at baseball, then at softball. We got to the baseball game late because we went in search of some meds for Megan and her illness- no luck. Baseball was good, but hot! Korea was playing the Netherlands & beat them 10-0 in only 8 innings. The Netherlands must've been partying too much at the Heineken House the night before. After baseball, we went to lunch, then in search of a post office and batteries. We went to a mall that had a pharmacy to maybe find meds for Megan, also. When we walked in, we had 2 people walk with us to help us find things and communicate with everyone. It was like we were famous with bodyguards- pretty funny. There was a post office in the mall as well, so we sent out some post cards. While we were waiting to mail them, the girl helping us told us we were clever because we are left-handed, and Chinese children who are lefties are also very clever. We also talked about the TV show Friends and how she loved it, and how Phoebe is her favorite. It was so fun being chauffeured through the mall.

After getting batteries and meds (turned out there was human placenta and earthworm in them so Megan decided not to take it), we headed for the softball field. Australia and Japan were playing in the bronze medal game. We were cheering for the Aussies (basically because they speak our language) but Japan was victorious beating Australia in a 12-inning marathon 4-3. Australia had their chance several times, but Japan wanted it more. Aussies won bronze, and Japan moved on to play USA in the gold medal game. We talked to a family from PA who was really cool. The two kids were 13 & 10 and so mature- probably a couple of the coolest kids I've ever met, to be honest. I am so looking forward to tomorrow for the gold medal game and watching Team USA!!