Hello from Brazil everyone!

Well we're obviously under a lot of security. They cleared the highway for our bus and we had a full police escort. Now I'm safely in Rio de Janeiro and in the village!

The cafeteria food left a little to be desired but the whole village, and the whole set up is amazing! On the bus ride here, many people almost got in accidents waving at us or watching from cars.

The entire city is decked out for the games, and its pretty darn cool. We have a celebrity status among the general public it seems, and the press is wandering around everywhere.

For those of you who know him, I've already run into Hernan Jansen the Venezuelan who trained at Marcos' club with me. He seemed suprised I was there, of course. I don't think he realizes what level my fencing's at now but anyways it was fun to say hi.

The village is made up of huge towers that remind me of the towers at Ohio State. They each have apartments that have about three rooms with double beds in them, a living space, a kitchen, and two bathrooms. They're all super clean aside from a ton of small spiders lying in wait for us. Evidently all the men have seperate rooms, while all the girls are sharing. I'm rooming with Emma Baratta, which has worked out well for us in the past.

Alexis and I had a conversation today at lunch about the team event. We realized we're the first womens saber team ever to be in the pan american games. We thought it would be amazing to take home the first womens saber team gold in the history of the pan american games or any ioc-sanctioned games (even before the olympics!) We're already planning our tactics to bump off some of the teams. All we can do is train hard and believe!

They do evidently have organized trips to the tourist atractions every day starting at certain times. Aside from those the team is planning on making a venture into the city tomorrow to see the Harry Potter movie, and we're also going to try and go to a good Churrascaria (Brazilian steakhouse).

Today Yury asked me whether Terrence or Coach gave me lessons... I wasn't sure what to think fo that. I think I may have suprised him when I fenced Dagmara and beat Caroline.

Talk to you all soon!!

Eileen