Countdown Beijing - Settling into the Village
We are beginning to get into a routine in the Village. It has actually been great being over here so early. We are learning the ropes on how everything works.
Here are a few of the things that we have learned so far - transportation – if you are one minute late the bus will leave without you. The driver waits until the clock in his bus strikes the designated time and then he drives off. No stopping him. It has definitely been better to learn this now rather than later.
Cafeteria –so far the Mediterranean food has been the best. There are different sections set up in the cafeteria with different types of food. There are Asian, Mediterranean, and International stations. There is also a McDonalds set up in the Village dining hall. The oatmeal is excellent in the mornings. There is lots of good pasta also. Probably the most important thing that I have learned about the cafeteria is that the Dove Bars go fast and they only have them at a few of the dessert stations. We figured that one out real fast.
The Village is set up like a city. It has been landscaped beautifully. I really don’t recognize it from when I came over in March. It is really nice. However, it is a long walk to almost everywhere. We are all getting some good exercise just going back and forth to the dining hall and transportation and our apartment.
BNU (Beijing Normal University) is where the USOC has set up our high performance training center. We are training there most of the time. It is about a 15 minute ride from the Village to BNU. We have been training there in the morning and then getting lunch there before we head back to the village. The food at BNU is awesome. It is certainly much easier to feed a hundred athletes then it is to feed thousands. They say the Olympic Village will serve 30,000 meals a day. It has been a nice break to have a quiet meal at BNU once or twice a day. The longer we are here I am sure that the guys will appreciate the break from the village food more and more.
We trained last night in our competition pool. It was the first time that the guys have seen the pool (other then pictures) so they were very excited and most of them had their cameras out. I focused in on the podium at the scoreboard end of the pool. It was already set up so I took the attached picture of it and will post this on each of the guy’s rooms tomorrow. I am hoping that this will help them visualize standing on the podium in a few weeks.
We had a short team meeting last night and I reminded the guys about staying calm and yet confident and not getting caught up in all the excitement. I also left them with these words from a Joni Mitchell song “you don’t know what you have till it’s gone” and told them to enjoy the moments here. One week until opening ceremonies!
See you at the pool!
Coach
Here are a few of the things that we have learned so far - transportation – if you are one minute late the bus will leave without you. The driver waits until the clock in his bus strikes the designated time and then he drives off. No stopping him. It has definitely been better to learn this now rather than later.
Cafeteria –so far the Mediterranean food has been the best. There are different sections set up in the cafeteria with different types of food. There are Asian, Mediterranean, and International stations. There is also a McDonalds set up in the Village dining hall. The oatmeal is excellent in the mornings. There is lots of good pasta also. Probably the most important thing that I have learned about the cafeteria is that the Dove Bars go fast and they only have them at a few of the dessert stations. We figured that one out real fast.
The Village is set up like a city. It has been landscaped beautifully. I really don’t recognize it from when I came over in March. It is really nice. However, it is a long walk to almost everywhere. We are all getting some good exercise just going back and forth to the dining hall and transportation and our apartment.
BNU (Beijing Normal University) is where the USOC has set up our high performance training center. We are training there most of the time. It is about a 15 minute ride from the Village to BNU. We have been training there in the morning and then getting lunch there before we head back to the village. The food at BNU is awesome. It is certainly much easier to feed a hundred athletes then it is to feed thousands. They say the Olympic Village will serve 30,000 meals a day. It has been a nice break to have a quiet meal at BNU once or twice a day. The longer we are here I am sure that the guys will appreciate the break from the village food more and more.
We trained last night in our competition pool. It was the first time that the guys have seen the pool (other then pictures) so they were very excited and most of them had their cameras out. I focused in on the podium at the scoreboard end of the pool. It was already set up so I took the attached picture of it and will post this on each of the guy’s rooms tomorrow. I am hoping that this will help them visualize standing on the podium in a few weeks.
We had a short team meeting last night and I reminded the guys about staying calm and yet confident and not getting caught up in all the excitement. I also left them with these words from a Joni Mitchell song “you don’t know what you have till it’s gone” and told them to enjoy the moments here. One week until opening ceremonies!
See you at the pool!
Coach
posted by Dr. Terry Schroeder at
8:25 AM
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