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Class took up the whole of our morning and some of the afternoon today. We mainly discussed our thoughts on the Opening Ceremony, and we learned more about the poor in London.  London is one of the richest cities in the world, but also one of the poorest – part of the reason they wanted to host the Olympics and bring jobs/money to the worse off areas of the city.  After class, we met with our groups for a bit to try to start getting our presentations together. During our lunch break, we went to the Embankment stop and found a cute little garden area, where we ate our packed lunches.  There was a ping-pong table set up in the park, with all sorts of business people playing in their work clothes, which was amusing.  We got ice cream cones on the way back to school. 🙂

Our first sightseeing spot today was the Victoria and Albert Museum.  It was HUGE.  There was so much to see it was almost overwhelming.  It would take an entire day to see everything they have to offer.  After the museum, we walked to Harrod’s just to check out the famous department store.  They made us wear our backpacks on our fronts, and we guessed that was to prevent knocking into their displays (maybe?).  It was interesting to walk around, if for nothing else than to check out the ridiculously priced items they sell (one tank top was 925 pounds… I don’t want to know what that is in American dollars).

After a bit, we began feeling out of place, and we went on to the next stop – Abbey Road! We were able to locate the iconic crosswalk by the number of tourists who were gathered around with their cameras, waiting for perfect moment to run across the road and pose like the Beatles.  We got our moment. It’s not exactly true to the original, but we tried!

On the way back, I met up with a friend who is living in London for the summer.  This was my first time taking the tube there/back alone! We met at Henry’s, a cute cafe right by the Green Park station.  I got a veggie club sandwich (half of which I’m saving for my lunch tomorrow), and I tried a bison berry mojito.  Back at the station, we began talking to some of the workers.  They told us that if the VIP section in a swimming, gymnastics, or volleyball event is not filled by the time the game has started, tickets for those seats will be sold at the venue box offices for only 5 pounds.  Tomorrow night, we’re going to make the trek to Stratford to try our luck.  Worth a shot!