Olympic Dreaming

3-18-11

Well today has been awesome but first I must focus on our adventures last night. We went out expecting to find a local pub to go to. The trio and I were all about finding adventure, after all, we are in London. Anyways, the first bar we went to was completely empty. The second however, was quite different. The flying Scotsman was a bar and we walked in and it turned out to be a gentlemens club. AWKWARD. we left immediately. We ended up at a cute little place Lori referred to as the “wet” rat but really it was The Water Rat and theater bar. They had live music which the trio and I really enjoyed. It is great to experience all sorts of culture while in London, live music and all. 

Today was fun filled. sort of. We had class in the morning where we talked about global advertising and the branding of the Olympics. It really helps that the class is about sports but also that my teacher, Lori, is great at advertising. We learned tons of facts on the branding of the Olympics and then got to see them in person. 

We toured Olympic Park in London and I have to say, I got chills. As an athlete, making it to the olympics could only be a dream for me. To imagine the skill level to make it there is magnificent. We saw the aquatics building, the handball (only popular in england) facility, the horse riding facility and all the others ones. The part it was in was a part of England ( stratford ) that was being rebuilt. It was amazing to see the work that was being done and the time put into this Olympics. I know it will truly be an amazing show of athleticism and culture.

After that, we took the bus to Greenwhich Village. Our tour guides at ISA lead us everywhere. They are the sweetest ladies, all which have awesome accents. I must say though the bus ride was pretty memorable. Lori, Dr. Browning and I were all joking around and some pretty fun memories were made. Needless to say, I made a fool of myself by falling but it’s still awesome to know how cool my teachers can be sometimes. 

In Greenwhich village we walked around and visited the Painting Hall which was beautiful. There was an old navel college there and it was absolutely outstanding the way it was built. We saw the queen’s home which sat right on top of a hill over looking the river. We rode the river bus , courtesy of ISA  which took us to the London eye where we caught the underground or tube back to Kings Cross. We hit some delays because of weather and what not, which was kind of bad, but it was an adventure with some people I won’t forget. 

Our group ended up getting some dinner right outside of NIDO - our student housing . Some italian food that wasn’t very good. Rachel, Edward, and I ended up going out and meeting some of our trio and his friends from London and one from the trip. We hung out at a pub called Ye Chesir Cheese. This pub was older than America. Crazy huh. it closed at eleven and we ended up going to another pub that Coe’s friend told us about. It was awesome. It was in a nice area of town and so posh. We ended up walking back to Kings Cross and made another adventure. We met some nice locals who loved our accents. It’s funny to think we have an accent to them. Anyways, I need to sleep. I have an early bike ride with Dr. Gerlich. Well i’m running, he’s biking. Goodnight for now, Cheerio.