surprises lurk around every corner...

The lady on the subway changed. She used to be a little Chinese lady that wore mismatched clothes and tiny slippers. Each stop she would come on the loud speaker and say "Da next esstation is Guomao. Please prepare for your arrival" Last Friday this new woman surprised us. She sounded all western and instead of a cute Chinese lady she is a white woman wearing the trendiest clothes. In her perfect English she says "The next station is, GUOmao. Please get ready to get off." I don't like her. I miss our old lady. I want the Chinese woman back.
And remember how I told you I was going to give you the Olympic facts of the day. Well apparently that was a computer lie. There have been no more facts since Friday. Therefore, I will continue to bring the Olympic news for the day but sadly no more facts. Unless I for some strange reason find myself in desperate need of something to do.

So first and foremost, let me bring you the Olympic news of today. I am going to assume that you already know what happened on Sunday and Monday.

Olympic News:

• Phelps is 3 for 3, and yet again broke another World Record.
• the USA ALMOST swept the swimming events today. We got first in 3 of 4 (each of those three had two US medalists) and a Silver in the last one. Pretty decent day.
• the men's gymnastics team received bronze
• the Chinese have yet again come closer to sweeping the diving events, they have won all three Gold medals thus far but there are still five events left.
• in a rare podium appearance Mexico won a bronze in diving, that was cute.

Now, let's talk about that Men's 100 Free Relay yesterday?! If you didn't see it, go on to NBC's website and find it. If you can't find it there do everything in your power to see this race because it is EASILY the greatest race in the history of swimming, quite possibly all the Olympics. But that is a debate for another day. What cannot be debated here is the sheer awesomeness that is Lezak. Going into the final 100, scratch that, going into the final 50m he was a half a body's length behind. As one reporter put it, "That's a country mile in a sprint race." As all this is happening we are watching in the ONS office at the Velodrome. As Lezak heads into the final 50m we are pretty sure all is lost. Phelps' Gold medal record is over and the French will be able to take the podium then say "I told you so," at the Press Conference.

But as we watch we slowly see Lezak creep in. With 10 meters left it seems impossible, no impractical, that this man might pull off the race of his life. Everyone in the office was going crazy. I stopped dictating flash quotes, Amy and Krystyna (Aussies) we screaming along side us. My heart stopped for that split second where we didn't know who won. Then you saw Michael Phelps' Hulk impersonation. One of those iconic Olympic moments. An emotional image that will appear with the countless other impossibles. My heart was racing, which leaves me to believe that those actually involved in the race were near eruption. After all the talk from the French about how they would crush the USA, blah blah blah, it was great to see them less than a blink away from winning. Karma, it comes biting back. This race was the ultimate "the thrill of victory. The agony of defeat" moment. (Anyone with a newspaper from Tuesday with Phelps plastered on the front, please keep it for me!)

Yesterday afternoon I interviewed Taylor Phinney, the 18 year old American cyclist who's parents were Olympic medalists. He was very chatty for an 18 year old boy and gave Andrea and me a lot of great quotes. When we finally left the velodrome yesterday it was well past our normal feeding time. There is an Outback by the mall so a couple of us relished in the thought of a Bloomin' Onion. Andrea and Lauren tried to go the other day but were declined because they didn't have the proper accreditation. We tried to get it, but we were declined. Apparently to dine at the fancy Outback Steakhouse you must have a reservation within the hotel or know people who are staying there. What? As Lauren put it, "it isn't the Ritz Carlton." The Asian volunteer got very snippy with us, (some one should warn him about hungry American girls) but we were too exhausted and hungry to fight. Seriously! Outback. Fancy. HA.

We didn't get home until late last night so we just watched team USA crush China. Again. Two nights in a row. I think the final score was 100-something to 50. Nice job girls. I started to work on an article about Taylor Phinney and that pretty much brought me to midnight.

If you are wondering about the weekend, I did what I normally do at home when it is Olympic time. I sat in my bed (at home it would be a couch) and watched as many Olympic events I could take in. They say it is impossible to get tickets, it is all sold out (even though the stadiums are not full) so we have to resort to comfy option B...my bed. Since there are so many CCTV channels I was able to soak up a lot of quality Olympic time. It was the best weekend of my life.

In other news, we received toilet paper, paper towels, ANND soap at the velodrome this weekend. It was like Christmas come early. They promised there would be paper and soap products come Olympic time and boy did they deliver. I don't know what we did to deserve it. (Side note: never in a million years did I think I would blog about the excitement involved with receiving a new roll of toilet paper.) Midst the bathroom hubbub some actual exciting news came early Sunday morning. Jane received some events tickets for us! YEAHAAHAH! A bunch of people went to beach volleyball Monday morning but I was scheduled to work. Not willing to give up my Taylor Phinney interview I decided to pass. But the BIGGEER news... Saturday we have tickets to go to the athletics events at the Bird's Nest!!! The only problem is we have three medal events that day. It has been decided that after we are finished we are going to haul it up there, get a view from the inside, take our pictures, and see whatever we can. I'll take whatever I can get. I am also considering waking up early tomorrow morning to see if there is any way in the world I can get tickets to the Women's Gymnastics All-Around finals. I doubt it, but it's worth a shot. If not, back to the bed!

That's all for now! Ciao ciao!