I Have Arrived

I am happy to say that I have arrived (along with my luggage) safe and sound in Singapore. My first impression..."what a beautiful country". I am very happy to be here, and I am really looking forward to this tournament. The travel to get here was very long (17 hours), but actually quite uneventful. As with every FIFA tournament, I flew business class, which meant that I had my very own sleeping pod. Honestly...this makes the travel so much easier. I was able to get about 8 hours of sleep during the flight and this really helped with my jet lag. When I arrived I was greeted by a nice young man in a shirt and tie...who then proceeded to carry my luggage outside to the waiting BMW with my driver who would take me to the hotel. I definitely felt like a big deal!

Pulling up to the hotel, my jaw dropped! This is, by far, the nicest hotel that I have ever stayed at. There were at least 8 bellman, standing on the red carpet to welcome me and tend to my every need! I felt kinda bad though...I'm sure they were expecting a tip, but I didn't have any cash on me...sorry :( This is one of those hotels where they bring your bags to your room for you, and then the butler comes to meet with you to show you the features of the room, including the TV in the bathroom, and then asks if you would like her to run you a bubble bath...are you kidding me! There are no light switches in the room...everything is controlled by buttons...including the curtains. There are 2 chandlers, one in the living room and the other in the bathroom, and even a doorbell! It's a really nice hotel.

Today began our official duties. We had our first of many tournament meetings. We started at 10am and went until lunch. Then we started back up again at 3pm, and finished just before dinner. It was a really long day. Tomorrow morning we have "weight control"...which basically means they are keeping track of our weight to make sure that we don't gain or lose too much while we are here. I am really hoping for the latter -guess I should hurry up and finish my Junior Mints so I can get started on that! After weight control we will have a light breakfast and then head out for training (both physical and technical). In the afternoon we will have a meeting to get the 1st round of appointments.

At the Youth Olympics there is both a female and a male soccer competition. It is a unique experience as it is very rare for the male and female referees to be together at the same tournament. The womens games start on Aug 12th, and the mens start on the 13th. I'm pretty sure that we will be in the stadium whenever we aren't refereeing, meaning that we will watch both the male and female competitions. I hope that there will be some time to watch some of the other sports that are here...but...not too sure about that!