Day 17 - Living in London

Paul, Ryan, Wenlock, and I

Paul on I on balcony in hotel

I was making my morning walk over to SportsDock to start the day and I said hi to the police officers we have stationed there as security.  The hi turned into a 20 minute conversation with one of them.  We chatted a bit about American Football because he played and now coaches here in London.  It was very cool to hear his perspective on the game and what it is like internationally, or outside the US.  No offense to the police officers in America but pretty much every one of the officers I have met here have been friendly and much more approachable.  Why can't it be like that back home?  I mean can't the law just flash friendly smiles like its code back home.  They do here.  After a morning fulfilling my duties with my volunteers, Paul and Ryan, we met up with Wes to head to the Marriot hotel.  It is located right next too the London Eye and across the river from Parliament.  The hotel is where the U.S. Beach Volleyball will be staying for the Games.  Our goal was to build another Power Lift rack at the hotel for the team.  The hotel is a very high class hotel where I'm sure there is nothing under the price of $500 a night.  After seeing our delivery truck arrive at the back of the hotel it was interesting to see how tight it is in downtown London.  It's so tight and busy.  We also had a few 24 Hour Fitness guys join us.  All of us guys had a perfect commercial moment while we were trying to move all this equipment into a tiny elevator.  It's the one where you picture a bunch of guys doing manual labor and a very attractive woman walks by with high heels and rather skimpy clothes.  All the guys quit what they are doing and go out of their way to look or assist her (I was the one to hold the door open lol).  The hotel assistant manager (I think that is what he might have been), who was also one of those guys, says to all of us, "sorry guys that is not the company dress code."  It was great.  Once we got the equipment upstairs we began our setup and after the day before it was very easy because we were experts now.  We got the whole thing set up and a bunch of the hotel staff were so happy and in love with it.  They really appreciated us setting it up and were very nice to us.  They said we could basically use any of their facility like going for a swim after.  They opened up the outdoor balcony for us.  It was an amazing view.  The Eye was basically on the building and you could see the river with Big Ben right acrossed it. So cool.  As Ryan, Paul, and I are waiting for our driver to pick us up to run to Mile End to get the weights two guys come in.  It didn't take me long to realize that it was Todd Rogers and Phil Daulhausser, gold medalists in beach volleyball in Beijing (2008 Olympics).  They were very thankful to us for setting it up and immediately took our offer to take them up to show it to them.  For us staff it means the world when athletes truly appreciate the hard work that you do for them behind the scenes.  Once we met our driver we headed to Mile End which was a busy drive with it being rush hour and we were heading out of central London.  We loaded up the bar with the requested weight which was 127.5 kilograms.  This was quite a bit of weight to be trucking around the buildings.  It was great going back to the hotel though because we got in the Olympic Lane which almost nobody was using.  We got there very quickly.  Then here we are lugging all this weight into this ritzy hotel as VIPs are about to show up but it was no big deal as the hotel manager thanked us and held the elevator for us.  Loved it!  While Ryan headed home after that, I got invited over to Paul's house.  It was a great change of pace to get off campus and spend some time in normal living atmosphere.  The guy cheffed up some awesome pasta and we had a few brews with his roommates.  I got to sit back and watch some TV.  I especially enjoyed watching the British programming minus the show "The Only Way is Essex."  It is their version of Jersey Shore.  One of Paul's roomies and her boyfriend are from Scotland.  There is something about the scottish accent that is so enjoyable.  They made me try to do impressions of accents as well.  I think my best was the scottish one.  Not sure if they agreed though.  I tied off the night by just crashing on the couch.  There seems to be something new to my adventure here each day and now I can say I actually stayed in a house in London.  Their are no yards and the houses are all connected, just like you see in the movies.  I'm truly living in London...at least for the night.  Peace.

Days Until Olympic Games: 2