Hello from Beijing! We made it "home" and boy does it feel GOOOOOOD! Let me back up to yesterdays practice in Korea. We had a really good last practice. We anchored all of our lifts, and did some last minute touch ups on the tech team. After that we booked it to the airport only to find out that our flight was delayed 3 hours, and we couldn't actually check in until 2 hours before our flight. So that was fun. We roamed around the Korean airport, trying various Korean goodies. I personally settled for a ham and cheese panini, not very Korean I know! We got the giggles BIG TIME at the airport, and Gail was out of control! She kept dropping everything all over the floor, it was pretty funny. We finally made it onto the flight, and were back home at the village by 11:00 pm.


Today is our day off! I started off the morning by sleeping in (yes 6:30 is sleeping in for me)! Then I took a nice LOOONG shower, without anyone telling me to hurry up. That was nice. Nobody was awake in my apartment yet, so I checked out our teams other apartment and found Kim reading the USA Daily. We both enjoyed a nice relaxed breakfast and we saw Michael Phelps, Shawn Johnson, and Nastia Liukin eating breakfast before their big days. It was so crazy to see that for some reason. After that, I went to our USA Sports Med and had Brent our trainer work on my shoulder. Good news is that he was able to release it, and my shoulder is feeling a lot better. THEN I took the 9:30 bus to the Water Cube to watch some swimming! I somehow got separated from my teammates, and ended up with the coaches. We weren't sure if our credentials would let us into the venue on a swimming finals day but we had no problem! We walked right in. On the bus I met some Canadian swimmers, who promised that they would cheer for us. When we walked in the swimming venue, we sat down first row pool side and WATCHED THE EVENTS! It was so crazy to see The USA win 6 medals right in front of me! I could have touched the water if I wanted to! We were screaming at the top of our lungs, it was just such an incredible moment. I got to hear our National Anthem 3 times! That song never gets old.

When I got back to the Village, I showed Gail around the caf and then headed back to my room to rest a little bit. It was really hard to sit down with so much adrenaline, but I knew that I had to rest my legs and ice my knees. After a short rest, Belle and I just roamed the Village. I saw the game room, pool, disco, media center, and so so much more! It is craziness, and the entire place is just buzzing with an indescribable energy that I have never experienced before. I want to bottle it up and keep it forever.

Right now I am in the USA athlete lounge and yes they have computers, TVs, phones, and snacks all set up for us. I am listening to some track athletes watch a womans basketball game in the other room while I wait for a call from my parents! They are supposed to arrive any moment! I hope they call me soon because I think this will be my last opportunity to get them into the village! I want to see them so bad! I miss them so much, I just need a super long hard hug from both of them at once. Ok, I think I'll go check out the basketball game in the room next to me! XOXO!