Hello to all,

Today has been a very exciting day thus far. We had breakfast in the village dinning hall and saw Misty May and Kerri Walsh. They are the gold medal favorites for the women’s beach volleyball competition. We then went to practice. Today we got to practice on pitch A. Which is the main competition field. It was amazing. It is most likely the largest field hockey specific stadium that I have or ever will play in. The city of Beijing has spent a lot of time and money preparing the venues and it shows. We are extremely excited to play in that stadium in front of a full crowd. Another plus about the field is that it is about 1mile from the Village. We get on the bus and in about 2 minutes we are at the field. It is extremely convenient.

After practice we came back, showered and then headed to lunch. Today I learned a very important lesson about life in an Olympic Village. Always have your camera with you! Because, at lunch we saw Roger Federer, Dirk Nowitzki, and Micheal Phelps. It was the most exciting meal by far. It was crazy. We were sitting there as a team and then we saw this big mob of people taking pictures. That was for Roger. Then we saw Micheal Phelps sitting two tables away, straight across from us. My teammate, Keli Smith, and I went over and got a picture with him. And then no sooner does he get up and leave does the German basketball team walk over and sit down at the same table. And we got to see Dirk. What an exciting lunch.

Tonight, the excitement continues as we have the USA flag raising ceremonies at the International Zone. All of the USA athletes are invited. It is a relatively short ceremony where the organizers of the Olympics welcomes our delegation and then raises the Old Glory in our honor with the national anthem being played. We have heard from past Olympians that it is a very touchy ceremony. I am very honored to be representing my country and Lancaster County in this event!

Here are a couple pictures of the scenery in the village.