For your viewing pleasure... cheaper than a night at the movies

Hi again... this is Ashley. I thought you all would enjoy a couple of video clips from our trip. We were given a Flip Video. It is a tiny video camera, the size of a phone, we were able to take it everywhere with us. I got a few great clips of us exploring Beijing after Mark checked out of the Olympic Athlete Village.



This is our new friend Cindy. She isn't shy and manages to give Mark a great plug. I am thinking about hiring her as his publicist! Just Kidding!




This is Andy, the suit maker. And, yes, Mark did actually get the 2 suits and 4 shirts he ordered from the Silk Market. Andy came to our hotel room at midnight to do a fitting and the suits and shirts were completed and delivered to us the next morning at 8am. Andy was wearing the same outfit that morning that he was wearing the night before during the fitting. Mark claims that they are the best fitting suits and shirts he as ever owned!




The Great wall was AWESOME! All Mark could think of was how hard a dry land workout would be on top of the great wall... PK, Mark even claimed that he thinks he could beat Joe G in a race to the top!

Stay tuned... one day Mark will figure out how to post his pictures. He took almost 1,000 pictures- I can't wait for you all to see them!

Im back

Hello all this is Mark and I am back. I am guess that you guys will be asking for Ashley back in no time. It has been a great ride but I am very happy to be home and sleeping in my own bed. I guess it has been a while since I posted and I dont really know where to start. I have been really happy with the excitement that the blog has gotten. I am planning on keeping it up for as long as I can so you guys can keep up with where I am and where I am going.

As you guys saw the Olympic swimming was amazing. It was easily the fastest and deepest swim meet ever held. I heard that swimming was the main focus back in the USA which is amazing. I am so glad to have been a part of all of the excitement even though I didnt win eight gold medals. I would say after my 100 breast I really enjoyed going to the sessions just as a swimming fan. Being able to watch swimming of this level made me proud to have been part of it all. Swimming on the relay was also a ton of fun. I did not swim as fast as I would have liked but it is still an amazing experience to be a part of a USA relay at the Olympics. Watching the finals of the relays made me pretty nervous. The Aussies had a great team and swam a great race. I am just happy we came out on top.

After swimming was over Ashley and I spent a lot of time together. As she told you we were able to see some of the sights of Beijing and we were also able to get to some of the other sporting events (track and diving). In many ways it is more fun to be a part of the Olympics as a spectator. You can sit back and think about the scope of the Olympics and how much it means to much of the world. When you are competing you dont think about how big of a deal it is to be a part of it because if you do then it may hurt your performance. Going to the other sports made me realize this.

I am planning on doing some more posts coming up but right now thats all I have. I am going to put up some pictures that I though you guys would want to see (if I can figure it out). Enjoy and I will be back soon. Thanks again for all of your support.

Vacation (with a twist of work)

Well, Mark is finally out of the athlete village and free to enjoy himself (a little bit). Mark checked out of the athlete village shortly after the last day of swimming on August 17th. The Gangloff/Rubenstein family went out to a great dinner that night. We went to a fun tea house where we saw folk music performers and a puppet show. It was a blast. The Gangloff's ordered a traditional Peking Duck and loved it so much they ordered a second one! After dinner we strolled through Tien An Men Square... it was beautiful at night. Mark was so funny because he was just so happy to be out of the village and actually free to walk around!

After dinner, Mark and I headed out to a party hosted by Speedo. We saw so many friends from the US, but also former Auburn teammates from other countries. Funny how the NBA guys were there also... I think they might have a crush on a few of the swimmers!

The family left the next morning, and after a long nap Mark and I headed out for the day. We ate lunch with Jeri and Eric and then Eric, Mark and I walked around the Summer Palace. It was spectacular! Our afternoon was perfectly relaxing as we slowly walked around enjoying being away from the city and spending time with our good friend Eric. We talked about our plans for when we return to the States and what lies ahead for Eric. Mark and I are so proud of Eric for being so strong through this difficult time.

That night we went to dinner with our friends Joe and Anne and some new American friends who are living in Beijing and a couple of their friends who are native to Beijing. We went to a fantastic pizza place in an awesome district of Beijing called Ho Hi. Think french quarter-Beijing style. It was great! There were rows of restaurants and bars. Everyone had set up a TV or screen out in the sidewalk to watch the Olympics. There was lots of music and fun... and lots of karaoke-- I was so tempted!

Yesterday Mark was back to work. He attended a media function at the Speedo headquarters here in Beijing and then we attended a great event hosted by Right To Play. Right To Play encourages sports to better develop children in poverty stricken and developing areas of not only the US but around the world. It was so inspirational hearing from athletes that use their influence and time and effort to help others.

Last night we got to see the finals of the men's 3 meter diving competition. It was awesome! The US guys, Chris and Troy, dove well but missed out on a medal. The Chinese crowd went crazy every time a Chinese diver performed-Chinese audience members were decked out in flags, face paint, and temporary tattoos.

Today I went back to the Great Wall with Mark. It was just as breathtaking the second time... Mark was blown away. After we did a "photo shoot" (the two of us acting ridiculous on top of the great wall and taking pictures of it) we, just like elite athletes do, picked a point and raced to the top... both of us were huffing and puffing!

This afternoon we are waiting on a tailor (we'll see if he shows up) that is making Mark a couple of suits (we think--we found this guy at the silk market and supposedly Mark is getting a couple of suits and four shirts for $350!!). If "Andy" shows up it will be a great deal... if not, Mark will be upset, but at least we'll have a great story to tell.

We leave for the States tomorrow and we're both ready to get back. Mark is excited to share his experiences with you as well.

Swimming Concludes...

The 2008 Olympic Games for the swimmers is now complete. It was a successful week for many of them. The 400 medley relay final was this morning (Mark swam on the prelim relay on Friday... the US prelim relay qualified first as they headed into finals). The relay, though I didn't have tickets, was spectacular with another world record and a gold medal. Mark, though he did not swim in the finals still received a gold medal for his efforts to get the team into the finals. He, like all elite athletes, always sees room for improvement in his performances, but sees the last four years and the last few weeks as a huge accomplishment.

Instead of going to the Water Cube to watch the event today (it was one of the hardest tickets to get because of the Michael's history-making event) mom and I went to the Forbidden City and took a rickshaw tour through a neighborhood. It was fascinating! We toured through a Hutongs where thousands of people lived. The guy driving our rickshaw told us that there is only 1 toilet and 1 shower for every 100 people. Can you imagine?! We saw children playing, women sewing, and small businesses such as bakeries throughout the neighborhood. The "streets" were so small that our tiny rickshaw could barely fit through them. Our "driver" told us that these neighborhoods were more than 500 years old.
After touring the Hutongs, mom and I actually sat down at a restaurant! We had dumplings and some kind of chicken... I think. Neither one of us knows how to use chopsticks, so mom used the soup spoon to eat her chicken and I poorly stabbed at my food with a chopstick. We are so proud of ourselves for eating real food (and all of you that have commented on our previous food diaries of french fries, Pizza Hut, and Zone bars should be proud of us too!).

This afternoon, now that swimming is over, Mark will check out of the athlete village and come to our hotel for the next few nights. We did have a chance to visit Mark in the village a couple of days ago. It is amazing. It is like its own city with a population of more than 15,000. Within the athlete village there is a huge dining hall where all athletes eat, a barber shop, post office, stores, a museum and anything else you might find in a small town. The athletes stay in apartments that are similar to college dorms. We had so much fun sitting in the dining hall with Mark and all of the other athletes. Mom sat next to Jason Lezack and was thrilled when Jason pulled his new bronze medal out of his bag and let her hold it.

Looking around, even though the village is great, we were even more amazed that these athletes were able to perform best times, best performances and record breaking races. Between the small living spaces, all of the traveling, cafeteria food and all of the walking I can see where it would be difficult to perform at your best... but many of these athletes do! When I think about it... I am more impressed with every event I see.

Mark and I will be sight seeing more in the next few days after my mother and the Gangloff's head back to the States tomorrow. Mark and I will stay until the 21st. I will probably post one more time and then I will pass the blog back over to Mark so that he can share his experiences with you. Thanks again for your support!

Another Great Day... Another Wonder of the World!

Yesterday, with no tickets in hand, the five of us, Ken, Jenny, and Cindy Gangloff, my mother, Diane, and I hopped on a bus and went to the Great Wall. We went to a part of the wall called Mutianyu. Because of the cycling competition, the part of the wall that is usually popular amongst tourists was closed so we actually got to visit one of the most beautiful stretches of the wall. The tour guide said that in Chinese culture if you climb the wall then you are considered a "real hero". Well, we are about half a hero each because we took the chair lift up and the toboggan down (the chair lift is just like a ski lift and the toboggan is on a metal slide, kind of like a luge--it was AWESOME!). I took plenty of pictures and video that I will post when we get home.





So, was the great wall great? Yes... it was amazing. It was hot, but we were able to actually see blue skies being that far from the city and we were able to see for miles. It was breathtaking. The smog in Beijing has been worse than even we could imagine. Think about L.A. on its worse day and multiply by at least 100! So, needless to say, escaping from the city and being able to breath clean air while experiencing one of the wonders of the world was fantastic!

My mother and I met a couple of friends for dinner last night at the famous Courtyard restaurant in Beijing. It was delicious! While at dinner, Mark called me to fill me in on his day. Yesterday Mark received a letter from a new fan, Lynn Cheney's executive assistant! She wrote him a personal note telling him how proud she was of him, that she was a former swimmer, that her favorite movie is The Guardian, and that she would be cheering for him. She also invited us to the White House this fall-- cool, huh?!

Today, my mother and I have a busy day... we are going to diving and then straight to football (soccer)- Go USA!

Tomorrow we are hoping to visit Mark in the athlete village. Mark did say earlier this week that he ate breakfast with Roger Federer, so we are hoping to see someone really amazing (in addition to Mark, of course!).

Still, we are having the time of our lives here in Beijing and we can't wait to tell you more about it. If there is something specific you'd like me to tell you about in my next blog, please let me know in a comment and I will do my best fill you in.

Congrats Mark!

Today was a fantastic day! We got up early again and went over to the Water Cube on the USA Swimming bus. We met up with Joe and Anne (one of Mark's great friends from Firestone High School and his wife came to Beijing to cheer for Mark... wasn't that incredibly nice?!) and all seven of us headed into the venue. There was amazing swims heat after heat. Mark raced about an hour after the session started (thank goodness because I don't think I could have waited any longer). He marched out with the other finalists like normal, but looked even more relaxed, cool and collected than usual- this is usually a very good sign for a great swim. With all of his friends and family cheering for him at home and the seven of us in the stands as well as his coach David Marsh and other teammates, Mark swam a great race and posted a time of 1:00.2. He had gotten faster with every swim at this Olympic Games! Mark finished 8th, but swam a very solid race and was extremely satisfied. As we walked to lunch he leaned over and said, "you know that my time this morning would have won the 2004 Olympics, right?!" I knew when he told me that, that he was happy and ready for his next race... the relay.


Mark received many handshakes, hugs, and "congrats!". Jenny Thompson and Gary Hall Jr. and Mark's agents, David Arluck and Sabir Muhammad, all greeted Mark after his race to tell him what a great swim he had. We also ran into another family who lives in Akron and attended Firestone High School who stopped to talk to Mark and take pictures with him- what a small world. Everyone was very proud of Mark, as I am sure you all are. Pleas know that we appreciate every ounce of support and every single nice thought and word of encouragement.

Once we said goodbye to Mark and wished him another big congrats, Joe, Anne, my mother, Jeri Moss (one of my best friends--and Eric Shanteau's girlfriend), Mr. Moss, and I all sat at the Moss's hotel for a slice of pepperoni pizza. We had a blast at lunch. Another Auburn University friend, Yoav Bruck, joined us. Yoav swam for David Marsh in the early nineties and has since returned to Israel as a sports broadcaster... he is still a huge AU fan... of course! We talked and laughed and told stories. WAR EAGLE is everywhere!!

After hanging out with our friends in the afternoon, my mom and I headed back to the Olympic Park to spend some time in the superstore... I hope everyone wants Olympic gear for Christmas this year--don't even bother with a Christmas list!

We went back to the pool tonight to watch another friend, Jeremy Knowles, who trains with Mark and swims for the Bahamas, swim the prelims heat of the 200m fly. Jeremy is a great guy and we are really looking forward to the rest of his swims this week. Mark, who was sitting in the athlete section, really saw some excitement when he sat next to LeBron James... yep, that's right, LeBron James. The basketball team heard how well the swimmers had been competing and wanted to see it for themselves. Don't worry, Mark got a picture and we will post it as soon as we get back home.

Did I mention that President Bush, Bill Gates, and other big wigs have been attending the swimming sessions?! I think they were good luck for Mark and now I am just wondering how we are going to get them all to all of Mark's meets.

Have I even talked about the men's 400 freestyle relay yet? It was AMAZING! I have never seen four guys more determined to win an event in my life. Each one of them, Michael Phelps, Garret Webber-Gale, Cullen Jones, and Jason Lezak swam great splits, but Lezak is now my hero! The US team was never close to leading throughout the entire race until Jason Lezak's last stroke. The sweetest thing (for all the romantics reading) is during the victory lap, Lezak climbed up into the stands to give his wife a kiss--- I hope Mark was taking notes!



Well, I hope that I have satisfied your craving for a little Beijing news and I hope to catch you up as the week progresses. Tomorrow we are going to see the great wall, I'll take lots of pictures, and maybe I'll try something more than McDonald's.

I will post video clips and more pics when we get home, but I have posted a couple more to get you through until then.

In Beijing-

We arrived in Beijing on Friday after a two day trip (I left Wednesday at 11am!). As soon as we arrived we met a friend of a friend at the airport to head straight to pick up all of the tickets we had purchased the week before. Cindy and Ken (Mark's sister and dad) took the luggage to the hotel while Jenny, my mom, and I headed out with Jewel (our new friend) on our first Beijing adventure.

We took a taxi to the ticket office (which was much easier with traveling with someone who spoke Chinese we later learned) and then took the subway to the hotel from the ticket office. We used the restroom which was much different than in the states, to say the least.

At this point we were thrilled... we had picked up every ticket that we had ordered. We were all so relieved to have them in our hands after hearing and reading about horror stories of fake and fraudulent ticketing agencies. We were set and ready to go!!!

When we got to the hotel we were pleasantly surprised by all of the amenities and familiar things. We are staying at a Double Tree complete with chocolate chip cookies. During the opening ceremonies, we met up with all of the other USA Swimming families to watch the opening ceremonies together. It was so nice to meet and mingle with other parents, families, and friends of other USA Swimming team members.

Mark's event, thankfully, is on the first day of the Olympic Games. I say "thankfully" because I cannot imagine what it would be like to have to be nervous for many more than 24 hours before we got to Mark swim. Mark's first swim was not his best, but was good enough to get him into the semi finals ( 1:00.7- Mark's best time was posted at the US Olympic Trials at 1:00.1) With a big sigh of relief we knew that he would get at least one more swim the next morning in the semi-finals (top 16 make the semi-finals and Mark was 15th after prelims).

As a side note: I got horribly sick on this first day and it was a miracle I even got to see Mark swim. Once I was able to cleanse my system of whatever had gotten in it I started feeling much better. I immediately stopped making fun of my mother who packed 100 individual Germ-X wipes and enough over-the-counter drugs to supply all of Beijing. Each and every Germ-X wipe will be used by the end of the trip... I can guarantee you.

So, excited to watch Mark loosen up a little and swim his race like he knows how to do, we got up early this morning, ate breakfast (don't worry, I just had a piece of toast) and headed to the Water Cube on the bus organized by USA Swimming. We got to the pool and anxiously sat in our seats.

I don't know why any of us were nervous... this is Mark's job and he does it very well. Very confidently he got up on the block and swam like he needed to swim to put him into the finals (1:00.44- still not his best time, but a solid time to lock him into a finals swim tomorrow). He was so happy, he even looked up into the stands and smiled.

After swimming, my mom, Cindy and I (along with two friends of our who traveled to China to watch Mark) sat at McDonald's and ate something familiar, finally... french fries! After lunch and hanging out at the Olympic Park for a couple of hours we went to a gymnastics qualifying round (during our time in Beijing we will see gymnastics, diving, table tennis, men's soccer, and swimming, of course). One thing that is surprising to all of us is that the venues are not full. There were literally hundreds of seats open at the gymnastics session. We are shocked because the events are sold out but it seems as though people are not showing up. It is so disappointing to see people outside of the gates, desperate for tickets, and hundreds of open seats that these desperate ticket seekers could be sitting in.

Our challenges in Beijing have included transportation and getting around the city. It is incredibly difficult to hail a cab and once you get a cab to pull over, no cab drivers seem speak English and some cannot even read a map. The hotel we are staying at is very new and so many drivers don't even know that it exists! Tonight we circled Beijing in a cab for almost an hour.

I am so looking forward to tomorrow's race. Mark will swim in the finals and I've got a great feeling that it is going to be a big swim for him. I saw him tonight after his practice and he looked happy and ready; I can't wait! Tomorrow will be the day that he breaks 1:00 minute.

I will try to get back on and post again in the next few days. Please keep your fingers crossed and Mark in your thoughts... I am off to bed to dream of fast swimming and french fries!

Okay, Okay, I have been resisting posting since Mark turned it over to me. I am going to try to remember that this blog is not a chance for me to live out my dreams of being a celebrity, but a chance to share our upcoming trip with you. Well, as all of you can imagine, a trip to Beijing is a pretty big deal. The process started about six months ago when we tentatively started making plans. We hooked up with a friend of the family who is a travel agent and began making tentative flight and hotel reservations. "Tentative" might sound harsh, but I didn't want to jinx anything, as Mark still had to swim out of his mind at Trials in June (which he did!!).

For the last year we continued to hear, and read, about how hard it was going to be to find, much less buy Olympic event tickets. I shrugged off the entire issue until recently... and recently I started FREAKING OUT. Thankfully, last week a block of tickets opened up and we ended up having access to swimming tickets, diving, tickets (which I am so excited about), ping pong tickets, gymnastics tickets, and soccer tickets, among others but these were our tickets of choice.

(When I refer to "us" and "we" I am referring to my mother and I. We have been planning for a couple of years that if we had the opportunity and a reason to go, that we were going to travel to Beijing together... I am so excited to go with her!)

Anyway, we started filling in the blanks of our trip as soon as Mark touched the wall to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games. Our trip was officially on... and we still had a lot to do. In the last few weeks since trials we have been making plans and taking care of details such as travel insurance, vaccinations, Chinese visas, etc. It has been a very involved process, but I am happy to say that it is all done and we leave tomorrow!!

This evening I have been running around the house like a crazy woman, packing, making photo copies of my passport, gathering up granola bars and fruit snacks to take on the trip... I felt like I was running in circles, so I decided to sit and write.

I will be leaving Charlotte tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11:30am and won't get into Beijing until 10:30am on Friday. On Friday we will run around Beijing, picking up tickets, checking into our hotel, and getting ready for an incredible 2 weeks!

I have got to get back to packing... and I have to get Daisy out from under the bed (I have not seen her since I pulled the suitcase out of the storage closet!). I will continue to post updates and highlights from our trip... stay tuned...

#6

Hey guys I am back. I am sorry it took so long but I have been kind of lazy. All my chess playing and talking to Ash on the webcam has taken up most of my free time. I better be getting better at chess because I have played quite a few games since the trip started. Eric still has the lead 13-9 so I still have some work to do. Anyway I know you arent reading this blog to hear about my chess playing. Safari night was really cool and we saw all kinds of cool animals like different kinds of deer, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, tigers, lions, hyenas, and wolves. I will not be posting any pictures though, apparently wild animals dont like the flashes from our cameras so the park told us we were not allowed to use them. I tried to take some other photos without the flash but they were black blobs and I dont think you guys want to see that.

Safari night was a lot of fun but probably the best part of the night was on the way home on the bus. The bus was like a regular coach bus with a bunch of seats but they had this little downstairs with a couch and two chairs, it looked a little bit like a limo but not that nice. Anyway they had a tv screen and some microphones and a bunch of the swimmers were doing karaoke. That was really entertaining. I will never think of "Hotel California" in the same way ever again. Honestly I think we have been gone so long that people are getting really bored and very stir crazy.

Last night we had our rookie skit night. The people who have never made the Olympics get put into groups where they have to make up and perform their own skits. Most of the time they just make fun of the older members of the team (ie. Dara Torres). Its all in good fun and every has a pretty good time doing it. I will have to say the best was Cullen Jones performing as Steve Urkel. Their group did a version of the Dating Game. Cullen was Urkel while the other members of his group were members of the team. For those of you that dont know Cullen he is usually very stylish and sleek so I would not expect him to be that great at playing Steve Erkel. He was amazing and really dorky and funny it was great and people loved it.

So that is basically what has been going on around here. Training is good, more of the same. I am sorry to let every know but this is my last post until after the Olympics is over. The USOC has some restrictions on blogging during the Olympics so I am going to follow all of their rules. If I can get back on then I plan on it but if not Ashley will be taken over my duties. She is going to start posting when she gets to Beijing so every will still be able to know what is going on. I am sure she is going to do a great job, she happens to get herself into some interesting predicaments.

Since this is the last time you hear from me, I would like to tell everyone thanks! Everyone has been very supportive since I put up this blog and sending me great messages. It does mean a lot to me especially when I am away from most of you for so long. A lot of us dont get to see each other much so its great to get your well wishes and it is greatly appreciated. On top of that I have to say thanks again for all the support that you have given me throughout my career. I honestly believe that without the support of my family, coaches, and friends that I would not have had the success that I have had today. Everyone should feel very much a part of my Olympic experience. Only seven days until I swim and I expect everyone at home to be cheering for me. I hope everyone is well and I will do my best to bring home the gold!