...The Show Must Go On...

So, it's been a few days since I've updated my blog, but we've been extremely busy with events and sleeping.

Well, I have some good news, and some bad news. We'll start with the bad, and end on a positive note with the good stuff.

In my last blog I wrote about how my Grandma wasn't doing too well and went into the hospital and wasn't doing too well. I got that call in the morning here 8/9 (the 8th in AZ). Well, literally when I had finished writing about bringing back Snickers bars back in my blog that night (the 9th in both places- early AM in AZ), my Mom called me to tell me that after 3 years of battling with cancer, my Grandma was no longer with us. I left the Internet cafe immediately and went back to the hotel so I could cry and talk to my family on the phone 7500 miles away. It was hard to deal with, and still is, as I sit here at this cafe typing this now like an idiot crying while the guy next to me plays some computer game. I know that she's in a better place now, and she's not suffering anymore, but I guess I'm just selfish in the fact that I want to see her again. Someday...

Needless to say August 9th was the worst day ever. But as they say, the show must go on. She would be mad at me for leaving (so my family says, and I kind of believe it), so here I stay in Beijing.

Regaining my composure...

August 10th was a little better. We didn't do much- it had rained in the morning. I think we watched Phelps win his 1st gold on TV, but the days kind of run together. We went in search of Tim's Texas BBQ but couldn't find it, so we ate at Pizza Hut instead. We were by the Silk Street Market, so we went inside and I got some gifts for the family and some post cards. We spent awhile in there, so when we got back to the hotel around 5:30, I got ready for the Chinese Acrobats. The show was amazing! Contortionists, ball jugglers, umbrella jugglers, jumping through hoops as tall as 9 feet, bicycle acts, climbing acts, guys swinging from the air- everything was really cool. What was even better was the fact that it only gost 80RMB ( about $14) for a seat up top, but I got to move down to the floor and was only about 13 rows from the stage, center.

August 11th- FINALLY our first event was here! Swimming! We woke up early so we could be sure to get to the water cube- good thing we did. We left around 7:40am and didn't get to the cube until about 9am. We walked forever to get to the right subway line, then security which is always a joke. There were tons of volunteers at security, but only one metal detector line open. While we waited in line, they told us it wasn't working and made us go to another security area where we waited in another line. Once up, they checked to make sure our ticket was real w/ the microchip that's inside, and then put our bags through a conveyor belt & we went through a metal detector only to be patted down and wanded by someone. THEN we had to board ANOTHER train to get to the Olympic Green where we got off to walk about a mile down the street to the water cube! We took pictures along the way- Michael Phelps is on the side of a building, so we got some of him, the flame, the bird's nest, the cube- and some people wanted to take pictures with us because we looked amazing! We had our cool Uncle Sam hats on with our "GO PHELPS" shirts.

It was fun taking pictures with random people- like celebrities in Beijing! We got inside after they scanned our tickets again & stubbed them, and went to our seats. They were up and in the corner! If we were watching diving they would've been prime seats, but it was alright because we were there in person! We saw Christine Magnuson get the silver in the 100m Butterfly, Katie Hoff get silver in 400m Freestyle, and Michael Phelps win his second gold medal along with Cullen Jones, Jason Lezak, and Garret Weber-Gale in the 4x100m relay. They beat the world record by 4 seconds! It was such a great race! We also got to see Phelps qualify for the 200m freestyle and Aaron Peirsol and Matt Grevers qualify for the 100m backstroke. It was pretty much amazing.

After, we were starving so we went to McDonald's because it's the only western food in the Green, then went back to take a nap before heading out for an actual dinner (no 7-Eleven this night). We found Tim's Texas BBQ- it wasn't super great, but good enough. We stayed in and watched the games on TV, and talked to an Australian guy in our hotel. He was funny, talking about countries he's traveled to, and compared Croatia to Fabio in the sense that it looks pretty, but you get tired of it quickly because it's stupid... or something, I don't know. It was pretty funny, though. Anyway... We got some more tickets to some events (Megan to beach volleyball, me for softball!), so that was good too.

August 12- After Phelps winning medal #3 and Natalie Coughlin an Aaron Peirsol win golds too, we headed to pick up the tickets we ordered the previous night. After, we went to Grandma's Kitchen again for a good lunch, and talked to a fellow American who was working the Olympics. We went to the Forbidden City (finally made it!) where we saw a boy just pee in the middle of a sea of people, and a lady breastfeeding her child for all the world to see! We also went to Jingshan Park behind the Forbidden City and climbed to the top of this giant hill that overlooks the City. It had amazing views of Beijing (what you could see of it with all the pollution, anyway). We also went to Taco Tuesday (which will probably be changing to Fajita Rita Monday, being that we can get fajitas and margaritas for half price... haha), which is always a good time.

August 13- THE best day so far! I had a full day of softball! I woke up at 7:30am because I had a long trip to the softball field. When I got off the subway, I tried to find the bus to take to the field- so hard to do! I finally found it and took the 25 minute bus trip to the field. I didn't eat breakfast so when I got to the field I went to the concession stand to get some crackers and water. I hung out for awhile before I went into watch Venezuela and China. I got up to my seat around the 3rd inning and stayed until the 5th when I saw USA starting to warm up on another field. I went over and watched a little, and took a few pictures, hoping I'd get to see them walk up to the field when they were done. I talked to Vicky Galindo's (third baseman) brother David, so that was cool. I ended up getting to see them walk up to the field afterall, so I was really excited at this point.

China beat Venezuela 7-1, then it was time for USA vs Australia! They introduced the teams- I was sitting in a big USA group- the families of Cat Osterman, Crystl Bustos & Jessica Mendoza- it was very exciting for me! Cat pitched and did amazing! I think she had 13 strikeouts. Natasha Watley got the 1st RBI of the game and Bustos hit a homerun to help lead USA to a 3-0 win. After the game, I hung out by where they entered, and they came out to greet their families. I got autographs from Bustos, Osterman, Monica Abbott, Stacey Nuveman, and Jennie Finch! I also got my picture taken with Cat... hopefully I'll be able to get my pic taken with others in the upcoming games! It was so great to have the opportunity to see them play being that this is the last Olympics with softball, and it made me miss playing even more.

Chinese Taipei and Japan played each other in the evening game. There were some crazy drunk Canadians above us that were so annoying the entire time! Probably the only cool thing they did was start the wave in our section. Japan beat Taipei 2-1, then Canada/Netherlands played. Part of Canada's baseball team sat in the row behind us and we talked to them a little bit about the rules of softball and food in China. Canada was destroying Netherlands 9-2 when we left in the 6th. We went to the bus, got on the train, and walked to dinner at TGIFriday's. It was a great sports day, but very tiring & I felt miserable when it was over because all I did was sweat while I was outside for 10 hours. It was SO worth seeing team USA, though!