I flew out of Toronto and into London Heathrow on a red eye the night of the opening ceremony. All through the airport in London there were signs about the Olympics, which just made me more excited to be there.
On my first day in London I went right into being a tourist, taking the big red bus tour around the city. We saw all the main areas of the city and I saw the changes the Olympics brought to the area. Flags of all the countries and for London 2012 were draped across the roads. In trafalgar square they had put a statue of the logo with a countdown to when the opening ceremony started and by the time I got there it showed the date and time. The square and the streets were filled with people there to watch the games.
When visiting any country there are bound to be tourists, but this was something different than the ordinary. Everyone had something on to represent their home country, which was amazing to see. People were showing off their pride and excitement for their athletes. The city had been transformed for the Games!
I spent the next three mornings at Eton Dorney, the venue where the rowing events took place. I saw all the Canadian rowers race at least once, including the womens eight with our athlete in residence Ashley. I watched them race in their heat and for them to move directly onto the final they had to come in first. They were set to race in the second heat, the first heat went and the USA won with ease. The Canadians race started and was displayed on the big screen across from the stands. By the first 500m Canada was out in front, my section could not be more excited. As they moved through the 1000 there was a clear winner of the race. Our section of Canadians, including most of the womens 8's family and friends, burst into cheers as they were in the last 500 of the race and were racing in front of us. This was their last big push of the race and with open water they sailed into the finish line. Canada had one their heat and steered clear of the reps (the repeat race to get into the finals, since in international rowing the rule is you have to lose twice).
Excellent blog Kendra! I was in london for the entire duration of olympics as well and I reckon I saw a familar face on campus at one of the rowing events, I did have this " crikey I've seen her on campus! feeling". However, I thought the odds of me running into someone from Trent at one of the events in London would be slim, hence I decided not to approach the "familiarly yet stranger" face. I do hope that your English sojourn was exciting and if I do see you on campus in the autumn, would love to share this ostensible anecdote with you.
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