Jordan, Alli & Kim go to Greece!!: OAKA!!!

June 27, 2011
Today was another great day. We started our day separately because Jordan had another opportunity of a lifetime! Apollo Anton Ohno was supposed to speak at a Youth breakfast on Wednesday but due to the possible airport strike, he had to leave early. Jordan was asked to go this morning and be part of a small group of youth (4) to meet with him and interview him on camera. The session is going to play at the youth breakfast on Wednesday morning. He did an amazing job and truly represented the athletes of Special Olympics.

Alli and Kim went to our first session this morning, which were held at the Microsoft offices in Athens. The session focused on Unicef and youth empowerment. Alli participated in an activity called The Flower of Empowerment, which had each team think about how their youth is involved in their schools and Special Olympics, and whether they feel empowered. This session was fun, informative, motivating and interactive.

We met Jordan at OAKA, which is where some of the athletic events are being held. We had lunch at the aquatics stadium and then Alli and Jordan had to go and interview athletes, fans, families and coaches. They did an amazing job!! The first athlete they found was from Great Britain. The second athlete they found was from Venezuela and could not speak English so Jordan translated both ways for Alli and our other group members. It was one of the coolest interactions we have seen here. Jordan did a great job and just jumped in. They interview at least 10 people including a parent from Illinois!! It was awesome! Once they finished interviews in the aquatics center, we went to walk around Olympics village. It was very cool and we were able to purchase some souvenirs. After we finished at Olympic Village, we went to see the basketball venue and to do some more interviews. While we were there, we were able to interact with a bunch of Team USA members! They were great and so excited to be here! We also got to watch the Team USA basketball team take on a Greek All-Star team in an exhibition. Team USA lost but they are an incredible team!!!

One thing we have forgotten to mention here is that pin trading here is huge! We brought some pins from Illinois and have been trading since the 2^nd day we were here! Today was a big day for trading because there were athletes all around! We have pins from China, Hong Kong, Great Britain, Korea, Morocco and many more places. It has been awesome getting to meet so many amazing people!!

Today there were some protests near the capital and they turned violent. We are all ok and the only way it affected us here was that we couldn’t go and explore Plaka and have dinner there on our own. We had to stay near the hotel. We decided to go with the Montana, North Carolina and Great Britain delegations out to eat. We went back to the restaurant we ate at before Opening Ceremonies. Again, it was delicious!! Alli and Jordan had chicken souvlaki and Kim had a Greek Salad and Spinach pie or Spanakopita. It was great and the people at that restaurant are wonderful!!