Hello everybody, my name is Jochen and I'm rowing in the Germans' LM 4-.

These are my first Olympic Games. My team and me arrived yesterday, 31st of July, about 9am at Beijing airport. It's wasn't possible to see so much at first day because view was really bad, but the organsition is much better! It took only 3 hours between first step on chinese ground and be in my room in the olympic village.

Here are everywhere people and try to help you directly. If you just look at them.

My first time at the race course was this afternoon with some easy rowing after the flight. Temperature was about 25°C but humidity was really high. I was sweating without doing something at all, so it was even more during training.

The Olympic village is really nice I think. You don't have to walk so far if you have to go to the restaurant, Transportation Mall etc. Everything is within 10-15 minutes. The rooms are OK too. I'm living together with my twin brother, Martin, in one room. We are in the same crew. Three rooms are in each appartment and one floor has two apartments. The bulidings have between 6 and 9 floors.

Today the weather is diffrent after a hard rain yesterday evening. It was possible to see much more because there wasn't so much dust in the air. Temperature raised quite much during our training session. First it was delightful but it turned to really hot. So I'll need a few more days for acclimatisation.

Now I'll explore the Olympic Village little bit more and send you more news later.

Jochen Kühner