End of the competition

Tuesday, August 12, 2008 12:20 PM

Hi,

We played today and now we are out of the tournament. Our match sounds pretty bad if you hear what the scores were. We lost 21-9, 21-9. The thing is that we played very well. We wanted to make sure we didn’t try to play so crazy that the game became uncontrollable and full of errors. We wanted to make sure that they weren’t making us hit up all the time and putting us under pressure right off of the first three shots. They are a top 10 team in the world so of course we made more mistakes. They were controlling more rallies, and there were some errors where we were trying to do too much. It is hard not to feel the pressure to try to play better than you can when up against a better team. Almost always, that is a bad idea, and it makes for a bad game. I thought we did a good job of making a low amount of easy mistakes. They were forced to beat us. Unfortunately, they could beat us. We had some long rallies. I felt I was moving well, and I really felt my touch was on. I felt very comfortable. It was fun to be out there.

I am officially no longer a full-time athlete. I’m not sure what I’m doing with the rest of my time, but I hope to figure that out soon. I kept thinking that I would feel empty inside when I think of the fact that I am now retired, but it’s not so bad. I’m ready for it.

I’m looking forward to enjoying the rest of my time here. I had my first real encounter with McDonald’s today. I had a Big Mac, chicken sandwich, McNuggets, a large French fry, an apple pie, and a fruit yoghurt blended well with two pieces of pizza, a wonton, three Peking duck rolls, a bowl of mixed fruit, steak, and a magnum ice cream popsicle. My workouts start again tomorrow.

We watched some good badminton today: the English had a great comeback and beat the Chinese in the mixed doubles, some Japanese upset the Indonesian doubles, Indos. beat the Chinese, and Danes beat Koreans in men’s doubles. There will be a lot of good matches over the next five days. We don’t have the greatest seats as athletes, but I am eager to see the battles to come.

I hope to get to the Great Wall of China, and maybe some other things like the forbidden garden or the silk market. Usually I move in with my family now, but I am stuck in the village. I will have to learn how to get around by myself. Usually they have figured it all out for me by now. I don't know where anything is or how to get to it. I finally went to the international zone. I'm not sure I like many things in the store. It may be hard to shop for everyone. I think I'm getting picky in my old age. I've gotten too many souvenirs that only collect dust and fill up my house (which is small).

(Click here to see pictures)

Previous emails:Aug 11, Aug 9, Aug 7, Aug 3, Aug 2, July 28

If you would like to share your information and comments, please contact us by click: webmaster