Unbelieveable

WOW.............it was amazing. I will start from the beginning of my experience. We all met below our buildings at about 5:15pm. From there we walked to the buses, it was crazy if you looked down the row you could not even see the end, it was bus after bus waiting for all the athletes. From there all the USA athletes headed into the fencing building and entered the 'media room'. We were all grouped by sport, except track which was broken up into many groups. There we were suppose to hear from the President of the United States, George Bush. After 15mins of waiting we heard he was arriving and everyone had there cameras ready, but in comes the Basketball team. Because they are so high profile they do not come on the same buses as us 'other athletes', haha! It was pretty cool though, Lebron James, Carmello Anthony(got pics of them too), and many others came strolling in, all the athletes went pretty crazy taking pictures. After about ten minutes of that they organized us and announced the entrance of the President of the United States!!!! He was accompanied by his wife Laura Bush, George Bush SR, and one of his daughters, Barbara. He talked for just a couple minutes and then took pictures with each individual group. He started at the other end so we had a little bit of a wait, but while he was doing that Former President Bush walked around the other side and met with each group. I took a picture with him and he told me to smile when I felt the pinch! Hahaha he was a funny man. I also got a picture with his daughter Barbara, I talked to her for a little bit about being from Dallas, she was super nice. We finally made our way around to George Bush and I have a really cool picture with him and all the field athletes. He shook all of our hands and was very friendly and nice. After that I met with the first lady, who was also very nice and upbeat. From there we walked over to the gymnastics building where all the other countries were waiting . As we sat in there, there was a big screen that would show when each country was up to begin the walk into the stadium. As we sat and waited countries tried to start the wave, others broke out in dances, and others cheered every time a country was called. Finally our country was called....number 140. We gathered and formed lines of 10. I was in the third row on the inside, I was walking in lane one. As we made our way to the stadium fans and helpers lined the streets cheering and yelling Kobe Bryant's name( they love him here)!!!!! As we were just about to walk into the stadium the whole US team was chanting USA USA USA, it was crazy!! At that moment when we walked in I was overwhelmed. we took our lap and waved to the crowd, on the back curve is really when I started to cry and thinking I am walking in the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games!!!!! Some one next to me said "we are in best place in the World right at this moment"! He was right, it was truly amazing. After that all the rest of the teams walked their lap and the Olympic oath was made. I know by now all of you have seen the lighting of the torch, it blew us all of our feet( Mom I know you were waiting for that moment to see what they would do and I bet you did not think of that)!!! Well.......after standing for many hours it was worth every bit of foot pain;) I had the time of my life. Now it is competition time!! I will now focus all my attention towards August 15 the start of my Heptathlon, but last night will never ever be forgotten!