English All Around

I'm back in the USA! I've been in New York since late Monday night when I arrived at the Gormley residence. My Monday was 36 hours long...woke up in Beijing at 7am to pack my bike and eat breakfast...left the hotel at 12 noon in three vans heading to the airport...spent an extra 30 minutes getting to the airport because our drivers got completely lost!!
We arrived at the airport and went through all the exit customs and check in procedures...I was very excited about my upgraded flight to Chicago...when I requested an 'aisle' seat the United woman asked if I wanted a seat on the "upper deck or lower deck"!! Are you kidding?? Of course I want to sit on the upper deck! That was probably my only chance to be on the upper deck of a 747!
My seat was awesome and the service was extra nice for the 13 hour flight from Beijing to Chicago...I glanced a the computer map a few times to see where we were flying...places like Siberia, the Artic Circle, North Canada all passed under the plane on this flight. I got into Chicago without much time to spare before my short hop to White Plains, NY...barely made it through security and through the terminal in time to board!
I fell asleep with no problems on Monday night...I was finally lying in a big, soft, American-style bed! Tuesday I woke up late and spent the remainder of the day accomplishing absolutely nothing...and loving every minute of it! It was a mental and physical recovery day...I surrounded myself with things I hadn't seen in a few weeks: bad American TV talk-shows, newspapers I can read, magazines, books, etc.
By Tuesday night I was recovered and ready for a full day of activities on Wednesday. I woke up early this morning to build my bike and eat breakfast. I had to be down the street at the Rye Middle School by 7:45am. I spoke to 3 periods of PE classes about the triathlon and what I do as a Professional Triathlete. I had a 2 hour break in the middle of the day so I rode home, went for a run on the race course, grabbed some lunch and then pedaled back to RMS. From 12:30 to 2:30 I spoke to 3 more periods (almost lost my voice) and then came back for a nap!
I'm waiting for Mr. Gormley to get home and we are going to meet about 40 TNT athletes at the race beach for an open water swim session! I don't know how much I will be swimming...and how much I will be teaching...but it will be fun and I will probably get a chance to wear my wetsuit before the race.
Tomorrow I am up early again to bike the race course with some local athletes. I will be lucky to get some course-familiarization before the Sunday race!