Today was our last day in London for this first week of the Olympics and I woke to find James had already packed up and left as he had a wedding to go to in Worcester.
With the coach leaving back to Worcester at 6.30pm, I had most the day to try and get more stories. Lindsey Gelwicks, a BSU feature student invited me to join her in Hyde Park to get some quirky and offbeat stories from fans for TNT and TNS.
We set off for Hyde Park and as soon as we got their we realised we might have to wait awhile. The ques were massive and it took nearly half an hour to get in!
We found a group of Canadians from Vancouver and Toronto, watching the Canadian gymnasts perform. Brad Watt on the far right and his partner Megan Williams next to him spoke about how they believe London is doing a fantastic job in hosting the Games but think the ticket process is poor as it's unpredictable and time costly.
Then we interviewed a group of Mexicans who were watching their nation play football on the main stage screen. David Carpy and Maria Uribe from Mexico City spoke about how they have lived in London for 13 years but are still 100% Mexican supporters at the Games. They also spoke about how great the atmosphere is around London and how everyone greets you and wants pictures when you show your colours.
We eventually found a large group of teen British supporters watching the cycling. We managed to interview them and although they were being typical teens drinking, singing and making noise, they were also patriotic and stood in silence to see our athletes awarded medals before singing the national anthem.
I also noticed in the middle of Hyde Park they were training young kids Olympic events and it was amazing to see how they were using football pitches to play handball. Seeing the little kids really get stuck into a sport which isn't popular here in Britain was brilliant to watch. All these made great stories!
Me and Lindsey then got our faces painted to represent Worcester University at the Games and BSU at the Games before meeting the Team GB mascot!
Before leaving we met an American who was trying to sell Olympic weightlifting tickets and told us an interesting story on how the tickets had got muddled up!
Finally getting the coach back in the evening, I read the National Geographic, where I found an interesting piece on the Olympics Games in Stratford and thought about using my own angle on the story which I could send to an American publication.
Overall the first week in London was a success full of seeing new places and faces which I hope to continue in the second week!
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