It's rigged, I tell you! RIGGED!

August 14- It rained forever it seemed! We woke up to watch Phelps win his... 6th? We didn't really move around to do anything until the rain let up a little around 4pm, and went to the field hockey games we had tickets to. We had a difficult time finding the way to get there- we took a bus instead of going through the Olympic Green like we had originally planned. On the way we saw the massive Olympic Village where all the athletes stay... it was decorated with flags of the countries, and pretty much amazing! What I wouldn't give for a pass to get in there! We took longer than expected getting to hockey, so we only saw the second half of Argentina/Japan (Argentina won), and then saw Great Britain/New Zealand play (GBR was up with minutes left to play when we left). We talked to a lady from San Jose and she told us how this was her 7th Olympics... AND she came with no tickets! Several Americans we've talked to didn't come with any. How can someone just come this far without tickets is beyond me. She said she came a year ago to scope out the city and familiarize herself with the venues and transportation- whoever can do that has some cash to spend.. Anyway, hockey wasn't half bad and it was the first time since I've been here that I haven't been miserably sweaty!

August 15- Okay, so THIS day may be the best so far... although the day of softball was pretty much amazing too... We woke up early for swimming- it takes forever to go anywhere because the Olympic Green is so spread out. It took about 2 hours to get there, and we made it just in time to grab some water and hike up to our seats in the 41st row. We were near Americans and even better an Arizona guy! It was good to have a cheering section. We saw Natalie Coughlin get her bronze in the 200m Freestyle, Rebecca Soni win gold in 200m breaststroke, Ryan Lochte & Aaron Peirsol get gold and silver in men's 200m breaststroke, and Phelps win medal #7 with Locthe getting bronze in the 200m Individual Medley- a good day for USA in the pool. We were interviewed by USA Today Online about how amazing Phelps is, so that was pretty much amazing! (Go here to check it out- it's under the Michael Phelps one.) After we went to McDonald's- it was a MOB! I've never seen so many people in a McDonald's before- probably because it's the only thing that has western food! The concession stands sell crackers, popcorn, yogurt, bread, 'hot dogs', and stinky disgusting sausage that smell so bad when opened from their package make you gag. The hot dog is on a stick and looks horrendous, and of course the sausage is in a plastic package. I've yet to see anyone but someone from China eating either of them. After that, we walked in the hot HOT sun to the handball gymnasium. It was forever away, and we had to walk there because they didn't finish the subway for the Olympic line. There's a slogan and song that states "we are ready," and Megan and I decided to change it up and instead say "we're almost ready," or "we're not ready." It was a beautiful day, though- you could actually see a blue sky and the humidity was down! Handball was alright, but we were SO tired. Beijing takes up all the energy you have. It was funny to watch handball- basically you could just tackle people, and pull at their arms to prevent them from scoring.

After we watched Sweden defeat Germany, and Romania destroy Angola, we headed back to the Olympic Green to find the Today Show! SUCCESS! We found where they were filming and it was magical! We had to wait an hour or so before they started to film, but a guy brought out some posters and markers for us to make signs. Ours said "Hi mom and dad in Arizona! Please send more money." We met some friends while we were there too. When the show started (or was getting to start), we saw Ryan Lochte there, and Nastia Liukin & Shawn Johnson, the gymnasts for USA who won gold and silver in the all-around. We got Ryan to sign our ticket from the morning session where we saw him win, and got a picture with him. We also got to congratulate Shawn and Nastia when they were by us signing autographs. I didn't have anything for them to sign, but it was all good... and I shook Nastia's hand. Gold medal glory- haha! Mary Lou Retton and Bela Karolyi were also there, along with US swimmer Katie Hoff, so it was a star-packed show!

During the breaks, Matt Lauer, Ann Curry, Al Roker & Meredith Vierra greeted fans, and they weren't feet away from me! Meredith was the only one who came directly over to us, though, and she complimented how great our hats were and shook our hands- and took pictures with us too! We were on TV a bunch too, which was fun times. We met a girl named Sara who is volunteering and interning for her journalism degree at Mizzou. Hopefully we'll hang a couple times because she was pretty cool. We met a guy named Roberto from Chile, who expressed his anger and said everything out loud that were thinking about the way China is running things during the Olympics. We also met a girl named Katie and her mom who live in China, but were cheering for USA because that's where they're originally from. Everyone at the Today Show was great- I even saw more people from AZ and we cheered for each other. After we took some pictures of the water cube and bird's nest because they look amazing when they're lit up at night!

And, of course, throughout the day we took pictures with several Chinese people because they are so fascinated by our hats (or they think we are complete idiots and are just laughing at us because we don't understand them).

August 16- We had weightlifting today! I honestly couldn't tell you what else we did this day besides go to lunch at Annie's, an amazing Italian restaurant, so that's what I'll leave it at. Weightlifting was quite a sight to see! It was women's 75+kg, and Korea took the cake! (no pun intended here) She broke every Olympic and World record there was to win gold! She lifted 180+ kgs in the clean and jerk, and 150+ in the snatch (yes, that's what it's called.. it's okay to laugh, us immature people did when we read it too). I tried to use a squat toilet because that's all they had in this gym, but I just couldn't! That's probably TMI, but I don't know how the Chinese do it! And they'll use the Western toilets and get on them to squat! It's rather disturbing, I think... but to each their own...

August 17th- GYMNASTICS! How exciting to see Nastia, Shawn, and Alicia Sacarmone compete in apparatus finals for floor and vault- and men competing in floor and pommel horse. Men's floor was first- no USA guys here. China won this (go figure), much to the surprise of everyone but the Chinese. The guy from Spain was clearly better, but it didn't matter because he ended up with the silver. Alicia was first on vault and stuck both of her attempts! Amazingness! In the China girl's first attempt, she appeared to be out of bounds, and her second one she fell on her knees- somehow she had a better score than Alicia! WTF?! We had a contingent of US fans in our section way up high and we all agreed that it was rigged. Needless to say, Alicia didn't win a medal, and the girl who FELL ON HER FACE, got the bronze. Our USA guy Alexander Artemev fell off the pommel horse, so he was out... next up was women's floor! Nastia and Shawn participated in it! They both NAILED their routines- but the Romanian took the gold giving Nastia and Shawn silver and bronze. It was good to see someone else win a medal for a change... (*coughNOTCHINAcough*). Afterwards, we took pictures in the grass (it's a rarity here, and not to be stepped in apparently), and took pictures with the torch again... this time as the Statue of Liberty. When we were taking the pictures, a guy with a video camera from NBC came up and wanted to film us doing it... so we did! I must've held up my arm forever, but I guess he got the shot because I've heard people have seen us! Good times, there... afterwards, we went to Hooters Beijing. HILARIOUS. Our server's name was Cindy (yes, Cindy). They sang "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and some other song I didn't understand, but it was just a sight to see for sure. Hooters doesn't really translate here, though... as a guy we met on the train said, "it should really be called 'nipples' or 'mosquito bites.'" haha