Up and Running

We've been here a couple days and so now I feel like a village veteran. I had my time to be a fan and explore everything but now...its coming close to competition time. Opening Ceremonies tonight marks the beginning of the greatest tournament in the world and while it is very important to experience it all, we also have to remember that for our team, simply qualifying was not good enough...we've set our goals higher. I'm sure tonight will be an absolute spectacle... you can feel the anticipation throughout the village as it is getting more and more crowded.

We went to our venue to train yesterday and it looks great. The water is cold, but the air is breathable inside...we'll see if that changes with 3000 people in there. We scrimmaged against Australia for a little bit to accustom ourselves to the pool and then once we were changed and showered we came out to a little lounge to wait for our buses with snacks, water and coffee sitting on the table for us to eat.


And for the water polo-minded, the pool is set up for the men's games, which are 30m long...ours are 25m. So they will adjust the goals to 25m for our competition, but the benches are not moving. So not only do we get to sit way behind the goal line, but the shot clocks are MASSIVE and situated directly in front of half the bench seats....its a funny situation, hopefully it all gets worked out. (Above is a picture of the pool from the Good Luck Beijing Tournament in March)