Erika's Olympic Journal

Part 2
by Erika Rahming

My name is Erika Rahming and I am the Olympic Youth Ambassador for the Bahamas. The sport I do is judo. As the Olympic Youth Ambassador, I have been sent to Beijing, China, where the 2008 Olympics were held. I have been sent here for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Youth Camp, which is designed to give young people the opportunity to make friends from other countries or regions and to learn about each others culture.

There are about 500 people from over 200 countries that were attending the camp. Some of the campers were disabled and came from the hosting country.

This is a continuation of my journal which came out last week Friday.

The day after the Opening Ceremony was slow. In the morning my team and I left to watch basketball at the stadium. We had all come, thinking that today we would watch men's basketball but when we arrived we found out that it was women's. Although this disappointed us slightly, (we had all really wanted to watch the USA team,) we still entered the stadium hoping to see a good game.

By the time we got inside the stadium it was the fourth quarter of the first game (we were to watch two games that day). As the game finished up, some of the campers cheered because it was their countries that were playing each other.

When the game finished the "Fuwa" or lucky dolls in English came on the court to entertain us. Fuwa are the Olympic mascots. There are five of them, BeiBei, JingJing, HuanHuan, YingYing and NiNi. When you put their names together it means "Beijing welcomes you."

After the Fuwa entertained us, the second game started. This game was Mali vs. New Zealand. From beginning to the end the teams were even in points, so it kept us on the edge of our seats guessing who was going to win this game. It was very exciting, some of the campers decided to choose one team to cheer for to make it even more fun. So whenever their team scored a point, they would erupt in cheers.

At the Basketball game of Mali vs. New Zealand

In the end of the exciting game, New Zealand won and even though we wanted to watch another game, we were hungry because it was lunchtime so we headed back to camp for lunch.

On the fifth day of camp, the campers all went to the Olympic Village to meet with a member of our NOC. The member that met us was our chaperon for the plane ride there. Our chaperon showed us around the Olympic Village, which consisted mainly of apartments where the athletes and the rest of the NOC stayed.

The Olympic Village also had some shops where you could buy cheap souvenirs or food and other items. After the tour we ate at the Olympic dining hall where athletes and people from different countries met and mingled over food. There we had met Mrs Dillete as well as two Bahamian swimmers, Alana Dillete and Ariana Vanderpool-Wallace.

When we had finished eating we left to go to the Academy of Science, where they showed us a video on China's advances in space science. We were also shown around and we saw animal skeletons and stuffed animals that were being used for research to protect the environment.

The following morning was the mini Olympics. The mini Olympics was hosted by the camp and consisted of many games such as tug-o-war, table tennis competitions, Chinese yo-yo, and races. Chinese puzzles were also a part of the mini-Olympics. A few friends and I played tug-o-war and won a couple of times. It was really fun and we won bracelets and a Chinese lucky knot.

Playing Tug-o-war during the Mini-Olympcs

Later that morning we went to the Olympic Expo Beijing 2008 where we were given a tour of the building. The expo contained many things from previous Olympics.

On display there were medals from every Olympics held, as well as torches from every Olympics that used one. There were also many stamps on display as well as pins because collecting stamps and pins are very popular. There were many stamps on display and at the end of the tour there was a room for pin trading where some campers traded their pins with people.

There was also a section for Olympic artwork where various artists had sculptures, paintings and drawings showing. The artwork was very good and some pieces I can still remember clearly in my mind. One such artwork was a painting of men's basketball where a man is trying to dunk but most of the opposing players are pulling him down, trying to stop him.

One of the paintings that I liked at the Olympic Expo

That night was the birthday party, which was held for all the campers who celebrated their birthdays during the camp. The birthday party started in the auditorium where the birthday celebrants were given gifts and performances were held for them. I was surprised to see how many of my new friends celebrated birthdays just during the camp. Even my new best friend from Uganda celebrated her birthday.

On day seven of the camp I woke up early and got ready to go on the bus. I was excited about today because today I was going to see my sport, judo. For the bus ride I had to go with a different team than my own because my team was not scheduled to go. I had also managed to convince two of my new friends to join me to watch judo. They were very interested in getting to know judo because it was still a mystery to them.

My friend and I at the Judo Stadium

When we arrived my friends were shocked at what they saw, they could not believe that judo was pushing, pulling and throwing people around. They especially could not believe that judo was my sport.

The judo matches were exciting to me because I was eager to see new methods that I could apply to my own training. I was also eager to see if there were any judokas (judo players) that I knew. After a while some of the campers brought snacks and shared them, I made some new friends over these snacks.

On the way back the coordinators gave us snacks as they usually do when we are driving for long periods. In my bag I found some unusual foods such as eggs cooked in tea, a can of red bean and rice mix, and a fish sausage. I am not too adventurous with food and so I stuck with the crackers and chips.

That night, some campers went to the pool while I stayed behind with other campers to watch "Green Melody, Youth Carnival" where many campers performed. Some of my friends went on stage and danced, sang and also played the piano. I was surprised to see how talented everyone was. I really enjoyed the show and it made me want to learn how to play an instrument even more.

This is the end of my journal of the middle of my stay in the Olympic Youth Camp. Look out for my last article which I will be sending soon.