Swimming and Boxing

So today was a two event day. We got up around 5:30 and decided to actually take the bus to Centre City instead of walking this time. By the time we got into London it was around 7:30 and finally got to see the Olympic Park. None of our events so far have been in the Olympic Park. The aquatics center, basketball arena, olympic stadium, and other venues are in the park. There was this awesome spiral structure in the centre. Not sure what that might be for. Could be a restaurant at the top. So in the aquatics center we saw the heat rounds for 200M IM women's, 200M Butterfly men's, and 200M Freestyle women's. I am not sure but it look like Phelps held back some just to move on to the next round because he came in 3rd overall of 16 places. I hope that is the case. From there we had to get on another train to get to other side of London where we saw Table Tennis the other day to see Boxing today. We saw 5 flyweight matches and 5 light heavyweight matches. They were all pretty good, but the last one was the best one between the USA and Aussie. I think the Brits love Aussie or dislike the USA since they were cheering for him like crazy. Our guy did pretty good until the last round and lost that round big time, which made the Aussie catch up in points and pass him for the win to move on. On the train back from the events I felt we were cows. Just a whole bunch of tourist being heard into one direction. On the train back to Oxford we witness a little girl running through the train laughing and then the parents were running through the train. By the time the little girl got caught and came back she was laughing and being so gitty it was the best time she had for a chase. So then it was back to Oxford and we actually got back at a decent time for once! By the time we went to the grocery store for pizza, YUM! It was 7:30:) Now I will let Laura write if she would like:

Yay my turn. What John hasn't really talked about much is all the different countries that we've seen. We've seen people from all kinds of places. Today for example in the boxing we saw a Mongolian cheering section (the Mongolian won!) and they were doing cheers and the coach was yelling in Mongolian. We also saw some street musicians from Thailand that were all dressed up and the music was really good. They also have food from all kinds of different countries in the arenas. They have sushi, cornish pastries, McDonalds (boo!) Indian, Caribbean, and traditional British. There is probably more but I haven't seen them up close. I think John pretty much covered the rest of today so I'll stop now. Enjoy the pictures!


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tried to wave to cousin Jeffrey but he didn't see me :(

Shooting and Table Tennis

So this was yesterday when we saw shooting. Just to see one event we have to leave the apartment around 6:30AM and walk 45min to the train station for a hour long train ride to London. By the time we get into London it usually takes about a hour to get to the event by the underground. Oh and then some more walking to the venue. The events usually last about 3 hours or so and when it is all said and done we usually find ourselves back in Oxford by 9 or 10pm. Now as you can see we do get a lot of exercising in, but very exhausted by the end of the day. For the most part I will just let these photos do the talking. As far as the sports went we both learned a lot. In shooting they shoot to a target about the 20 inches in diameter and when the target is struke it measures the shot by microphones in each corner of the target. The USA didn't final in either event we saw. We saw the 10 meter pistol for Men and 10 meter rifle for Women. It was a medal match to so we actually got to see the first medals handed out at the Olympics. As far table tennis goes... Well it was awesome! I learned a lot more about the rules of table tennis that well none of us that play go by. I won't go into that right now, but I'll have to explain it to those I work with later on. I'm just going to post a few photos here and get to bed. It's about 10:30 here and I am going to need to be up at 5:30 so we can get to the swimming event tomorrow. I will try and tell more next time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arundel

So for our day without any events we found a castle about 3 hours of a train ride south of London to go to. The name of the castle is Arundel Castle which was constructed for the Duke of Norfolk and the family still lives there today. So we only got to see part of the castle and were not able to see the private garden. You could pick through a small window and see a small part of the private garden. They had a very nice tennis court and of course a trampoline for the "adults." They did forbid us from taking any photos inside the castle, which had an awesome library with 10,000 plus books, one of the better armories, several bedrooms, drawing rooms, and the great hall. I suppose they want you to visit to see the inside of the castle. So everyone needs to go if you are in England. Laura said it was actually more impressive than Warwick castle, which is the Disney world of castles in England. We decided to go to this one since it wasn't as crowded with tourist and the fact it was joust week!!! We did get to see a beautiful garden that was on the grounds of the castle, just not inside of the castle. The jousting was amazing! If you have ever watched the jousting show on the History channel it is pretty much exactly like that. They take it very seriously and everyone is dressed in full armor. When you look at the pictures there is one photo with a guy pretty much hitting the other guy in the head with his lance. The poor chap that got hit in the head feel off of his horse shortly after he got to the end of the jousting line. There were other activies that took place all around the grounds that included some blacksmithing and wood crafting. On one part of the grounds they were sword fighting. And even though it was for entertainment these guys were very competitive as you will see from the photos. One chap got hit in his throat and was actually checking to see if he was bleeding! OUCH! But I think it would be a blast to do that! The kids had a lot of fun on the Storytime area playing out the story of Robin Hood. Well it is after 10 here and I still need to post some photos of the day for you and I have to be in London at 8am tomorrow for our fist event, shooting. So enjoy...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what happens if you leave your bike alone in Oxford!

Around Oxford

So this has been a very very long day. Laura and I only slept for about 4 hours on the plane ride so it has been quite a struggle to stay awake all day. On the flip side we walked around Oxford all day and got to see several colleges under the Oxford University umbrella. In one college we saw a Cluisters of where Harry Potter was filmed and another where the great hall for Harry Potter. We learned how the colleges and towns folk used to fight each other around the 1500s to the point where folks would burn the students and continue to eat them! They really just did not get along back in the day. We also saw what is called punting where you get to sit in a boat and have someone push you down a river with a long stick/rod. Here are a couple of photos of the day....

 

Part of Harry Potter filming

The Great Hall of Harry Potter

 

Punting!

 

 

Laura!