Shucks.

So the 100bk final happened this morning. I really thought I chance of winning it but I ended up with the bronze. It was a best time (by just a smidgen) and I took the first half out faster then anyone else. I realized at the 50 that i was first and I think that got my overly excited, so the 3rd 25 was probably overswum/crazy lady style and left me with no juice by the last 15m. When I got to the 15m rope and saw people catching me all I could do was grit my teeth and think "Fuck, fuck, fuck." It hurt. But it was a good learning experience and nice to know I can go out that fast, that I do have speed. PLUS I will get to swim another 100back in the medley relay, and the time will count since backstroke leads off. so another chance for another best time. I will take it.
Regardless of not winning, coming third was pretty cool. Marching up to the podium and seeing your team cheering for you from the stands is a very nice feeling. And seeing the Canadian flag be raised, and knowing it was my Canadian flag being raised made me very proud of myself and made me realize it could have been worse, I could have come, gasp, fourth! So look for my quotes in the Canadian papers. My brother told me his friends heard my name mentioned on KROCK in Kingston. so that's cool too!

Tonight I am just taking it easy in the village and will probably watch prelims on TV (the village has a Pan Am feed, with almost all the sports being broadcast live on about a dozen channels) in the Canadian Athletes lounge. Then tomorrow night is when the fun begins! The fun being 200bk aka what I train for. YAY!

OKay, so Jill Sterkel is here being an official. She is in the Readyroom being clerk of course or head marshall or something. Basically making sure things happen as they should. I don't even want to know how she managed to get this gig, but I will ask her next time I see her. Oh Jill and your connections.

I guess I promised I would tell y'all about the village and food and stuff, so hear is the something about the food...

The set up for the "Restaurant" is a big tent. Like really big, I'd say football field size, but wider.
At one side there are tables, some round but mostly rectangular banquet style, and plastic chairs with metal legs. And at the other side is the food. In the middle are drink stations that separate the two sides. There is filtered water, juice, soft drinks, NesCafe coffee machines, and hot water for tea or whatever. On the food side first there is the bakery where you can go to get fresh rolls, buns with cheese in the middle, croissants, wholegrain and white sliced bread and other different kinds of bread. The bread is the best part of the food here. I am eating too much bread. There are two other bread stations on the food side, they are in the middle of the food side, so between the food lines and the drinks. They are just a table with baskets of bread on them that are replenished regularly. Next to the bread tables are little tables with condiments. Mustard, ketchup, a bunch of salad dressing, and some weird jams and shit.
Now the food sections themselves are what they call "islands." Salad island, Grilled Island, and Pasta Island. It is basically a cafeteria style set-up, with a place for a tray and you on one side, and a serve and food behind a glass partition on the other. Everything is usually labeled in English, Spanish, and Portuguese but sometimes it's not, so I have taken to reading the menu near the entrance so I can pick which island I want to visit after the bakery, haha. It is usually pasta island so plain pasta and tomato sauce. Sometimes a piece of turkey chest pastry (a little like tortiere with no potatoes) or lasagna (but not the meat or bolognese kind because that means the left over lunch meat is in there) or pizza (they have dessert pizzas sometimes too, like chocolate or brown sugar). Lunch and dinner are much the same. Sometimes there is lunch meat, turkey chest or ham, and a sandwich with the neon yellow mustard is a save bet. But sometimes it is off to pasta island for lunch and dinner. At the end of each island there is also a place for self serve dessert, which is a variety of cakes and mousses and jello and fruit (salad style or whole). The best dessert and only one i have been brave enough to try was this coconut pudding cake thing that they overcooked and ended up more of a cake then the gooey dry on top, wet on the bottom thing they were going for. It was definitely not as good when they cooked it properly. haha.
Now breakfast is another story. At salad island they have the usual stuff: lunch meat, cheese, lettuce, various fruits and weird creations like chicken tart with broccoli for example (leftover lunch meat and cooked broccoli chopped up and added to a dough like substance and then baked). Grilled island has scrambled eggs and bacon, and I think the sirloin steak they serve 24hours a day. Haven't tried this island for breakfast, or salad island, the eggs look runny and the bacon just looks gross. Pasta island is the best for breakfast. It is self-serve and they have yogurt and cereal (frosted flakes, mini cornpops (unsweetened), and a few different grains and a good granola) and white and chocolate milk. The chocolate milk barely qualifies as milk, it just tastes like chocolate and it super thick. The milk is really sweet by itself too. The strawberry yogurt is sweet and very pink, bubblegum pink. All the other yogurt is plain, not vanilla, plain. And then the bread is as per usual. Breakfast is my favorite meal and I get all my dairy then, as it is the only time they serve milk (they have cheese at other times but it is not clear is it has been pasteurized and some people on the team have been getting sick so I've steered pretty clear except for the occasional piece or 2 or 3 of buffalo mozzarella :) ).
Overall the food sucks. I've already started planning what I'll be eating in Calgary and even at our layover in Dallas, since I know DFW terminal D oh so well. haha

More about the village will have to wait til another time. I hope to take pictures of all of this as well, to go along with the words. You know, give you the full package. haha


LIZ TWO