cycling assets.

Now that the athletes have arrived, hanging out at the velodrome has become exponentially cooler. I spent a good two hours yesterday watching practice... and believe me, it was something to see. When the guys get going the tires make the coolest sound on the track, almost like thunder. I can't wait to hear a real race in there. Not to mention, the bikes they ride cost about one million dollars. Can you imagine? These bikes are so sweet... and light as a feather.

And as you can imagine, athletes are pretty easy on the eyes. The sprinters are super muscular, with giant thighs the size of small children... the distance guys are long and lean. We had no problem staring... especially since most guys in a helmet and sunglasses look pretty darn good (it's a different story when they take that helmet off.) And apparently, one of the Netherlands cyclists had no problem staring either. Christina and I were watching from the top of the second turn, and were the only non-Chinese people in there. All of the Dutch cyclists are riding in a line to warm up, just drafting off each other. Pretty soon, we notice one of the guys in line (one without sunglasses) giving us a glance... a long, extended, "I see you watching me, and I like it" glance. Yum.

After we two girls stopped giggling and smiling they were already around the track again, and sure enough, there was our guy... staring right at us (while still staying in line with his teammates... the old drive and look away trick). Next lap... he's staring... and SMILING. He is for sure looking at us. We are for sure okay with it. This continues a couple more laps and then he's off the track... and we're still giddy with the fact that not only were we a couple meters away from world class cyclists, but one of them was clearly checking out the American volunteers (us).

The other teams we saw were Germany (also attractive), Belgium (also very attractive), Ireland (not so attractive, and only one guy) and Czech Republic (very very attractive). But the silver tuna is still Theo Bos of the Netherlands. He's the handsome one in the bunch... and none of us girls have been shy in claiming him as our cycling crush. In fact, yesterday there may have been an argument of who saw him first.

Germany

Netherlands

Czech out the Czech... from the front... and the back.

The creepy part of this entire situation is that the other Purdue students (the flash quote reporters) have to know everything about these guys. There is this mainframe Olympics stalking facebook-like network that you can look up just about anything on any athlete. Needless to say, there are pictures... which after our little encounter with the Netherlands cyclist, we tried to find out who he was. Pretty unsuccessful, and this is also where we learned that minus helmets and sunglasses, they're far less cute.

Other than creepin' on the cyclists, work was pretty slow. Right now we are really just waiting for the Games to start (tomorrow!) and for things to get into high gear. On the way home on the subway though, as usual I completely passed out into an uncomfortably positioned nap (something with my head leaning back onto the window... looking like a bum). I am woken up a few stops before mine by three adorably rambunctious little girls clamoring for the seat next to me. I smile, and still dazed I get up to offer my seat to them too. All three of their mom's smiled and in English, said "thank you." It was a cute mother-daughter outing, and the three girls were hilarious. One of them was me when I was a child (the girl on the left)... Asian bowl-cut, LOUD, and pretty sassy. And if it weren't for her dress, she might have (as I was) been mistaken for a small Asian boy.


Their moms saw that I was an Olympic volunteer, so I showed them my giant yellow pass that says what my job is... they saw it and explained to the girls... who then took a look themselves. I seriously meet so many kids this way... they love the Olympic pass. I asked one of the moms if she minded if i got a picture... obviously she did not. They were some of my favorite subway friends so far.

Later in the evening we had a sort of American bonanza. The birthday girl, Andrea, was honored with all kinds of American goodies... Doritos, Chips A'hoy, pizza, cream cheese, real cheese, MILK (so goooooood), Tang and the most fabulous birthday cake I have ever seen. It was fabulous and amazing... and a bit disgusting.


But not as disgusting as what would happen later... I was all ready to jump in the shower... towel and all... and I had turned the water on to let it get mildly warm. Without looking, I am inches away from the water, when suddenly I notice it is BLACK. Midnight water was pouring out of our shower (and thus, all over our bathroom). After some exclamation... several people came running down the hall to see what my roommate and I were screaming about. Cameras came out... pictures were taken of this phenomenon. The girls next door turned their shower on... same thing... black as night. Hilarious. I mean really. What do you do when your shower is spouting coffee grounds?


It's fine this morning, but believe me, I am a little nervous about stepping into that shower area after almost being doused in China knows what.

And so that was the day. Full of all kinds of surprises.