To say the least, the day even at 4:00 pm was a hot, humid, smoggy, muggy one... at least we are going to go with "muggy." Training was sharp and intense but also short, which is not surprising, given that we have a huge game tomorrow. We are going to need our running legs on full power if we hope to get the result we need from the Chinese.

Funnily enough, even though the Chinese are traditionally a much stronger team than the Argentineans, everyone is much more relaxed now. And, I am sure this will translate onto the field as well.

Once back at the hotel, we had ice baths, which are not my favorite thing. However, I am prepared to do anything I can to get an edge, even if that means sitting in frigid waters for a few minutes.

Nothing much happened after the ice baths, except dinner in the hotel, and a meeting before the opening ceremonies began. We met in the team's dining room, and were amazed at the opening ceremonies. It took a while for Les, our tech wizard, to get the TV projected onto the wall of our dining room, so many of us left and went to my room to watch events get under way.

I know that 4 billion people around the world are watching, including many in Canada, so I am sure you will agree that the spectacle was amazing. It is hard to find the words to do it justice. I really enjoyed getting to sit and watch everything unfolding on the television, especially as all the team members in my room had a comment or two to personalize the experience.

The best moment, for me anyway, was when there were all these mobile boxes in the middle of the stage moving up and down to the music. In our bedroom, a heated debate began as to whether there were actually people under these boxes, or whether the show was being done mechanically. Finally Martina yelled "they're machines," and then almost at that moment we could see the legs, and all the people who had been moving the boxes popped out and waved - it was classic.

Some other funny moments occurred when Chappy, almost to herself, muttered that "Chinese people are really good at making lines!!!!!! " This may be true, but it was hilarious to hear. I will have to direct everyone to Amy Walsh's site now, as I am positive she will do a better job than me at describing these little moments we experienced.

Our big moment came right around 9:45 pm, when we dressed ourselves in our opening ceremony clothing and marched through the hotel to our meeting room. Here, Les had finally managed to fix the glitches in the machines, and we saw the rest of the ceremonies projected onto the large wall.

There was a camera crew there in the hotel, who recorded us all marching in to the room together, going wild, as the hotel staff lined the hallway cheering us on and clapping wildly. Even though we couldn't be at the actual ceremonies, everyone did their very best to make this event as special as possible.

They even included us on the CBC feed so that everyone back home could see us enjoying our own version of the ceremony.

In the end, we know that we may have missed out on a wonderful occasion, but I bet our view was better than most people's and getting to be a part of the whole experience, without having to wait in long marshalling lines, or having to stand for over two hours, wasn't so shabby. Tomorrow is the game.