food coma...

Yesterday I boycotted all Olympic coverage. It was my best attempt to stick it to the man. Actually, there really wasn't anything of interest on. The men did not stand a chance in Men's All-Around, Phelps did not swim until night time and they don't show any night swimming, plus it was only a qualifying race, and I would have watched Women's Softball, however, it poured here yesterday so all our door events were postponed. Given that it was raining I did not want to leave the safety of my dorm. So I watched Grey's Anatomy. Great day!

It eventually stopped raining yesterday, which cooled things off quite a bit. I actually wore jeans and a long sleeve shirt last night. I never thought I would be so excited to wear jeans! Kelsey and Phil were on a mission to get everyone to go eat Italian food. We went to Annie's, now given my Italian food snobbery, I was VERY skeptical of an Italian place called Annie's. Even if it had been Anna's I would have been less hesitant. Anyway, the menu is plopped down in front of us and I lose all rational thinking. Do I want a Caprice salad? Or traditional Spaghetti? Or Risotto? I didn't know what to look at first. Thankfully I had my trusty food sidekick Andrea there with me to pull off a traditional Megan/Andrea dinner. Seeing as we both are kind of picky we choose two meals and in true Chinese, and Italian, fashion we share the meals. Last night we settled on Spinach Ravioli and Fettichini Alfredo! OH DEAR LORD! I was in food heaven. The spinach ravioli was in a creamy white sauce, with a spinach dough and probably the best thing I have eaten in my entire life. Andrea inhaled her half before I could even graze over my half of the Alfredo. The Alfredo was Alfredo, but the best stinking Alfredo in the entire world! Seeing as my food baby, Brunhilda, was starting to show I couldn't even bare to finish the Alfredo (the spinach ravioli was LOOONG gone). Then came dessert. Now I don't normally get dessert but there was this little voice in my head, no not my conscience, it was Laura Shu telling me to do it. She kept saying, "Remember that time in Rome when we ate our Easter dinner and we got tiramasu and you loved it. Do it again. This is like Easter, but not at all." So Laura made me do it. I got tiramasu and nearly went into a food coma it was so good. It was little individually made cakes with the lady fingers completely drenched. I dare say it was BETTER than Italy. Now you are probably wondering what a meal like this would cost me. $15, maybe $20 bucks. OOOOH contrare my little friends. It was only $9.00. NINE! For this glorious feast!!! I guess I was wrong about the name of the restaurant. Annie knows her Italian!

Oh it gets better. Next store is Cindy Lous, or Lucy Lou, something to that nature. An American grocery store. No where in Italy did they have these groceries (at least not to my knowledge). So after eating ourselves into food comas we decide to further the damage and go check out the store. Seeing as we only have 11 days left (TEARRRR) we were all really glad we didn't find this place sooner because we would be a few dollars poorer and about 600 pounds heavier. All the American goods you could dream of were in here, at premium price of course. Ranch ran you $6.00 a bottle, a box of cereal $7.50. They had Ritter sport, snack packs, diet cherry 7-up (which we don't think you can even find back in the USA) lunch meat, cheese, and the list goes on. (I think I am hungry.) Like I said, we have been here almost 6 weeks already and survived so none of us went crazy, just a few essentials, granola bars and gummy worms. I got 'shrooms her salt and vinegar chips she has been dying for.

Given all that I have written about today, food, it was brought up last night at the dinner table that our lives are run by food. After pondering that for a moment I couldn't help but agree. Each day we live for (and sometimes dread) our next meal. What new place will we find? What mysterious food will be in the box lunch today? The funny thing is, as soon as we finish one meal we are instantly discussing the next one. Typically it is in regards to a craving we have or regrets about not getting a certain item on the menu. Half of our energy goes into the next meal. It is so bad we have already started to discuss the infamous first meal back after being abroad. I don't even remember what mine was from Italy, maybe a cheeseburger, who knows. Traci is set on a huge slab of meat. I am still pondering all the possibilities, ribs, veal parm, a HUGE salad. The possibilities are endless. But like I said, we are consumed by food.

I am not sure there is any Olympic news to bring you. Maybe if I wasn't boycotting the tv (which will end today because Phelps is swimming and Lukin and Johnson are competiting in all around) I would know more. Actually, I just looked it up and I don't know if we got many medals yesterday. Swimming severely suffered without Phelps out there to energize his teammates and there were only 15 medal ceremonies yesterday, the third lowest amount in all 18 days. Like I have already said 500 times, today starts competition in the Velodrome. Added bonus, we now have a SHUTTLE! No more subway and sweating! I can look like a human! The French are HEAVILY favored to win, but the Germans pulled a huge upset last Olympics and are hoping to do the same here. Other favorites include Great Britain and the Netherlands. I am so overly excited and nervous at the same time. It's an excited nervousness. This is the culmination of everything I have worked for, including the essays way back when. I probably won't get to talk to the athletes one-on-one anymore because all the reporters are now here, but who cares!!! I hope some cycling is on, it actually is really exciting!

I will try to take photos, but the rules are not to take them while the event is happening, it ruins our credibility. We have already had issues with the domestic volunteers running up to cyclists asking for autographs. It just looks really bad! So I can't promise original photos, but I can promise that I will steal them from any website I can find!

BYEEEE!