Beijing!!!! #2

Hello Again.... So, it's t-4 hours until Gil swims and I'm getting a little nervous. All the shopping and sight seeing has kept my mind off of things (which is good). But now I'm starting to really feel it. Phelps has 2 of 8 golds so far. He is on fire! Let's hope Gil plays off of all the excitement! He's going to go faster....I just know it! I am at Hometown Hopefuls again and who comes to sit at my table?? Jenny Thompson! Wow, that was surreal. It took me a minute to recognize her. She is from New England so not as friendly as we Southerners, but she warmed up after a while. I think she was worried we might be crazy fans or something because she was wearing her sunglasses during half the meal. haha. We had a good conversation with her and some of her friends. I should have gotten a picture with her, but i didn't want to bother her while she was eating. I think I'll get a chance to see her again....and I'm sure others. No worries, I'll get some good pics! Oh and I have also sat and talked to Brendan Hanson's family. Great people!! So friendly and really funny too :) Ok so today we shopped til we dropped. I mean literally too! The markets here are endless. This city is sooooo big. I've never seen so many large buildings. Beijing alone has 16 million people in it! That is way more than the whole state of Arkansas. The architecture here is amazing. I've heard that this Olympics has the best venues of anywhere. I believe it! We haven't made it over to the Olympic Green yet, but we will tonight for prelims. I can't wait. I'll have to write again to tell you about that. Oh and Gil will swim prelims at 5:30 AM not pm. Sorry i accidently typed the wrong thing. We are 13 hours ahead. You will most likely be sleeping when he swims, but I will email you the results as soon as I can. Alright, I need to go for now, but I will write again soon! Thanks for those of you who wrote back. I will stay in touch! Dottie