Match day one

August 6, 2008
Today we depart for the city of Qinhuangdao, by train the 7 of us are taken to the train station and we are placed in an area and surrounded by security people that do not allow people to enter, then we board and ride the train for 2 hours to the city, with uniformed security people on the train with us and then we were met by more of the event staff for the venue. They take us by police escort to the hotel and we are greeted by the hotel staff, They have people there that present each of us with flowers and a ovation as we enter the hotel people are standing on the second floor. And then we are taken to our room and we enjoy dinner in the hotel.
Match day
We depart the hotel at 5:30 for a 10 minute trip. The bus has a police escort that radios ahead we are coming and they stop all traffic at any intersection to ensure we arrive without any problems. People are standing on the streets as we pass by watching us. The first game is going on as we enter so we head to the locker room and begin to prepare for the match. We begin to change and put on the belts for the communication device we have to help each other, put the device in the belts and the earpiece taped on our face and neck to keep it from moving around. Game went very good ended in a tie and we had one caution and one send off.It was very HOT and HUMID!!!!!!!

8-8-08
We travel back to Beijing in hopes of getting to the opening cermonies. As you have read before disappointment set in for our trio. We had to stay in the hotel and watch from the TV. FIFA did not have tickets for us and since Jair had to leave for ShangHai on 8-9-08 FIFA said he had to stay and We were not back when the bus left so we had to stay at the hotel as per directions from the bosses.
So for first match great game great experience great time.
Jair, Kermit