To beijing

Tuesday morning we woke up early to get a practice in before departing to beijing. As we were taxiing on the runway F-15's were taking off before us and practicing touch and go's, one last chance to experience the power of the F-15's. The entire flight line crew lined up and soluted our plane as we taxied the runway as a final goodbye.
Finally arriving in Beijing, as we exited the plane we were happily received by Chinese paparazzi and dozens of photographers taking pictures of us. Then again we were photographed when we passed through the immigrations. We got to our bus and started the 30 minute drive to the village. You could tell that we were getting close to the village when you began seeing Chinese military standing every 20 meters from each other along the chain linked fence as security for the games. Very impressive as they stand their for hours on end without moving . I got a picture of one of them as we passed through the gate into the village bus parking area. He saw me taking the picture and actually smiled a little bit, everyone on the bus joked that he was going to get fired for smiling.
The village here is 10 times nicer than the one in athens. The rooms are bigger and the bathrooms have a 5 star hotel feel to them. They even have full grown trees and ponds that all make for a calming atmosphere. As you walk around the village you see different countries interacting with each other and trading pins, my favorite thing to do. After we dumped our stuff off at our rooms it was off to the water cube for practice. this needs its own blog...