i went to the olympics and it was better than i could ever have imagined.

my friends philippa, mike, larry, and larry's son jakob got tickets through the online (authorized) resale market that is only available to the brits (phil and mike are both british and thus able to buy these tickets).  tickets would pop up and then disappear as people bought them, so we stalked the website a lot hoping to find something good.  this popped up a couple weeks ago and we pounced on them.  we liked that we got a lot of tennis, too - 8 hours for a 40 pound ticket.  we bought the "B" class tickets, which meant we wouldn't have the best ("A") seats, but the next level up (the classes went up to "E").

olympic tennis is at wimbledon, and on monday when we went there were matches from 11:30am-8pm on 12 courts!  12!  you could buy one of three kinds of tickets: tickets to centre court, tickets to court 1, or tickets that didn't allow you access to either of those courts but allowed you to sit at any of the other 10 courts on a first come, first serve basis.  we had court 1 tickets, which meant we had an actual seat at court 1 but could walk into any of the 10 other courts (except centre), too.  (i feel like i'm making this explanation very confusing, so i hope you understand.  actual seat at court 1; ability to see matches at 10 additional courts if there was a free seat.)

we arrived at noon, and i did the smartest thing i could have possibly done: i took photos of the big board that showed which matches were being played at which court.  i am a genius.

(one of many such photos.  apparently the dutch fans like cheese hats just like wisconsin fans.)

throughout the day we would refer back to the photos to decide where to head next.  first stop, court 2 to watch andy roddick play (he won).

next stop, our reserved seats at court 1 to watch serena play!  court 1 was much bigger than 2 - and let me take a minute here to say that the courts ranged in size from "oh, is that a match?" with benches to seat maybe 20 fans on the pathway between the larger courts...to a couple hundred...to several thousand seats.

serena killed this tiny polish girl.  poor polish girl.

do you see the sun?  THERE WAS SUN ALL DAY!  I GOT A SUNBURN ON MY NOSE!  incredible weather.

then we went back to court 2 because the afternoon match there looked amazing - williams sisters!  my (excellent) plan was that we would get there before the williams sisters played their doubles match because i figured that would fill up quickly.  we arrived in the middle of a match between a german dude and a serbian dude that was really fun (probably my favorite match of the day, actually - the serbian fans were crazy and there was lots of banter - and the two men were pretty equally matched.  also!  as the german lost he had a hissy fit and slammed his racket into his shoe four or five times, breaking it in half.  omg!  eek!  we were near his (pregnant) wife, who was not amused with him).  the crowd was pretty small when we arrived, so we walked ALL THE WAY TO THE FRONT ROW AND SAT DOWN.  after about two minutes i realized it was too close (too close!  i was too close at the olympics!) because it was right in the line of the serve and i genuinely thought i might get hit in the face by their 200 km/h serves and die.  we moved back one row.

so i watched venus and serena play doubles from the second row - with this view:

incredible.  the place was entirely full by the time the match started, and my get-there-early plan was a huge success.

hi ladies.

if you, like me, are not a huge tennis fan, you might think "i can't tell venus and serena apart!"  you are kidding yourself, as i was.  you just haven't been paying attention.  serena has probably 40 pounds on venus.  i was scared of serena.

the five of us in our seats!

then it was off to court 1 again to watch federer play doubles.  while court 1 was bigger, i loved the intimacy of court 2, especially when it was full...and being in the second row DID NOT HURT MATTERS.

the swiss playing the japanese.  stop wearing the same colors and confusing me.

it got cold.  we put on our jackets.  federer served at 211 km/h.  omg.  there was a tie breaking point thing that i had to learn about.  earlier in the day i learned not to call deuce "a 40-40 tie" [jenny is totally rolling her eyes at this - sorry, jenny!].  philippa and mike were excellent teachers.  i decided i like the fast pace of doubles much better than singles.

honestly?  one of the most fun days EVER.  excellent company, amazing seats, fun matches, great atmosphere, sunshine, understanding in the moment that i was incredibly incredibly lucky to be able to experience all of this.  i'm not a huge tennis fan, but the ability to be so close totally hooked me.  we couldn't have asked for a better day - better tickets - better matches - better anything.  (actually, wrong.  better vegetarian food.  i could have asked for that.)

40 pounds incredibly well spent.

things i love about england: their domestic fruit is labeled with the name of the grower and where his farm is!  angus davison grew me these raspberries.  knowing this little detail pleases me - it connects me in a tiny way with the origin of my food.  it personalizes the experience of eating.

the raspberries were delicious.  i ate them yesterday while lying in christ church meadow and reading my book WHILE THE SUN SHONE ON ME.  today?  today it is raining again, but yesterday there was sun...so that's something.

paul simon was amazing.

(blue skies!  sun!  it didn't rain a drop!  after the summer we've been having in england, this is a miracle.)

i danced around and sang along and had a huge smile on my face for three hours.  paul simon is 70, but most of the time you couldn't tell - his voice was great, he danced around a little, he played for three hours.  he played with 5 members of his band from when he recorded graceland, plus 3 background singers from the album, plus ladysmith black mambazo for a couple songs.  it was awesome.  they sounded GOOD.

one of the coolest things was being in this huge throng of people - 60,000 is what the newspapers are saying - and every person was singing along.  to be a paul simon fan at that concert was incredible, but to share it with this enormous crowd was even cooler.  and, um, i was in the 5th row.  5th row!  there was music starting at 2pm, and paul simon was scheduled to start at 7:45.  we got there at 2:30 and marched our way as close to the front as we could and then stayed there - minus one bathroom break by yours truly - as the crowd grew and grew behind us.  the view behind me:

(there's an even better photo of the crowd from the concert website here.)

the view in front of me:

(okay, this is really the view in front of cole, who's a whole foot taller than me.  my view was between the two guys' heads who were standing in front of me, but i could see nonetheless!)

he played every song from the graceland album plus lots of well known songs.  his encore included "the boxer" with jerry douglas on dobro.  INCREDIBLE.

the concert was everything i wanted it to be and lots lots lots more.  an amazing night.  it felt like i was watching - was a part of - something really special.

broughton castle

so...we took a field trip with all 440 students to broughton castle.  it poured down rain the whole time.  after the tour of the castle we had to be outside.  there was no shelter.  it was the opposite of fun.

huddling under umbrellas in the rain:

moat around the castle...in the rain:

graveyard* at the chapel...in the rain:

aaaaaand that was the field trip.

um...it has rained a lot here since we arrived.  sun!  we need you!  please come back!


*fun fact - anyone know the difference between a cemetery and a graveyard?  there is one!

yesterday a girl on the program dislocated her shoulder and then, walking to the office, clumsily ran into a wall, popping it back in.  we are considering this a victory.

in her pain, we sent a PA (program assistant - they are oxford undergrads) to the pharmacy to get the strongest possible painkillers that they sell over the counter.  the girl said that her mom lets her take ibuprofen (having a mom myself who is particular about what kind of painkillers we're allowed to have - no aspirin for us as kids - i asked her what her mom would want her to take when we weren't able to get her mom on the phone).  our PA came back with a box of ibuprofen WITH CODEINE.  they sell this over the counter for 3 pounds (5 dollars).  omg.  england.  what is going on.

we did not give it to her, as i was again channeling my mom and knew she wouldn't want her child given codeine without having been consulted, so it was regular ibuprofen for this kid.  

when i got back to my room last night i checked out the receipt, which i provide for your entertainment.

be warned, everyone - this contains ibuprofen!  we'll omit the warning about the CODEINE that you could become addicted to.

oh england.  i giggled a lot.

royal ascot!

on saturday vin (a duke rugby friend who lives in london) and i went to royal ascot with some of her london friends!

fascinators required (seriously - or hats)! (vin's is hidden a bit.)  i debated between a smaller purple one and this one...and decided to go ALL OUT.  i mean, how many times can a girl wear a fascinator?

if you were wondering, i did not look ridiculous, as everyone else was wearing crazy headpieces, too.  i DID keep running into things with my fascinator since it added a lot to my height.  oops.

the queen comes to royal ascot every year.  this is her parading in - she's wearing the sassy green dress - i loved it.

queen!

um, i have never seen our president in real life, but i got a good 5 minutes worth of the queen.  it was awesome.

i would also like to note that the queen was surrounded by...2 security guards.  2!!  and there were no metal detectors or anything when we entered the grounds.  this would NOT FLY IN AMERICA.  apparently everyone loves the queen, though, so no biggie.  she just goes out in the world.

vin's the only one of us who won any money betting on the horse races.  she won 6 pounds and 80 pence.  big time.

we watched this horse named black caviar win his 22nd straight race.  it was incredible - we were on the final stretch and he just BUSTED INTO TOP GEAR and pulled away from all the other horses at the last minute.

the odds on black caviar were 1-7.  NOT 7-1.  1-7, as in, if you bet 1 pound on him you will win 1/7th of a pound.  i had never seen this before.  vin did not bet on black caviar; she won her money in another race by betting on a horse named waffle.  yes!  waffle!  there was also a horse in that race named scarf.  clearly we picked our horses based on their names.

perusing the odds...aka another awesome fascinator shot...

yay!  thanks to vin for an awesome day!!

HA!  making fun of england.  i enjoy it.

my favorite part:

Meanwhile, The Telegraph reports that there will be animals. Not awesome animals, like lions and hippogriffs and friendly dogs [Edit: there will apparently be friendly dogs; "three sheep dogs," to be exact], but boring and surprisingly mean animals like geese. 
Specifically: nine geese. 
They're only springing for nine geese.