Caves and Waves

Saturday, March 20, 2010

This isn’t going to be a very happy post. I’m stuck in my room, writing a paper for history class, and the sun is shining through my window… ugh. Of all the days. This was one of our last free weekends in London. After this, we only have a month left (my heart just broke) and it feels like every day we have something going on. Literally, the iCal on my computer is packed, all colorful and busy with events and people visiting. I’m so excited! And this isn’t helping my current situation at all. The weatherman said today was supposed to rain and be really crappy… liar. And this is where I’ll be for the next 10 hours. Finishing papers, presentations, and studying a bit. Trying to get everything done before I run out of time.

So, aside from the gloomy study party that is going on in our room right now, the last few days have been great! On Thursday, I woke up and went for a run. It started raining just as I finished, thank God. History class soon followed and during a bunch of presentation from classmates, I realized how much I enjoy that class. Our professor is amazing. I think he knows absolutely everything there is to know about London, Britain, and possibly the whole of Europe. Man is a genius. In the UK, you have to go to college to get a degree in tour guiding (for real) and John, our professor, taught guides for quite a while. He knows all these little fun facts and stories that always make his class interesting.

After class, we all headed up Old Brompton Road to Knightsbridge where we were meeting for dinner with advisers. Quite a few students are out of town this weekend, so it was a much smaller group. We sat right by Mary, the lead adviser, who is quickly becoming my favorite person. She is hilarious. And never stops talking! She has a million stories to tell and always has good advise. She owns a cave in Turkey. Seriously, among all of her crazy real estate investments, she has a cave. We just laughed for a bit, until she showed us the pictures. Let me tell you, that is not what I think of when I picture cave in my head. The inside of it looks like a freaking cathedral! Big arches on the ceiling and huge wooden doors. Prettiest cave I’ve ever seen.

Anyway, after we made a bit of fun Mary for a bit, our food came. And then kept coming. It was a four-course meal and I was full by the second. But, oh my God, it was the best food I’ve had here and possibly in my whole life. It was Iraqi cuisine and I was a bit hesitant at first. They made us these kebabs of steak, lamb, and chicken. It tasted just like Dad grilled it on the grill out on the front porch. Yum! I’m learning how to make kebabs soon.

After that glorious meal, I was way too full to go to Harrods. I could barely walk myself home. When we did get back to the flat, I looked at my phone and realized it was 9:30! That meal took us four hours to eat! Ahh, but have a mentioned how good it was?

Early Friday morning, we met our lovely guide Brit for a tour of the site of the London Olympics in 2012. How cool it that? I was really excited for this trip and I wasn’t let down at all. We took the Tube east for about 45 minutes and got off at Bromley-by-Bow. I just love some of the Tube stop names! So bizarre. They are actually renovating and reorganizing the entire underground for the Olympics. It took us almost an hour to get out to the site, which is only a few miles east of central London. But my 2012, you will be able to get there in seven minutes!

Brit took us on a bit of a walk around the area surrounding the site. Newham, I’m not sure on the spelling, was a pretty poor, rundown area before all this excitement. It was home to a lot of industry and factories. It took them almost two years just to clean up the place to prepare it for renovations. There is this series of canals running through the center and they are going to be just great for the games. Houseboats, new business and apartments, and miles of boardwalks are popping up all along the waterway.

After a bit of a walk, we made our way onto the Olympic site, which, at this point, is basically a huge construction zone. And the whole thing has to be finished by January 2011… They have some major work to do! The Olympic stadium looked pretty close to finished, but Brit said it is only half done and that is only half of the finished stadium. It is going to be huge! The coolest part was the aquatic center… It has this roof in the shape of a giant blue stingray. It is beautiful. They built the roof first and are constructing the actual building and pools while that giant stingray sits on temporary supports. They are calling it “The Wave”. The biking area looks similar, but not as cool. That one is called “The Pringle”.

We had a bit of a look around from the view tube, the place where visitors can see the site. This small building with a tall lookout tower was built completely out of recycled dock containers. And they painted it bright lime green! In fact, the 2012 games are being called the Green Games because most everything constructed or used for the games is recycled. Some of the stuff they are using is so bizarre. I don’t’ know how you would think of it. They are also making major plans for post-Olympics. They obviously want to keep the site nice and in use, so there is a lot of thought going into that. I kind of zoned out when Brit was telling us about this. I was fascinated by the Wave.

After our Olympics tour was over, we headed to the docklands area of London, also known as Canary Wharf. It used to be, well, a giant dock, but now it is the new financial district of London. Huge, Manhattan-like skyscrapers right on the edge of the Thames River. It was all built within the last ten years, so everything is brand new, which is pretty rare in London. We also visited the Docklands Museum and the underground shopping mall… oh no. Below all the skyscrapers, there is this huge mall that connects all the buildings and the Tube Station. You don’t even have to walk outside if you don’t want. But, you have to walk by all of these shops with tempting window displays and sale signs. Let’s just say, the day ended on a happy note as we talked around for a few hours.

Well, there’s the past few days and I’ve gone an excellent job procrastinating for a few minutes. Back to my paper… I’ll be back soon! Whenever I get out of this dreaded flat…

Cheerio,
Kelly