Olympic Voice from Beijing

"On Monday night we went to the Water Cube, which is only a couple of hundred meters away from our dorms, but takes 20 minutes to get to because you have to walk to the bus depot and then drive around the village to get to the venue. We’ve all seen the Water Cube and gawked at it for the past 2 years, but finally seeing it was pretty special. It really is different than any other pool I’ve ever seen because the architecture of the building was given more planning and thought than any natatorium before it. The interior of the Water Cube is beautiful, and the spectator seating goes up and up and up.

The dorm buildings are neatly organized into rows and each country has a group of rooms together in one building or, in a few cases, the entire building.

The Village cafeteria, think of a room the size of Costco. Now, put about 5 buffet restaurants in there and add a McDonalds. Throw in a couple of thousand chairs and you have your Village cafeteria. The food is excellent and there are Chinese people everywhere interested in making the experience enjoyable. Six people served me one piece of chicken and a scoop of rice, and when the sixth and final person handed me the plate they all looked at me, smiled and said “Enjoy your lunch.”

I’m enjoying everything."