Olympic Diary: Christina Loukas
8/11/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
Aug. 11, 2008
As her schedule allowes, Indiana University senior Christina Loukas will chronicle her experiences as an athlete at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. Loukas is representing the United States in the three-meter springboard diving competition.
UPDATE
8-22-08
I am sorry it has been so long since my last entry. I really haven't been spending that much time at the village during the day. By the time I get back, the computer room is closed and I do need my sleep.
Since my last entry I have done a lot of things. I guess I can start by talking about finals...forgot about those. That day definitely felt like I was going to compete. Just thinking about diving in the finals at the Olympic Games gave me butterflies! When I got to the pool to compete I was in the zone. Listening to my music and everything. Warm ups were good because I got a lot of my nerves out. I had a decent warm-up and felt good to go. The place was completely packed! It was amazing how many people were in there. My entire family (15 total) were sitting in a row in the first section. It was awesome because they were all wearing white USA shirts and had 4 huge American flags. I took a lot of pictures and they all started cheering when they saw me. During the meet it was great because they all got on the jumbo screen, I started laughing because I could see that they were really enjoying themselves. I love my family and having them there!
As for the actual diving, I was really happy with myself. FOr those of you that did not watch, I ended up 9th. I started the meet off a lot stronger than I did in prelims and semis so I was happy with that dive. My front was pretty good for being back on the board, and my back was good as well. My gainer...where do I start? I wasn't any more nervous on this dive than any other dive, but in my hurdle I landed over the board, again...just like in prelims but not as bad. I still got after my dive and pretty much chunked it. I think I only got about 42 points on it...if I had done that dive like I did at World Cup in February I could have gotten another 40 points...but I didn't. After that dive I was upset and mad at myself. But I put that behind and moved onto my final dive. I hit that dive for 8's so I was proud of myself for not giving up and still ending on a good note. Overall I dove great, I just had one bad dive. But if I want to compete with the best I need to be even sharper and be more consistent.
After the meet I was happy to be done. I felt like I have been stressed about this night since the day I officially made the team. But I had been thinking about it even longer than that. The team leader told me I needed to unwind, and since we don't have that much freedom I did that by getting McDonald's and ice cream for the first time in the dining hall. It was delicious, and I thought it was a good way to top of the night :)
Since then I have been spending a lot of time at the pool cheering on my teammates. Besides the pool I have been with family exploring. My favorite thing to do here is go to the Silk Market. I have been twice now and I have bought sooo many things. It is awesome. I am not sure if you read my diary from the World Cup, but this place has about 6 floors. The 1st floor is purses, shoes, luggage. 2nd and 3rd floor is clothing and silk stuff. 4th floor has jewelry, sunglasses, souvenirs, etc. This is the best place to go because you can bargain with them a lot. I think they all hate me now because I was so cheap, and I wouldn't give in until I got the price I wanted. I would try to be nice and give them a USA diving pin and a bracelet. So far this trip I have gotten jeans, sunglasses, silk bed cover, dragons made of jade, rings, earrings, and I can't remember what else.
A couple days ago Ariel, a rower, and myself went on a tour with USA today. They took us to a local market, ate at a Chinese snack place, then learned how to make dumplings! It was so cool because we got to really see what China is like. Our guide was a woman who is from the States and has lived here the past 8 years. So she is fluent in both English and Chinese which is so helpful. The local market was interesting because it was nothing like a supermarket at home. There were tables which had so many different vegetables and fruits. The variety was so much better than you find in a Kroger or any grocery store. Then there was a meat section which I would prefer not to go back to. The raw meat was just hanging from a line. The insides were separated and just put into bowls...it was kinda disgusting. And the smell was a little rough to handle that early in the day.
After that we went to the snack place to try local food. I was very nervous when we first got there because there was a bag filled with live scorpions. Then at the next table there was fried silkworms, seahorses, cicadas, scorpions...and yes that was to eat. Yeah right. I mean I am pretty adventurous when it comes to trying new foods, but not bugs. And seahorses! No way, they are too cute. I'd rather see them swimming in water than the thought of eating them. When we actually got inside the food looked a lot better. I tried a lot of things and it was all relatively good. My favorite would have to bee the dumplings. I was a little adventurous in here and tried stomach of some kind of animal. I didn't really want to know exactly what is was, and to be honest it wasn't good. It reminded me of raw bacon, but it was so rubbery it seemed like it was fatty. So not something I would try again. Finally we left there and headed over to the Black Sesame where we learned how to make dumplings. Not going to lie, I was pretty good at making them :) I am really excited to go home and actually try to make them again.
Later that day my parents and brothers came to tour the Olympic Village. It was a lot of fun showing them around. I think their favorite parts were the arcade room and the dining hall. We had to stop so that the boys could play pop-a-shot, and at the dining hall they tried about everything. Also they give out full size snicker bars for free so I think I left the dining hall that day with about 15 in my purse because my brothers kept stealing them. And we also had to hit up McDonald's...I mean how could we not when it's free?
That's about all I have done...my trip is coming to an end in a couple of days. I am really looking forward to going home. I mean I have been gone since July 19th. As for touring I have gotten to go everywhere I wanted, so that leaves me with more time for shopping!
8-15-08
First day of competition! I had an early practice so that I would be awake by the time my event rolled around. My dives felt ok for 8:30am. Nothing terrible, but nothing was great either.
After practice I went to my second breakfast of the day followed by picking up my laundry. I was scared they lost it again, but after 5 minutes of waiting they finally brought it to me. I took the 11 bus over and started getting nervous. I listened to my music to get me even more pumped up. Mostly hard rock stuff, like Disturbed, Breaking Benjamin, etc. When the announcers said my name the crowd started cheering. I didn't know that many Americans were in the stands! Of course some of my family started chanting "USA, USA" which was awesome. I even had to wait a couple seconds for the noise to die down before I walked to the end of the board.
My first dive of the meet was a little shaky. I was really nervous because I just kept telling myself, "oh my gosh, I am diving in the Olympics right now." I stood at the end of the board and felt my legs shaking. I hoped it wasn't noticeable. After that I started feeling more in control. In between dives I try to get away from the diving well. I sit down and listen to music while I do crossword puzzles. I am not very good at them, so I have to get the ones that say EASY in bold letters on the cover. But they keep me entertained...
I did my front pretty good, and my back was even better. Then I get to my gainer, and oh my goodness it was the scariest thing ever. For those of you that know anything about diving, I honestly do not know how I pulled it off. I really think I broke laws of physics. I landed over the end of the board so far that my feet were halfway off. I just chucked it as hard as I could and prayed that I wouldn't land on my back. Somehow I managed to get it vertical. When I felt myself go through the water without any pain on my back, I started laughing underwater out of relief. I got out and everyone was cheering and I couldn't help but smile.
After that I had my full out which I did pretty well and ended up in 8th place. Not bad for prelims, but hopefully semis will go better tomorrow.
After the meet I met with my family members outside of the pool. Yes, all 15 of them. As I started walking towards them they started chanting USA and my name. Other people started crowding around thinking I was famous or something. They kept asking for a picture with me, and my autograph. I mean, it was sweet. I pretty much felt like a celebrity, and since that doesn't happen much in my diving career I just went with it.
The rest of the day I just hung out in the athlete lounge watching the other events going on. I wanted to rest my legs since I knew they would be tired tomorrow. I decided to do an ice bath...not fun. But afterwards it felt really good. Went to bed and continued watching Goodwill Hunting then passed out.
8-16-08
I got to sleep in this morning which was awesome. I finally got out of bed around 9 which meant I had about 11 hours until my competition. I had no idea what I was going to do with myself. I didn't go to the pool until noon, and my warm-up was pretty good. After my practice I went to my bag and checked my cell phone for any missed calls. I had 143 new emails! I glanced through them and saw that they were all from Facebook. Apparently during the time I was warming up they were showing my prelim event back in the states. Right when I got back to the village I went on to facebook and turned off my email notification.
Afterwards I went back to my room, finally finished Goodwill Hunting, then watched more episodes of Weeds. I almost finished the second season but had to leave to go back to the pool. I took the 5:45 bus and I noticed I felt pretty tired. More like sleepy tired and I wasn't nervous at all. Bad sign...I tried pumping myself up with my music but it didn't seem to work. I tried eating a snickers bar to perk up a little, but it still didn't help. Don't worry Huber, it was only one mini snickers bar. :)
I felt a little more awake during warmups, but not where I wanted or needed to be. When the meet started I could tell I wasn't in the right mind set. I got up to do my first dive and missed it. I am not even sure what my scores were, but I could tell it was nowhere near how I should be doing it. After that I looked at the scoreboard to see where I was at. I knew if I was behind it would definitely make me nervous and get me back on track. My second dive I put more pressure on myself due to my first dive being a miss. I was back on the board and tried getting into a really tight pike. I came out with my head down and went over on the bottom, but still not a bad dive. After that I was even more nervous because I started thinking "I might not make finals". I knew I could still do it, I was just trying to make myself nervous because I dive better that way. And it definitely worked. After that I hit both my back and gainer pretty well. And then I ended with my fullout for 7's. I ended up in 7th place and Nancilea was in 4th. Go USA! We both got in the finals which was awesome, so now it is time to really let it all out and just go for it. Now I have nothing to lose, so I am looking forward to finals.
After the meet I did not meet with my family, so I just went back to the village, ate, got my legs rubbed out, then went to bed. I finished the second season of Weeds before I finally passed out.
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8/11/08
This morning I started the day by waking up at 6:30am to eat breakfast, then catch the 7:15 bus to the pool. Practice went pretty well for being early so I was happy. After practice I ate breakfast #2, then went back to my room to watch another episode of Weeds (the tv show).
I went to eat before I had second practice and ran into some cyclists I had met while marching out in Opening Ceremonies. I ventured out a bit and ate with them. Then I had to book it to make the 1:45 bus to the pool. Thomas and David competed on 10m synchro and dove really well. They ended up 5th, but we were all proud of them for not really missing anything. It was a great competition and really fun to watch. Watching 10m is definitely more fun than actually diving off of 10m :) I know this from experience...
After the event I had to practice was a mistake. I wish I had practiced earlier because as I was watching the event I got so hot and tired and I wasn't really in the mood to dive. But I got through it, then it was time for dinner. Afterwards I watched another 3 episodes of Weeds then it was time for bed.
8/12/08
Today was awesome because I had my first real day off! Yay...I slept in all the way to 8:30, but stayed in bed til 10. At one point the cleaning people came to change my sheets and give me new towels. When I opened the door my hair looked like I had stuck my finger in a socket and I think I scared them a little. Haha oh well.
To wake my body up I did some cardio. The only machine available was the stair stepper. I find that machine extremely boring, but at least I had a good playlist to listen to.
After I cleaned myself up I went to the athlete lounge and watched the mens gymnastics team. They did really well and ended up 3rd as a team. I really do not understand this new scoring system even after someone explained it to me...twice. haha oh well, I gave up gymnastics a long time ago so it's really not a big deal. After that I met one of my cyclist friends for lunch before I headed over to the pool.
Our little ones were competing 10m sychro today and I was really excited to watch them. The whole contest again was pretty good, and the girls ended up 5th. After that it was time for dinner #1 followed by more epsiodes of Weeds. I feel like I am addicted to that show now, but I think it is just because there is not much else to do. If I wasn't competing in a few days I would definitely be out exploring China or with my family. But, since that wasn't the case, I just tried resting as much as I could.
8/13/08
This morning my alarm went off at 6:30 and I was NOT ready for it. I had gone to bed pretty late last night so I was a little tired. But I ate breakfast with Troy then headed over to the pool. Practice went surprisingly well so I rewarded myself with another trip to the dining hall. I don't want you to think I eat a lot, it's just that it is a great place to socialize and meet new people since everyone from every country goes there. I also don't always eat a full meal, usually it is just snacks. Not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but the dining hall has many options. It always has fruit, cereal, yogurt, and deli meats. Then there is an asian section, mediterranean section, international, and then a McDonalds. Anyway, this time around I sat with my Troy and some new people. I met James Blake for the first time, and then my cyclist friends again. I spent a lot of time there just chatting with everyone, and getting to know them.
After that it was back to the computers. I get new friends and messages on facebook which is pretty cool. I feel very fortunate knowing there are a lot of people back home that are supporting me. While I was on the computers I was watching women's gymnastics.
Went back to the pool to watch the boys 3m sychro event. Chris and Jevon dove so well and were so close to medaling! They ended up 4th, but we were all so happy for them. I had to get in and practice right after the event, and the no sleep thing hit me at the point. I was exhausted and was having a rough practice. But I got through it and afterwards Huber and I decided that I needed tomorrow morning off.
From there Huber and I had to take a taxi to a hotel to meet the other divers and our sponsor. Speedo had set up a dinner for family and friends which I thought was really cool. Right when we pulled up a small bus came up next to us filled with my entire family! All 15 people had come which was awesome. I was so excited to see my relatives that had just flown in that day. It was a little overwhelming with all of them there, but it was great at the same time. I feel so lucky to have family that can follow me everywhere. They are my best supporters and it really comforts me to have them there. So it was really cool that I got to spend that time with them.
After that we headed back to the village and called it a night.
8/14/08
This morning I slept in all the way to 8:30 again! I stayed in bed a little later, but eventually got out. I looked at my blackberry and saw that I had 25 new messages! Wow, I feel really cool. I went to the computer room to go through emails and stuff. I headed back to my room while I was still on my phone deleting emails. I walked in my room and saw some green boxes on the table. I had no idea where they had come from. I walked past one of my roommates room and saw her bed was already made. Had the cleaning people come during the 10 minutes I was gone? A little confused I walked into my room and saw a fish bathmat that I had not noticed before...and my curtains were a little open. After standing there for a little bit everything finally came together and I realized I wasn't in my room! I was soooo embarrassed, but luckily no one else was in the apartment. I booked it out of there before anyone caught me and turned it into an even more embarrassing moment.
After that was breakfast with some friends. I came back to the room and watched Summer Rental. It's an old movie, but I still like it. Then it was time for practice. As I was walking over there I heard thunder and realized I didn't bring a rain coat or umbrella. Dang it...I hoped for the best, and went to the pool anyone. When I got off the bus I was interviewed by NBC which was pretty cool. As I was doing this it started drizzling.
I warmed up for awhile then I had my practice. I could tell that I had gotten more sleep and rest because my legs weren't tired, and I was doing my dives really well. I am so glad Huber was in a good mood and let me have the morning off...thanks! :)
Of course while I was in practice we could hear how loud the thunder and rain was. Even over the synchronized swimming music which was impressive. By the time I got outside it was pouring, but thanks to the awesome volunteers here they walked me to the bus with an umbrella over my head. I gave the volunteer a USA diving pin as a thank you. The volunteers are really awesome here and they are so nice! I only know a couple words in chinese, but I think they really appreciate it when you try to speak their language.
Now I am back to the village. Probably going to watch Goodwill Hunting that I borrowed from our sports psychologist, or watch some more episodes of Weeds. Tomorrow I compete at 2:30 and it should be a really fun event! I am looking forward to it, and after having a good practice this afternoon I am confident that I will do well...
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7-29-08
We leave for Beijing in 12 hours and I am so excited! We just got out outfitting in San Jose. No joke, it was better than Christmas! Everything says USA with the rings and stuff. It is so cool. We got new shoes, shirts, shorts, warm-ups, and a spiffy outfit for opening ceremonies. Now it's time to try and shove everything in my suitcase...should be interesting.
8-1-08
Well, I finally made it to Beijing. The flight was actually good, just long as usual. I think it ended up being 12 hours, and I probably spent half the time standing up. It gets pretty boring, not going to lie. I was pretty upset when I got on the plane and saw that we didn't get the individual screens, but it was just one big one at the front of each section. But they showed Fools Gold first, which is a really good movie. After that I stopped watching because they weren't very good.
When we landed it only took about 2.5 hours to finally get onto our bus to head to the village. We had to give the people at the airport our passport and credential (used it as our visa) and waited while they made copies or something. I am not really sure, but it just took a long time. Laura, Haley, Ariel and I started playing I Spy and then the alphabet game. I kind of made that one up, but its when you go around in a circle and depending what letter you are on you have to name something that starts with that letter. It was pretty tricky trying to name an animal that started with x...so we stopped.
Even though I had been up for hours by then, I was wide-awake when we made it to the village. It was so cool; I was at THE Olympic village. They are really nice apartment buildings and the landscaping is awesome. We got lucky, and our building is right in front of a pond that is really pretty. For the room situation I really lucked out. We are in a 4-bedroom apartment, and I got a double room and my own shower/bathroom to myself :) Awesome I know. But it is cool since we are all in one big room with a living room area and stuff.
8-2-08
We came over to the water cube to practice today. I figured nothing would have changed since February, but I was wrong. They had put up huge banners, one that covered the entire wall! It looked awesome in the pool area. They added some detail as well that added to the place. It really made it have an Olympic feel.
This afternoon Laura, Nancilea, and I tried to explore and find the International Zone. This is where the venue store is, as well as a bank, a general store, and other things as well. We ate lunch in the dining hall and then hopped on the first bus we found. We had no idea where it went or anything, so we got off at the first stop before we could get too lost. When we got out, we thought we had found a new dining hall. Funny how it ended up being the other side of the dining hall we were just at...embarrassing I know. So we continued to walk around and ended up finding the "entertainment zone" or something. It was pretty awesome because that's it has an outdoor pool, a game room (with pool, air hockey, etc), a DVD room, a fitness center, and who knows what else. It was getting late and super hot outside so we just went back to our rooms. Jet lag is still hitting me, so I am ready to go to bed and its only 9:00 PM!
8-3-08
This morning we had the early workout time. It is still just the USA, Mexico, and Spain in our workout group, which is really small. So practice went by relatively quick. I still feel like I am adjusting to the time, and my body needs to get on track so my diving has not been great. But I still have 12 more days until my competition so I am not worried. This afternoon I made it to the international zone! I think I started sweating within a minute of walking there, but at least it was air conditioned in some of the stores. They have some awesome souvenir stuff, so I will definitely have to come back with my parents. After failing at making any purchases I headed over to the residential center to play some pop-a-shot and other arcade games. I was pretty bad, not going to lie.
8-4-08
Waking up this morning I knew it was going to be a very uneventful day. I mean, I woke up at 7:30 in the morning and went to breakfast. That was a full 13 hours before my first practice started! After breakfast I thought I would kill some time by going to the fitness center and working out a little bit. Let me tell you, it felt like working out in a sauna. There were a lot of people in there sweating up a storm. It looked like a lot of wrestlers trying to cut weight or something because they were all in their warm-ups. To make matters worse, they ran out of towels. So by the time I was done I looked like I had jumped in the pool. Awesome... After cleaning up, I met some friends at the dining hall. We headed over to their room since they got a TV and watched HBO! woohoo. After it was over, I had a team meeting. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading and eating. Great combination. By the time dinner rolled around I ate something small. I headed over to the pool at 7:30, practiced from 8:30-9:45, took the 10:00pm bus back to the village, ate, and then went back to my room to realize I wasn't tired. I finally made it up past 11:00 pm!
8-5-08
I was really looking forward to today because we only had one practice at 11. Right after practice we went straight to Beijing Normal University for lunch, then got on another bus to go to the Courtyard Marriot. Our team was taking a little vacation from the village so that we could do some touristy stuff. We arrived at the hotel and had an hour to get ready before we left for dinner. We went to this famous place called Peking Duck. It was cool because they brought out a bunch of dishes and put them on the center of the table. The whole middle section of the table could spin, so whenever you wanted something you could easily help yourself. I tried this orange colored thing that I guess was Lotus Root I think. It was so good! It was kind of crunchy and tasted like orange candy.
After dinner we went straight to the Flying Acrobatic Show. The show was amazing. It reminded me of Cirque Du Soleil. These people could bend in all the wrong places. And they did these moves that looked impossible. At one point they had 12 girls on 1 bicycle! It was an incredible show. To make it even better they had the whole team go up on stage and take a picture!
8-6-08
Today was another adventure. We started with breakfast in the hotel , which was really good. Then it was off to the Great Wall of China. It is crazy to think that the wall is 4,000 miles long and is one of the only man-made things that are visible from space! How about that for a fun fact :) The wall was up on a mountain so you had to take a ski-lift up. The view was awesome from the top and I wish the weather had been a little clearer so I could have gotten better pictures, but oh well. We had about an hour to explore, but I didn't go very far. I stopped every 5 seconds to take a picture. And, as usual I took a handstand picture. (I try to take on in every country I travel to for diving.)
To go back down we had the option of the ski lift or the bobsled. Of course we all went for the bobsled. You had a lever that could control how fast you went, so I tried to go as fast as I could. It was kind of scary going around the turns because it felt like you were going to flip over. So usually right before I got to one I slowed down. After the wall we went to lunch at the School House. The food was great, and then to make it even more exciting we got to watch a demonstration of glass blowing. It was amazing! They used these hollow metal pipe things and put extremely hot glass on the end of it. Since it is so warm it is constantly moving and changing shape. I am doing a really bad job of explaining it, so I would suggest watching a clip of it. I'm sure there is one online.
After lunch we went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner. We went to this place called The Tree. We ate pizza! I really liked the food, and it was nice having an American Meal. That was the end of our trip. We go back tomorrow morning. And we have to go straight to the pool since our practice is at 8am.
8-8-08
Opening Ceremonies day!!!!! So excited I can't even contain myself :) Because of the big event, all venues were being closed at noon for security reasons. So we had 1 practice for 1 hour. After practice we had a lot of free time to hang out. I dropped my laundry off. They have it set up so everyone gets 2 mesh bags. One for colors, and one for whites. You drop it off, they wash it (still in the mesh bag), and pick it up 12 hours later. It is so awesome because it is so easy and free! Time to get ready for tonight!
Sooo it is now 2am and I just got back from opening ceremonies!! It was so amazing! We had to wear outfits with a hat. You knew you were dressed correctly if you looked like a flight attendant. By myself I felt dumb, but once we were all together I think we looked really classy. I was just dreading going out in the heat with the blazer and pants. First the entire USA team went to the Fencing Hall to take pictures with President Bush! I was sooo excited to meet him. Not only did I meet him, but I also got to see the NBA players!
After that we walked over to another stadium where we got to sit for 2 hours waiting for our turn. While we waited we got a bag that included a banana, cookies, 2 mini snickers, and a piece of bread. Oh yea, and a small thing of milk...I stuck with just eating the banana. I wouldn't even drink water while I was waiting because I wanted to refrain from using the restroom. Once we left that stadium there was no turning back... Our country was finally called so we gathered and started moving toward the exit. We were number 140 out of 200 and something. We were in alphabetical order according to the Chinese alphabet. We headed outside to join the long line of people heading over to the Birds Nest. After about 35 minutes of slowly walking, we came to a tunnel. We went through it and it was dark and hot. As we were getting closer the whole USA team started chanting, "USA, USA". It gave me goose bumps! It was so cool walking through there. As I got closer, I turned my camera on and put my head down. Right as I stepped out of the dark tunnel I looked up at the biggest stadium ever! It was so bright and lights were flashing everywhere. People were screaming/cheering. I tried taking a picture of my first glimpse of it all.
Walking around was awesome because there were so many USA fans! The rest of the ceremonies was cool, especially the lighting of the torch. I hope everyone had a chance to see it on tv at least. But China did an amazing job with everything. I didn't make it back to the village around 2am, so I was really happy when I heard I had the morning off of practice. That was definitely a night I will never forget.
8-9-08
Today wasn't very exciting. After last night everyone was exhausted and you could definitely tell at practice. Our legs were so tired from standing up for that long, but I was lucky and had an easy practice. After practice I went back to the laundry place and they found my bag so I was pretty excited to get my clothes back. Then I spent some time on the computers. I saw that someone had created a fan page for me on Facebook and I had 46 members. When I checked again it was up to 130! We had a sport psychology meeting in the late afternoon and then ate dinner. We were also given egg crates for our bed! They made them more comfortable, so hopefully tonight I will sleep really well. Sadly that was all that really happened in my day. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little more exciting for you to read about.
8-10-08
Diving competition finally began today! Kelci and Ariel dove 3m synchro and ended up 4th. It was a great competition and they both dove really well. We were all pulling for them to medal, but they just missed it by 4 points! So close... Right after the event I went back to the village and then left to meet up with my family. My brothers attempted to get a taxi to take them to one of the entry points to the village, but it was a little difficult since they didn't speak the same language. I had to call my brother, get a volunteer in the village to translate and speak to the taxi driver.
After about 45 min of waiting they finally made it. Of course it had to start pouring rain, so they were soaking wet by the time they found me. The next adventure was trying to get a new taxi driver to take us to the apartment my family was staying in. It would have been really easy to get there if it hadn't been for all the roadblocks. For security and other reasons, some streets are blocked off. But, luckily if you have a pass (like my athlete credential) we were able to go down the streets that were closed off. I got to hang out with my parents, my 2 brothers, my sister, my grandma, my aunt and 2 cousins for awhile before we headed out for dinner.
Oh, and don't worry, there are more family members that will be in town in the next couple of days! I love how no matter where I travel to in the world I always have a big group of family that comes to cheer me on. I think all together there will be 15 people here watching me! Anyway, we ate a buffet dinner at the Crowne Plaza that was really good. Afterwards I headed back to the village. Since my brothers gave me their DVD player and a TV series, I started watching that right when I got back. Tomorrow Thomas and David dive 10m synchro. I am really excited to watch their event! I will let you know how it goes.
Players Mentioned
