Olympic Day 2

Alright, if I ever start slacking on this blogging every day thing, someone needs to kick me in gear haha It's gonna be a struggle. I'll do my best!

Today we had 3 practices. Crazy right? But first I want to introduce all of you to where athletes spend the 2nd most time of their lives, second only to their sport.. We Practice, we Eat, we Sleep. This is where the Eating portion of our lives happens while in the Olympic Village!

My view of the Dining Hall from my seat at breakfast

So this is only like a 4th of the Dining Hall itself. What you can see in the picture, on the left side you can KINDA see one of the sections. That's the American, European, and Mediterranean food. On the right there, you see where we get our trays, and silverware. Plates and bowls are provided at each station. One of these days I'll count and let y'all know JUST how many different kinds of food we have to choose from. In the middle, that blue sign hanging, that's the Great Britain section. All British food, all the time. I have yet to venture over into that area...time will tell.
What you DON'T see in this picture, is ALL the other sections! There's a Caribbean food section, an Indian&Asian section, and there's even a section of strictly Halal Cuisine! For those of you out there, who don't know what Halal is, it's basically kosher food. Everything is cooked a certain way, all animal's were slaughtered a certain way, and there's A LOT of different kinds of veggies to choose from. There's also a McDonald's actually in the Dining Hall, but who would want to eat there with ALL the other amazing choices to be had!? As for liquids, there are GIGANTIC glass door fridges that hold Powerade, water, and Coke products. There's actually vending machines scattered in the village stocked with Coke Zero.
Then there's ALL of the other seating that you don't see. There's supposed to be over 1,000 athletes here at the Games, and that's not including Coaches, trainers, staff, not to mention training partners for the athletes themselves!

Anyways, our practices are tough. As expected they should be with Opening Ceremonies going on TOMORROW NIGHT!!! So exciting! One this morning, then back to the village for an early lunch. Afterwards we had a few minutes, so Mariya and I sat outside. I'm not sure what I should call the area, but it's pretty. It's right where everyone has to walk through it to get to their buildings, so you always see people from all sorts of sports walking around.

Middle Earth? haha Props to those who can name this space.

But the relaxation was short lived and it was back to the pool for our second training session. When that one was finished, we actually came back to the village, but only to change buses and go to another pool! We originally thought this was going to be a bad thing, but it actually gave Mariya and I some time to work on the walk out portion of our routine. (We have to get out on deck some how don't we?) First impressions mean a lot in Synchronized Swimming!

Then it was back to the village for Dinner. We had a nutritionist walk us around the gigantic dining hall and pointed out facts. Each food has nutrition facts above it, sodium, calories, etc. All things we need to know in order to keep our bodies in tip top condition! We were told that it's like the Last Temptation. The Dining hall has AMAZING food (and apparently even richer desserts...though that experimentation will have to wait till AFTER the Competition!) and if we're not careful, our diets will be ruined. Also there's a lot of people. This causes some to lose focus on what they're really here to do. Compete.

Having a good time is what it's all about though. Enjoy what you're doing, or it isn't worth it all! Olympic Spirit! You can be focused and still enjoy yourself. Just don't go crazy. That's the key!

One more thing I have to have a momentary rant about. The color Pink. It's EVERYWHERE! The signs are pink, the volunteer's shirts are pink and purple, the Umbrella's are pink and Purple, the Buses are even pink!

My nightmare

For those of you that know me, and those of you that don't, I hate the color pink. It's kinda funny that I used to be OBSESSED with it! I had everything pink. Clothes, a kick board, pens, anything you could possibly make in pink, I owned it. Now? Not so much. Not gonna lie, it's a little bit like a nightmare to me now with all the pink haha but luckily there are enough countries flags flying and different country outfitting to off set it enough that it's alright. Haha I can't complain too much though right? This is the OLYMPIC GAMES!!!

Super excited for Opening Ceremonies tomorrow. Look for me in the mass of awesome Ralph Lauren Outfitting as all 530 American athletes storm the stadium!

--Mary