Wrestling Blogs - Ben Askren

So I am very happy because I woke up to the second day of Blue skies in a row, it looks like China's plan to clear the skies is working at least for now. ALso my parents and my high school coach get in tonight so I am excited for that. Yesterday was a good day, since I am only doing one practice a day now I am really getting to sleep in which is nice. I went and worked out with Max and did a quick Sauna. After that Max, Steele, Shawn, Amy and I took off for the forbidden city. We met up with the Porsche family( my friends from FL) for a quick minute at Tianamen square, there wasn't much to see here, before heading over to the forbidden city. There were so many people there. Shawn wanted me and him to get our pictures taken in these warriors costumes and I obliged. I started acting like an idiot as soon as I had the gear on and you should have seen the crowd it drew. After nine days here I am convinced the Chinese are very easily amused, especially by foriegners. The forbidden city was the home to emporers for many hundreds of years. It got me thinking how boring it must have been to sit on the throne day after day, I really dont think I could have done it. Shawn says he would have loved it though. Then we headed over to hometown hopefuls for a bit to grab something to eat and we got this awesome spot on the couches. To finish up the night we headed to the bird's nest for track and field. I got to see fellow former Mizzou Tiger Christian Cantwell get a silver. HE made it on his last throw, it had to be an awesome feeling. I have no plans today and I will probably do a bunch of relaxing.

Ben