We had a very early start this morning, with my alarm going off just after 4:00am. We were off to the airport and Mexico for the Pan American Games. Even with the early start, I had already suffered a rough night, as I never seem to sleep well on the night before flying. I think that it is fair to say that I was not in the best of moods as I crawled around airports.

Surprisingly, the actual traveling went well enough. The flight to Phoenix was on time, and so was the second leg from Arizona down to Guadalajara. The local welcome committee was ready and waiting for us when we landed, and the check-in process, our baggage collection, and transportation to the village went as smoothly as moving 30+ people from point A to point B possibly could.

We jumped ahead 2 hours during our travels and so this left us pretty hungry upon arrival. Our physiologist Cesar, (this name suits him in a positive way) had thankfully planned ahead and packed us a ton of snacks. Without his forward thinking, I think we might have been a wreck of a team. On arrival at our final destination at 6:00pm, we had still not had a proper meal all day.

The drive from the airport to the athletes' village was only about 40 minutes, made slightly longer by the heavy rain which of course was the remnants of the hurricane that we had just passed through in the Gulf of Mexico.

My initial impression of the Games village was limited to the fact that all I wanted to do was get to the meal hall. And, there was the fact that to do this we would have to brave the torrential rain. There was no option but to put our heads down and run. The food was like all multiple sports events food: Average. This was only our first meal here so I am sure we will start to figure out the lay of the land soon, what the best meals are, and what I like to eat here.

The rest of the evening was spent unpacking, trying on our new Pan American clothing, and trying to figure out how to fix my room's blown fuse. On the whole, the housing and accommodation seems pretty good, although slightly cramped. There are nine of us in our group, so all of us dealing with two bathrooms could get tight when we are jostling to get ready for pre- and post- training sessions.

I am sharing my room with KK, D, Robyn, Sincy, Chappy, Timko, Mel, and Shannon and the first thing we did as a apartment unit was to rearrange the whole place and the furniture. This led to a lot more comfort, but we still had no lights. It turned out that we had blown a major fuse in the building. The electrician was called, but none of us understands or speaks much Spanish. We did get the gist: This was no small problem we had caused.

So, I am currently writing this in the dark. The rain has stopped and the hurricane has gone by. I am starting to think seriously about heading to bed; there is not much else to do. I am going to have to come up with a way to get Karina tired out every nights so that she doesn’t keep me awake - I welcome ideas?