Opening ceremonies last night was basically... unreal. It was a very long and hot day waiting to walk our lap, but it was more than worth it. A couple of hours before the ceremony started, the USA team hung out in our "holding" room taking pictures and being a little star struck by some of the other athletes. It was so fun to see people in person that I've watched play on tv. Jenny Finch, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Yao Ming, Lisa Leslie... I got pictures with Kobe, Lebron, and Dwayne Wade (that picture was for you Jamie!). The show pretty much stopped when Men's basketball walked into the room- I know they were so sick of taking pictures by the end of the night! Oh yea, and President Bush was there and I got pictures with him as well! Unfortunately there are "rules" to blogging for athletes during the Olympic games. I am not allowed to post pictures of people without their consent during the Games. I'm also not allowed to post pictures during competitions or of the opening and closing ceremonies. But don't worry, there are no rules against emailing them so I will send them to you guys. But I still have a few pictures to post from before the ceremony started...
 And of course I had to get a picture with my fellow Gophers!!! (Nicole Branaugh- beach volleyball and Lindsey Berg- volleyball)
 During this time, President Bush came and spoke and then him, his father, and his wife walked around and shook every person's hands and took pictures with everyone as well. When again in my life will I be that close with all these people all at the same time?! Things had already exceeded my expectations and the ceremony hadn't even started yet! After leaving there, we met up with the other countries in yet another holding area and waited for our country to be called to walk our lap. We were number 139 on the list, so we sat for quite a while. I believe we have the largest delegation here as well. The walk leading up to the stadium was only maybe 400 meters (moving very very slowly) and there were hundreds of people standing outside waving and screaming!
 When we walked into the stadium the crowd went CRAZY! I've never heard or seen anything like that in my life- it made the superbowl seem like a little league game :)
The ceremony took place in the track stadium (called the Birds Nest) and it holds over 100,000 seats and it looked like every single one was full! It gave true meaning to the term "nose bleed section." I still can't believe that I am going to be jumping in that stadium in just under a week! Rumor has it that tickets to the opening ceremonies were well over $1,000! Anyways the Parade of athletes was crazy... there were performers all throughout the infield (going nuts and sweating to death), cameras everywhere, and the crowd was screaming and waving like crazy! I was trying to take every single moment of that lap in. It finally hit me, this is the Olympics and I am here!!!
After our lap, all of the athletes stayed in the middle of the field for the rest of the ceremony. It was fun to see all the countries with all of their different outfits on. Everyone was trying to take pictures with people from other countries. Sidenote: I cannot even describe to you how hot and humid it was out there... and as you can see, what we were wearing did not help. I have never seen so many people sweat through all of their clothes like that!
The highlights of the ceremony were definately the fireworks and the lighting of the torch. When that guy suspended into the air and "run" around the stadium, you could hear everyone gasp.
By the end of the ceremony, we were exhausted beyond belief. I could not have imagined how draining that would end up being. But it was an experience I will never forget and I am so thankful to have been a part of it.
Countown until my competition is now 6 days!!! So during that time I will just be heading to practice and trying to rest up. Hopefully I can give you guys a tour of the Olympic village in the next couple of days... I have to check to see if it's allowed first ;-). Thanks for checking in!
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