University of Minnesota Athletics
China Blog #1 from Katy Etterman
1/2/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
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Happy New Year from China! After a very long flight, we have made it safely to Beijing and it has been an interesting couple of days so far. We are living and training at the Beijing Muxiyuan Sports Technology School which is in North Beijing. Upon our arrival yesterday, we checked into our hotel and made our way to a karaoke restaurant to bring in the New Year. We got our first taste of authentic Chinese cuisine and sang countless songs before heading back for a much needed night of sleep.
We had our first practice today and were greeted by a dry land training room almost as big as our entire pool back home. Rather than the two dry boards and two trampolines that we are used to, there are eight trampolines and 13 dry boards, enough for everyone to have their own apparatus, which made training much more efficient as well as tiring.
Our water workout was simple basics today as many of us are recovering from some jet lag, but we are all looking forward to tomorrow as it is our first two-a-day which will mean six hours of practice! If we have energy afterwards, we are planning on exploring a supermarket a little ways away from our hotel. Today we simply travelled on foot exploring the area around us, which includes many little shops, restaurants, and food stands. All of us were convinced by Shelly to try some caramelized fruit authentic to Beijing, which was actually very delicious.
Even in our first few days, we are already learning so much and experiencing so many new things, making all of us excited for the adventures that lie ahead.
Cheers,
Katy Etterman
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