The morning before the Water Polo (YingDong Natatorium-not the Bird's Nest) we decided to visit the Beijing Zoo because it was fairly close to the event. Construction of the subway to the Zoo had not been completed, so we took our first bus ride, flashing our Olympic tickets to get free entry. We splurged (about an additional $10 USD per person) to add on the Aquarium which was totally worth it.

(This is Max) On Sunday, August 10, we didn't have any events. We used the day to rest and recover from jet lag. We also joined a health club in the same complex as our apartment so we could use their pool and other facilities.

On Monday, we had tickets to Women's Volleyball. After another trip on the subway we arrived at the Capital Gymnasium. Our first game was the US versus Cuba (see picture, US is on right). Unfortunately, the US lost to the clearly superior Cuban team in 3 straight games. We found out later that the Cuban women's team is one of the best in the world.

Hi this is Sara. if you have ever gone to the Olympics you've
probably seen the Olympic mascots. If you've never seen them or never gone to the Olympics you've probably never seen them.
They each have decorative heads,the blue ones name is Beibei, the pandas name is Jinging, the red ones name is Huanhuan, the orange ones name is Yingying, and the green ones nsme is Nini. My favorite ones are Yingying, Huanhuan and Nini. If you put their names together it means "Welcome To Beijing".

I got a set of all of them and I really like to play with them.

Hi, my name is Sara. Stephanie and Max are my parents. Yesterday was my very first day ever at the Olympics and we saw the mens gymnastics. For my first at the Olympics I thoght it was pretty cool! I think I thought the fliping guys were pretty awsome. I think the archery and the fencing will also be cool to watch.

The Chinese, Japanese, French, Canadian, and Russian Republic teams were competing in a round robin display--rings, hobble horse, vaulting, floor exercise, parallel bars and tall bar were the events. As no U.S. athletes were competing, we cheered for them all. At least half of the spectators were Chinese and the cheers always went up for the home team, which was indeed an impressive display of muscle, flexibility, and precision movements. There guys were truly the best in the world!

After a great dinner at a local restaurant (and 3 beers-san pi jiao), we managed to get some sleep and prepared for our first Olympic event, the Men's Artistic Gymnastics trials at the National Indoor Stadium on the Olympic Green. Our apartment is in the southwest corner near the 2nd ring road, a bit far from the north site of the Olympic Green, so we decided to try the subway. Running late, we took a taxi to the station, and then purchased tickets (in English) at the machine (we forgot that our Olympic tickets should have worked as free bus and subway passes--we will try it today).

A friendly Olympic english speaking guide at the Tianjin airport helped us get a taxi to the Tianjin train station where I frantically looked up the words for fast,new, and Beijing south station. The train station was a bit intimidating with long lines and no English, but we managed to get tickets for the train leaving in half an hour. After a short wait, the automatic doors opened and we put our tickets in the machine subway style and found a gleaming new platform with 2 new trains. The ride was amazingly quiet, smooth, and fast speeds reaching 348km/hour.

It's hard to believe we're really here in Beijing. Nine years ago, we were climbing the Great Wall, and eating fried chicken at the Summer Palace awaiting our first meeting in Chengdu with our 9 month old daughter.