So Sunday night after I got off work I went with a friend of mine and met a few people from Missouri at the Bud house. This is a house where once you get in everything is free! This sounds awesome to college students, however you have to be on a list to get in. A few of my friends met this guy with connections at the cycling venue and got their names on the "list". So to get in Allie was a member of the Brazilian swim team, and I went with a girl on the list and smiled at the bouncer. Lucky for us my friend Paige and I are both blonde girls - so somehow we got in. Once in we met lots of athletes and a variety of journalists. My night included:
- a new york times sports reporter asking me how long we have been here, my response July 1st got the response- "Wow, you must really hate China"..... I didn't expect this from a well known journalist, but it was followed by a 20 minute vent session about China from him and a fellow journalist. I guess add some egos, a foreign country, frustrating miscommunications, and some alcohol and you see some pretty interesting sides of people.
- 2 members of the polish rowing team CAME up to Allie and I and asked US if we would take a picture with them. hahaha why would we turn that down?
- I talked to Pat Forde for a good 30 minutes! After a few minutes I realized who I was talking to (he looked so familiar- but name tags really help here and club bud no one had them unfortch for me!) He was a great guy and told us that ESPN was flying every alumni who currently works for them to Missouri for our Journalism School's Centennial. Too bad Kirk Herbstreit isn't an alum or I would probably camp out in front of the hotel they're staying at! haha that's kind of a joke
Those have to be the greatest stories of the night- we met many athletes and a few swimmers where there, but no Phelps- I'm sure he was tired from winning his 8th gold medal- no big deal- Wes, I'm sure he would just give me two of his- how many could the guy need?
Monday was a pretty uneventful day- besides Eric losing his cell phone in a cab on the way home from a handball game with a bunch of danish people and somehow getting it back. All the cabbie wanted (they maybe spoke 10 words of english) anyways Eric got his phone back with a hug, picture and signing the cabbie's autograph book. Probably the strangest, yet luckiest things that happened to anyone on this trip. (3 people have lost phones in cars).
Today was the last day of gymnastics and handball starts at my venue starting Thursday. Tomorrow we're going to see Ben Askren (a former wrestler from Missouri) compete- so that should be exciting. Other than that I'm just trying to enjoy my last full week in China- which I still can't believe.
I'll try to let everyone know how tomorrow goes!
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2 comments:
Whit:
Sounds like quite a party! Rick would have loved the free beer. Hard to believe you will be home a week from Thursday. Continue to have fun!
I see on facebook that you got to play on the balance beam! The next Shawn Johnson? I can't wait to hear all your stories when you get home. Have fun, enjoy the last few days, and be safe!
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