Olympic Post

Here is another post by Bernie the Olympic Goalie Coach:

Ni Hao!



Well, we are all moved in, into the BEST Olympic Village ever! I know I should stay true to my village experience in Sydney, but this set up is amazing! The details the Chinese have put into everything is spectacular. Especially since I was here in March of this year, thinking, there is no way this will be ready! Never underestimate the power of unlimited workforce.



Our adventure in Daxing was a very positive one. We were fortunate to have a guest speaker on August 1st, April Heinrich’s, 1996, 2000, 2004 Olympic Women’s Soccer Coach. She was able to welcome our athletes to the Olympic Family. April explained to the team the glory of once an Olympian, always an Olympian, never a former. She continued for the next 10 minutes to inspire our athletes. I felt bad for the Netherlands, since we played a scrimmage with them after this meeting and crushed them by 10 goals! I would say the team was inspired!



In Daxing, we were not able to leave the hotel/pool area, due to security, so August 4th we were ready to leave and move into the Village. We had a day and a half off to enjoy the wonders of the village. I am not sure I am able to describe what this Village is like… there are 42 apartment buildings, composed of 6 story and 9 story buildings. The dining hall is wonderful, the food has been delicious! I ate steak and potatoes and fresh salad for dinner. The International Zone has everything to offer from a General Store, Olympic Store to Dry Cleaning and Florist shops. And, when the commercials say VISA is the only card excepted at the Olympics, they mean it!



For my day off, I had a little adventure to Ikea; went to gather some odds and ends for the apartments. The Ikea here is the same as Ikea’s at home and apparently around the world. The taxi from Ikea to the village was another adventure all by itself. The taxi driver did not speak a word of English, so I show him my little English to Chinese direction card to the Village and ended up getting a complete tour of the Olympic Green. Everywhere the taxi went to turn, he was turned around by security. We could see the village, but had no way of getting close. So, here are three Americans carrying 5 BIG bags of Ikea gear, through secure zones, medal detectors and about 200 volunteers. Oh I forgot to mention the weather is about 90 degrees and 90% humidity!



Speaking of weather, I am sure all of you are wondering about what the air quality is like. We heard on the news China has a rating system in place 1 to 500, 500 being the absolute worse pollution. We were getting ready to hear them say the air quality is at about 300, but turns out it is at 80…if this is an 80, I would hate to see what a 500 would be! The visibility could be better, you can see about 8 blocks away…some evening the air clears up and you can see the blue sky directly above you. The limit of cars on the roads is happening…on Monday, Wednesday, Friday if your license plate ends in an even number you can drive…Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday it is the odd number days.



Well, the next few days we will be training, touching up on the last few details. The team and I will be walking in the Opening Ceremonies, which is promising to be a great performance! So make sure you watch or DVR!



I hope the earthquake didn’t rattle too much back home and everyone is safe and sound!



Miss you all!

Bernice