London Love

Since the events she was sent for were not until the end of the first week, Catherine was able to sightsee and attend a variety of other Olympic events in addition to conducting a few interviews with the people she had come to watch. On her first day there she slept in later than she had originally planned due to jet lag and after getting dressed she headed out of the hotel in search of some breakfast. After a quick breakfast and the purchase of a map to help her find her way around she decided to head back to the hotel to make plans for her interviews. After another quick post on her blog “A beautiful morning in London, had breakfast at a cute little restaurant, taking care of some interview prep and then getting ready to attend the opening ceremonies. Will share lots of pictures and memories tonight.” After writing some potential questions and emailing the SID to see if she had any others, Catherine ordered lunch and settled onto the bed to watch some tv and waste some time.

After receiving an email back from both the SID and a few of the shooters she entered all the interviews into the schedule on her phone and before she knew it, it was around three in the afternoon and she needed to get ready to head to the Olympic Stadium for opening ceremonies. After a quick shower, she dressed in some blue jean Capri’s and a red and white striped shirt. She then pulled her hair up into a simple up do and applied a light coat of makeup. Making sure she knew where she was going, she grabbed her cell phone, ID, keys, camera and press pass and headed out the door, excited to see what London would pull off.

After a long wait she was finally able to enter the stadium and head to her seat. After that was more waiting until the bell was finally rung and the ceremony started. A lot of laughter and hundreds of pictures later the ceremony was over and it was time for her to face traveling around London alone at night for the first time. Luckily the streets were packed so her biggest worry was pickpockets and not any major trouble. After making it back to the hotel she decided to go for a quick swim before editing photos and settling into her room. It was going to be a long time before she could finally get to bed and she needed to wind down first.

The pool was deserted, most people headed out to experience London’s nightlife or going to bed in order to be up for all the exciting events the next day. Lazily, Catherine swam a few laps, just enjoying the way the water felt and allowing herself to relax. A few minutes after Catherine entered the pool, a few women joined her laying towels out on a few chairs and then slowly getting into the water. Why do these women look so familiar? Catherine thought. The women joked and treaded water, letting Catherine swim in peace until she stopped for a minute and sat on the edge of the pool. Then the oldest of the three swam over to her and began to talk to her.

“Hi, are you here for the Olympics too?” the woman asked.

“I am, I’m doing some reporting about the shooting events, and attending some other events just for fun,” she responded.

“You seem young to be a reporter,” one of the other two chimed in.

“Well I’m a student at WVU and with football season coming up they couldn’t afford to send one of the actual staff, so they sent me. We have some alumni and current students competing and they wanted someone here to do interviews and summarize events,” she explained. “Speaking of which, I should probably head back to my room and get the photos from today up. It was nice to meet you all.”

“Have a good night, maybe we’ll see you around,” they said as Catherine climbed out of the pool, dried off and slid her shorts and tank on. Once back in her room, she turned her laptop back on, plugged her camera card into the computer and began to sort through the photos deleting the ones that were really bad and editing all the others. After uploading the entire album to Facebook, she chose a few of her favorites and switched to her blog and began her post for the night:

Nothing can describe the way I feel after attending the opening ceremony. It was so amazing, both the environment and the ceremony itself. Watching the US Olympic team enter the arena was breathtaking and I will never forget the way I felt being surrounded by people from all over the world, watching everyone come together to celebrate despite all the problems that have occurred and are still occurring. So here are some of my favorite pictures from today, hope you all enjoy watching the ceremony as much as I did.

That done, she changed into pajamas, brushed her teeth, and climbed into bed. Setting the alarm on her phone, she looked at the clock and realized it was almost midnight and she needed to go to bed. Completely exhausted, she was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. With her final conscious thought she realized that the women at the pool were Michael Phelps’s mom and sisters. She was asleep before the meaning of that sank in.