here we go again

man.. i just read on the papers that the US team is blaming the games officials for "distracting" alicia sacramone before her beam routine.

apparently, they called her name too early and had her waiting at the podium although her name wasnt up on the boards, therefore shaking her up.

how lame is that? yes, i admit that such errors do affect that athlete's performance, but an athlete should learn to cope with it. li shanshan was waiting hecka long for her turn up at the beam too, because her teammate's score wasnt up yet.

let's face it... alicia made an error mounting the beam, and that is that. it was a simple mistake, and it happened unfortunately, during the olympics... no need to make it worse by giving excuses! the poor girl is probably feeling so rotten by now..

yeesh. and come ON had alicia scored the same as she did during qualifications, the americans would have lost anyways. its not the poor girls' fault.

the very fact that peszek was put on a team and not used at all... kinda defies the point of having a TEAM competition, no?

GOLD for china!!!!

ok... i spent 45 mins trying to find a site that would stream to godforsaken poland... and i was on the verge of giving up when i decided to give it one more try... and boy am i glad i stuck with it because i hit jackpot with my last try!

woohoo china blew the field away today with a total score of 188.900 about 3 points higher than the very discontented USA, which came in 2nd. =) romania seemed happy with its bronze medal, for its performance, although not as clean and deep as the first two teams, were consistent and stable.

the one person who will have nightmares tonight is alicia sacramone, who fell on beam and floor (plus one OOB)... which is a shame really because i really like her. but still, even if you count her sticking those 2 apparatuses, they would have still lost to china anyways, hee hee.

you guys just HAVE to watch the chinese work the uneven bars -> he kexin with her amazing flexibility blew my mind away with an incredible 16.850 on bars, which is about as close to a perfect "10" as you can get in today's gymnastics scoring system!

oh man i am so happy for the chinese women - they have worked so hard and so long for this day, and the girls overcame their nerves and hit hit and hit some more! admittedly, cheng fei fell on the beam, but she came back with a great score on floor and of course, vault. =)

now, i hope that the chinese girls can rest easy with their new apartments for their families and government money =) maybe then they'll be rid of those hideous puffy black circles under their eyes... they are such darlings, this 08 beijing team!

love them to bits!!!!!! woo hoo china!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you did us proud!!

szczecin

ive been in szczecin for almost a week now, and there has been nothing but non-stop action, albeit getting off a slow start. right now, i am just so bushed that afternoon naps have become essential to my staying awake in the hospital.

also, i have realized that partying on a weeknight pretty much wipes me out the following day. but i am glad in retrospect that i pulled my lead-heavy eyelids open today and dragged my zombie body to the hospital because i got to see a real life labor in action! it seemed considerably less painful than people have made it out to be, but then again it could have been that the mother received an epidural, or that people are just more apt at giving life.

by all accounts, it was rather weird to stand right in front of someone's grossly expanded virgina but it was rather amazing to see the baby (huge!) pop out all purple and angry. and the umbilical cord looked so rubbery too!

i must say that i am so lucky to have jacek rubinski as my prof-in-charge. he is just about the coolest professor ever. never donning a white coat, he wears a yellow polo tee with collars flipped up, and is never seen without his quirky golf caps - which he prefers to wear the other way around. btw, he also has his own band, although he decided to go solo recently. how cool is that?

he simply charms me with the way he speaks too, with his oh-so-polish accent. he refers to the two resident patients as: big one baby, and small one baby. also, during examinations, a healthy baby would be referred to as a "hero", which really tickled me because you have this little gurgling baby and the contrasting image of an omnipotent hero. haha... and he made funny faces at us from inside the operation room too, which simply blew my mind. lol. and good grief he greets us with a "turtle" greeting and says 'see you later, alligator'. oh i would work so hard in his classes if he ever taught in taiwan!

from an academic point of view, i think i really learnt alot this week. i can now conduct my own EEG connections, and also do simple physical examinations of newborns. ive even been able to do my own ultrasound scans! now i understand why people say that there is nothing like the real thing to bring out interest in learning.

im really looking forward to the next few weeks in hospital with rubinski - and for the sake of the big one baby and small one baby, lampart and franas respectively.. i hope you guys get well soon! go babies!