Day 5- I love GOOOOOOOLD!!!!

Not a ton of pictures today as we didn't do a ton. It was a relatively easygoing day with no actual events. We've made it another early night tonight in hopes of ACTUALLY going to bed early (we tried last night, but ended up socializing with everyone in the lounge and going to bed close to 3 AM), but I'm not holding my breath.

The original plan last night was to wake up around 9 or 9:30 and be out of the hostel by 10:30 to head to Greenwich. When Amy woke me up this morning by asking, "Can you be ready in fifteen minutes?" I knew we had both overslept. It was 11:30 AM. 

I got ready in record speed (as the frantic music from Home Alone played in my head), and we caught the tube to Greenwich around 12-12:30. 

If you remember from my last post, Amy and I were ready and willing to buy tickets to today's Women's Team Final, but couldn't use the LOCOG site because we're not British. We were hoping to head to the arena to see if they could help us overcome the unfortunate obstacle of being American.

We got to Greenwich only to see every sign at the box office read, "NO TICKET SALES." We told a security guard our story: that we're ready to pay money for tickets, but we can't use the website because we're American. He told us that our only chance would be to head to the Olympic Village and use the box office there. 

Heading to the Olympic Village wasn't a problem as we needed to head that way anyways to meet up with Amy's husband's cousin (cousin-in-law? 2nd cousin?), Marshall. We originally had basketball tickets for today, but sold them to Marshall since we knew all we'd be doing during the game was wondering how team finals were going. 

Olympic Park (along with the Olympic Village) is located off the Stratford tube stop. Because Olympic Park is the hub of all things Olympics here in London, it was PACKED with people. Like literally packed. That added to the pouring rain that started as soon as we pulled up made Stratford an overall unpleasant experience. 

We started to head for Olympic Park to find the box office when we were told that you couldn't get into the Park without a ticket for the day. When we asked someone about the box office, we were told that there were NO tickets available for the day. Which is an absolute load of bullshit. Especially when I keep seeing articles like this.

I texted a friend from high school who lives here in England now to see if he could purchase the tickets for us and then we could pay him back. Unfortunately, he was at The Globe and was unable to help us. We met up with Marshall amidst the throngs and throngs of people and sold him our basketball tickets. Once we grabbed a quick snack, we got back on the tube and headed back to North Greenwich Arena. 

The more I live this ticket confusion, the more angry it makes me. Literally the only thing that stopped us from going to the Women's Team Final today was the fact that we are American. Its completely unfair, and highlights just how much LOCOG failed at the ticket system. They made it as difficult as they possibly could to purchase tickets to Olympic events, and are now backtracking as we see sob stories on BBC each night about all of the empty seats at events. Amy and I ended up camping out at the American Bar & Grill (literally the bar's name) in the lobby of North Greenwich Arena to watch the meet on TV. 

You know how the first day of the World Cup is Soccer Christmas? In the gym-world, the day of the women's team final is considered Gymnastics Christmas. The USA women came out guns BLAZING. I was a little concerned about Jordyn after Saturday's fiasco, but she started things off by nailing the shit out of her Amanar. Gabby subsequently nailed the shit out of hers and then McKayla did the best Amanar I have ever seen in my life. SKY HIGH block off the table and a cold, hard stick. Barring a catastrophe, I can't see her not winning vault finals. 

The frustrating thing about watching a meet on TV is that you can't control what you see. They ended up showing routines on a bit of a delay to make sure that the viewing audience saw all of the big names. While we're lucky in that the United States of course are top dogs, there were anxious moments as we watched girls from Romania or Great Britain while knowing Americans were competing. Thankfully, the Americans nailed all of their bar routines and all of their beam routines, too. The only reason we know that they nailed ALL of their beam routines is because of Twitter. We only saw the first two as they didn't show Aly on TV. :-/

There was a moment of panic at the start of the final rotation. BBC1 announced that they had to interrupt coverage for the news, and that we'd have to switch to BBC2 to keep watching. The restaurant can only control the TV from the manager's office, apparently, so we waited for about five anxious minutes as the Russians competed on floor and relied solely on Twitter updates. Thank God I got wifi in that bar- otherwise I probably would've gone freaking nuts. 

It was through Twitter that I found out about Grishina's balked second pass. I still haven't seen the full routine, but I saw the moment in question. It sucks for Russia, yes, but its a good thing she balked. She would've gotten hurt had she kept going. Reading about the aftermath (Vika walking off crying, the girls holding their heads in their hands) made me really eager to watch the full meet later. If I can find it. Wonder if NBCOlympics.com will stream for me even though I'm in the UK? Hmm. 

Anyways, coverage was restored just in time to watch Ksenia Afanasyeva of Russia. We knew at this point that we'd probably won gold because of Grishina's balk, but didn't want to get too confident. Ksenia is a GORGEOUS gymnast. Her routine went damn near perfect until the final pass. She didn't get enough air on her double pike and landed way short. I knew at that point that we'd definitely won, but still didn't want to get too ahead of myself because we were still three floor routines away. If qualifiers were any indicator, I knew floor wasn't going to be that easy. 

But I was wrong, and I'm so glad that I was! Gabby, Jordyn and Aly all nailed their routines, but the part that got me was when Aly started crying before she'd even finished her set! I can't handle Aly Raisman crying; when she cries, I cry! Seriously, I can't watch the video of the team being selected at Olympic Trials because Aly is crying her eyes out. I tear up instantly. 

The girls hugged and then the camera focused on them as they stood in the center of the arena, hand-in-hand, peering up at the scoreboard. 

The TV in the bar. Dude. It's the best I could do.

When the score came up, the girls started crying, the bar (full of Americans) applauded, and I fought back tears. So, so proud of Team USA. Another drawback to watching on TV: they showed Team USA hugging and celebrating, flashed the final standings, and that was the end of the coverage. No medal ceremony, no nothing. 

GOLD MEDAL, BABY!

We hauled ass out of North Greenwich Arena to beat the crowds back to the tube and then headed to Russell Square to find a Travelex so we could fix the issue with Amy's card. When we found out the Travelex closed at 4 (boo), we headed back to our OTHER second home- Oxford Street. 

Turns out there is a Travelex inside of Selfridge's, which I think is the London equivalent of the big-ass Macy's in NYC. HUGE department store. REALLY nice, too, actually. We fixed the issue with Amy's card and roamed around a little bit before grabbing dinner at a tube stop, catching the tube and coming back to the hostel. That brings us to now, as I'm sitting in the lounge of the hostel watching the BBC-condensed coverage of today's other events.

Before I go, however, I promised you yesterday that I would update you on my pin collection. It is now nearing twenty. I made two or three trades last night just sitting here blogging. Since today was such a quiet day, I didn't make any trades, but I'm not done by any means. I have now split my collection into two lanyards:

Pins I am willing to trade:

It's not so much the pins for me, but more about the stories behind the pins. The 999 one I traded with a security guard before gymnastics. I just thought it was funny that the security personnel wanted to trade pins. The St. James Park pin I traded with a ticket-checker at beach volleyball. She loved my collection and was really interested in one of my London pins. Her face lit up when I offered to trade. 

Pins I'm not willing to trade:

These are mostly ones that I've bought or traded for. The orange one second up on the left is a gymnastics pin- I'll have to take a closer pic of it sometime. I might consider trading for the prior Olympic pins on the right, but for now am keeping them separate from the rest. I realized that I had a pin problem yesterday at gymnastics when I was going down the steps at the O2 arena and started jingling like a homecoming mum. Whatever, though, I don't care! Chances are this will be my first and only Olympics, may as well get as many as I can, right?

While we're still on pins, let it be known that I am now officially on the prowl for a North Greenwich Arena pin. I have a feeling that place will always be special to me now having attended Olympic gymnastics there. We've been there literally every day that we've been here since the trip started. 

One last pic before I go:

YEAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!

With that, I think I will bring this entry to a close. Tomorrow is going to be another light day. We plan on hitting up Abbey Road and doing some more sightseeing before heading back to North Greenwich Arena to watch the Men's All-Around at 4:30. You know the drill. Leave me comments! I miss y'all, and I will see you tomorrow! GO GO USA!

Day 4- Ukraine gets Kohei'd. Oh- and something about Serena Williams!

I can't speak for Amy, but I know I feel pretty drained today- physically and emotionally. As I said last post, we've been doing A LOT of walking and have had some pretty late nights followed by semi-early mornings. This has lead to both of us periodically griping about our legs being sore (yes, they're sore!) and even nodding off at times during morning events. Can't complain, though, as I'm still loving every minute of being here and know that I am unbelievably lucky to be able to experience the Olympics in person.


We got a slightly later start this morning- and by slightly I mean that instead of being up at 6, I was up at 7. Our original plan was to set out for Wimbledon around 9, but Amy ran into a few issues with the debit card each of us purchased in the states to use over here. Once we got it sorted out, we set out for Wimbledon around 10-10:30. Wimbledon is way the hell out there- so we got to see some tube stops we haven't yet seen. 

Notting Hill Station.

Oops. How'd that get in there? 


We got off at Southfields and set out for Wimbledon. Southfields, I am told, is the closest Underground stop to Wimbledon, but I'm not sure if I actually believe that. We walked about twenty minutes through a neighborhood to get there. I think we've been spoiled by North Greenwich Arena since the tube has a stop that spits you out practically at the arena's doorstep. Given how much we've been moving around, twenty minute walks anywhere now set off simultaneous griping from both of us. 


That sounds worse than it really is. When I say griping, it typically goes like this. 


*Amy and Gina walk*
Amy: "My hip flexors hurt."


*... 5 minutes later*
Gina: "My calves are sore."


*... 5 minutes later*
Both: "We're here!"


This was the conversation last night at Horse Guard's Parade, except there was some trashing of Paul Walker's movies/acting ability after we arrived and were out of earshot from him. What? I never said he was talented. I'm just a sucker for really bad teenage movies. 


Anyways, Wimbledon- or at least Court 1 of Wimbledon- is gorgeous. The whole area is huge and green and just overall really- English.

 Walking into Wimbledon. 

The board. I didn't realize Wimbledon was so HUGE.


Amy and I set out on a mission to find the Wimbledon pin and unfortunately came up short (my pin obsession is getting out of control, but more about that later). Once we realized that we weren't going to find the pin, we headed to our seats to watch the match already in progress. I forgot their names, but a guy from Belgium was playing a guy from Argentina. As I said before, we've been periodically nodding off during daytime events. I don't know if its because of a lack of sleep or if I'm just not as adjusted to the time change as I thought I was, but the fact that I don't understand tennis made it easier for me to drift in and out of sleep during the match. Once we got a break in the action, Amy and I set out for coffee and returned just in time for the next match. 

Oh. I forgot to mention that the following match included SERENA WILLIAMS. Awesome. 

Amy and I stuck around for about thirty minutes, but left early to head back to North Greenwich Arena and try to get tickets for the Men's Team Final. 


By some miracle of the gymnastics Gods, we got in (and I got another pin- see? I told you- out of control). Our seats were as far back as they go, but it was more important to us to be there and support the boys than to sit close. We missed the first rotation, but heard from Team USA alternate Chris Brooks (why yes, I did just name drop for no reason!) afterwards that it went well minus Sam Mikulak putting his hands down on a triple twist. 


The meet was shaky for Team USA, and honestly was a pretty disappointing performance. How do you go from first in qualifying to FIFTH? This is what kills me about our men's team. We have SO MUCH talent and so much fight, yet when it comes to competing on the international stage, we just don't measure up. Its sad, really. I love our men's team- it sucks to see them falter. 

Orozco on rings.

Pretty sure that's Sam Mikulak on vault. 


Side note: I think Sam is absolutely adorable. That is all. 

Danell on parallel bars. 


After a TERRIBLE qualifying session, we all pretty much rode China off and figured Japan and the United States would go 1-2 in some way, shape or form. Well, tonight, while we ignored China, they stuck every landing, caught every bar, held every element and pretty much did everything damn near perfect. As we got closer to the end of the meet, we saw China's lead in first grow and the United States' hope for a medal dwindle. We were surpassed for most of the meet by China and Japan. Great Britain and Ukraine even got in on the action, too! I wondered aloud during the meet when the hell the Ukranian men got so good at gymnastics. 


Speaking of the British men, they busted their asses and made sure the home crowd got their money's worth. The support in that arena for Team GB was fantastic. It was hard to concentrate on the US men when Team GB was on the floor because the crowd ROARED with every move their men made. Team GB hit the crap out of floor on the last rotation while Japan muscled through pommels. The final score looked like this:

When that screen came up and put Great Britain in silver medal position (and knocked Japan out of the medals in 4th), the arena went NUTS. It was so loud- the Brits in attendance were beaming with pride for their team, as they should have been. It was a pretty exciting moment- everybody was on their feet, waving Union Jacks and just screaming with joy. Amy and I couldn't help but smile. 


But then Kohei Uchimura (the gymnast in the above picture eerily staring up at the scoreboard) had to go ruin it all. 

There was a lengthy delay as the judges huddled around a computer screen on the floor and watched the part of the routine in question over and over. Ultimately, the inquiry was accepted and Kohei was credited for his dismount- which ended up bumping Japan to 2nd, knocking Great Britain down to 3rd and knocking Ukraine out of the medals completely. The arena filled with boos as the judges proceeded to leave. Japan celebrated while Ukraine stood around looking like we did after the USA qualification session yesterday (hint: stunned). What was hilarious was that once the boos subsided, the announcer immediately proceeded by saying, "Let's show some appreciation for our judges?"


BOOOOOO!!!!!


So I got to see my first medal ceremony today, and even though it wasn't my team, it was really special to see.

After the meet, we headed back to Oxford Street to see if we could find a Travelex. We returned to the hostel about 9:30- an early night we REALLY needed- and now I'm blogging and letting y'all know what we did today. I cannot believe that I have attended both the Men's Qualifications and now the Men's Team Finals. This is the stuff I am GLUED to the TV for every four years. To be able to say I was THERE when everyone is watching it on TV is surreal. Blessed is an understatement.  


Tomorrow will start with an early trip back to North Greenwich to try and buy tickets for the Women's Team Final. Here's the kicker about that: tickets are currently available online, and Amy and I are ready and willing to buy them. But we can't. Because we're not British. Really? We see on BBC News EVERY night different pieces about the empty seats in arenas. It kills me that if LOCOG doesn't realize how difficult they made it to get said tickets. They need to make tickets more accessible- to EVERYONE- and then maybe the empty seat problem will be solved. Just sayin'. 


And with that, I will bring this entry to a close. I'll post some pics of my new pins tomorrow, but like I said, its getting out of hand. I think the collection is up around 20 now. 


Anyways, you know the drill. Leave me comments either here or on FB. I miss y'all, and I will see you tomorrow- hopefully with picture from the Women's Team Final! GO GO USA!!!!

Day 3- Guest starring Paul Walker!

Our busiest day yet, and what a day it was! Let's just jump right in. 

I only had about three hours of sleep last night (only one of which was good, solid rest), but was too excited to see women's gymnastics today to care. My alarm clock was set for 6:30, but I was awake and in the shower at 6. With a full day of gymnastics starting at 9:30 AM, Amy and I set out for the tube around 7:30. We stopped for breakfast at the McDonald's around the corner from our hostel, and then boarded the tube to return to North Greenwich Arena. 

Whereas yesterday, North Greenwich absolutely amazed me, today it felt more familiar. Amy and I settled in for the morning session which included the teams from France, Italy, Australia and various athletes in what are called "mixed groups." You get put into a mixed group when you are an athlete from a country that does not have enough athletes to fill out a team. The mixed groups had athletes from countries not typically known for gymnastics such as Finland, Czech Republic, Puerto Rico and even Kazakhstan. The morning sessions were interesting in that we got to see how up and comers such as Italy and Australia looked, but for the most part was quite uneventful. 

The fact that I only got three hours of sleep the night before came back and bit me in the ass within the first rotation of the first session. Even with a coffee in hand, staying awake during the morning session was difficult. I believe I even nodded off a few times in the second subdivision. :-/

When we initially arrived at the arena, I turned on my camera to find out the battery was low. I didn't take any pictures in the morning session so that I could save my battery for the USA session that afternoon. I did make one exception, however. 

Between subdivisions, I thought I heard somebody behind me say that they were from Austin. I turned around thinking I had just found another Texan. I was wrong. The person behind me was from Boston, but she was no stranger:

Alicia Sacramone- TWO ROWS behind me! 

After the morning session, we hung around the arena for an hour until the doors reopened for the second session. The lobby of North Greenwich Arena was absolute CHAOS at this time. A thunderstorm had positioned itself right over London- so the people with tickets to the afternoon session were starting to arrive while the people leaving the morning session were staying put. Our original plan was to get something to eat at one of the restaurants and kill time before the second session, but that didn't happen as there were mile-long lines EVERYWHERE. We ended up waiting for the doors to reopen, and then purchased lunch from one of the concession stands. 

I was amped for the afternoon session as the ladies of Team USA were in subdivision 3. They looked absolutely fantastic through the first three rotations. It wasn't until floor went things went absolutely insane. 

 The girls line up before vault.

McKayla damn near sticks.

Kyla rocks bars.

Jordyn on beam.

Well, floor comes around and three of our four girls go out of bounds. Aly comes in and does exactly what your anchor is supposed to do- hit- and the meet ends. All the US fans figured that the meet was over. We were ecstatic; Team USA was in first place after four qualifying sessions and as we all expected, Jordyn and Gabby would be going through to the all-around. 

Then Aly's score came in. 

Aly's floor score flashed on the screen: a 15.23. The jumbo screen in the arena panned over to Mihai, who was hugging Aly and telling her something. We could clearly make out Aly say, "I did?" and then proceed to look absolutely shocked. The screen switched over to the final results, and shocked was an understatement. 

If you don't know gymnastics, the top two athletes from each country go on to the all-around. On Team USA, the top two are almost ALWAYS Jordyn and Gabby. Jordyn is the reigning all-around World Champion. I studied the screen for a second, and the thought process went something like this. 

"Does that say Aly is in first?"

"ALY beat Gabby and Jordyn?"

"DID ALY JUST KNOCK JORDYN OUT OF THE ALL AROUND?!!?"

I look down on the competition floor and Gabby, Kyla and McKayla are walking off like its no big deal. Aly is crying her eyes out. Two seconds later, the camera cuts to our girls talking to media and hugging and talking to other gymnasts. Jordyn is standing off to the side crying tears of a different kind as gymnasts from other countries come up and hug her. 

Every USA fan in the arena stood in stunned silence in the time after that subdivision- myself and Amy included. None of us could believe what had just happened. Jordyn Wieber- our rock, our reigning World Champion and our best shot at a USA three-peat failed to qualify for the all around. It still doesn't compute in my head. I don't think ANYBODY saw that coming, not Martha, not Mihai, John Geddert or even the gymnastics Gods themselves (I was about to make a real tasteless Anna Li joke, but I caught myself). It's just one of those absolutely insane things that sometimes happens in gymnastics, I suppose. It's something so crazy that even I said post-meet that I was curious to hear Tim Daggett's opinion.

The subdivision after the USA included powerhouses Russia and China. It was awesome to see gymnasts like Deng Linlin, Aliya Mustafina and Victoria Komova in person.  

Team Russia marches in. 

Anyways, qualifiers ended with the United States still in first place. Victoria Komova is first in the all-around standings with Aly and Gabby in 2nd and 3rd, respectfully. My take on this Jordyn and Aly situation is that this might hurt us. Vika is a force to be reckoned with. We know that Jordyn can beat her because she has done it before. I feel like Gabby has the power to beat her, but Aly does not. Part of the reason Aly never qualifies for all-around is her bar routine and overall lack of finesse. I feel like the all-around will all come down to Gabby, and we all know that while Gabby has many assets, consistency isn't one of them.

Anyways, enough gymnastics talk. 

After gymnastics, we headed straight from North Greenwich Arena towards Horse Guard's Parade for the evening session of beach volleyball. To get to Horse Guard's Parade, we had to take the tube to Westminster. 

How this picture happened:

We climbed the stairs at Westminster, got outside and Amy said, "Hey Gina! Turn around!"

So cool. We're gonna have to come back and do some exploring, but for now, this was pretty freaking awesome. 

Horse Guard's Parade is right outside Buckingham Palace- so we had to walk quite a bit to get there. When we arrived on Friday, Amy told me that I was in charge of keeping an eye out for celebrities. On the walk to HGP, I did my job. We were crossing a street when I spotted a man who looked very familiar. 

"AMY! Celebrity, RIGHT THERE!"

Paul Walker, y'all! It's a terrible picture, but still! 

The most hilarious thing about this encounter with Paul Walker was that he, too, was en route to beach volleyball at Horse Guard's Parade. We found out the USA was playing only after chatting with him for a few seconds. He didn't want to be bothered, but he wasn't a dick to us by any means so that was a plus.

What was not a plus was the walk to Horse Guard's Parade. Amy and I have been doing A LOT of walking in and around London, and on top of that had just come directly from a full day of gymnastics. We were tired, hungry and freezing cold, yet walked about 2 miles just to stand in a huge crowd waiting to get through security. Once we were finally through security, there were still two or three more sets of "ten to fifteen minute walks" just to get near the damn stadium. At this point we were really cranky, and I wasn't even looking forward to it anymore just because it was such a damn pain to get into the area. Once we were inside, however, we had a lot more fun than we thought we would. 

 Netherlands v. Brazil. Netherlands got their asses kicked, but seriously, is there a sport in this world that Brazil sucks at?

The atmosphere in beach volleyball is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from the atmosphere in gymnastics. In gymnastics, everyone including the crowd is focused on the athletes and them doing their best. In beach volleyball, they want the crowd to be rowdy and participate and have fun.

Horse Guard's Parade Dance Crew. WTF?!!? They were so random- it was hilarious. 

After the Netherlands/Brazil game came two consecutive USA games. The first was USA women against Brazil, the second USA men against Japan. The USA won both games, but the more the night went on, the colder it became. After the third game, with the temperature somewhere in the 50's, we opted to head back to the hostel and warm up and call it a night. We grabbed a really late dinner (11 PM late) from one of the food trucks outside the stadium and got back to the hostel around close to midnight. 

Tomorrow is tennis at Wimbledon! Can't wait to see it in person. We're hoping to maybe catch the Men's Team Final on TV at some point, too. 

You guys know the drill- leave me comments either on here or on FB! I miss y'all, and will update you more tomorrow!

Day 2- GYMNASTICS GYMNASTICS GYMNASTICS!!!!

Day 2 is in the books, and it. Was. AWESOME!


After a late night last night watching Opening Ceremonies in the hostel, I was surprised to get a decent night's sleep. Amy woke me up around 9:30 AM to let me know she was about to go get breakfast. I rolled out of bed and went with because although I still had an uneasy stomach, I knew I had to try and eat something. 


I ate about half of a small bowl of cornflakes while Olympic cycling played live on the TV in the hostel cafeteria. The hostel has breakfast from 7:30-10 each morning, and when they say 10, they MEAN 10. The clock hadn't even hit 10 yet and the staff immediately turned off the TV and rushed everyone out. We moved into the lounge where the Olympics coverage continued. I used the wifi to touch base with the US while Amy ate. 


We set out for the day around noon. Our first stop was back to Oxford Street so we could each buy a pay-as-you-go phone. I deserve a lot of the crap I take back home for being so dependent on my phone, but I don't really care. I was super relieved to know that I now have a way to call and text the US whenever I want.

Oxford Street. It reminds me of New York, except that it's British.


After Oxford Street (and a random episode involving my eyes uncontrollably burning), we set out for our first Olympic event: Men's Gymnastics Qualifications at North Greenwich Arena (formerly O2). The closer we got to the arena on the tube, the more excited I got. It finally got to the point where we got off the tube and all I could do was bounce up and down saying, "Gymnastics gymnastics gymnastics gymnastics!!!"


The magnitude of what we were about to do didn't hit me until we got out of the tube and saw this:

Holy shit, right? Don't tell Amy, but I felt a little emotional. Olympic gymnastics, people! How many people get to say that they saw an Olympic event in person? Not many. 

Once we got through security (which I'm happy to report is TIGHT) and inside, we had a little bit of time to wait. Turns out that the lobby of North Greenwich Arena is something like a shopping mall, however, so waiting wasn't too bad. We didn't explore before the meet as we were far too excited, but we snapped a few pics and even ran into a few gymnasts. 

Walking into North Greenwich Arena.

Pretty.

Jessica Gil Ortiz, Colombia.

Epke Zonderland, Netherlands. Totally ripped this pic off Amy's blog, but I couldn't help it! Her new camera is absolutely kickass.


Once we got inside, we knew our seats were in a "suite," but we weren't quite sure what that entailed. Were we in an actual suite? Were we just on a suite level? Is suite just a British term? We were suite level, in that we had seats... in a suite. Pretty sweet, right? :-)

Had to go through this to get to our seats. 


Words cannot describe the chills I felt upon seeing the arena for the first time. No, not because it is hot pink- which just happens to be my favorite color- but because I was about to watch Team USA in an Olympic event! All these years I've been so used to watching these things on TV. Realizing I was about to witness it with my own two eyes was a moment in and of itself. 

CHILLS.

The awesome thing about the subdivision we had tickets for was that it featured the USA and Japan. For those of you who don't know gym, the men's podium will be the USA, Japan and China- we just don't know in what order. The USA men did AWESOME, and it was great to finally see Kohei Uchimura (3-time reigning World Champion- seriously, go YouTube him) in person, too. He really is a gymnast on a whole other level than the rest of the world.


Like I said, though, the USA men absolutely crushed it. Jon Horton had a rough day with mess-ups on both pommels and parallel bars, but hit his high bar routine to loud applause throughout the arena. My favorite part of the meet might have been when Danell Leyva was on high bar. If you know gym, you know Danell's coach/father, Yin Alvarez. Yin is typically on the floor with Danell, but is not allowed on the floor in the Olympics because each country is only allowed one coach. When Danell competes, Yin is incredibly animated and has a certain clap he does when Danell is about to finish a routine. As the athletes rotated events, Yin rotated around the stadium, clapping and cheering for Danell as if he were down there with him. 


Well, during Danell's high bar routine, we actually wondered out loud where exactly Yin was. All of a sudden, we heard clapping and looked up to see Yin charging down the stairs closest to high bar. The crowd caught on to the clapping, Yin blew past two security guards (both wondering, "who the hell is this guy?") and when Danell hit his landing, Yin went nuts. Classic. And hilarious- if you're a gym fan like myself. 

Just some reigning World Champion on parallel bars action, no big deal. 


At the end of the meet, the leaderboard looked like this:

Really doesn't get much better than that for Team USA. So proud of the guys! We currently do not have tickets for the Men's Team Final, but I think we're going to try and find some. It's going to be one hell of a battle, and our men have a really good chance of winning a medal!


After the meet, we headed back into the lobby where we actually ran into the USA alternates: Chris Brooks, Steven Legendre and Alex Naddour. Amy knows them from covering them at OU, so they chatted briefly and we proceeded back to the tube. 


We stopped back at Oxford Street to pick up a hair straightener (American straighteners don't work in the UK- boo) and then headed over to Hyde Park. Keep in mind that Amy and I are two TEXANS in London at the end of July. Texans wear t-shirts and shorts by default in the summer. As we made our way to Hyde Park, we realized that we were FREEZING and decided to return to the hostel and change. Once we changed into jeans and our Team USA track jackets, we returned to Hyde Park to find (a) the London 2012 shop and (b) the Coca-Cola pin trading center. We found the pin trading center first. I traded for five pins: an Atlanta 1996 pin, an Athens 2004 pin, two London pins and a pin with the Colombian flag and the Olympic rings that I traded with a little boy from- well- Colombia. 


After the pin center, we headed over to the Team USA shop. I bought the blue poster I have been looking for ever since the London 2012 online store started redirecting to the Team USA store, and a picture frame that I had pinned a long time ago. 


By this time, it was nearing 10 PM and we hadn't eaten yet. We took the tube to South Kensington where we met up with Jon and Brenda. We found a pizza place and had a nice dinner talking about London and things back home. Dinner was done around 11 and we caught the tube back at about 11:30. We got back to the hostel around midnight, and now here I am catching you guys up on the day's happenings. 

All in all, it was a pretty busy/awesome day. Tomorrow is even busier as we return to North Greenwich Arena for TWO sessions of women's gymnastics, and then cut over to Horse Guard's Parade around 8 PM for beach volleyball. I'll be taking pics and will probably blog again tomorrow night. Leave me comments! I miss y'all. See you tomorrow!