Restricted travel, hard beds make me long for home

U.S. discus thrower Stephanie Brown-Trafton of Galt is keeping a journal about her Olympic experience. Following is Saturday's entry.

Today we are scheduled to travel to our training camp based in Dalian, China. It is an hour flight from Beijing to Dalian and we must leave the village at 8:30 a.m. to travel to the airport. Once again I do some repacking of clothes and items that I will need during the 10 days in Dalian.

I do some footwork drills in front of the in-room mural of the discus ring at Beijing National Stadium (Bird's Nest), then go down to the dining hall for breakfast. Today the weather is beautiful and the air quality and visibility are superb. I can actually see the beautiful mountains surrounding Beijing and I see blue sky in between the gray clouds.

The Olympic village housing for the athletes are high-end apartments built very recently with stone floors and beautiful dark wood doors, brushed silver fixtures and tiled bathrooms. Each apartment in the village has been reserved already for occupants to move in after we leave.

There is a rumor that the price of the apartments will be based on who occupied them during the games. I'm sure that the apartments occupied by medal winners will be worth more ... I will have to sign the wall in a spot somewhere and leave a nice note for the family that moves in after us.

The residential centers in the village (there are several) provide many services such as laundry, Internet access, game rooms, meeting spaces, after-hours food. The resident center near our tower has a game room filled with arcade games just like at Boomer's. I am surprised that there is not a miniature golf course nearby. That would be fun.

We travel back to the airport and load all 50 luggage bags back on to the belts bound for Dalian. It is a great hassle to travel with so many people but there is an advantage ... we were all told that we should have only one checked bag because of the extra cost to check more. The problem here is that we have implements that add weight to our luggage and checking one bag means that we will exceed the 55-pound limit. I do some shuffling of luggage and in the end I check a second bag but because there are so many of us they don't charge for the second bag. It helps to carry an extra duffle just in case!

The flight to Dalian was short and sweet. We gather all bags and head out to the bus that will take us to the Golden Pebble Beach Resort. We have a police escort and for the 45-minute drive to the hotel I can see that they have shut down traffic just for the team to make its way through the town. There are people lining the streets and just staring at us. I wave a lot but there is no waving back from these guys. I get the feeling that our presence is more of an inconvenience than anything else.

We arrive at the hotel, which has been cordoned off and there are police and guards all over the place. I get the feeling that I won't be able to just call a cab and explore the city. One of our coordinators wanted to do a shopping trip prior to our arrival but was told that they can't leave the hotel without police escort. We have several excursions planned (with security escort of course) but it still seems like we are in a fancy prison. I'm sure this is to enhance our security but it still feels like I can't go anywhere and in actuality I can't leave the hotel without checking out.

To go to practice at the national training center in Dalian we have to notify the authority by 3 p.m. the prior day so they can arrange an escort ... if you ask me this is too restrictive. I can't wait to get back to the States where I can go and come as I please, at least during off hours.

The view from my room is nice. It overlooks the golf course with the Yellow Sea shore as a backdrop. The beds are rock hard. I have noticed that that is normal here. It feels like a box spring with thin pad and a sheet over it. I ask for another blanket and sheet for my bed so I can try to soften it up a bit.

Finally we get to unpack and settle in. We leave for a practice session soon and I get ready to head out to the training center. The practice location is an indoor facility with a short track, weights, throwing cages, nets. It is hot and swampy and our clothes are soaked after about five minutes of working out.

I loosen up a bit and run some sprints, then lift weights. It is time to head back to the hotel for a shower and dinner. We have a chef who speaks no Chinese that came in just to head up the kitchen operations for us. He works in tandem with the chef of the hotel, who speaks no English. I can imagine the great stories that are going to come out of this from Chef Sacks.

I told him he should write a book about his experiences. He has befriended the staff of waiters and kitchen help and has even been playing Majong with them back at their barracks. He says their permanent housing is not much more than cinder block walls and cots made of plywood. I feel very lucky to have my home back in the States and this makes me appreciate it even more.

Back to the medical room for an ice bath and then shower and get ready for movie night. There is a movie theater in the hotel (along with a bowling alley, golf simulation and indoor pool) and every night the team staff is showing movies at 9 p.m. ... tonight is "Semi-Pro." I watch it and it is funny as all Will Ferrell movies are, but I fall asleep before the end. The jet lag is starting to take effect.

Back to the room for a night of sleep. I hope I don't wake up sore in the morning from the stiff bed.