Vive La France

I love France. I love their champagne and I love Paris. Like most Americans, however, I definitely chuckled when the Simpsons referred to the French as "cheese eating surrender monkeys." I enjoy jokes about the French battle flag being a white cross on a white background. I didn't expect the French to join in on the joke by showing up to the Olympics wearing chicken hats.

At all the venues, I've seen French fans wearing chicken hats like that one. Apparently it is supposed to be a french cockerel, the national symbol of France. I'm sticking with chicken hat.

Olympic Update

There have been a lot of pretty amazing moments at the Olympics so far, but here are my top 5 favorite things.

5. The crazy fans. The archery finals had fans dressed as Robin Hood. The Brazilians wear crazy green and yellow wigs. The French wear chicken hats. (Not even fun to make fun of... too easy.) Plus the American fans are pretty star spangled.

4. Volleyball. The beach volleyball is basically one big party complete with a dance squad. The beach volleyball is being played in a temporary stadium set up in central London a block from 10 Downing Street. Poor David Cameron must not be getting any sleep as volleyball fans are screaming "Ole!" until past midnight every night.

The indoor volleyball is also fantastic. We got to meet some of the players, including setter Don Suxho. It made me feel pretty tall.

3. The 100m men's final- Usain Bolt... fastest man in the world. This was right before the race.

2. Gabby Douglass winning the gymnastics all around final. She's 16 and moved to Iowa to train when she was 14. Iowa. That's dedication.

1. Michael Phelps. Watching him swim in Beijing and again in London has been incredible. I saw every one of his races in London and got teary eyed after his last gold. It's the end of an era but it sure has been fun.

Opening Ceremonies

We've been having so much fun that I haven't had any time to blog, so here's the update. We arrived at Opening Ceremonies at 7pm as the tickets indicated that it started at 7:30pm. We were so excited!

When we took our seats, there was an agrarian scene with cows, horses, and sheep. Volunteers were walking around giant balloon clouds.

Opening ceremonies then proceeded to start an hour and a half late. By the time it was about to start, apparently some PETA type people were concerned that the animals had been kept out too long, so the majority of them were removed from the stage. 

I'm going to have to rewatch the opening ceremonies when I get home, since a lot of it was pretty confusing from the audience. For example, why was Voldemort battling Mary Poppins?

What was going on with all of those people dancing around that house? Does anyone actually like the NHS? That said, Paul McCartney singing Hey Jude, the James Bond/ Queen Elizabeth video, and David Beckham looking mostly perfect in a suit with the Olympic torch made up for all of rest. And of course the fireworks were glorious.

Meet Wenlock

After Beijing's Pikachu type mascots, I was curious to see what London would pick. I wasn't expecting a cartoon cyclops. Meet Wenlock.

Wenlock is intended to "connect young people with the power of the Games" and "inspire them to choose sport." I imagine at the very least Wenlock will inspire children to run away in fear while Wenlock records them.

London Olympics

I'm in London for the 2012 Olympics and opening ceremonies are tonight! I could not be more excited. I feel for London. Beijing is a hard act to follow. After all, China had:

                                              Creepy prancing sex offender mascots

                                  A jumbotron that regularly suggested we all do the "Mexican wave"

                                                            Fabulous photo ops

                                            And cheerleaders whose uniforms said "BJAY"

Like I said, hard act to follow. I can't wait to see what London has in store for us!

Transylvania

From Bucharest, we went out to the countryside to follow in Count Dracula's footsteps. Bram Stoker based Count Dracula on Vlad the Impaler, a 15th century count who was nicknamed "Dracul" meaning devil. He was as charming as the name suggests. He once set fire to a sealed castle filled with the poor and sick "to rid them of their troubles." He also liked to set up banquets so he could eat while he watched people die. Vlad is still something of a hero in Romania because he beat the Turks in battle. A lot of other character flaws can be forgiven here so long as you beat the Turks.

We went out to Bran Castle, which is nicknamed Dracula's Castle. Vlad was never actually here, but the name is great for tourism. The castle is gorgeous!

We spent the night in Brasov, which has declared that it is “probably the best city in the world.” (That’s taken from the Carlsberg beer ad- “probably the best beer in the world”).

 In the hills over the town, “Brasov” was spelled out in huge white letters, just like the Hollywood sign.

The next morning, we went out to see a fortified church. Back in feudal times, when the town was attacked, people would move inside of the church walls into these small compartments surrounding the church. 

On the way back to Bucharest, we stopped at Peles Castle, which looks like a fairybook castle. The inside is incredibly ornate and beautiful. They make you wear these ridiculous cloth booties over your shoes and then attempt to walk down the long flights of stairs. Miraculously, I managed not to faceplant.

Bucharest, Romania

I've been having a great time in the EU's newest member country. Contrary to what I expected, the streets of the capital, Bucharest, are not overrun with gypsies and gymnasts doing backflips on the sidewalk. The city likes to think of itself as the "little Paris of the east." There is a lot of French architecture and people say "merci" for thank you. Then, alongside these French buildings are concrete monsters from Ceauşescu’s communist "rebuilding" phase. (Not unlike Northwestern's campus really.) Then the National Village Museum transported dozens of homes from the countryside to this large open air museum to show how people live in different parts of the country. I was really impressed by a 300 year old church built entirely out of wood. There were "no smoking" signs everywhere.

The Palace of Parliament, Ceauşescu’s 1984 3.3 billion dollar behemoth,  is the world's second largest building after the Pentagon. Apparently, all marble production in the country for five years went to this building. The starving citizens were not amused by this, and Ceauşescu's rule was ended by a firing squad on December 25, 1989. I wonder if "All I Want for Christmas Is You" was playing in the background? 

There's  monument to those killed in the 1989 revolution. The locals refer to this modern art piece as the Impaled Potato.