LOOOOOOOOONG DAY

So, today was an intense, intense day of training. At the beginning of the day, we were told that there would be three races that would need covering today. This is very similar to the way things will be set up once the games start.

So we're told that we are covering the Men's and Women's Sprint finals and the Men's Madison, which is the race where two riders essentially fling each other around the track. Look it up. I swear it's true. So, then, we have to try to guess, to the best of our ability, who will win first, second and third (or at least who's expected to). At least in the Sprints we were given who was in the semifinals, so we could narrow it down. In the Madison, we literally had no clue until we were given the results.

So, after our lunch, we were told that person A won the gold, person B won the silver and so on. So, as we already had done our research and knew what to ask them past, "What does it feel like to win?", we hauled it up to the mixed zone and ran a fake mixed zone. Then, we all RAN downstairs (and I mean that literally) and typed out our flash quote reports. Then, after 10 minutes of this...

...we did it again. Then, we had a press conference after fake race B. We'll have to do this, cover a press conference and write up a report, which is just like a flash quote report but longer. Then we had 10 minutes to write up the report. Then...

...we did it again. Then, we watched some video of BMX from the test event they did at the track here at Beijing last year. It was interesting to watch, to see how the riders manouvre this behemoth of dirt and pavement. We saw crashes and passes and riders who literally would just run out of speed and not be able to make it over hills and would just have to...stop!

Then, we watched some of the Chinese team practice on the track. It was nothing lightning fast and nothing crazy, but it was cool to actually see some riders on the track for once.

Then, after we found out that Paul, our Chinese manager, had planned a dinner for all of us, we went with Raul, another volunteer with ONS, to this tea house that he knew about. This is a genuine tea house that brews its own tea (the manager pointed out this fact multiple times) and we were shown how to brew and pour Chinese tea, traditionally.

1. You put the leaves in this pot.
2. You take molten-hot water and pour it in with the leaves. Not too much, though. Actually a better idea, apparently, to go lighter on the water than to overfill it.
3. You put the lid on the pot for 30 seconds at the most. The longer you let it simmer, the stronger the tea will be.
4. You take the cup that you will be drinking the tea out of and clean it by...yes...pouring the tea into it and dumping it out. Let it be said that the woman demonstrating this to us was doing it on a special table that was slanted and drained so that the water could be poured onto it with no problems.
5. You fill the cup up 70%. You leave 30% because, in Chinese culture, this signifies the openness of friendship and possibilities.

It was a crazy thing to watch. Then, we went to this dinner that Paul had arranged for us. It was traditional, like the dinners I told y'all about a couple of weeks ago. We just ordered tons of food, with the help of our Chinese friends Li and Eric who both gave us reccomendations and helped us order. I rocked some steamed scallops with garlic sauce that, other than the can't miss staples of Kung Pao Chicken and Sweet and Sour Chicken, were the hit of the table.

It was an awesomely fun day that included a lot of hands-on stuff. But, I'm exhausted. Thankfully, we have tomorrow off to do...well...probably, nothing.