A Brand New Day

The duet had the day off today so the other seven of us headed off to the competition pool. It was a little strange to be training without our duet but the team still needed to be at the competition pool to get used to it. As we were warming up in the indoor pool, our Women's Water Polo team came by on their way to play in a game against Russia. We gave them a big old "Go USA!" Our coach looked at them and said, they're going to win today, I can tell just by looking at them. So we wished them well and headed out to our pool. While we were waiting for our music time our coach started reminding us of the last time we were here. (We had our Pre-Olympic qualifier at this Olympic pool back in April) We were the last team to swim on the day of the Finals. While we were waiting for our turn to go, one of the volunteers working in the ready room came over to us. She said that she had been sitting back and observing every country that had entered the ready room before they went to compete. She said that our USA team was the only team that had come in and had been happy! Every other team had entered the ready room very solemn and subdued. We walked in happy and energetic. She continued by saying, "You are the American spirit, you are what everyone in the world likes about Americans." Wow! That comment really knocked our socks off. We were so exicted by that, every single one of us remembers when she told that to us. Our coach said that she had never been so proud of us. That woman recognized something about us that our coach has always loved about our team and what she believes will bring our team to reach it's highest potential. So once again, we were pumped up, but this time a little more aware of the control we still had to have over that energy. Once again we had 40 minutes of music time that we used first to practice the deckwork we had been fumbling on yesterday. We repeated it four or five times and nailed it each time. We then continued practicing the technical program and stopping periodically to point out where we would look during the routine. Some spots in the routine would be focused on the judges, and some spots we would look out into the audience. The pool was starting to feel a little more like home. Our coach was very pleased with our practice. As soon as our music time was finished we raced to the TV to see who had one the Water Polo match. (There's a tv right on the pool deck so you can watch other sports on a live feed.) They were playing "Born in the USA" and flashed the score on the TV Russia-4 USA-8! They creamed them! We sprinted up to the water polo pool to greet the team and say congratulations. I think they liked the synchro welcome. We joked that they started it all by beating the Russians, and we'd finish it on the 27th by beating them as well. They were so pumped up that when they slapped us on the backs to say thanks they almost injured some of us. Those girls are the farthest thing from pansies! I even saw one of the Russian girls walking to the locker room with a bag of ice on her face, brutal.
Then we headed over to the American College of Greece for some real specific one on one training. While we were practicing there I got a surprise visit from my mom and dad! Turns out, the home that they are staying in during the Olympics is about 10 blocks from the pool the college! They didn't stay long because they sensed that we were very intensely focused. But we had a great practice and we all got to fix a lot of personal corrections which helps to build confidence. I called my mom at their house when I was done with practice to see if she wanted to catch dinner and I would just take the 9pm bus back to the village. Dad had gone to pick up my aunt and uncle at the airport so mom and I enjoyed a nice dinner followed by a chocolate souffle again. (I am absolutely obsessed with chocolate souffles!) My aunt and uncle raced up the hill to catch me and give me a quick hug before I took the bus back to the village. It was so fun seeing them and having a nice dinner with my mom and hearing about all of mom and dad's adventures in the Greek Isles.
The bus was fairly empty except for three members of the fencing team. I enjoyed talking with them about their sport and educating them a little about synchronized swimming. I arrived at the Village about 9:30 and headed over the the Music Store in the village. I collect Music cds from every country I go to. When I was in there the night before I met some Greek Americans (one of them knew a guy from my high school!) who helped me find some Greek hip hop. I had put it on hold to buy tonight. The store owner was very intrigued by my interest in Greek hip hop so he found me another Greek hip hop group that was pretty cool. He played them in the store for me and we got everyone in the store to dance, it was really funny! So now I have two awesome Greek hip hop cds if anyone wants to borrow one!
I walked back to my apartment after that. It was the first time I had walked in the village alone since I arrived two weeks ago. I had been with a teammate anytime I walked anywhere. It was really nice to be alone for a little while. The weather was beautiful and I met lots of nice people on the walk back that normally I would have been so engaged in conversation I might not have stopped to say hi. Trading pins is definitely the main ice breaker in the village. It gives everyone a reason to start talking to each other without just coming up to someone and starting to jabber away at them. I met an adorable little man from China who's only English vocabulary included hello, pin, thank you and pretty. That was enough though, the transaction was successful.
The walk back was so peaceful and really the only time I've had for a little quiet personal reflection. During my quiet personal reflection I was almost run over by a bus on the internal loop because all of the drivers are crazy and don't ever slow down for pedestrians. But fortunately I snapped out of my daze just in time to hop back on the curb before being flattened like a pancake.
So here I am, writing my e-mail and looking forward to a day off tomorrow. It's been hard to write because so many people have been coming in and want to talk with me about their Olympis so far. It's really fun to hear some of the things people have had to go through here. It's been concluded among us athletes that this has been a fairly strange Olympics so far, full of surprises. I'm sure we have a few surprises to offer on the 26th and 27th as well. Well, I'm off to bed, I plan to sleep in and it's going to feel so good!