China7

Ahhhhh, the vacation in China begins. I planned on going to the market alone today. To immerse myself in the country with no help. Fun. First I had to watch my teammate do the 800m. Not the best race.... He boxed himself out of the race in the first lap by being too passive. Shucks. Another VI bites the dust. The 800m is my favorite track race to watch for some reason. Its like a fast paced chess match, just long enough to be really strategic, but short enough for a negro like me to enjoy. I stayed after the race to watch some other stuff. And guess who plops down with his other teammates not 2 rows in front of me? EVORA! Now, the me I'd like to become would have reacted impulsively and said "hey man, great jumps yesterday, would you mind taking a picture with me?, it would mean a lot". But instead i over-thought the situation and imagined all of the bad scenarios. Its not normal for me to even want to offer to take pictures with people, im so self-centered and arrogant, jeez Hasheem. Took Hasheem 2.0 a little too far with the confidence man. But anyway, so after I mess up that opportunity to look natural (that's what was the thing, i wanted to act natural and make it seem like i just noticed him) i decide i can get it when he leaves. But this doesn't work out as he walks with his group of people and was kinda sheilded from my view, so how could i know it was him in a normal situation? Hasheem, chill bro, you should just took the picture anyway. So, yea missed that chance.

Instead of going to the market, I chilled during the day. Decided to go to swimming, or water track and field. It was pretty cool. I have no idea how those people can swim for so long. Swimming is verrrrrrrrrrrrry tiring in my experience. Maybe im not choosing the path of least resistance. My 6th grade swimming lessons have probably worn off. Anyway, when i went to sit down, team America was occupying a prominent area, and I didn't know so I asked "Is this just for the US?", a guy said "Yea, are you American?" and then I had to pause and say "no". That was jolting. Weird. Then as I wandered off to some obscure seating I had an epiphany. American accents are solely AMERICAN!!! Don't judge me, its not that stupid. I was thinking how they could tell if i was American or not, and then I made the connection that an American accent is solely American. Like, how the heck could you have that accent if you lived in another country? You wouldn't! The accent is forever tied to the actual location. I know I sound stupid. But I just never realized or thought about NOBODY but Americans talking the way we do.

Italians did well swimming. I decided for like an hour that I wanted an Italian name. One of their names was Rocco Sadalino or something. Another was Lucio Spadaro or something. So cool man. But I got off that phase quickly. Lol.

Walked around after the swimming and took some cool pictures of the illumined stadiums. The skin surrounding the stadiums lit up at night and alternated colors. It was pretty g. Took a couple more pics with Asians. Watched some track events. Went back to the village. Salaams.