and the excitement grows...

Tuesday involved the most intense round of Running of the Dragon yet. I had a lot of amateurs with me and to be honest, I was a bit hesitant about their abilities. They weren't complete rookies, but they had only played once before and today was not a day for messing around. Let me give you the play-by-play. It all starts at 8:15am. We arrive at the train station and experience our first wait in line. As one of my esteemed colleagues put it "I can't believe I am waiting in line for the honor to cram myself on to a hot train with all these other people." Chad's frank answer pretty much summed up everything we were thinking. We waited in this line for about 30-45 min. People cut us, apparently America is the only country that recognizes the concept of a line. At one point I was so bored I counted the number of cars that went under the balcony we were on. 169 give or take a few. So bored. We finally get in the building and are corralled until the train below us leaves the station. Once the guards gave the signal every man was for himself, no looking back, just go. There was a mad dash, some pushing, and even some elbowing. Mind you this is BEFORE the transfer station I have spoke of in previous posts were the actual Running of the Dragon event takes place.

So the first train comes and is it completely packed. I mean, full. No room to move. Nothing. A small Chinese woman tried to push herself on and it was even impossible for her to get on. If she couldn't get herself on there was no way five Americans were going to push their way on. While we waited for the next train I decided no matter how many people, I was pushing my way on. Much to my disappointment the next train was not nearly as full. Why was I disappointed? Well, I have spoken of my great ability to push through crowds and I felt like this was my next challenge. I had prepared myself and was let down. Oh well. We are now on the train and during the next two stops it is decided we will in fact attempt at seats on the next train. RUNNING OF THE DRAGON TIME.

My companions were less excited about this than I was. Anyway, the rookies and I readied ourselves. Given their amateur status we got a poor start. It was looking grim, but at the bottom of the stairs I decided I was going to play the part of "naive American." A nice tactic that can be used in emergency situations. Slyly I work my way to the front of one of the lines and encourage people to follow. I eventually push to four across and the train stops in front of me. As the train stops I elbow my way to be the first one on and miraculously all five of us are seated when the train leaves the station. I don't know if you can tell, but this is probably my favorite thing to do each day. I absolutely love it. Plus, I think there is a certain level of entertainment for my readers when I recap the event. I promise, from now on I will no longer write about Running of the Bull, unless it is in passing.

Forty-five minutes and five sudokus later we arrive at our station. So far, it had been a successful day, until Lauren sprinted past me, OUT OF NO WHERE and beat me to check in. Her and Traci had left 30 min after us and now shamed me by beating me to security. I'll get her back. As for training yesterday, we did a mock mixed zone, where we stand to get the quotes. Everyone was pretty confused, but it worked out well. After that we did a mock press conference. I feel like I pretty much suck at this, so I sit quietly waiting for other people to ask questions.

I am slowly discovering that we have been placed in one of the more high profile sports. At first I was a little disheartened when I learned I would be in cycling, but people outside the US love it. All the Aussies and Brits are jealous of us. Until I started training I rolled my eyes and couldn't understand why in the world any one would want to watch this sport. While I already knew this, I have come to realize it is probably one of the most viewed and more popular sports in the rest of the world. Learning this made me VERY excited, but also pretty nervous. I don't want to mess this up. I am learning to love the sport. I finally have a grasp on most of the events and I am slowly learning about all the favorites. We have 188 riders to know about, and that is in track racing alone. It doesn't include BMX or Mountain Biking, both of which we are also covering. The only cycling event I am not covering are the road races. And I wanted to take on volleyball also? Ha. Oh, by the way, we are no longer switching. The woman took to long to decide and the three of us just want to stay at cycling. I can't speak for everyone, but I am really enjoying it in cycling. If anything, it is another sport I can talk about!

I was exhausted last night and fell asleep at 8:45. Yep. Grandma here passed out and never woke up again until 7am. It was the best thing in the entire world. Ten hours of glorious sleep. I didn't even wake up when my roommate came home. Again, this wasn't a deep, insightful post, but my daily activities don't lend themselves to that type of post. I am not allowed to comment on the behind the scenes stuff, so I really can only generalize my day. Bare with me, I'm sure it will get better. Mulan is over and it's time for bed!!