Hello all,

We finally made it to the Philippines Saturday morning. It was one long trip I must say. When Coach Sergio arrived at the airport he was greeted with traditional customs and with a huge banner saying WELCOME COACH SERGIO LOPEZ and company(10 ft long). What a lucky guy!!!!

After eating breakfast at Jollibee (filipino fast food) we went to Ryan’s old club teams pool to train. The Makati Skipjacks treated us so well. They had banners welcoming each swimmer and coach. I felt like a celebrity because all these swimmers and parents wanted our pictures.

After training we had lunch at the Manila Polo club, which was excellant. We sat and chatted for a couple hours drinking buko juice (coconut juice from the shell). At 3pm, we finally headed towards Los Banos where we will be stationed for a week and a half. The pool at Trace College is beautiful. It has two pools and a diving well. This pool was built for the 2005 South East Asian Games.

Our hotel is 30 sec from the pool. It is a very nice hotel with HOT water!! Thank God!! For dinner we had chicken, RICE, corn soup and salad. It was Yummy!!!

Well I better head out, but before I go I just wanted to thank The Philippines for Selecting me as a Coach for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing becuase this has been a life long dream of mine. I also would like to thank Coach Sergio for believiing in me that I could become a coach at this level.

PS: I love you and miss you Tracey

Ciao