Thanks to the Women's Sports Blog for pointing me to the Paralympic blogs over at Disaboom.com. They've got four athletes blogging: Alejandro Albor: Hand-Cyclist, Matt Scott: Men's Wheelchair Basketball, Stephen Craig Denuyl: Goalball, and Emily Hoskins: Women's Wheelchair Basketball.

Emily wrote yesterday:

Today we went through Team Processing. Basically it was a 4 hour meeting/seminar on how to conduct ourselves once we get over there. We went over some things to expect, learned a few important Chinese phrases (ie, hello, thank you), discussed drug testing and dealing with people from the media while we're over there. Just things like that. They had a panel consisting of former Paralympians, each of whom discussed their experiences at the Summer or Winter games. The class was long, but was pretty helpful.

This definately seems all the more real now. I've been looking forward to this for 4 years and it's finally happening! The packing is a nightmare! What to ship? What to send home? How am I going to fit all this crap in my suitcase? All my teammates are here. The men's team arrived today (they have to go through Team Processing tomorrow, and they leave tomorrow night). Everything finally seems to be coming together!

A little about Disaboom:

Disaboom.com was founded by Dr. J. Glen House, a physician specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation who is also a quadriplegic. His firsthand knowledge of the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities and those whose lives they touch has driven the Disaboom.com mission: to create the first comprehensive, evolving source of information, insight, and personal engagement for the disability community.