It was AMAZING and exactly what I needed! We were outdoors in the sun! One of the most beautiful things is to see the sunlight dancing through the water and rippling on the bottom of the pool. Coach Lim was so nice and thrilled to have us swim with his team. He hadn't even seen us swim yet and he asked us to swim for him at Singapore Nationals from June 4-8! All we have to do is register with Singapore Swimming, and then we can compete at their national meet! Crazy! What an opportunity! Competing in a swim meet in a different country with a different team! The swim meet even has the 50 backstroke, 50 butterfly, and 50 breaststroke events! Amazing! ...unfortunately we have classes during the week, and we've already bought our plane tickets to Bangkok for that weekend. Maybe we can work something out so we can get the best of both worlds.
The kids on the team were very nice as well. They were very interested in seeing Americans swim. The coach's assistant, Gary who swam at BYU in the States, told us that Coach Lim told his swimmers to watch how Caroline and I warm up, how we train, and what our strokes look like so they can learn from us. What an incredible position to be in!
The set today was a total of 5800 meters, not as far as I wanted to go, but it was a quality work out, especially in such a warm pool. Here is my first practice in Singapore:
Warm Up
1 x 150 @ 2:15
3 x 50 @ :45
(do set 4 times through)
24 x 100 Best Average (go as fast as you can and hold that time for every 100)
8 @ 2:00
8 @ 2:15
8 @ 2:30
(Best Average means that you swim as fast as you can on the first 100, and you hold that time for the entire set. I swam the first 8 freestyle, then the next 8 backstroke, and the last 8 freestyle again.)
16 x 50 @ 1:10 Kick
Every third 25 fast.
16 x 50 @ :50 Pull FAST
8 Free
8 Stroke
(with paddles and buoy)
8 x 50 @ 1:00
Descend 1-4, 5-8
(I did backstroke for all 8)
200 Warm Down
After practice, I went to Chinatown to see some of the Vesak Day festivities. I went to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum. This temple is one of the largest in the world, and its architecture was inspired by the Tang Dynasty. More importantly, the temple was built to house the Tooth of the Buddha, which has made it one of the top religious and tourist attractions in the world.
The Temple was absolutely breathtaking! There are no words to describe how ornately beautiful the Temple was, and my pictures do it no justice. Rich reds, golden ornaments, intricate designs, the list could just go on! Hundreds of thousands of Buddha relics lined the walls of this five story temple. Golden Buddhas, wooden Buddhas, porcelain Buddhas, happy Buddhas, warrior Buddhas, mystical Buddhas, and the famous Reclining Buddha. In the main temple area, each Buddha on the wall had a different pose. Every Buddha relic had offerings of cooked foods and fruits in front of it, and the temple was absolutely packed with people worshipping and observing. There as a line spiraling through the main floor and wrapping around the temple of people waiting to get a blessing from the monks, who were of course wearing their traditional orange robes. On the roof of the temple there is a magnificent garden. In the center of the garden is the world's largest prayer wheel that is constantly turning. One walk around the prayer wheel is equivalent to reciting one passage of scripture. The prayer wheel is meant to signify that the scripture is on going and never ends.
Upon returning to campus, I bought a delicious peach yogurt smoothie and started working on my history assignment that is due tomorrow morning, our first day of class (which of course will be preceded by swim practice)!!!!!
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