It’s currently raining in London. The Women’s Marathon is going on right now, and a week from now, I will be home. What a strange, bittersweet feeling.
When I was younger, I always dreamed of playing in the Olympics. At first it was swimming and then when I realized I didn’t like swimming as much as I thought I did, it was Water Polo and then I didn’t want to play water polo any more, so it was just kind of like, “Well, everyone wishes to go to the Olympics, but not everyone can go.” But last Wednesday I did get to go to the Olympics. An Olympic water polo game, to be exact. I found tickets on London Craig’s List after much perusing and, unlike some scams that happen on Craig’s List, this was not one. I went with a girl in my program, Emily, and we spent all day in Olympic Park because if you have a ticket to a match, once you’re inside the park, you can stay there all day.
The back of the Aquatics center.
The entrance after we made it through security.
First we had to go through these tents that had security scanners similar to that of the airport. It wasn’t as intense as airport security, but obviously you weren’t allowed to bring weapons of any kind, liquids over 100 ml, and giant bags. They checked our tickets about three times and then we were sent on our way to the entrance. It was really a great atmosphere because you could tell that every employee helping lead the crowd to the entrance was happy to be there and wanted everyone to enjoy themselves. There were people talking on megaphones saying things like:
“Welcome to another wonderful day at Olympic Park!”
“Welcome to London 2012!”
“Hey, even though it’s not sunny and it might rain, we’re still going to enjoy ourselves today!”
One man was chanting over and over and over again, “Please keep moving, please keep walking, please keep moving, please keep walking,” which was stuck in my head for about an hour afterwards.
Signs showing directions to the different venues.
The Stadium!
There were people everywhere, obviously, and there were rows of tents selling every kind of food imaginable. The Stadium was basically in the center of the park and right there when you walked in. The Aquatics Center was, too.
ONE of TWO McDonald’s in the park. It was all McDonald’s and Coca-Cola plastered everywhere. This one was walk-up only, but the other one was an actual, two-story “restaurant.”
More pictures of The Orbit and the stadium.
GO GREEN. Spartans represent!
The Water Polo Arena. SO AMAZING.
I believe this was made out of the same stuff that was around the track in the Stadium.
ALL THE PEOPLE.
Aquatics Center.
We got there early, like around 11:30 and walked around for a while just basking in the atmosphere. We got something to eat, I bought a beer because I could and to say I drank one in the Olympic Park. I mean, c’mon. How many people get to say they did that? The tickets for the water polo match were for two matches. The first one started at 2:10 so we got to the arena around 1:45.
We walked in and around the corner and down these steps and all of a sudden the pool was right there. And I freaked out. I mean, I’ve seen enough pools to last a lifetime: high school pools, country club pools, college and university and olympic sized pools that are at times amazing and wonderful and great and at other times terrible and gross and nasty to swim in. But this. Was. Not. The. SAME. In the least. This was ten times better and I had the strongest urge to jump over the barrier between the stands and the deck and jump in the water. It was surreal to even be in that arena with the Olympic rings and the giant signs that read “London 2012.”
I could literally not stop taking pictures.
Yeah.
And the best part was THAT WAS WHERE OUR SEATS WERE. RIGHT THERE. ONE ROW FROM BEING ON THE DECK.
What.
The athletes sat THERE.
The teams came out of these doors. The first match was Hungary vs. China.
They lined up first and were introduced one by one. They had enough players for exactly two full strings. 14 players on each team.
Hungary women’s team getting ready.
Jumping in for warm up. They’re just like my team! They jump in at the same time.
Line up before the sprint. They did a head start. I always hated those. I could go faster at the two-meter start.
And they’re off!
Hungary was on our side for the first half.
Can I play?
Time-out.
Final score. Hungary wins.
The crowd going nuts after they won.
It was actually kind of crazy because there was an American family sitting behind me and the dad was wearing a “Mercyhurst Water Polo” t-shirt and they had a Mid West accent and because I’m my mother’s daughter, I turned around and asked where they were from and they said Chicago and I said Oh, cool, I’m from Michigan, I played water polo in high school and they asked where and I told them and then it turned out one of the girls plays at Mercyhurst with a girl from my rival high school who I played against all the time.
Smallest world ever. It was awesome, though. How often does that happen?
I thought this board was cool. Instead of a dry-erase marker showing the players where to go, there were magnets!
Next match: Russia vs. Italy.
Russia.
Line up before the match.
Russia wins.
Done. Match over.
Go Green!
When we left the arena, the sky had cleared up a little bit, and it was actually really pretty outside. It’d been overcast and drizzling a little before the match. As usual.
THE MEGAMCDONALDS or “MegaDonalds.”
London 2012 Mega Store.
For both the McDonalds and the Mega Store, there was a queue to get in, as though we were waiting in line to go on a roller coaster at Cedar Point. Crowd control, I suppose. It didn’t take that long, though.
I will never get sick of seeing these two things together.
There were giant pictures of Olympic athletes on the outside.
This was some exhibition you could stand in line and go to. It was sponsored by Coca-Cola and had something to do with music and sports being combined.
The Basketball Arena.
They had this big screen playing some events that were being played throughout the park. Men’s gymnastics was going on when we walked over after we left the water polo arena.
I got a flurry at the MegaDonalds just to say I ate something from there. It was so worth standing in line for. The line wasn’t even that bad although my next picture shows just how many people were inside at once.
They had an “Express Line” that was cash only.
After we left the water polo match, we walked around a little more, went to the megastore, got some dinner at this cheap panini place, talked with a family from Wisconsin (how are these Americans finding each other??), talked to a woman who asked what we thought about the opening ceremonies (apparently some British people weren’t sure if anyone else in the world would understand the cultural references. I told this woman that I think more people understood it than they thought and that was the genius of Danny Boyle), and went to this Panasonic 3-D theater where we watched swimming in 3D (men’s 100M Freestyle, for one. Go, Nathan Adrian! And the women’s 200M Butterfly. Worst. Event. Ever.)
There was this family in front of us of a dad and his three kids. Two boys and a girl. The two boys were older and looked to be close in age and the girl was the youngest and looked to be about three years younger than the youngest boy. Made me miss my family.
After we left the Panasonic theater, we watched the swimming live from the big screen in the park. IT WAS SO COOL. The Semi’s of the men’s 200M Backstroke and 200M IM swam along with the women’s 200M Breaststroke. It was great because it was happening in the arena less than a five minute walk away and we were sitting there watching it happen along with several hundred other people on this huge screen in the middle of this enormous park.
The Stadium lit up at night. The park is ten times more glorious at night than it is in the day, but only because everything is lit up and you can hear cheers from the outdoor venues.
Water Polo arena at night.
Aquatics Center at night. Apparently the same guy who designed this designed the new Broad Art Museum at MSU. Personally, this looks much better.
Back of the Aquatics Center as we’re leaving the park.
In total, I think I spent about 10 and a half hours there. It reminded me a lot of an amusement park minus the roller coasters and games. But the atmosphere was almost the same. Electric and alive and people from all over the world coming to watch these world-class athletes compete. It is not a day I will forget anytime soon, and I loved being there every single minute.
London Town 