A whirlwind of activity

I'd like to break a cardinal rule of writing and use a sport cliche: the last few days have passed in a whirlwind. All us FQRs worked the final day of BMX, witnessing three Americans medal in the first-ever Olympic BMX event. Congratulations to Mike Day, Donny Robinson and Jill Kintner for winning silver, bronze and bronze, respectively! Today both the women and men raced in mountain biking, which the French, Swiss and Germans dominated. Both BMX and mountain biking took place in brutal heat. I hid under the shade of an NBC umbrella while I waited to gather quotes and found the spot ideal for meeting a diverse group of people: cameramen, sports correspondents and Chinese workers waiting and watching in case of any technical problems in the broadcast zone.

Working has taken up almost all my time this week, but I did have the chance one night to attend the women's bronze medal soccer match between Germany and Japan (Germany won!) and the gold medal soccer match at the Workers' Stadium. USA took the gold!!! Here's a photo montage of our soccer adventure:

Inside Workers' Stadium

Dancing Fuwa!

Val, me and Megan dolled up for Team USA

Val, our new friend CJ and me sporting our red, white and blue

Val applying face paint to a curious fan

Today, our last day of work, brought mixed emotions, as one would imagine--happiness to return to our friends and family at home, sadness at parting with a group of people and a sport we've come to love and nervousness at jumping back into our "former lives." But we have a few days left here with most of the group (Amy leaves tomorrow to fly to Japan), so we're trying to enjoy every last moment.