It's been a crazy week in London since I've posted last, and as promised, I'm trying to keep up on blogging more frequently.

Wednesday night Liz, Emily, Ariel and I had our first football adventure in London. I had heard the Brits love their football, but let me tell you, the Brits LOVE their football. We found cheap tickets for a West Ham United vs Watford game in Upton Park- about 45 minutes by tube from my flat. We got to the stadium, not really knowing what to expect, but the tube and streets leading to the stadium were packed so we figured it was a good sign. There were tons of vendors outside selling all sorts of really cheap food, but we weren't sure if we could bring outside food in, so we kept walking towards the stadium figuring we'd get food inside. Turns out the English aren't like America in that they don't really see food at sporting events. They had hotdogs and potato chips but that's about it. Nothing compared to Camden Yards or anything like that. So since the food was a bust, we figured we'd just grab a beer and head into the stadium. The English aren't like American in another way: they don't believe in beer at sporting events. The minute we entered the actual stadium we were immediately approached by security about having alcohol in the stands and were told we'd have to finish it outside before we would be let in to the stadium. So as a recap- you can bring outside food in, they don't care, but the beer they sell you isn't allowed. SO strange.
The game was a ton of fun. People go absolutely crazy for football. The crowd was mainly middle aged men- we were the only young girls we could see, and every time the fans disagreed with a call, they exploded. I have never, EVER heard some of the words coming out of the 60 year old behind me's mouth in public before. They REALLY like soccer. The security was crazy, every time a goal was scored or a questionable call made, security guards flooded the perimeter of the field, preventing anyone from getting anywhere near the players. As we were watching the game, we noticed across from our seats was a section of people with easily triple the number of security guards in that section than in the other. When the away team, Watford, scored, we realized why. Apparently at football games here, they have an entire section reserved for the away team's fan, and the riot squad is placed in front of their section. When Watford scored, that section went crazy and immediately more guards rushed over to prevent Watford fans from getting out, and West Ham fans from getting in. Absolutely insane. We left before the game ended to beat the rush to the tube, but it ended up being a 1-1 tie. So worth the 20 pounds, and I would absolutely go to another game in my time here.

They have a bubble machine that fills the stadium with bubbles at the start of each half!

About 1/2 of the riot squad that was present when Watford scored.

Friday Hannah and I set off on an adventure into zone 2 in an attempt to find this little calzone restaurant we found online that looked both cheap and delicious. Long story short: we got lost. Very lost, and somehow wound up on the BBC studios grounds- which by the way, are MASSIVE. Their whole "campus" probably takes up a mile or so stretch of road and houses the actual studios, the offices, tons of shops and restaurants, even a few homes. Not what we were excepting, but really neat to see. When we eventually found the place we were searching for, it was closing for the day, so we did our fellow American's proud by grabbing Burger King for lunch instead. In our defense, it was the only other place we could find and by this time is was like 330 and we were starving. We finished up the afternoon at Harrod's- essentially the NYC Macy's on crack here in London. Huge doesn't even begin to describe it. So many floors, so many restaurants, so many doormen dressed in little green uniforms, so many...everything. We entered on "designer handbag and watch" land, before entering the food court. Holy crap. Everything looked amazing...literally you name it, they had it. A cheese room, a chocolate room, a fruit room, a deli room, a bakery room, a sushi room, the list is endless. We even saw a 30 pound bottle of water. 30 pounds! That's nearly 45 USD for a bottle of water. Granted, it was a crystal incrusted bottle of water, but good God. Unreal. We ended our trip through "designer children's clothes" to wind up in "toy land." I guess the same people who were buying that 30 pound bottle of water were also outfitting their kids from Harrod's kids clothes department. Name a designer, chances are they had their children's lines in there. Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Dior, Juicy Couture...all for toddlers. A little bit excessive if you ask me. I don't even want to know how much the people coming out of that store loaded with bags spent, yet somehow everyone seemed to have multiple bags in their hands. Oh the lives of the London elite in South Kensington.

Saturday was spent writing a paper for one of my classes, with a quick trip to Pinkberry and my new favorite Thai restaurant thrown in. First ate Thai food in Paris...love it. Look at me eating more than just bread and chicken. I'm patting myself on the back for that one. On Sunday I finished my paper, but only after Liz and I went to my new favorite place in London- Brick Lane Market. Brick Lane is in East London- an area that is very up and coming, but not too long ago was considered the run down slums of the city. The market was amazing. The artist Banksy got his start in Brick Lane, so if you know anything about him and his graffiti art, that describes the area pretty well. It really didn't feel like we were in London at all. The mile or so stretch of road was covered with beautiful graffiti, artists playing music, picnic tables with chess and checker games set up, and tons of food and clothing vendors. I walked home with a new leather jacket and dress for less than 20 pounds total, but not until after Liz and I grabbed some lunch. We got fresh fruit smoothies from a little vendor (you actually watched them juice the fruit) and bagels from the uber popular Biegel Bake. This little bakery, open 24/7 was poppin'. We got there and the line was out the door, but it moved fast, and when we got out we could see why. 1 bagel toasted with butter and a slice of cheesecake...1 pound. Absolutely unreal. Our lunch in Brick Lane cost us a whopping 3 pounds each...roughly the price of a soda at any pub in town. I didn't think to bring my camera with me, plus even if I did, my hands were full, so sadly I couldn't take any pictures. I have every intention on going back soon though, so I'll be sure to come prepared. In the mean time, I found some pictures online to show you guys. Seriously words don't do the place justice, so I figured maybe a few Google imaged pictures might help a bit.

Finally, today capped a crazy week with a trip to the Olympic site for my Olympic Cities class. Unfortunately we couldn't actually walk through Olympic Park- it's closed off because there is a LOT of construction still going on (like to the point where I have no idea how they're supposed to finish in time) but luckily our professor actually wrote multiple books on the 2012 games, and knows all the inside outs so he was a great tour guide. Seeing the site was really cool but not at all what I had expected. We entered right near the main athletics stadium and the observation deck which was really cool- they're definitely the two most iconic images for the 2012 games, but as we walked around seeing other parts, I was less than  impressed. I think part of the reason is a lot of what we learned about in class. The actual Olympic Park is in East London (as I said earlier, an area much in need of regeneration) and is on land occupied by five different boroughs of the city. Since land was taken by the government from each of these areas, all the boroughs have been in discussions with the Olympic Organizing Committee to ensure that after the games, their borough will still somehow benefit from the Park's presence. As a result, there have been lots of promises of interconnecting the boroughs to the Park and ensuring that after the games, there will be some sustainability in the area in terms of jobs, recreation structures, businesses and restaurants etc. The area is home to a bunch of small canals, and right now, there are zero bridges connecting the boroughs to the park land, and a huge fence blocking it off. The committee plans to build a series of bridges to improve access between the Park and boroughs, but with 3 months to go and none of them built, it will be interesting to see how that works out. If they fail, there will absolutely be some very upset Londoners. After having been to the site just before the games when everything was still a work in progress, I'm so excited to watch the opening ceremonies and see how it all comes together. All we could see were the exterior structures, nothing inside of the Park, so it'll be really neat to see what the inside looks like, and to see the places where we were standing today be filled with athletes and visitors.

The main stadium

The observation deck with a restaurant in the top of the dome

Basketball court (white building on the left), Athlete's village housing (in the middle) and the aquatic center (all the way on the right)

The very unfinished park

One of the canals that acts as the border to one side of the park

Graffii along the canal

The new soon to be home of the largest McDonalds in the world. On the Olympic site. Irony at it's finest.

The 2 press, production and broadcasting buildings in the Park

This week continues to be busy as I have another paper to finish up, lots of errands to do, a bit of a stomach bug, and lots of packing for Barcelona this weekend! Hopefully whatever I've caught that's prevented me from eating a real size meal or staying up past 11 the past two days will disappear quick cause I have lots of tacos to eat, sangria to drink, and beaches to visit in the next few days. We leave Thursday night and return Sunday morning, so by Sunday night I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures up from the trip! Fingers crossed for sunny weather in Spain!