more venue stuff

China is a hard place to be in for a person who sometimes like to just brood quietly in the corner. From the moment I leave my room, there will be no quiet and there will be people everywhere.

I've been at the venue everyday for about the last week. It is okay, but is very, very tiring. There's only so much training we can actually do, so a lot of time is spent sitting around chewing the fat (which isn't actually a saying, given the lunches they've been giving us!). 

Here's a photo of the Newcastle weightlifting crew in our stunning uniforms.

Our Sports Information Specialist (SIS) is an Australian from Melbourne. His name is Robert Kabbas, and he won silver for Australia in the 69kg Men's category at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics. He also won two Commonwealth golds and a silver over three games. He's a really nice guy. The other day we had a really good morning where he took us around the venue and told us what the athletes would be doing and thinking. He showed me a bit about lifting weights.
So, I didn't try to get it over my head or anything (though I kind of want to try now!). For those of you playing at home, the yellows are 15kg and the bar is 20kg. So that's 50kg. I've been learning a lot about weightlifting. We've been going through the different weight categories and looking at who could be a medal possibility, and have been looking at the styles, techniques and rules. Robert has been really good at teaching us heaps about the sport.
And here's me flexing my fully polished guns. 
The other day we had a "motivational talk" with all of the volunteers in the weightlifting hall. The motivational effects on the Newcastle crew were limited, as it was all in Mandarin! Apparently it was mostly propaganda though. It even finished with everyone singing this song. The recording was the whole multi-voiced thing, all singing together to further the glorious revolution no doubt.

So I haven't done much blogging lately, mainly because not much has been happening! Just training at the venue. I'm pretty tired, and could really use a day off. Luckily, I think there will be one coming up soon. 

Today I interviewed an Indonesian lifter and his coach who was also his father. We've got access to the training hall, and so we can go watch them, and try to talk to them after (strictly no interruptions during training!). So it was fun to actually do kind of what we're supposed to be doing here. 

By the way, I'm really appreciating the emails people have been sending me. I've been having problems with my studentmail, but I'd love to hear from you on schube_87@hotmail.com