A Day Off!

Unbelievable! We got a day off! It certainly helped us enjoy our Opening Ceremonies more because we knew we didn't have to practice the next day. I slept in until 11:00 am, and I could've slept longer but my roommate Sara Lowe reminded me that we had a lot we needed to get done on our day off. We woke up and watched a little bit of table tennis and badminton on our Olympic Village live tv feed in our room. Then we set off to do laundry. We get a laundry bag that the village staff washes for us which fits about two pairs of underwear and a sock so I think it might take a while for us to get all of our laundry done. We had a leisurely lunch in the cafeteria and then got ready to go watch Men's Gymnastics. Before I go on, I know that before I mentioned the caf was one of my favorite places but lately there had been a "disturbance in the force", as they say. They seem to have a track of songs that play constantly at every meal. It's full of fabulous (I'm being facetious) titles like, "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and "La Isla Bonita" by Madonna, and the Beach Boys' "Kokomo" and of course you all remember my favorite, "Get on your feet" by Gloria Estefan. All of these songs are well and good until they have been played 923,492,296 times a day! Listen here Gloria!, I am not going to get on my feet no matter how many times you say it, I'm trying to eat! I think my next goal here is to give the dining services some new cds to play since I'm here for two more weeks!
So anyway, once I recovered from spontaneously combusting from listening to Gloria, we got on a bus to go watch Men's Gymnastics. I also made the venue a rendevous point to be able to see my parents who I haven't seen in over two weeks! Through the fabulous technology of binoculars, my parents were able to spot me across the arena and wave me down! I had so much fun catching up with them. They have lots of wild stories from visiting with friends and family they have visited all throughout Germany and England. My mom also showed me the water spritzer I bought them to help cool them off. They hadn't used it yet so I volunteered to be the guinea pig. In hindsight I realize I should have let Dad be the guinea pig because when Mom opened the valve I got absolutely drenched from the uncontrollable spray of water. I was "cooled off" for the next half an hour.
Well, the USA Men's Gymnastics team won, no doubt thanks to our fabulous support. Blaine Wilson did slam on his back during his uneven bar routine but I hope that wasn't our fault! And we headed back to the village for dinner, e-mails and bed! Today was just what we needed to gear us up and ready for an intense week of training.