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:
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!
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