(Letter sent from China 8/10/8)

Yesterday we got to see the women's gymnastics in the qualifying comp. It was sooo awesome to see them in real life. I could tell our girls were nervous and there were a few unexpected falls, as you probably saw on TV if you watched. But we secured a 3rd place position and will definitely advance into the team finals. I'm not sure who will be in the individual finals, but Shawn Johnson will definitely be there. It was hard to keep track of the scores, they don't display them as clearly as they do on TV. Please cont. to pray that we can get tickets to the finals, they are not showing the gymnasts on TV here, so if we miss it, we won't get to see it at all.
It was absolutely crazy and exciting getting to the games yesterday. We left our hotel at 8 am to get on the subway and head there. We had to make 5 subway changes to get there, and the final line is only for those with tickets to the games. We got there right when the security gates opened. We felt so privileged to even be there as there were many that were not allowed in because they were still looking for tickets. There was a guy selling flags for the different countries, so we went to buy an American flag to wave during the competition. He wanted 25 Yuan for the flag, and we offered 15, when he countered with 20, I must have gotten caught up in the moment, but I blurted out, "They're going for 15 down there." I LIED. I totally and completely lied. He said ok and we paid our 15 and walked away. What happened? I felt so bad. Bargaining is expected here, but I don't want to be dishonest about it.
It started to rain just as we were getting on the final subway. The locals are so nice, one man gave up his rain cover to give to me and Seven as we were getting soaked. On the subway it was neat to see people from so many other countries wearing their country's colors and flags, all excited about the games. Seven proudly waved our American flag we "bargained" for at the entrance.
Wow, when we walked out of the subway terminal into the Olympic village it was amazing. It was hard to believe we were still in China, as everything is so new and modern for the games. All of the structures, the Bird's nest, water cube, National indoor stadium, They are all just as beautiful as we imagined. It was odd, however, that no where to be found were there any vendors of cheap memorabilia for the games. No Olympic T-shirts or nick-naks, No Olympic sports mugs, or crazy hats. Just water and ice-cream Like the rest of China. Even inside the stadium, there was only one small booth set up with a few shirts and some mascot animals. Not one thing with gymnastics on it. Not the same as in the US, where they get you to buy a $10 t-shirt for $50. So disappointing. We will have to find these things in the city somewhere.
For lunch I ordered a "box meal" from one of the vendors. It came with a plastic carton of rice and a foiled package with chicken and veggies and peppers. (Yes, peppers). Then you break this other package which begins to steam and set the other stuff on top of it to steam your meal. Pretty cool. However, the 'peppers' mentioned earlier were so hot, I could not eat the meal, my mouth burned from my tongue to my stomach.
Before the gymnastics began we were supposed to meet up with the Canadian lady we met to sell her our ticket, however we had not thought about her not being able to enter the village without her ticket. How were we going to contact her and tell her where to meet us? So since we still had 3 hours before our event we ventured back out of the village to find local internet cafe. We drew pictures of a computer and a globe to try and describe what we were trying to find and some Chinese helpers directed us to an internet cafe reachable by the "special olympics" bus line:) Yeah, we thought that was funny. It was a bus line special for the Olympics games. So the bus took us to a corner where we then found a Chinese pharmacy and tried to get them to direct us to where we needed to go. They flagged down some other passers by who led us through the rain to a tiny grocery store. We went upstairs to find fresh vegetables and computer parts. When we showed the man our computer picture he pulled out a dusty keyboard from a plastic bag and showed us the price. No, we don't want to buy a computer. Then finally someone else pointed us down this hidden hallway that opened up into a room of about 50 computers. We found it! By now we only had 5 minutes to email Jen and hope that she received our email in time to meet us there. A kind Japenese boy got up from his computer and let us on. Fortunately Jen had a blackberry and instantly got out message to meet at the South gate. Success.
Seven was asleep in my ergo carrier by this time and I didn't trust that the bus would take us directly back to where we needed to go So we walked the 1.5 miles to finally meet up with Jen. God is so good. We found her and were able to fulfill her lifelong dream of seeing gymnastics in the Olympics.
We finally made it back to our hotel last night about 6pm, bathed and showered and Seven and I both were in bed by 7pm. Yup, no supper just straight to sleep. We had a wonderful sleep and woke up to clear skies! Yes, the rain washed away the smog and now we are looking forward to the Great Wall today. Thank you for sharing in our adventures, We will talk to you soon. Love you all, God Bless,
-Kristen