The Wonder of the Ceremonies…

So we’ve been home for a week now, and Derek just arrived home yesterday.  We have had some time to reflect on our time in Beijing and to think a little about future plans (it’s really our nature:)).  Our plan is to keep this blog going, updating it with different developments in our lives and our road over the next 4 years.  It’s been a pleasure to share our experiences with all of you and to read your wonderful comments and thoughts.

I promised an overview of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies… which really do need a post of their own.  

The Opening really started it all off – showing us what we were in for over the next few weeks.  The organizers obviously put a lot of energy, effort and thought into each and every part of it.

At first though, there’s a little waiting around.  So here’s some pictures of how we occupied our time.

This was the girl who led us all into the Stadium.

We can’t say enough about the feeling of walking into a Stadium full of people who are so excited to be there.  People may be from different countries, but at the moment everyone is unified with a common goal and a common dream.  It really was a show to inspire, and it really did.

This is the Canadian team going into the Stadium... we entered through a tunnel before seeing the inside.

We were the 48th team to enter, out of 148 countries (or something close to that).  The entire time that countries were entering there were many, many, many dancers doing the same dance over and over, as well as handing us bags with an assortment of goodies in them.

This was one of the dancers. They were all happy to wave flags and take pictures with us.

The show then started.  It was all done as a story, with chapters which were told in performances, all with an important and meaningful message.  We were given a program with the story of ‘Flying with the Dream’, and I will share parts of that… as the pictures do not do the show justice.

The first chapter was ‘Journey of Space’ – a blind singer tells about the good wishes in the heart, then a trumpet plays and 300 deaf girls performed sign language in unison to communicate their ‘inner feelings, manifesting the wonderful state of unity of man and nature.’

The second chapter was ‘Journey of Time’ – was Sarah’s favourite, full of beautiful emotion.  It was the ‘Never Ending Dance’ – a little girl who used to be a ballet dancer and who lost her leg in the Sichuan earthquake ‘never gives up her pursuit of ballet and never gives up her pursuit of dreams.’  This girl was sitting in a wheelchair in the centre of a group of people, while she danced those around her performed a ballet using their arms as legs.  It was so intricate and amazing.

They then go through the four seasons, each with it’s own stage that changes in pieces flipping over… from a ground of snow, to one covered in flowers, to leaves, and finally wheat.

Chapter 3 was a ‘Journey of Life’ – 2000 children run to the stage to perform an acrobatic festival dance, completely in unison.  There abilities were incredible and the result was amazing.  Next was ‘Let me Have You’ – a male and female singer push a baby carriage and sing about their life together.  Another favourite was ‘Fly’ – 750 people under cover with only there hands poking out performed a scene of flying birds.  Such a small thing which when everyone worked together turned into something awesome.

There were then a number of speeches, and the raising of the flag before the entry of the torch and the inspiring climb to the torch.  There is absolutely no word, no picture, no video that can begin to describe the feeling of that moment when the torch was lit.  It felt like the beginning of a dream, the culmination of 4 years worth of work, to be there and to experience is something that will always be in our hearts.

Here are the pictures, hopefully our words help to make them come to life.

Flying through the sky...

It was all so exact, so mesmerizing, so symbolic.

Then it was the Flag Raising – again perfectly choreographed and exact.

And finally, the Paralympic torch…

It’s funny to write about the beginning at the end but in a way it helps to put everything into perspective.  We had an incredible time and will never forget the memories that we shared!

This took more time than we thought to write, so we’ll have to wait until next time for the Closing Ceremonies!!

And the sight seeing began…

After the competition was over we had a few days left to watch some other Paralympic sports and to see a bit more of China.  We had many busy days to fit everything in, and missed out on some of the important landmarks.  But it was a great time and an experience to remember forever.

First we had a chance to unwind at a Family and Friends Reception at the B.C. Canada Pavilion.  We had finished our competition and it was a great way to start relaxing.  There were a couple of Canadian musicians there; this is us with Justin Hines and his wife.  He is very talented and it was awesome to get a chance to listen to his music and talk to him about some of his experiences.

 

 The next day we went with Derek, Joseph and Sarah’s mom, Evelyn to see some 5-a-side soccer.  It was incredible to watch.  The athletes have visual impairments and they are all blindfolded to ensure that they all have no vision during the game.  The ball has a bell in it so that they know where it is.  They follow the voices of the goal keeper who is sighted and a person from their team who stands behind the opposite team’s goal, so that they know where other players are and where the goal is:)

Then, we got to hear the National Anthem at the Water Cube as we watched Stephanie Dixon swim to first place in one of her races.  It was awesome to cheer her on and to see her on top of the podium.

This is the Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest at night.  The venues are absolutely amazing… they put a lot of thought into making them interesting!

The pictures hardly do them justice!

The sights we saw in China are:

The Forbidden City – it’s incredible how intact everything remains.  The history of it is really preserved, and although you can’t walk through most of the buildings… you have to stand outside and look in… you get the idea of how the emperors lived a long, long time ago!

One of the best things about the Paralympic movement is how it affects the cities and countries that it is in – the structures and the people.  For China, I think that it was a real eye-opener – recognizing the abilities of people with disabilities – they really grasped on to it and it was great to see the affect that it had.  People there haven’t seen a lot of people in wheelchairs, and I don’t know if they’d ever seen an electric wheelchair, so it was awesome to watch them as we zoomed down the streets.  The stands were always full and everyone wanted to do whatever they could to make sure that we had a positive experience.  Anyways, the point of all of that was to say that they had made the historic landmarks accessible… or at least parts of them.  The technology was pretty amazing too… this is Monica on this crazy stair climber thing at the Forbidden City.

The most important part of the Forbidden City is the gates… here’s Derek and Sarah posing by the first gate.

Lions are a big part of decoration at all of the places we visited.  Here’s the one in the Forbidden City.

We then attempted to walk to Tiannemen Square, but it was a holiday there… the mid-autumn day… so the entrance was blocked off and it was all very crowded.  We decided to head back for dinner near the apartment that our family was staying at.

We chose a Japanese restaurant which was an incredible experience.  First, it wasn’t accessible… there were 3 stairs to a lobby area and a large flight of stairs to the dining room.  But, that doesn’t really phase people in China.  They thought they would lift Monica and Paul into the lobby area and bring a table for us to eat there.  Fortunately, we saw a ramp at a place nearby and encouraged them instead to bring the ramp over.  Once inside they quickly cleaned up the lobby and brought down a table and chairs from the dining room.  Efficiency!!  Once settled we ordered a number of dishes that we usually have at Japanese restaurants and they started coming quite quickly.  There were about 4 people to attend to us, including one very nice girl named Lucy, who spoke English.  As we began to eat she noticed that Joseph was helping Paul… well that wouldn’t do!  She grabbed some chopsticks and started helping Paul… she was quite good at it, lots of years of chopstick experience I imagine!  We all had a great time and the food was great.

The next day we had a couple of organized tours, taking the bus from the Village to the Temple of Heaven in the morning.  The bus stopped and we got out, assuming that we were near the Temple.  Then, Paul asks if we meet back there at 11 (when the bus was scheduled to leave, and the woman says that it will be only 40 minutes.  Then we are led by another man and a translator, who tell us that we are at a sort of community centre/rehab centre where people with disabilities come during the day.  We are led into a room with a number of people with developmental disabilities who work on handicrafts.  They give us a beautiful bracelet and a Paralympic mascot that they have made.  Then they sing us a song.  It was very moving and fun to see them all there.

We then saw the physical therapy room, the life skills class, and the equipment loan centre.  Once we got back outside there were a number of people doing some physical activity, playing with traditional Chinese yo-yos and paddles.  It was such an incredible experience, especially knowing that all of this existed because of the Paralympic movement and that they were moving towards integration with a community centre that all people could share.  It was an unexpected detour and a fascinating one.

Off to the Temple of Heaven we went… it’s the place where a lot of sacrifices took place.  It was great because we had a fully guided tour, although we had to split into 2 groups for accessibility reasons.  This is the non-accessible group on the Echo Stone.

 And the temple

We were reunited at the end!  Phew!

Next stop, after a quick lunch back at the Village, was the Summer Palace, where the emperor’s would spend half of the year… to enjoy the natural scenery.  By this time it was really hot and we were quite tired, but it was a beautiful place… with a lake and a pond and a very long painted hallway (evidently it’s in the Guiness Book of World Records)!

 

The next day we decided to sleep in a bit and then head to the Silk Market, so Paul could try his hand at bartering with the vendors.  This was a definite priority and we were both excited about it!  We grabbed a taxi… the accessible taxis there were just big enough… why waste space!  At the Market we had a great time looking at everything that we could possibly need or want.  Some of our teammates had gone already, so we had some idea about what to expect, but nothing can compare to the actual experience!  There are rows upon rows and floors upon floors of little cubicles selling everything from clothes and shoes to electronics and glasses, not to mention jewellery and souvenirs.  It’s impossible to get to everything!  Paul proved great at bartering, although it took him some time to warm up and often took 20-30 minutes to get the deal he wanted.  Sarah would tell him what she wanted, then walk away to let him work his magic.  Here’s a picture of Paul with the shoe vendor… they really loved us down there!

And, on the day of the closing ceremonies… our last full day… we went for a Chinese lunch with mom, Joseph and Derek.  Fortunately, it included beer since the food was outrageously spicy!  Everyone there always seemed to want Derek to have a drink… of course, we limited him to iced tea and Coke, but sometimes this took longer to get with the language barrier, so a cheer’s with a beer seemed the way to go.

Then there was the Closing Ceremonies which I will describe in the next blog, with a more detailed description of the Opening as well.  Sad that it’s over but ready to be home and back to real life!

Final Results

 Funny how after you get out of the routine of competition that it is so much harder to sit down at a computer!  We have been trying to fit all of our sight seeing into the last few days… which means really busy, but fun days.

First… the competition – I’m sure you’ve all been anxious to find out how we did in Pairs, and unfortunately it isn’t really news worth waiting for!  We had a terrible first day of competition and didn’t win our first 2 games.  The first was against Spain and the second against Korea.  This gave us a large point deficit (and as in individuals you need the most points to advance) – 2 countries come out of each pool.  The good news was that we were able to end on a happier note, winning our game against China the next morning.  We didn’t make up enough points though and ended up in eighth place.  Korea and Spain advanced to the Gold game and Korea won.  Thailand and Portugal played for the bronze medal and Portugal won.

 For the Canadian boccia team the results are:

Individually:

BC1:

Brock Richardson in his first Paralympics and only his second major international competition finished in 10^th place.  He played some great games and came out on top against some very tough competitors.  We know that there are great things to come from him in the future.

 Hanif Mawji in his first Paralympics finished 15^th and we’re sure that he’ll have a stronger showing at the next one!

 BC2:

Tammy McLeod finished in 17th place, which demonstrates the depth of the athletes playing boccia, as Tammy is a great player who can make excellent shots.  She plans to take some time off before deciding what to do next.

 Adam Dukovich finished in 11th place; he played some great games at his first Paralympics.

 BC3:

Alison Kabush finished 9th, narrowly missing the top 8.  She played a great last game against Santiago Pesquera from Spain, and won, but did not get enough points to move out of her pool.  Alison’s a great player who is planning to come back for the next one.

 Monica Martino finished 17th, which doesn’t reflect how well she played.  Her pool was a challenging one – having a number of high ranked players.  We know that she’s in it for the next one and she’s committed to working hard over the next 4 years.

 Team:

The BC1/2 team came in 9th, just out of the top 8 to advance out of the pools.  They played a great game against Great Britain, the number 1 ranked team, but ended up with a loss in their pool play.  They also lost against Argentina, so they were unable to advance. 

Individual Competition is Over… let the Pairs begin!

Another quick update on the results from the last two days… we’ll have to be more in depth at another time, as we have to prepare for our pairs competition which starts tomorrow.

We left off last time letting everyone know that we needed to win our next game, and win well in order to advance to the top 8.  In this game we won by a score of 5-1, which we were quite happy with… and then we had to wait to see how other players finished to determine if we would advance.  Fortunately, we held on to the wild card spot and prepared to play Polychronidis from Greece later that day.  He is the athlete that we beat at the World Cup in the Gold game to win the gold medal.

There is a long story behind this game, but the overall result was that he came out ahead, by a score of 6-3.  We played a great game with many great shots, but unfortunately Polychronidis had an illegal ramp and an unfair advantage which was discovered in this game.  The referees made a decision to cover the illegal piece, but to let the results of this, and his previous games stand.  We attempted a protest but were not successful.  We learned a lot during this process and can walk away from it knowing that we played a good, fair and honest game.  It was then time to watch the rest of the games, and prepare to win gold in our pair competition!

In the top 3 for the BC3 division, an athlete from Korea, Park beat Polychronidis to win the Gold medal.  Another athlete from Korea beat a player from Portugal to win the bronze medal.

Unfortunately, no other Canadian boccia athlete advanced out of pool play to be in the top 8, although a few will be in the top 10.  We will get the final results tomorrow.

So, now on to tomorrow… in the pairs competition there is 2 pools of 4, with the top 2 advancing from each pool.  In our pool there is Spain, Korea and China.  We play our first game against Spain at 10:30 AM, and our second game against Korea at 1:30 PM.  We are psyched and ready to play our game!

The Games Have Begun…

We enjoyed the Opening Ceremonies on September 6^th and hope that many of you were able to see the amazing show on CBC. They were absolutely incredible and inspiring! Our pictures will never do them justice, but we will post them once we have more time.

Our days have now become very busy and we are writing this on a tight timeline before heading to our second day of competition. The competition this time around is very fierce… everyone has stepped up their game and every game is a challenge.

The update, for those of you who are following is…

We won our first game against a girl from Greece by a score of 9-1. We played a second game against Armando Costa from Portugal – a very strong player – and although we played a great game he came out ahead with a score of 5-3. The exciting part about this game, aside from the game itself of course, was that it was taped and shown on a large screen in the venue as well as on Chinese TV. This is a huge step for boccia, as they showed instant replays and generated more interest in our sport.

Today we play the last game in the pool play against Yolanda Marten from Spain. She is also a tough competitor and we are sure that we will have to be at our best to win. Fortunately, we are at our best and we are ready to do what we need to do to move out of our pool and into the semi-finals. In order to advance, assuming that Costa wins his game against the Greek girl, we will have to win our game and also score as many points as possible, in hopes of getting one of two wild card spots. These spots are decided based on the point differential in each game played… whoever has the most points will advance.

The rest of the Canadian boccia team results are as follows:

Brock Richardon won 1 game and lost 2 close games

Hanif Mawji won 1 game and lost 2 games

Tammy McLeod won 1 game and lost 1 game

Adam Dukovich won 2 games

Alison Kabush won 1 game and lost 1 game

Monica Martino won 1 game and lost 1 game

Keep cheering for the Canadians!! We’ll update again as soon as we can.

Here’s a reminder about the live internet coverage:

Live coverage of the Paralympic Games

Beijing, China – The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has been officially confirmed that a minimum of eight hours per day of live commentated coverage of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games will be broadcasted on IPC’s internet TV channel:

www.ParalympicSport.TV .

Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Co., Ltd (BOB), host broadcaster of the Paralympic Games, will

provide live signals of ten Paralympic sports including Athletics, Boccia, Cycling (Track), Judo, Table Tennis, Volleyball(Sitting), Wheelchair Basketball, Wheelchair Fencing, Wheelchair Rugby, and Wheelchair Tennis.

The official programme of ParalympicSport.TV will have an interesting mixture of the aforementioned sports, with additional daily highlights provided as video on-demand. The daily highlights will also include those sports that are not covered in the live stream. SIXTY Seconds™, the daily news show presented by Paralympian Ambassador Chris Waddell, will wrap up the

latest Paralympic Games News. It will be available on the main channel at www.ParalympicSport.TV , as well as on the YouTube Channel of ParalympicSport.TV at www.youtube.com/paralympicsporttv .

Donovan Tildesley will be the Flag Bearer… announced at beautiful Welcome Ceremony

Tonight we had the Canadian Team Pep Rally, Flag Raising and Welcome Ceremony and it was definitely a great way to officially start these Paralympic Games. Anticipation, excitement and pride were felt by everyone – we are all here to represent Canada and to perform our best – this message was really brought home today.

First, there was a Chinese singer who was actually born in Manitoba, but who is now a big star in China – his name is Chelsie (I don’t know the spelling)! He got us all cheering and waving our arms… a fun way to start the celebration.

Mario Delisle, our National Team Coach, then gave a speech about Paul and many of his accomplishments, to introduce him as one of the 3 finalists to be the Flag Bearer. Mario’s words meant a lot and it was wonderful to be recognized at this ceremony, along with Chantal Petitclerc and Donovan Tildesley. It was even more exciting for us to have boccia highlighted… boccia has come such along way and it really is special for Paul to see this transformation and to be a part of it all.

There were then speeches by the coaches for the other 2 nominees, as well as inspiring and encouraging words from Lilo Ljusibijic, the athlete’s representative on the International Paralympic Committee (and a fellow Canadian) and from Carla Quattrogh, the President of the Canadian Paralympic Committee. Then we watched an incredible martial arts performance, where these 3 young men broke metal over their heads and pushed a sewing pin through plexiglass.

Finally, Donovan Tildesley, a swimmer, also from Vancouver, was announced as the Flag Bearer for the Opening Ceremonies. We are very proud of Donovan and excited to have him lead us into the Bird’s Nest in a couple of short days! He gave a wonderful speech and we know that he will be an excellent representative for the Canadian team.

After the announcement we headed outside to the Flag Raising Ceremony, which we shared with New Zealand and Uzbekistan. It was an emotional experience, as it hit home that we are here to represent something much bigger than ourselves as individuals. We look forward to doing Canada proud – it is something that you can’t put into words to be a part of the Canadian team and a citizen of the best country on Earth. The Mayor of the Paralympic Village gave a speech and we listened to a beautiful song by a Children’s Choir called ‘Heart to Heart.’ This is an exciting time for all of us and we are so happy to have all of you at home and around the world cheering for us and wishing us well. We look forward to the Opening Ceremonies and then to the start of our competition!

Venue, Competition and Tea

As promised here’s a bit more info about the venue and competition:

The competition is being held in the Fencing Hall from the 7th to the 12th.  After this, it will become the venue for Wheelchair Fencing.  It was also used for Fencing in the Olympics.  The building will be converted to a Conference Centre when the Paralympics are over.  It is a beautiful building; it is amazing to see the detail that is put into the venues.  As far as boccia goes, the floor is quite good… a smooth green rubber-type material.  There are spectator stands to one side… although we can’t say that the chairs look especially comfortable!  We expect to see them filled for the Games – according to friends who tried to buy tickets many days of competition are sold out!

Individual competition is first and we are separated, according to ranking, into 6 pools of 4.  We are the top ranked in our pool – my first competitors will be from Greece, Spain and Portugal.  After the pool play whoever finishes first in their pool will advance, as will 2 wild cards who have the best point advantage.

And, now for a description of the traditional Chinese tea… after finally getting to the right place:

the smelling cup is the thin one and the tasting cup is the wider one.

We ordered quite the variety and there were many other choices.  We tried an Oolong tea, a white tea and a yellow tea.  The oolong tea was served in a pot and we all got to experience the traditional service… first smelling the tea leaves, then warming the pot, and various other amazingly orchestrated steps until we all received a small ‘tasting cup’ and an even smaller ‘smelling cup’… we were then taught how to use them.

The tea is in the smelling cup at first, then you place the tasting cup over top of the smelling cup, pinch them together, flip it over and slowly separate the two.  I only spilled a bit during this process. You then take the smelling cup and roll it between your hands while smelling it.  This is the best way to get the aroma.  Then from the tasting cup you take 3 sips… the first for drinking, the second for tasting and the third for enjoying (or something like that).  We were also able to enjoy a show where another woman performed this service for us and gave us some black tea to try.  It was an incredible experience and we were all very happy to share it.

The performance of traditional Chinese tea

Our group with the tea servers

We have also now had the Canadian Team Welcome Ceremony, where the Flag Bearer for the Opening Ceremonies was announced.  We are proud to say that a wonderful athlete, Donovan Tildesley will be leading us into the Ceremonies on September 6th.  We will describe more in our next blog.

Home away from Home

We have now been in the Athlete’s Village for a few days and are learning the lay-out and where all of the necessities are!

Here’s a description of what’s in and around our new home:

We stay with all of the Canadian team (including all sports) at C-1, which is 3 towers of small apartments (sadly without fridges or any kind of kitchen).  Our BC3 team shares an apartment – each athlete with their sport assistant has a room; there are 2 bathrooms both with roll-in showers.  Other important parts of the Canadian towers are the Athlete’s Lounge which is stocked with all of the comforts of home (like Bugles) and a therapy room for the doctors and physiotherapists who work with the Canadian team.

Across the street is a super residence centre (one of three in the village) where there are computers, wireless internet access, arcade games, a business centre and big screen TVs.

The shuttle busses to the venues are a 3 minute walk away and the cafeteria is right next to that.  In the cafeteria there are a number of food choices which change for each meal – the highlight so far is the Beijing Duck – crispy duck wrapped in a ‘wheat’ or ‘rice’ wrap (according to the 20 Chinese people that Paul tried to get an answer out of!).  What is important to understand is that the cafeteria is open 24 hours a day for us to eat whatever we want… talk about temptation!  Soon a McDonald’s will be opening which I’m sure will be a large attraction for some!  The games have not yet started so not all of the teams and countries have arrived in the Village, which means that some food options are not available at the moment.

One of our favourite places to visit and explore is the ‘International Zone’ – where there are a number of shops and services.  There is a BOCOG (Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee) store where you can buy lots of souvenirs, a general store where I bought a hair dryer, a photo store, dry cleaning, a hair salon where you can get free hair cuts, a pin trading shop, a newsstand, a florist, and many other vital services.

We went yesterday to go to the Chinese tea shop, and entered a not at all traditional looking café with plastic coloured tea pots as decor, assuming that this was the right place.  We had a variety of hot drinks and cookies, and were all disappointed at the lack of tea choice and the lack of tradition.  After this we went for a walk around and passed this same café again only to look next door and see a beautiful looking setting with bridges and flowers and nice wooden tables… looking more closely there was the sign that said ‘Chinese Teahouse’ – something to look forward to later.

There is also an Entertainment Zone, which has pool, fuseball, air hockey and other games, as well as DVD rooms, an area for bands or as we saw last night karaoke!  None of us were brave enough to try but there was an athlete from China who was very into it.  In this building there is also an outdoor pool, and a fitness centre.

The most amazing part of the village is just how beautiful it is, there are beautiful ponds, bridges, and landscaping… making it all feel very much like a town and like home away from home.

There are also boring but much needed things like laundry nearby.  The only drawback there is that it is all washed in the mesh bag that we are given (we have 2 – one for ‘light’ colours and one for ‘deep’ colours… but when we pull it all out of the bags it is all wrinkly.  I guess you can’t have everything and wrinkled clothes aren’t a bad price to pay!

In the next edition we’ll talk more about the boccia venue and what we know about our competition, as well as, of course, a detailed description of the traditional Chinese tea!

Moving Forward…

Many of you may have seen the article in the Vancouver Sun, but for those that have not here is the link : http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/features/beijingbound/story.html?id=330e23f0-3531-4423-87b1-da1aa63e6538

It has been an eventful couple of days since we updated our blog.  We have now left the Paralympic Training Centre and have arrived at the Athlete’s Village.  The feeling in the air is one of anticipation and excitement as the beginning of the Games gets closer and closer.

To sum up our last couple of days at the Training Centre…

We played a game against the Chinese team – Monica and I played a pairs game while Alison played an individual game.  Our shooting was great and we capitalized on many opportunities to score points.  The final score was 11-0 for us in our pairs game; of course, you can never be sure what will happen on game day, but we felt good about this result and the way that we played the game.  Alison also did a great job; she beat the Chinese player by a score of 7 to 2.

It was sad to leave as we will miss the great service and help from the people at the Training Centre.  They all worked very hard to make sure that our stay was comfortable and they were all very friendly.  I can’t say that we will miss some of the food – there’s something about mashed potatoes with gravy and corn soup out of the same machine that is a little eery!!  This was, of course, not our only source of nutrition, but it was a fun addition.

We then got ready to leave; it was amazing to see the level of organization and efficiency as they loaded many people onto busses and luggage onto trucks.  There are so many people who are there to help and you hardly have to lift a finger yourself!  We did have to wait outside for a little while –
here’s us with our teammates Monica and Dalia waiting for something to happen… perfect opportunity for a picture!
Finally, we were on the bus and ready for 45 minute drive to the Athlete’s Village – you should have seen the logistics of fitting everyone on one bus.  It just shows how anything is possible when you work as a team!

And, we arrived… after security and validating our accreditation cards we had this picture taken with the woman who checked us through, along with teammates Alison and Shannon.  We have been practicing our Chinese and we make many friends with our pronunciation of ‘Nee-hau’(which means hello) 

We look forward to telling everyone more about the Athlete’s Village in our next blog and about the venue where we will be practicing for the next few days.

Bright Lights and all the comforts of Home

After our training and dinner last night we went for a walk around the Sports Complex. It was incredible to see everything in the dark – all of the buildings have colourful, flashing lights which you can see a little bit of in the pictures. I’m sure nothing compares to the real thing though!

We have to thank Dominique at the CCPSA office for updating our blog for us. We have recently learned that there is a ban on blogs in China, so we are unable to access it ourselves. We are sending these updates to Dom and he is putting it on our site for us. You should know that we receive the comments by email, so we will still read them daily.

The food has really been improving lately, and the coffee is delicious! It is amazing how we can find comfort in good food and even better coffeeJ The cooks and staff here have been making an effort to serve us ‘Western’ food, and we definitely appreciate seeing what we have at home. Lunch today included tater tots, eggs with shrimp, chicken wings and sweet and sour pork! Our accommodation also includes Snickers bars, a box of orange juice, 2 tubes of chips… everything you might want for a late night snack (real Champion food!).

Here are a couple of links to articles that have been published about the three flag bearer finalists:

http://www.paralympic.ca/page?a=2144&lang=en-CA

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2008/08/25/paralympic-flag.html

This article is about Alison Kabush and her sport assistant, Shannon Sydorak; they are a part of our BC3 team.

http://www.canada.com/surreynow/news/sports/story.html?id=111e1f99-35a3-4ebd-954c-af1f8ec08571&p=1

The rest of the day today will be focused on training and relaxing. It has been working very well – we are feeling really good and excited to keep up the positive momentum.