Torch Holder!

This morning on the subway I noticed that a good amount of people were on the train holding little Chinese flags and some had armbands with Chinese writing on them. I didn't think too much of it, I just figured since it's close to game time people must be getting pumped up. When we got off at our station I noticed people selling Chinese flags, stickers, arm bands and things and I figured it was for the same reason. Upon walking to our venue, I noticed a lot of people were lined up along the side of the road on the road perpendicular to us. I just said, "look at all those people lined up" and kept walking. Later, I found out that it was because the Torch Relay went really close to us!!! I heard it was in the Forbidden City earlier but I had NO idea until after, and then to find out that we missed it so close to us I was a little upset! It was just across the street and we didn't know.

Later, as I was standing in the middle of the velodrome, I noticed a torch relay runner had come out on the floor and was talking pictures. I saw others take pictures with the torch so I went over and asked my Chinese friends to ask if I could get one, and the runner said YES! So I got to hold an Olympic Torch, one that actually carried the Olympic Flame!! It was SO COOL!

Also, I lot of teams came in today, although, we only got two interviews. Team USA was there, NED, BEL, GER, Czech, COL, CHN, GBR, Ireland and maybe a few others. A lot of the famous riders that we have been reading and researching were there training and it was SO COOL! Many of them don't want to talk with us yet, they are just 'in the zone' or too far out from Game time to have much to say, so we only got two interviews. Team USA would only give us one, and one tomorrow maybe!

If you didn't hear, the American Cycling team showed up in Beijing wearing black masks to protect themselves from the smog. They later apologized but I think the damaged was done; they got a lot of press because of it.

I also had a great day just hanging out with some Chinese volunteers. I kind of stray away from the Purdue group because I like meeting the Chinese student volunteers and getting to know them. I have made friends with some of the "language specialist" one who speaks German and one who speaks Malay (but they both speak English too). They are really cool and really fun. I had a great day and I hope there are more to come, just TWO DAYS 'til the start!