Here comes the sun

The past day and a half have been low key. As I've said, I've spent enough time in London that I don't need to sightsee anymore and Abby did an excellent job of cramming in all the sites. So in a way we all most ran out of things to do.

The weather has been fabulous though. Londoners go crazy when the weather is like this, sunny, hot but not too hot, and no humidity. People are spilling out of bars and lounging around on every green space possibly because they never know when they will see the sun again. So mostly we have just been walking around, exploring by foot and finding the freaky Olympic mascots around the city so Abby can take photos of them.

We meet another one of my friends last night for drinks. Jess is originally from California but lives here now with her husband. We meet in 2003 via study abroad. I haven't seen here in nearly four years, so it was nice to catch up. Probably one of the nicest parts of this trip has been see old friends from different time periods in my life.

The night ended with a hilarious scene of finding out there was a dead bat in my bedroom back home. John came back from a week at basketball camp to find the little guy dead on the floor but not before it clearly flew around the apartment dropping little presents. I was looking forward to going home but now I'm not so sure...

Dressage

We have two more free days here until our last Olympic event. Abby and I began the day in Covent Garden at the Olympic Sport exhibition. I actually had no idea how the modern Olympics came to be again, so it was really interesting. In short, they were reestablished by a Frenchman. They had a torch and medals from each of the modern games on display as well. From there we headed to the NBA Experience to fulfill our American basketball needs. See the photo below of when I held the NBA trophy!

After a quick lunch from a delicious outdoor food stall, we headed to the British Museum. I gave Abby a quick hit of all the hot spots in the museum, the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon Friezes to be exact.

Tonight we sweat out the USA vs. Australia women's basketball game. We would have been beyond disappointed had they lost and not played for the gold medal Saturday night. Thankfully they won. We also had dinner and drinks with another one of my friends living here, Nikki. The last time I saw Nikki was when I was living in Sydney. It's always nice to catch up with friends after so many years and get along like only a few days have passed. It's been great combining the Olympics, sight-seeing, and catching up with old friends while here.

PS-We watched dressage today, aka horse dancing. It has to be the oddest Olympic sport around. Curling looks normal compared to this!

U-C-O-N-N

Another fantastic day here in Londontown. I headed out solo this morning, while Sarah and Abby headed to Buckingham Palace. It was very pleasant out so I walked to the Natural History Museum to see their Wild Life Photography exhibition. I use to frequent this exhibit when I studied here, and was happy to see it was still going on with new photos. From there I ventured to Harrods, the worlds greatest shopping store. The great thing about Harrods is its so massive there is always something new to explore. The food halls are always a favorite of mine to check out, they are amazing and include pretty much everything you could ever want.

Later in the day I met back up with Sarah and Abby and we headed out to the Uconn Alumni gathering. The six players from the national team and Geno walked into the room to a loud applause. They signed autographs and took photos. Sue Bird was kind enough to snap a photo with me, but it's on my real camera so everyone will just have to believe me until I return home and can post it. We also had the pleasure of meeting Doris Burke. She is an ESPN announcer for the NBA, WNBA, and NCAA. She spent a few minutes talking with us, very nice lady!

The day concluded meeting up with my friend Emma again for dinner. Sarah departs tomorrow, leaving Abby and I here until Sunday.

Handball...What's handball?

The fourth most asked question I've received is what is handball? It's widely popular in Europe, and in fact originated and spread through Northern Europe in the early 19th century. It's played on an indoor court roughly the size of a basketball court, with a rectangular goal on each end. Each side has six players plus a goalie. The ball is similar to a soccer ball, only small enough to palm. The game we saw was a women's quarterfinal game between Russia and South Korea. Handball combines dribbling, passing, and shooting with rules similar to ultimate frisbee. It's much more physical and high scoring than I thought. The Russian coach, who looked and sounded like he drank straight vodka for breakfast (sorry if you are Russian and reading this but I don't think I know any Russians) received the equivalent of a technical for his yelling. As a result, Russia had to play down a player for two minutes. This proved costly and South Korea pulled out a 24-23 victory. Although Russia had a chance to tie it with no time remaining on the lock, so it was a fun game to watch. The Copperbox, which is the name of the arena was quaint, but loud. Again we had great seats, no complaints about bad seats at any venue we have been to do far.

I've taken up two new hobbies since being here in London. The first is photo-bombing photos. I got in a bunch of photos last night leaving the park. The second started today. I yell "it's Abby Gordon!! Look it's Abby Gordon everyone"in a large crowd and point to Abby. She simply ignores me, as Sarah turns red and pretends she doesn't know us, so much so that she is now wearing a Russia shirt. Good times. Goods times indeed.

Olympic Park

We finally headed to Olympic Park today to see track and field and field hockey. That is a lot of "field" events. The Olympic Stadium was amazing. We saw several qualifying events, including Lolo Jones in the 100m hurdles. The mens 800m was very entertaining as they finished in about the same time it would take me to run one lap at my best pace, they are ridiculously fast. The home crowd went absolutely crazy when a Brit qualified for the finals of the discus. That was definitely the highlight of the morning. After track we had plenty of time to check out the park. It's huge, and takes a good 20-30 minutes to walk from end to end. There is every type of food imaginable, and I have to say the prices aren't too bad. In the evening we saw Great Britain v Netherlands and Argentina v Australia in women's field hockey. I specify women's because men play internationally, only in America is it considered a women's game. We jumped on board Team GB and cheered on the home team. Sadly both teams I cheered for lost, GB and Australia. Hope I have better luck when I cheer on the USA!

Stonehenge and Bath

Nine years ago I studied abroad in London, so finding a tourist destination or site I haven't been to is somewhat difficult. As a result today was my second trip to Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehenge looks the same, a massive rock formation in the middle of nowhere. They still have no clue what purpose it serviced, which I guess adds to the intrigue of the whole place. I kid, its pretty amazing. I picked up a few new stats though, like the fact that the rocks came from Wales, and up until thirty years ago or so people would chip off bits of rock as a keep-sake. We rolled into Bath during a massive rainstorm, which led us to spend an hour in a pub for lunch till the rain slowed up. No complaints here. I love the Roman era, and I think anything that was built that long ago and is still standing is amazing.

This evening we hung out in the Visa VIP Lounge to watch the track events. It was a fun atmosphere, and of course free never hurt, which it was.

Tomorrow we finally head to Olympic Park, which we are all obviously very excited about.

High Tea

We went to bed at 8:30 last night and awoke with 10 lovely hours of sleep. That cured the jet lag for sure.

Our morning started off at Hyde Park watching the women's triathlon (a free event). We had a great view of the cycling and a decent view of the running (swimming was too tough too watch). If you have a second look up the photo finish that happened at the tri. Amazing. We then made a quick pit stop at Abbey Road. Finally we met up with an old friend of mine, Emma, who treated us to a fantastic afternoon of high tea. There is nothing better than a lovely array of finger sandwiches and an endless supply of pretty desserts with champagne on the side. Oh and of course tea.

We capped off the day going back to Emma's flat and watched BBC coverage of the Olympics. It was a huge day for Team GB on the podium, so it was fun to catch the local broadcast of it.

Jet Lag

Jet lag sucks. I just fell asleep on an open top bus tour earlier. Sound asleep. If Sarah hadn't poked me to wake me up, I'm pretty sure I would still be driving around on that tour, taking a much needed nap. I was only able to get 4-5 hours of sleep on the flight over, so I knew today would be a struggle. Coincidently Abby just told me its only 4 pm. Which means I need to fight through another four hours at least of this. It's completely acceptable to go to bed at 8 pm as an adult when suffering from jet lag, that is what I will tell myself anyway for the next four hours.

Number of times I fell asleep while writing this: 3

Who are Abby and Sarah?

After reading my first post yesterday, a long time friend from high school emailed me and said, "Who is this friend from high school you are going to the Olympics with?  I thought we were your high school friends!" 

So let me introduce my travel companions, Abby and Sarah.

I met Abby my senior year of high school.  Generally high school sport managers don't attend practices, they just show up for games.  However, if you've ever met Abby, you know she is different.  I was co-captain of the team, something I had been waiting three years for.  So why was this crazy freshman standing on the sidelines yelling at MY team?  Yup, that was Abby.  Abby went on to manage the UConn Women's Basketball team for four years, and then worked for the Connecticut Sun.  As a result she has made some great connections and friendships with former UConn players, connections which we are hoping to exploit during our time in London!  Thanks to her connections (and alumni status) we will be attending a UConn Alumni event with the high hopes that Geno and crew will make an appearance.  Hopefully picture with Sue Bird to follow!!

I met Sarah my freshman year of college.  She walked by my dorm room at least four times.  Every time she walked by, she would peer in my room.  I recognized her from somewhere, but couldn't place it.  Finally, she popped in and we determined that she too had played high school basketball.  We had actually competed against each other for four years.  This is actually our second trip to London together in a way.  When I studied abroad my junior year, Sarah and several other friends came to visit. 

I introduced Sarah and Abby to each other at a WNBA game (big surprise huh) several years ago.  In fact, Abby was working, and hooked us up with free tickets. So there you have it.  The tail of how we all came together. 

It was my idea to pursue a trip to the Olympics, and I was more than happy to have friends with the same intention.  To London we go...

Are you going to compete?

Four years ago I was sitting on a couch in Sydney watching the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  I had been in Sydney for about a month when Olympic time rolled around.  When I left the US four weeks earlier, I was naive enough to think that 1) Beijing was much closer than it actually was, and 2) That because it was so close I could just pop in and maybe see the Olympics first hand.  Turns out Beijing is far far far away from Australia, and that Olympic tickets are actually difficult to come by.  When the Closing Ceremonies aired and the famous double checker bus rolled out passing the torch to London, I decided I was going.  London 2012 or bust.  So fast forward four years.  I head to London on Thursday, for what I consider a once in a lifetime trip. My travel mates include a friend from high school and a friend from college.  I am the common link amongst the trio, that and our love for women's basketball.

During my lead up to takeoff, I've generally been asked the same three questions,  1) What events are you going to see? 2) How did you get tickets? 3) Are you going to compete?

Question three is my favorite.  Really, am I going to compete!  I know people regard me as sporty and athletic, but I am far from an Olympic athlete.  Like very far, even farther than Sydney is to Beijing.  I was asked that question so many times though I started to tell people I was actually a line judge. If you've ever spoken to me for more than 30 seconds, you know I love a sarcastic answer.  I'm not sure why people believe me when I say these things...

Field Hockey, Women's Handball, Athletics aka Track and Field, and the Women's Gold Medal Basketball Game, those are the events I will be seeing.

How did we get tickets?  Who cares, we are going (it was legal and legit though I promise).