On the Forth Day of Christmas...

Brendan gave to me
4 huge burritos
3 relay teammates
2 purple speedos
and a burnt orange scrubby scrunchie

And y'all be sure to read Aaron's diary of his Beijing trip on Swimming World...

Beijing, December 16. AARON Piersol Diary Day 1: I left Austin holding a Starbucks and listening to Christmas music. 24 hours later I was able to buy a Starbucks and was still hearing Christmas music, but I was in Beijing International Airport!!!!

I never thought I would run into Santa Claus in China, but this world seems to be getting smaller day-by-day. I have not been so excited to visit another country in a long time. I have always felt China was just so far away and now I am here, in a country very unlike the one I live in; what a great learning experience.

I made a pact with Bobby Brewer, my agent from Premier Management Group, who is sitting with me right now, along with Eric Hanson, the coach for Wisconsin, and Rachel Joseph, our Nike rep, that we would eat as much local food as possible even though we did not know what it would consist of. Turns out it will be lobster and duck; beats the American Steakhouse downstairs that we could get back home anytime.

As we are resting from the flight right now, we are going over today's schedule which will be pretty mellow; just a press conference, a TV interview for CCTV and an online chat with fans organized by Nike. After that, if we're still standing (Bobby and I have been up since 2am Beijing time), we'll hit the town and do a little site seeing and shopping.

I brought my nice camera, a Canon Rebel XT, so I'll try to take some good pictures for all you guys back home.