August 4, 2004
Day 1

The team boarded a bus in Baltimore at 1:15 pm bound for Dulles International Airport. Departure for Brussels, Belgium was 5 pm. Luckily we have a great friend in the travel business, we like to call her Viv Babe, who set us up with priority boarding and seats. NO middle seats!!!!!!!!! The scheduled flight was for approximately 8 hours (I think. It got a bit hazy for me around the 5th hour). After much musical chairs, I finally landed in a sweet seat, an exit row with plenty of leg room AND a reclining seatback, next to our goalkeeper coach Phil Whedden. You can always find Phil in the exit row, since his legs are about 5 feet long.

We took off and said goodbye to America for the next month. The flight was incredibly easy, with a great pre-Olympic movie, 'Miracle.' If you haven't seen it yet, GO! You don't have to be a hockey player, or an Olympian to appreciate, and get caught up in, the incredible emotions of competition. Needless to say, I cried. There is something so incredibly life- altering in representing your country. I am still trying to put my finger on what it is exactly, but I have narrowed it down to pride, conscientiousness, humility and courage. All of these four make the experience.

Day 2

We made a stop in Brussels. The airport is nice, but not much in the way of comforts or things to do, so when you have a four-hour layover, you create your own entertainment. A group of us sat down for an introductory Texas Hold'em, Belgian style. (We would have played with real belgian waffles, but Foudy ate them all. Just joking, she only had three hahahaha). Since we didn't bring poker chips, seeing as our baggage weight allowance was less than Joy's youngest daughter Madi, we had to be creative. There was only one solution, CANDY. Luckily we were well stocked in Jolly Ranchers, of all flavors, therefore, we could have different denominations. Red was worth $25, green worth $50, and purple(and blue) worth a whopping $100. The players were Kate Markgraf, Cat Reddick, Kristin Luckenbill, Cody Malley, Phil Wheddon, and myself. It wasn't uncommon to hear "I will see your 3 watermelons and raise you two apples and a blueberry." Just because there was NO actual money involved (thereby allowing Kate to go all in with a run of six, seven, eight, nine, and one AWESOME ace. This got the biggest laugh out of the group, seeing as you need five cards to complete a run. Well, actually the reason that it was so funny was that she was totally serious about the fact that there should be special consideration for an "almost" hand, IF you can top it off with an AWESOME ace. She is so going with me to Vegas!) didn't mean that the competition wasn't stiff. There was some bluffing, NOT by Cat Reddick, however. After being dealt pocket kings, she immediately proclaimed "I'm all in!" After which, everyone folded. Even though the subtleties were a bit lost on the group, it was a great use of time, and we have now made Hold'em the team game, only now we have to find more chips because we have eaten them all.

After the intense poker game, we made our way from Brussels to Athens. The travel couldn't have been any smoother. All the luggage showed up at the same time, so we put it on the bus and headed out to the Olympic Athletes Village.

I think the excitement hit me as we inched along (i use that phrase because our bus didn't seem to go over 20 miles an hour, which is contrary to every other vehicle on the road). When you arrive at the Village, the first thing you notice is the security. As a guest of the Games, you are bound by the rules of the IOC. Screening of all bags is priority number one. All of our personal and team bags must go through machines, exactly like checkpoints at airports. Once inside, we are greeted by one of the countless thousands of volunteers, "ya sas" (hi! in greek). You must show your identification/credential three times before you leave the building. On the other side, you are greeted again and shown the way to the bus that will take you to your assigned living area. If you can imagine, the Athletes Village is like a small city. Blocks upon blocks of condos, a city center (International Zone, post office, shopping, media center, internet cafe, etc), the world's largest cafeteria (five football fields), parks, swimming pool, all being used by a hundred-plus nationalilites. The USA is located in the green section, Centaurus. I have no idea what that means, but I will look it up (my guess, something about a century or a hundred). By the time we get in, put our bags down, peel our travel clothes off of us, and take a shower, it is dusk. The IZ doesn't close down until 11 pm, and the cafeteria is open 24 hours a day. A group of us make our way over, and then begin to explore on our own. Pearce, Mia and I decide to get a haircut. I am third in line, so instead of just sitting and waiting, I go to the official merchandise store, load up on gifts for friends (can't say what they are, you may be reading this). I take it directly to the post office, where I stuff the box and send it on its way. I finally sit down in the chair around 10 pm. I get a great haircut, for the price of a tip and leisurely walk the 10 minutes back to my room. My roommate, Lindsay Tarpley, is already in bed when I arrive. I finally fall asleep around 11:30 pm and sleep soundly until 3:30 am, when we both simultaneously wake up to use the restroom. I toss and turn for the next few hours, then fall back asleep HARD around 5:30. Unfortunately, we have to meet the team at 7:20 am for breakfast so we can catch the 8 am bus to the USOC processing center. I could have easily slept another five hours when April knocked on our window for us to get out of bed.

Brandi