Olympic Ceremony!!!

 Friday was a fantastic day! We started out our morning with a boat ride down the Thames. I have never been on the actual river before. So it was pretty sweet. We got a great picture with the Tower Bridge as you can see! As we were going down the river we had seen one battleship from WWII. So when we happened upon a second one we were all like "Cool, another WWII ship". Wrong! It is a fully working, fully armed, ready for anything war ship. Just in case things go wrong...I felt pretty safe. 

Picture from a boat on the Thames! Lauren, Kristina and Nicala

A battleship on the Thames...fully working

 After our boat tour we went to the Maritine Museum. Filled with boats and this fantastic kid section! They had hats, a working telegraph with morse code beside it. The museum itself was interesting, it had many different exhibits but that was yesterday...so I don't remember anything specific that I learned. The kids floor was super fun though. We goofed off. It was great. We were also super close to the Prime Meridian but we could not get to the observatory because of the Olympics. Then I went to Nandos with a group of friends and had a fantastic meal!

Yo, Ho, Yo, Ho a pirates life for us?

The next thing I did was go to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Why? Well, if you are a fan of BBC's Sherlock Holmes series you will know why! Past that I cannot really tell you except that it played a huge role in the season finale. I even did my first bit of graffiti writing "I believe in Sherlock Holmes" on the wall. I am actually pretty proud. I did not however, sign my name cause that would be stupid. Then I made a mad dash to the John Lewis store an hour before dinner. It was kinda a stupid idea. Yet, somehow I managed to get my mug in an hour. I was only 30 minutes late to dinner! Then we headed out to Hyde Park for what we thought was a free place to watch the opening ceremonies...boy we were misled.

My first piece of graffiti. Probably the last.

So Hyde Park was having a concert with Snow Patrol, Duran Duran, and a Welsh Band. It cost 60 quid to get in. I did not pay to go in. The only other free venue was Victoria Park, 40 minutes away and already at capacity. So it was time for plan B. After discovering this information we started heading back when Kaitlyn, who was wearing her Canada shirt, was stopped by a news reporter for an impromptu interview. We crowded around her and answered questions. They might have aired it too but a homeless man came in front of the camera and flipped it off and started going off. So we don't know what station it was or if they aired it but I may have been on British TV. Woohoo!

So Kim and I decided we needed a picture like we were actually able to get into the park. Out of no where this guy walks up and says "I have 1 free ticket. Would you like it?" Kim and I look at each other and Kim told me I should take it. I declined because I didn't know the bands and I knew I would have more fun with a bunch of people I knew. Plus, I was super tired. So Kim got in for free! I was so excited for her and a little bit nervous. As we were walking back to the house to watch the games six jets flew over head with red, white and blue behind it. It was soooo cool! Then we went to Tesco and got some candy. Then we got in the kitchen and set it up for awesomeness.

Kim and I outside Hyde Park Olympic viewing event!

Red, White, and Blue behind jet planes it was pretty cool!

The opening ceremonies were fantastic! It perfectly represents everything I have been doing in London for the last 5 weeks. It started with a small provincial English town per-industrial revolution! Rob sees it and goes "Hey look, Kibworth". We started laughing so hard. Kibworth (since explanation is necessary) is the town that we have been studying while here. We have studied it from the Roman times to present day. So the beginning of the ceremonies the provincial town to industrial revolution and just how society has advanced. Also, I have been to every land mark that they showed in the Ceremony. I dearly loved the fact that Mr. Bean was in the show playing Chariots of Fire! We cheered so loudly for him. Voldemort, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, just all of the wonderful references they made in the ceremonies was so fun! I still cannot believe that they would even insinuate that James Bond escorted the Queen or that she jumped from an airplane. It was ridiculously awesome! I really enjoyed that they made the Olympic rings out of iron from the industrial revolution as well. Just a fantastic ceremony. It was so much fun to watch! I hope you all enjoyed it and that you watched it! I love you but I am off to bed so a blog post about today will have to wait but it is an adventure!