Today was a very tiring day for me. I woke up with only 2 hours of sleep and had to get ready for USA team photo shoot at a temple. I thought it seemed silly just to have a photo shoot at 9:00 in the morning when everybody was celebrating late last night. But we all managed to make it work. After the USA team photo, we visited a high school that have been supporting our teams at our games. We wanted to thank the school in person.

When we arrived there, there were so many students lined up dressed in their shirts that represent the USA flag. I felt like we were celebrity coming on the school campus. The cheerleaders and dance team gave us 3 different cheers, I thought it was pretty interesting. After they finished with their cheers, they gave every one of us a bag with a gift inside, mine was pineapple cake, yummy. Some of the students wanted to trade shirts for our shirts. I decided since I didn't care much for my red polo shirt, I traded it with a girl for her shirt of an American flag across the shirt. 

Finally we get back to the hotel after a long morning, I was still exhausted from last night that I just passed out when I hit my bed. I slept for about 2 hours before dinner. After dinner, we had to get ready for the closing ceremony. It was mostly like a social with all countries in the Stadium on the field. They had set up tables and chairs for us to enjoy dinner or talk with each other. I have met few of the other countries athletics and traded pins. I would have traded clothes but I didn't want to get rid of anything I had. I wanted to remember this experience. 

We went out to celebrate again this time at Hooter's, yes, there's a Hooter's in Taiwan. I didn't stay long, because I was getting tired and wanted to pack before sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a very long day. So I'm going to try and stay up as late as possible and wake up early to pack the rest of the stuff, that I can get some sleep on the long flight to pass the time =). 

I'll be seeing you back in USA soon. 

So as most of you already had heard....WE WON THE GOLD!!!! We beat Germany again 4-0!!! Got my shut-out. I cannot explain how I really felt after the game when the ref finally called the end of the game. I couldn't believe it. I was walking out of the box and one of the girls came running down the field to jump on me and give me a hug. Then I realized, it was real that we are the world champion!!!! 

After the game, we just ran around the field waving at our fans, friends, and family. We had a flag and ran around with it. We had about 15 minutes to change quickly for the medal ceremony. We had a small water party in the locker room and changed. We were all lined up and waiting to get out on the field to receive our medals. I was soooo excited, I had happy tears coming down my cheeks. We finally got out there and received our medals. So many flashes coming across the stands for pictures of the team holding the medals. Now I truly know how the olympics play feel during the medal ceremony. It was such a great honor representing for my country and amazing experience. 

After hundred of pictures and hugging with teammates, friends, coaches, trainers, and family, we finally got back to the hotel to shower to get ready for our big celebration. We went out to this resturuant (I forget the name of it) but it was not any good so we splitted up, age 21 and older in a group and anyone under 21 in another group. Whoever is 21, of course, celebrated with drinks and underage kids celebrated with food that we weren't able to eat in forever!!! It was a such a great long night!!!

I finally got my GOLD medal. I cannot say how extremely excited I am about this achievement. I'm so glad I decided to give soccer a 2nd chance when I didn't play for a whole year. If I didn't give it another chance, I would have never met many amazing athletics and coaches. I have made so many friends in 3 weeks only. I think that is once in lifetime experience. But I'm now thinking about coming back for a second GOLD medal in 4 years. Oh yea. 

I want to thank everyone for their support and encouragement. I wouldn't have gone this far if it wasn't for you. Thank you. I'll be sure to upload some photos from Deaflympics to share with you. GO USA!!!!

This is it, the moment of the truth, or hours of truth since it's not just moment, haha. I'm pretty pumped up about the game and nervous too. But I'm staying focused on it and getting ready for the possibly the biggest game of my life. I'm just really honored to be here in Taiwan playing for the GOLD with the most amazing teammates and coaches, I wouldn't ask for anybody else to play with or for. 

Today, this morning we had an early practice. Boys' practice was cancelled so some of the guys wanted to come with us to help us get ready for the game. It was very helpful for me. In practice I was mostly working with the boy goalkeeper and other two guys shooting the balls at us. It was very useful to me because they had stronger legs than girls would in soccer game so if I could stop their shots, then I can stop anybody's!!! =)

After practice, the captain wanted to have a quick meeting with the team before lunch. She was a little nervous about the game and worried that most of the girls weren't focused and are thinking that the final game will be an easy game since we killed Germany 4-0. But they can take it from us if we play like crap like the game against Great Britain. I felt the same way our captain did. She challenged us to prove her that we really want to win this GOLD medal and how much we care about this game. So I think everybody will be more calm and focused on the game tomorrow. 

When the meeting was over, half of the team decided to go to the men's semi-final basketball game and other half went to the final volleyball game. I didn't really want to go out so I was the only staying at the hotel relaxing till it was time to go to the track meet to support our girl. Our girl did great job but unfortunately few other teams were too fast. But we will win the GOLD medal with her tomorrow night!!!

I cannot wait for tomorrow night. It's going to be a very long restless day but I will do my best to try and relax and maybe get a nap in the afternoon before game. We will be going to the boys' game in the morning where they will be playing for 7th place, I believe. Then after that, we probably will have a meeting with the coaches to go over everything and rest for the rest of the day. 

Again, the final game is at 7:00 PM in Taiwan time on Monday so that mean it will be 7:00 AM on Monday in Eastern time. This is the correct link, deaflympics.tv 

no dot com or anything like that. Just the way I typed it, you can just copy and paste it if that's the best way. Tomorrow, I think I might write a new blog a few hours before the game. It won't be much but I might have something to say =)!!!

Today, we had a day off (not what I was expecting after yesterday's game). But I guess it was needed for those who need to heal from the game, we have two girls that can barely walk without pain. But I know they are taking it easy and doing everything they can do to help it heal faster. I woke up earlier than most of the girls since three other girls and I wanted to do laundry before we go support one of our girls in track. We walked over to the big laundry place, there weren't very many people there. So the three girls and I got to know each other more and talked about what we want to do in our future. 

After laundry, we had to take a cab back to the hotel since we were running late and had to meet with the rest of the team to go support our track girl. We made it on time, luckily. But two other track teams had dropped out and there was only 8 other teams. All of them made it  to the finals without a race. So there was no race today, the finals race is tomorrow in the afternoon. Not sure if we would be able to support her since I have no idea what time is practice for tomorrow. 

We went to the Deaflympics store which I had already gone with my family other day. I bought some more stuff for other friends that I just thought of. I hope they will be happy with it =). Then we went back to the hotel to relax and wait for our assistant coach to go to Taipei 101. Since I had already gone, I decided to stay in with one of the girls who had gotten injured in the last game. The trainer told her not to walk as much so I kept her accompany. We decided to go meet my family at a jade market that is only open on the weekend. The jade market is like black market in New York City where you see series of tables with bunch of valuables things on tables waiting to be sold. It was amazing and most of the stuff were made of jade stone!!! Some were very cheap and some were expensive. Got myself some cool stuff for my small statues collection.

We were getting hungry so we decided to go to a resturantt that's famous. Modern Toilet Restaurant. That's the name of it. And it is exactly what it is in the name. There were toilet seats as chairs, bathtubs with glass on top of it as tables, and small toilets as plates. I thought it was sooo funny and I was a little weird out eating my meal out of a toilet, haha! There was even dessert. Can you guess what kind of dessert it was? Ice cream that shapes like poop. Yes, no joke here, haha. I'm being serious. I took pictures of everything. I will post them as soon as I download the pictures =).

Finally we get back to the hotel to regroup with the team. We found out that they were already getting ready to go back out to watch the women's basketball game. I decided not to go and hopped into a cold water pool to cool my legs and bad thumb off with one of the girls who's injured. It felt pretty good, similar to hot tub but cold and it was nice. 

Nothing else special happened today, we haven't seen the coach all day. Probably because the boys had a really bad game this morning. They had a game against Argentina. From what I hear, a few players got hurt badly in the game, many cards including red card, and terrible refs. There were several elbows or tackles and the refs would not call them against Argentina but make the worst call against US team when they had done nothing. Here's the link to the article if you are interested in reading about it. http://www.usdeaflympics.org/articles/article/2009/sep/12/argentina-elbows-us-2-0/

As for the final game for us women. It is on Monday September 14 at 7:00 PM. That's what the schedule is saying. It's bound to change, if it does, I will let you know as soon as possible. I just found out some of the girls' family back home were able to watch the last game against Great Britain online, I hope it worked for you guys too!!. The final game will be live online or at least 30 seconds delay =). I'm positive this is the correct link to be able to watch the game.

 deaflympics.tv

No .com or anything like that, just .tv

That's it. Trust me, I have tested just few hours ago watching the women's basketball game online, it was actually pretty exciting game!!! Go USA!!!

This morning, I said in the last blog I was dedicating the game to 9/11/01. I wrote 9/11/01 on my water bottle and the tape on my hand. I will never forget 9/11/01.

So the game against Great Britain. How do I explain this? We won but not in a way I thought we would win. The score was 2-1. Yes, I didn't get my 3rd shut-out. I was very disappointed in myself and upset. Overall the team, USA, played slow and like crap the entire game. I could see oppinurities the girls had to steal the ball or pass the ball or score but they didn't take it. I was yelling at the girls so loud that the stands could hear me. I know the team is deaf but I had to try. Nobody was looking behind to communicate with me but that's not their fault. It's just part of the deaf game. 

How did I lose my shut-out? It happened so fast. One of our girls had fouled a Great Britain player just outside of the box on my left side. They get a free kick, I called for 3-person wall to block the ball. They lined up and I told some of the girls inside the box to man up everyone and not let the ball bounce once. The kicker strike the ball and one of the girls from Great Britain headed toward to the ball and tried to head it in the goal but it was too far for her so she kicked it with her knee. I saw the ball was going left so I dove left and had my left hand on the ball. I thought I had blocked it out but the force I gave wasn't enough. The ball didn't go outside the post, it went in. I was devastated. But I knew the game wasn't over just yet. 

For the rest of 15 minutes after the goal I had missed, I made sure I didn't give them a chance to get another goal to tied the game. After the game, I gave everybody on Great Britain team a hug and that they played a good game. Then as we cooled down as a team, I wasn't smiling or joking around with the girls. I know we had won and that we are going to the finals but I wanted to achieve my goal of 4 shut-outs. Now I can only get 3 if I get one at the final game. 

And the worst timing ever, I had been randomly selected for drug testing. Come on, right after the game? And when I was just too upset to do anything? But I didn't have any choices so one of the girls and I went to the staduim where they held drug testing. It took them 3 hours to finally let us go after giving them cup of pee. One of the girls and I were very hungry and tired, we had gotten back to the hotel to find out the rest of the team had pizza. So we ordered ourselves pizza for lunch.

The rest of the day was not anything I would want to mention in the blog. It's not worth it. But tomorrow, we will be supporting one of our girls in track. Yes, we have a girl that compete in two sports in Deaflympics. She's amazing and have so much energy. We will support her then we probably will have practice in the afternoon.

Before I get ready for the big game against Great Britain, I just wanted to say one more thing  in case I forget later.

Today is September 11 in Taiwan time. I will never forget that day, 9/11/01. Since my team and I represent our country, USA, I have decided to dedicate my game today for those who have lost their lives, family, friends, and heros. I will do my best and get my 3rd shut-outs for them. Go USA and may everyone from 9/11/01 rest in peace.