My First Communist Country!

Wow, I’m in China! It just seems strange to say that…like I’ve been thinking about this trip for so long that actually using ‘present-tense’ and ‘China’ in the same sentence is strange!
But we made if from Korea to the hotel here without any problems. I slept on both the flights…I played on my computer during the 3 hour lay-over in Busan, Korea…I talked with the other American athletes on the bus from the Beijing airport (we met up with some people who had NOT been in Korea so I was catching up on the happenings in COS).
I am finally a Skype user! The day before we departed Korea, I went shopping in the E-Mart for a headset and a web-cam. Skype is a program on the internet where you can make phone calls from anywhere in the world (as long as you have internet connection). And, the best part is…it’s REALLY cheap:)…like 2 cents per minute to call anyone from anywhere! So I dialed up Mom and Dad in DeLand and we chatted for the first time since I left Germany and my cell phone stopped working. The next morning I gave Dustin a call on his cell and we chatted for a while…he was not impressed by my Skype-ing because he used it last month to call home from Japan!
Now, with my web-cam, I can also do narrated-blog-posts! Hahaha…I might do one for fun but it will not become a habit…I learned in all my video editing classes that I do NOT like listening to my own voice:)…it was torture to edit videos where I was acting or narrating! Hence…my decision to be behind the camera as much as possible!
Back to China…it’s almost 7:30 in the morning on Friday. I’m going to head down to the American team breakfast…western-style food just for us! After breakfast I’m going to try to find an internet connection to post these blogs and to Skype-call my family. I did just call them on my cell phone (it works here in China) but why spend ridiculous amounts of money when I can call Dad on his computer for FREE!
After some quick computer time, we are getting on our bikes with our swim gear in hand, riding down to the course, biking the race course a few times between 9 and 10am. From 10-11am the swim course is open for the athletes. I plan on biking back to the hotel (it’s only 4k away) to shower and change before loading on the bus for a short drive to the host hotel for the pre-race meeting at noon. At 1pm we will probably be back here at the hotel for lunch and then all I plan on doing is getting ready and rested for the race tomorrow! If I don’t find computer time this morning…that is probably when you will be hearing from me.