Living Like an Olympian

If anyone was watching gymnastics last night, they were awesome. China raked in 5 more medals and the US got a silver. I saw a lot of great Olympians. During the Men's Rings Final, Yang Wei (CN) took gold, Chen Yibing (CN) took silver, and Oleksandr Vorobiov (Ukraine) took bronze. We were a little late for this one so we didn't get to see Ukraine, but watching both of China's performances were amazing. Rings was one of my favorite events. I wish we had closer seats because Devon kept having to tell me to stop watching the TV screen, we can see it live right in front of us. The Women's Uneven Bars was the most competitive of the events we saw. There was Nastia Liukin from the US who tied with China for gold. Because her difficulty score was slightly lower (by .1) she had to take the silver instead. He Kexin and Yang Yilin both had awesome performances despite some surrounding controversies. A girl from Russia fell off the high bar blowing her chances at any medal but that was the only major mistake. The third event we saw was Men's Vault. This was a crazy one. Each guy had two chances to land their jump. Most of them couldn't stick their landings and a few of the even lost balance off of the landing mat. Poland won the gold for this event (Leszek Blanik) and his jump was awesome. Well worth the gold for sure. We had a surprise fourth event that wasn't posted online that we got to watch. That was Women's Trampoline finals. This was one of the more entertaining events and we all enjoyed watching the girls jump really high and spin around in the air.

When the events were over we walked around the Olympic venues. I can't even describe how cool it was to walk inbetween the Water Cube, the Bird's Nest, and the National Indoor Stadium (where we watched gymnastics). These buildings are amazing. The pictures can't even do it justice. Not to mention, the pictures can't capture the glow of the lights in peoples faces, the roaring of the crowd in the Bird's Nest or any of the excitement that seems to run through the milling crowds walking through the plaza. It was really the coolest feeling. I know you guys are really jealous of us and it wasn't until last night that I could really feel myself being part of history.

We headed back to the apartment where everyone was getting ready to have our final night out with the 14 day volunteers. Once again we went to the place that treated us like royalty and had a good time. I woke up this morning at 8 AM to go to the Llama Temple. This is a Buddhist temple that has 5 Buddhas the largest of them is 18m above ground with an 8m underground base. It is carved out of a single tree that took 3 years to ship from Nepal. The tree is native to India. On this trip it was only Devon and I and a leader. Half of our leaders are part of a Chinese program called CYCAN. They are all Chinese students that are working with CCI to help us adjust to living in Beijing. The other half are American and they are members of CCI. This leader was a CYCAN member and the Llama Temple was very close to her neighborhood. The temple didn't take very long so afterwards we walked around and she showed us some cool streets and local neighborhoods. We ate at a restaurant and headed back to the apartment. I think I'm just taking it easy for the rest of the day and since I ended up not getting a massage yesterday I might go today with Jimmy. We'll see.

Oh and random info: We found a place close to us called Carrefour (French Walmart) and it was amazing. Every western good you could ever want. Now, if I'm ever craving anything from the US, I'll just go there. I bought a matress for my bed (if you didn't know, we all sleep on a piece of plywood with a blanket on top). Last night's sleep was one of the best I've had on my trip. Oh, and below are some pictures I've stolen from Rachel's camera too. Sorry there aren't many of the Llama Temple. You can't take pictures inside and the outside of the buildings all look the same.

Rachel's Photos

Gymnastics & Llama Temple