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Opening Ceremonies Opening gala in Athens
Reporting in from the Olympic Village after the Opening Ceremonies, an awesome emotional experience

Olympic victory
Lindsay James helped Greece to a 3-0 win over Italy on Monday, August 16.
ATHENS, GREECE – Well I have been in the village for about a week and I don't think I will ever want to leave. The village really is a small city. It is huge, and it has all the amenities needed for living as well as having a blast.

So what does it look like?

There are streets and streets of three- to four-story condos with huge balconies. Each country is in its own neighborhood, labeled by its flag. To be honest, whe nI walk around, there are flags that I have never seen before. My team lives in two stories of one of the Greek buildings; we live right next door to the Greek baseball team. Not bad!

In each condo there are three rooms, two bathrooms, and a common living space. Everything is white, and the floors are done in a slate-colored marble. Even though it reminds me of dorm life, I'm diggin' it.

There are huge decorative fountains everywhere and at night the place is beautifully lit up by street lamps. There are never-ending grass fields between the streets. The village is right in the middle of the valley of Athens, so we are surrounded by the mountains. It's absolutely beautiful.

In the village, there is everything an athlete can ask for: beautiful people, great food, computer access, a dance club, free salon, free massages, free laundry, a religion center, and of course, two rooms of the best video games in the world.

The Opening Ceremonies

At first I was a little nervous because our costumes were not what I had expected. I thought we were going to wear our country's colors of blue and white. So I was confused when we were told we were wearing olive-green and tan suits. Yikes! I was not wild about the outfits at first, particularly our brown loafers, but after thinking about the history involving the olive branch, I was proud to wear my blazer and pants.

Walking into the Olympic stadium, with the lights low and the spectators waving thousands of blinking white lights and Greek flags, was the most emotional experience of my life. The crowd chanted "Hellas!" (Greek for Greece) and I was just overwhelmed. At one point I couldn't even hear anything in the stadium because I wanted to cry. I was waving my flag, jumping up and down, running, screaming, and just going crazy. This was the best experience of my life. Nobody else in that stadium could feel what the athletes representing Greece could feel. It was magic.

Any celebrity sightings?

Let me tell you! I have never been more starstruck in my life. After the Opening Ceremonies, at 2 in the morning all the athletes were cramming into the dining hall for a bite to eat. As walked with my teammates, I noticed some really tall men coming out wearing navy blue, red, and white. I finally figured out it was the U.S. men's basketball team. They walked by and I laughed and I smiled at some familiar-looking player. We kept eye contact for a while and I turned away pleased. I turned back around and he was still looking in our direction. The basketball players were standing in a group trying to avoid fans. As I looked back over, the guy waved me over. I hesitated, but one of my teammates grabbed me and forced me to walk over. Once I reached the group of guys I started recognizing them. The guy that waved us over was Allen Iverson. Awesome!

Anything embarrassing happen?

Well, being Greek-Americans who live in America, some of my teammates were not familiar with the plumbing system in Greece. Basically, you are not supposed to throw any paper into the toilet. Or anything else. Everything is supposed to go into the trash can.

Apparently my teammates in the apartment next to me did not know this and were throwing baby wipes into the toilet. One late night when we got back from the field we came into the building. From the bottom of the stairs, we smelled something awful. When we reached our apartment, we knew something was wrong. We opened the door to find that the plumbing had exploded all over the room. It was possibly the grossest thing I have ever seen. We called for assistance and my whole team stood outside as the Greek workers came in and screamed at us. Ah, the glory of the Olympics!

We are starting to play ball so next time I will start to write a little about softball, because indeed, that is why I'm here. But for now, I am just enjoying every bit of my surroundings.

— Lindsay James