All of this Michael Phelps hype is driving me a little bit crazy. 8 gold medals in one Olympic games is pretty ridiculous, and he is a beast at swimming, but the greatest Olympian of all time? That's pushing it. I guess all the media attention is fine for now, but I hope the commotion has died down by 2012 in London. I think Milorad Cavic was onto something when he said that a loss by Phelps would be good for the sport of swimming...no one is invincible. World records would be pointless if they weren't meant to be broken.

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I know it sounds ridiculous, but I've been hard-presed to find things to do lately. Communicating with jump ropers via Facebook is only satisfying when people are online, and there isn't practice for the rest of the summer so I'm struggling to find the motivation to go sweat it out outside. The only reliable source of entertainment these days are the Olympics, which are amazing but that's more of a late-night thing. What to do with the rest of the day??

Nothing. But that's ok, after a month of travelling and jumping around, I figure a little bit of downtime isn't going to kill me...but it sure feels like it...

Anyhow, my friends have been giving me crap for not rooting on the home team. I don't care, I want China to win. It's my heritage man, I can't forsake that...and plus, all they do with their lives is train a single sport, it'd be nice if they were HAPPY for once with getting a gold medal. Oh and let me just say that if I were any of the swimmers in the Water Cube, the last thing I would want to do after winning a gold medal is go stand next to that lady and get interviewed by her terribly posed questions.

I really don't have anything else to say, which is probably apparent from my random blabbering. I think I shall end this now and go eat something. That's always a good cure for boredom, I just have remind myself how lucky I am to have good metabolism every time I down 3 bowls of cereal for a snack. Yummy...

Muffy over and out!
P.S. I shall comment later after I finish my 3 bowls of cereal :)

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I still can't get the trip out of my head. It's been almost a week but it feels like forever. I've been jump roping in the backyard almost everyday, despite the fact that Nationals isn't for another year. I think I might have a problem...a healthy addiction. Better than an unhealthy addiction, right?

I had a biopsy on this blotchy skin abnormality on my upper forearm. So now there's a nice little gouge where they cut the skin out and it's really starting to get annoying. Whenever I put it under water it turns completely white so I have nooo idea what's up with that. Maybe I'm like a mutant now, or something. I should join the X-men.

Basically I'm bored out of my mind, as you have no doubt deduced by now from my ramblings. I think I'll just shut up and go comment on some blogs, hopefully that will entertain me for a while.

Muffy over and out!
P.S. I may have to play video games again. Omg.

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I'M BACK FROM SOUTH AFRICA!
The bolded, capital letters hardly reflect how I'm really feeling at the moment. I don't REALLY feel like exerting the energy to blog the details of my amazing trip, but if I dont do it now I never will. So here goes:

Business first. Here's how I placed:

• Gold medal for overall single rope (team division)


• Silver medal for 30 second speed (masters division)


• Bronze medal for overall master (masters division)

For a world championship, I'd have to say I'm pretty satisfied .

But the most memorable part of competition wasn't winning. I love being part of a crowd that is so full of energy, always rooting on the home team (or in this case, Team USA). There were five times during the tournament when the crowd lost it, and those were times that I will never forget. Twice when the all-male group nailed both double dutch routines, once when Tori Boggs made a perfect freestyle, once when Robbie Csontos gave the best single rope performance I have seen in my life, and once when all 15 nations attending the World Championships joined the South African team in a chant that lasted for probably 10 minutes. I was hoarse for a day...it hurt to talk, but it felt so good.

And then there were the townships. After the competition, Team USA divided into subgroups and joined teams from other countries to engage in an outreach program that would spread jump rope to several townships neighboring Cape Town. What I saw on that day I will probably never forget. Driving to the school we passed countless shacks, hardly qualifying as dwellings, some with a sheet metal roof and others constructed completely of cardboard. The living conditions were shocking.

The school itself was hardly recognizable...it was surrounded by a perimeter of barbed wire and metal fences that made it appear to be more of a war zone then a center of learning. And yet the kids were all so happy. We took a group picture with them at the end and I asked some of them their names...then they asked me if schools in America were like the ones in South Africa. I will probably never forget that moment.

Before we left, I gave my jump rope to their teacher. It was just a little reminder that the world is so much bigger than some of the petty things that go on in our lives.

The next day started on less solemn note; a trip down South Africa's coast and some truly amazing views. I uploaded the scenery to my gallery. The sun was perfect, the sand was perfect, and I was enjoying it all with some of my favorite people on Earth, literally. And now look at me, writing on a laptop back in the States, just biding my time until something equally exciting comes along. But I know it won't.


I'm not going to go into the details...like the strange flushing mechanics of the toilets, crazy driving, or how there are no clocks anywhere. Just know that it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will NEVER forget. 100% gauranteed to last in my memory. I came away from this trip with a little more than memories; a quote from Motion City Soundtrack:

"What doesn't kill us makes us who we are."
Use it.

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