On Aug. 5th we did not do much.  The practice was harder for me than all the other practices.  I ended up doing 6 sets of 5 minute circuits.  I ended up doing twice as much as the team members.  It was nice to get a good workout in.  After practice and lunch most of the day was spent on the Internet and updating my write up from Beijing.  After dinner we played Wii tennis and then went to sleep.  

On Aug. 6th practice was a little lighter than the days before.  For lunch we ate at McDonalds with Asanuma Sensei.  Asanuma is coming to our practices for the rest of the week.  We ate McDonalds because Asanuma cannot eat at our restaurant.  I had a premium grill chicken sandwich in an extra value meal.  When I ordered it I did not know it was chicken it looked like a steak sandwich when I order it.  It was tasty and had a little spicy flavor to it.  The fries tasted just like the ones at home.  After lunch we went to Tian’nmen Square and the Forbidden City. On our way there we had to get out of the Taxi early because traffic was not moving.  When we walked ahead we found out traffic was not moving because someone got hit by a car.  I am not surprised and I am sure we will see another before we leave.  It is hard to cross the street, even if there is a green walk sign.  There we people around the person that got hit that were taking pictures.  Tian’nmen Square was cool and there were a lot of interesting people there.  At Tian’nmen square we noticed that none of the babies had on diapers.  All their pants and shorts have holes in the back so you can see their butts.  I do not want to hold any Chinese babies.  We did not go in to the Forbidden City, but took pictures in front of it.  When we returned from Tian’nmen Square and the Forbidden City we ate dinner, watched a movie, and then went to sleep.  

On Aug. 7th we ate breakfast then went to practice.  The weather today was really smoggy.  Before practice we got to meet former president George Bush and Matt Lauer from the Today Show.  Matt Lauer left soon after we got there but George Bush stayed for a little while and watched our practice.  He is a really nice guy.  After practice we got to see the men’s basketball team practice for a second.  After a shower and lunch we headed back to the silk market to find some more deals.  I bought more this time than I did the last time.  We were at the market for about two and a half hours.  When we got back we ate dinner and watched a movie.  The draws for the judo tournament were posted today.   The USA team did not get the best draws but they will have to do their best with what they got.  After looking at the draws I went to sleep.

On Aug. 8th we got a break from practice.  We took advantage of this break and took a trip to the Great Wall of China.  The part of the Great Wall we went to was about an hour and a half away from where we are staying.  We took a bus with a few other people that are here for the Olympics.  Once we got to the part of the wall where were going to visit we had to walk up a steep hill to get to the base of the gondola to the top.  Along the way were vendors selling souvenirs.  You could haggle prices with them like at the silk market.  The gondola ride took about five minutes and went up about 1,000 feet.    We walked along the Great Wall for about an hour.  There are parts of the wall that are really steep.  It is an amazing thing that people could build a wall like that in the some of the terrain that it covers.  The temperature outside was not super hot, but everyone was soaked in sweat from walking up and down the steep slopes of the wall.  Walking the wall is a workout; I think we might have sweated more at the wall than we did at practice.  After our hour long walk we had to get back down to where our bus was parked.  So our options were take a ski chair lift down or ride a toboggan sled down the mountain. We chose the toboggan option.  The toboggan sleds have wheels with a brake handle.  The course you follow is like a bobsled course that is made of metal instead of ice.  They were really fun to ride down.  They would have been a lot more fun if the people in front of us went faster, but it was still fun.  The employees were yelling at us to slow down most of the way down the track.  I am going to try to post a video of it.  Once we got to the bottom of the hill we looked at the vendors some then we headed back to BNU.   We all took showers, ate dinner, watched opening ceremonies on TV, and then went to bed.   

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