As previously stated,
Alejandro Albor left for Beijing on September 3rd. He arrived safe and
sound at the Beijing airport (which he noted was beautiful and full of
military police for security purposes) and got on a bus to head to the
Olympic Village. Alejandro, who is rooming with his teammate David Lee
(from San Diego), said that the Olympic village is amazing. The Athens
village was beautiful, but can’t even compare to Beijing’s Olympic
Village, which also has all of the facilities needed for wheelchair
users.
Being in
Beijing and surrounded by a multitude of other elite athletes from
around the world has reminded Alejandro of why he loves sports so much.
He loves being around people who have the same passion for sports and
competition that he does, and enjoys the unity he feels with his fellow
athletes as everyone is in the same frame of mind. Also, for him it’s
great to have the opportunity to catch up with the athletes he knows
from Mexico and Central America.
On September
8th, Alejandro ventured outside of the Olympic Village for the first
time and went into the city with some of his teammates. The village is
only 35 miles from Beijing, but due to the sheer volume of traffic, it
took them an hour and a half to get there. Once in the heart of
Beijing, Alejandro and his teammates visited a large market that was 4
or 5 stories tall. The major thing that he noticed was the
aggressiveness of the vendors. He himself got suckered into buying a
tea set. The worst was when he went to go buy a couple of silk scarves,
a vendor grabbed onto the front of his wheelchair and told him she
wouldn’t let him go until he bought something else. Then, another
vendor grabbed onto the back of his wheelchair to help her out, and
Alejandro couldn’t move anywhere! He eventually had to call his
teammates and get them to come help him get away from the two vendors.
Talk about interesting sales techniques…
Overall,
though, Alejandro is having a great time in Beijing. He is proud to be
representing the U.S., and thankful to all of the people and
organizations that have helped him get there!
