Aug. 1, 2008

BEIJING, China - Hello everybody and welcome to my first blog from Beijing! We arrived into the village yesterday after spending a week in Singapore acclimatizing and getting over our jet lag. The humidity is similar there (I think I lost at least 5 pounds of water from sweating at each practice) and the time zone is the same as in Beijing, so it was a perfect place to have a training camp before the games. Ronaldhino and his Brazilian team were also there to play Singapore for a warm- up game before heading to the games...unfortunately we didn't get to see them there but I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

After getting to the village I think it has finally sunk in that we are at the Olympics. We were like kids at Christmas today when we received our suitcases full of Team Canada gear. Just walking around the village is such a surreal experience...I still have to pinch myself every once in a while to make sure I'm not dreaming!

The village itself is a sight to be seen....and the best part about it-everything is FREE! There is a Mcdonalds in the food hall (which is huge) and you can just walk right up there and get whatever you want (not that I would ever want to of course! ;)) We also get these keys that let us get any drinks from the vending machines for free. Oh and did I mention the food hall is 24 hours?? Which may be a good or bad thing, considering how much food soccer players can consume if there is a huge buffet right in front of us!

I also just decided that I could use a hair cut and luckily there is a hair salon in the village. My teammates are telling me that this may be a sketchy decision, but I'm willing to take the risk. I'm hoping this won't happen, but don't be surprised if I come back in August with a bowl cut! Just Kiddin! (I hope...)

We have one more day here before we leave for Tianjin, which is where we play our first two games against Argentina and China. Tianjin is only about a 30 min train ride away, and we will return to the village after those two games. Our third group game is against Sweden and then hopefully we will make it to the quarterfinals after that!

Alrighty well I think that's all for now folks...it's been a looong day. Until next time!