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.

i'm back in atlanta!  hooray!

an update on miss claire's whereabouts:

today: oxford, packing up the office and finishing work.
monday: wimbledon, for olympics tennis!
tuesday: in the air, flying back to atlanta!

meet my new best friend, george.

george is the 6 year old son of one of the college employees.  for two years i've been telling george's dad that he should bring george for a visit, as i'd heard about how cute and red-headed he is.  yesterday george came to help his dad around college.

after helping his dad, he came for a visit.  and by "visit," i mean it went something like this.

me: "we're watching olympics rowing!"
george: "i can draw that!"  [disappears to his dad's office for 10 minutes.  comes back with picture.]

pretty good, huh?!

i thanked george and he said, "i have more paper!"

i can take a hint.  it became a game - what other olympics sports could george draw?

this is shooting.  as you are probably aware, the people at the top are spectators, the guy in green is the referee blowing his whistle, and the other two are in the competition.  the bottom guy is saying "oh no" because he shot too low.  those enormous red and green blobs are the bullets, obviously.

the next picture is my favorite:

BMX cycling is now in the olympics and george loves that.  this is "gerney" (germany) and "team gb" (great britain - but now that the olympics have started "team gb" is the preferred phrase for cheering, i've learned) in a race.  gerney is winning, but george says "the team in second place at the beginning always wins at the end."  this picture is my favorite because:
1. george has misspelled his own name
2. george is using his "joined up" (what the british call cursive) writing very nicely here
3. george, at 6, is already aware of his country's rivalry with germany in all sports.  my first summer here i was very confused about why germany was the hated rival, and a colleague said it is because they were the enemy during world war 2.  well yes, i know that...but they were our enemy in world war 2, too, and i wouldn't think of them that way now.  but the english home front WAS much more affected by bombings and such during the war, so perhaps i can understand the difference...

“Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing.”
--Susan B. Anthony

christ church college from a rooftop patio in oriel college:

fun quiz to help you know which presidential candidate your views most closely match with!

(i found that there were often better answers in "choose another stance," so don't feel constrained by just answering yes or no.)

a couple months ago i decided that the best thing i could do to help barack win in november was convince some friends who were on the fence that he was the better candidate.  if i could help sway two people that would make a difference!  (maybe.  not really.  silly electoral college...)  i've been sending these two friends occasional articles about what obama's done as president and why i think he's the right choice in november, and yesterday one of them emailed me to tell me she was on the obama team now.  (!!)

it pretty much made my day.

one down, one to go.  anonymous friend #2: i'm still working on you.  we've got 3 months.  my efforts will only intensify!  get excited!

old lady alert: i'm so bad at sleeping in these day.  i used to be a champion sleeper, my peak coming when i slept until 3pm one day during a visit home from college.  now i'm lucky if i can sleep until 10 or 11...and i feel so gross when i do.  this morning?  awake at 7:30am, unable to fall back asleep.  now, my room is not the cave that my room in atlanta is, so the light streaming through the cracks in the curtains isn't helping matters, so perhaps that is as much to blame as my impending 30th birthday...

yesterday liz, jen, and i went on this adventure!: http://goo.gl/maps/54JI6

we walked from downtown oxford to port meadow and along the isis river...

(very wind in the willows, huh?)

...to a pub called the trout, where we had a great lunch before walking back home.  it was hot here yesterday - in the 80s - and we sweated the whole way, but it was a great adventure and we earned our lunch.  along the way we passed the ruins of godstow abbey, which is REALLY OLD and very pretty.  it dates from almost exactly the same time as the events in the pillars of the earth, which i just started reading...so that was fun to think about.*

i am accidentally a little sunburned now.  for the past four weeks there was no physical way to get sunburned through the rain drops and dark clouds, so i kind of forgot what the sun can do.  it's just a baby sunburn, though, so i'll be okay.


*as a side note, people never told me how awesome the pillars of the earth is.  yes, they told me i should read it, but it has also been described to me as the story of the building of a cathedral.  to me, that sounded dry and hard to slog through, so i put it off.  they should have to described it to me as the story of the PEOPLE who were involved in the building of a cathedral, because ohmygoodness i am loving this book and it is so readable and not dry at all.  now that i'm awake far before my shift in the office today (i'm on from 4pm to midnight) and the weather is just as beautiful as yesterday, i'll be spending most of the day reading my book in christ church meadow, and i couldn't be more excited.  the kids leave on saturday, so we're preparing for the run to the end - i have to take as much claire time as possible before the chaos begins on friday!

good morning, oriel college!  it's sunny today!

i love this sentiment, and it's so important to be reminded of:

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
-- Mark Twain

i subscribe to the sun magazine, thanks to other claire, who gave it to me as a christmas present last year.  it is an ad-free magazine out of chapel hill, north carolina that is full of pretty excellent nonfiction.  one feature in every issue is "readers write," where readers write in on a topic and the best get published in the magazine.  this is always my favorite part of the issue, and i LOVED these thoughts on the topic of "the best feeling in the world."  (the physical magazine has dozens of them in every issue, though only three are available online - but you'll get the picture.)

i know there are some of you lovely readers out there who will really enjoy this!

we're entering the final week of the program - the kids leave next saturday the 28th, and then i fly home on tuesday the 31st.  it's shocking how fast the summers go by when i'm over here.  i have LOVED having so many coworkers (some returning, some new) this summer who are such good friends - some seen below - and we've had a LOT of fun over the past four weeks.  (i do this job for the fun i have with my coworkers, not for the kids.  shhh - don't tell.)

(AND: three of the four of us in this picture will live in new york next year - yippee!)

this is the point in the summer where i start to feel the pressure for all the things i haven't yet done.  i haven't spent an afternoon walking through port meadow to the pub on the other side.  i haven't been into london to see a show.  i haven't spent enough lazy afternoons in christ church meadow reading my book (because it has rained so. much. this. summer.  but the weather report for the rest of the time i'm here?  glorious!).  i haven't talked nearly enough to my other friend claire who is in cambridge.  so: i have one week to try to rectify these things.

in the excitement of bill clinton day, i forgot to tell you guys that i am going to the olympics!!!!  there are random tickets available online for uk citizens to purchase - if i'm understanding it right, in order to get rid of as much of a black market as possible, any uk citizen can return any ticket to the olympics people and get a full refund if it is resold.  as a result, for every day of the olympics there are dozens of tickets to random events available - some very expensive, some very reasonable.  a uk friend bought tickets the other day and five of us are going to olympic tennis at wimbledon the day before i leave.  so exciting!  i don't really care about tennis, but it is a sport i understand, unlike, say, judo...and it's the olympics!  hooray!

so: final week in england, here we come...

what i'm listening to right now

i saw christina perri at hard rock calling in london last week - she was one of many artists who played in the lead up to paul simon.  i hadn't heard of her before, but as she sang i realized i knew several of her songs - the radio, i guess?  this one is my favorite - "arms":



you know how some bands are disappointing live, though you like their CDs?  i found that with the avett brothers - they did a lot of SCREAMING live, instead of singing.  boo hiss.  christina perri was AWESOME live - this song doesn't match how great her energy was when she was on stage.  she only sang for about 45 minutes and even though i didn't know a lot of her songs i wanted her to keep playing - definitely a good sign.

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.

“No man ever listened himself out of a job.”
--Calvin Coolidge

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.

it's paul simon day!!!

who's opening for him?  alison krauss and union station.  i die.

in honor of that, i give you this:



full report tomorrow!

great article - it gives me chills - and i know i'll get teary when i see the saudi women walking in the opening ceremonies.

Saudi Arabia agreed to send two women to compete at the London Olympics, meaning that for the first time all participating nations will have female athletes competing; and, also for the first time, the United States Olympic team will field more female athletes than male athletes. 
The appearance of women from each of the 200-plus participating nations captures the sea change across the sports landscape. Until the 1984 Los Angeles Games, women were not even allowed to run a marathon. Less than 20 years ago, at the 1996 Atlanta Games, 26 countries did not send women.

scenes from around oxford - cow bell next to the door outside my favorite pub!

this is what happens to the number of views of your blog when you tell facebook about your blog...and that they have to go there for the bill clinton story: