Day 5: Heading to China Tomorow

So... We are packing for China today and leaving for the airport in less than 5 hours which will be 3:30 am in the Philippines. We met with Jeanette Obieto who is the coach traveling along with the twins and the other two female athletes. We were briefed that our flight leaves for Hong Kong at 6:30am and lands at 8:30am. We will have a two hour delay before we depart Hong Kong for Shanghai at 10:30, landing at about 1:10pm. From their we will take a 2 and a half hour bus ride to Nanjing where we will meet some Philippine delegates from the PSC.

The twins' workout today went well, but of course that humidity was strong again, and when you are running 200's you feel it. The girls finished up the day getting massages at the coliseum, and after we went to the mall where I got a massage.I have been doing some running out here myself, and my calves where locking up on me. So I decided to get a deep tissue massage. It was a very interesting massage, but not the kind you are thinking..... I was massaged by a 6' 4 blind man! I have to say it was one of the best massages I have gotten. See they have a massage place here in the mall where all of the masseuse's and masseurs are blind. The idea is that they are able to feel the tension and have a keen sense of touch. It was a deep tissue massage and a bit painful at times, but I did feel a lot better afterwards.

Today the girls were offered a full ride scholarship by the head track and field coach (Rome) at De La Salle University in Manila. It is a well respected University in the Philippines where the focus of education is on Dentistry & Nursing. It has about 12,000 students currently and have a brand new 20 story building which was just completed at the cost of 950 million dollars (see picture of building below). It is doubtful however that the twins would choose to study in the Philippines, but it is nice to have options.

We were also able to view an annual celebration at De La Salle University where the students participated in a parade, and had on beautiful costumes (see pictures below).