|
You are using an insecure version of your web browser. Please update your browser!
Using an outdated browser makes your computer unsafe. For a safer, faster, more enjoyable user experience, please update your browser today or try a newer browser.
|
|
Me, my bear, & the peloton! |
Earlier in the year, a friend casually asked if anyone was up for a trip to Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. Several months later, four of us have made it to Moshi and we are now about to head out to Kilimanjaro! We will be doing the eight day Lemosho route, which is the slowest option, so that we have as much time as possible to acclimatize. You can expect a full update and photos when we return in a week. Off we go…!
I changed my flights a couple of days before leaving for Tanzania and the only seats available were in business class so Mini Bear and I flew in style!
We had the most incredible view flying over the green waters of the Mediterranean and the dusty brown landscape of northern Africa. The light through the clouds was intense and dramatic.
I went to my guest house upon arriving in Dar es Salaam and my bag met me there the following day having been mistakenly offloaded in Nairobi during a brief stopover there.
I spent a couple of quiet days walking around my neighborhood which was outside of hectic Dar before I caught a bus north to Moshi. I had been told it was a seven to eight hour bus ride so I expected it to be eight to nine hours and it ended up being much closer to ten hours! The ride was as comfortable as possible; everyone told me Dar Express was the best bus company around. It wasn’t nearly as nice as South American buses but it was good enough and my seat mate was a great conversationalist so you can’t ask for much more!
In another couple of hours, I’ll be out the door and heading to London Heathrow to catch a flight to Tanzania! Over the next four months, Mini Bear and I will travel around five east African countries so be sure to use the new subscribe option in the sidebar to stay up to date with us!
I’ve spent just under two months in Europe. In that time, I’ve traveled on…
10 trains
6 airplanes
3 buses
3 ferries
…stayed in
6 hostels
4 homes
3 hotels
…and seen 12 cities in 5 countries!
I spent the afternoon at London’s Natural History Museum to see their phenomenal exhibit on Robert Falcon Scott’s fatal expedition to the South Pole. I can’t recommend it enough! Catch it before it closes in early September if you’re in London.
Mini Bear and I delivered Galapagos post card #7 to a flat in a quiet neighborhood.
Update on special delivery #5!
Not long after I left the business card at the Toronto office did I hear back from the recipient! He was pleasantly surprised to see that his card had made its way back to Toronto. I’ve left my contact information with several of the postcards I’ve delivered and this is the first time someone has bothered to get in touch with me!
It's been eight months since I was in Antarctica and I still think about it–and the amazing friends I made there–every day.
Wow, the Olympics have been over for a week already! They absolutely flew by and I loved every minute.
Here are a few photos of spectators that are too good not to post!
The day after the Olympics ended, I left town for a couple of quiet days. At the airport, I spotted athletes from South Africa, Denmark, Portugal, Australia, Norway, Croatia, Canada, and Russia, including Russia's men's gold medal winning volleyball team! (You didn't think I was going to stop looking for athletes, did you?!) Most of the Russian coaches (and several of the athletes) were at the VAT refund desk with piles of shopping receipts as long as my arm while the Russian athletes were stocking up in the duty free store.
Congratulations to London for hosting a fantastic Olympic games. I had been looking forward to this for the past seven years and somehow, all of my expectations were exceeded.
Well done to all of the athletes who took part.
Thank you to the volunteers for your nonstop enthusiasm and eager helpfulness.
Most importantly, a huge thank you to my parents. I never would have seen the games in person (and therefore would never have any of the athletes!) if not for you. Thanks.
This video includes a clip of just about every single event I saw! Enjoy!
How the sport works
The first athlete to finish running 26.2 miles wins.
I didn't have a ticket for the finish of the men's marathon, so I planned to get to the course early and grab a spot. I was really surprised to see how crowded the course was two full hours before the start, but I suppose with it being a sunny day, a free event, and the last day of an amazing Olympics, everyone wanted to take part.
I, for one, am glad this woman and her homemade hat showed up.
Less than three hours after the start, eighty five runners had crossed the finish line and twenty had dropped out. This was the exact same course the women had run a week prior, so the crowd got to see the runners pass by four times.
Ethiopians cheered for Ayele Abshero, before he abandoned. All three Ethiopians would eventually abandon.
American Ryan Hall, before he dropped out of the marathon.
Canada's three marathoners all finished in the top thirty, though I'm not sure what happened to Eric Gillis. How on earth do you rip your kit in a marathon?
With just five hundred meters to go, a South African runner violently pulled up and clutched his hamstring right in front of me. The crowd all understood the seriousness of a pulled hamstring and began to clap and cheer twice as loud to encourage the ailing runner. He gingerly rubbed the muscle and began to slowly limp towards the finish line.
Guor Marial ran as an Independent Olympic Athlete, IOA. Hailing from what is now South Sudan, Marial is not yet a US citizen and he declined an invitation to run as a member of the Sudanese team. This is understandable as more than two dozen of his relatives died in the Sudanese civil war.
The two North Koreans athletes ran side by side for the whole race and finished together.
Konstadinos Poulios is my kind of marathoner. When he passed by on the final lap, he was blowing kisses and waving to the spectators! If he was that happy to finish in eightieth place, imagine what he would have done if he had medaled!
I'm starting to wonder if Timor Leste has a tradition of being the penultimate finisher in a marathon! Juventina Napoleao was second to last in the women's race and Augusto Soares was the second last finisher in the men's marathon. It was great to see him running with his national flag with five hundred meters to go!
Tsepo Ramonene of Lesotho was the final athlete to cross the finish line.
Medal results
Gold: Stephen Kiprotich, Uganda
Silver: Abel Kirui, Kenya
Bronze: Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich, Kenya
How the sport works
Athletics, what North Americans call track & field, includes a variety of running, jumping, and throwing events. I won't explain every single event here, but you can generally assume the winner completed the event the fastest, highest, or furthest.
When the high jumpers came out on the field, my brother and I immediately realized something: we were sitting in a section with American track & field families! Brigetta Barrett (below) and Chaunte Lowe's families were just a few rows behind us. Each time one of had a successful jump, their families would go crazy cheering.
Plus, there was an Uzbek in the competition! Undoubtedly, this would be my last chance for a long time to yell in Uzbek so I took full advantage of the opportunity. Svetlana Radzivil finished a respectable seventh place with a season's best of 1.97 meters.
When Barrett ended up with the silver medal, her family went nuts! She was like a giddy little kid and kept smiling and giggling to herself as she packed up her gear. It was great to see her joy!
Medal results
Gold: Anna Chicherova, Russia
Silver: Brigetta Barrett, USA
Bronze: Svetlana Shkolina, Russia
I don't actually know how to say anything in Finnsh, but you may recall my excitement at Finnish cyclist's Pia Sundstedt's pleasantly surprised reaction to my enthusiastic support for her. Naturally, I now yell, “Pia Sundstedt!” as a cheer for any Finnish athlete. Shouting the name of a female cyclist at the men's javelin final is probably the equivalent of cheering, “Wayne Gretzky!” at a WNBA game, but I'm fine with that. I must have cheered the right thing because a Finnish javelin thrower won bronze!
The crowd loved gold medalist, nineteen year old Keshorn Walcott and so did his Prime Minister who, among other gifts, has named a lighthouse and a Caribbean Airlines plane after him.
Also fun to note is that the javelins, once thrown, were retrieved by remote controlled miniature Minis!
Medal results
Gold: Keshorn Walcott, Trinidad & Tobago
Silver: Oleksandr Pyatnytsya, Ukraine
Bronze: Antti Ruuskanen, Finland
All eyes were on Mo Farah. Could he pull off a victory in the 5,000 meter race to match his win in the 10,000 meter run one week earlier? The race pace was slow by Olympic standards and, with about a lap and a half to go, Farah moved to the front of the pack. In a repeat of the 10,000 meter final, everyone at Olympic Stadium was on their feet to cheer their favorite home. It was agonizing to watch, desperately hoping he could maintain his lead. When he surged, the crowd roared even louder and, in another repeat of the 10,000 meter final, Farah won! Relief and joy spread through the stadium as Farah did his famous Mo-bot to celebrate.
Medal results
Gold: Mo Farah, Great Britain
Silver: Dejen Gebremeskel, Ethiopia
Bronze: Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa, Kenya
I can't even imagine the hell that South Africa's Caster Semenya has been through with gender testing, so it was fantastic to see her carry South Africa's flag during the opening ceremony and even better to see her win a medal by out sprinting most of the field.
Medal results
Gold: Mariya Savinova, Russia
Silver: Caster Semenya, South Africa
Bronze: Ekaterina Poistogova, Russia
No surprise, but the American women were unstoppable! Just look at that lead!
Medal results
Gold: USA
Silver: Russia
Bronze: Jamaica
Bolt was his usual, relaxed self immediately before the race started. The question wasn't so much who would win, but by how much would Jamaica win?
Jamaica had won this race early on and the Americans had secured silver so the big surprise was to see Canada finish third! I couldn't believe it! I was jumping up and down and shouting as loud as I could! But this euphoria was short lived. The official results still hadn't been posted on the scoreboard after an unusually long interval so I was worried the Jamaicans or Americans had been disqualified for some reason. I was stunned to see that Canada had been disqualified because the anchor runner had stepped on the lane line. The Canadian relay team, with maple leaf flags draped proudly around their shoulders as they began their victory lap, sank to their knees with looks of horror on their faces when they saw the official results. It felt like the wind was knocked out of me. It was painful. The Olympics are amazing when you're on top, but it was sickening to see how upsetting it is to be on the bottom. The Canadians, devastated, made their way off the track as Trinidad and Tobago celebrated the bronze medal they had just been promoted to.
Having been so focused on Canada's result, it had hardly registered in my brain what else had happened on the track: Jamaica had set a new world record!
Medal results
Gold: Jamaica
Silver: USA
Bronze: Trinidad & Tobago
As I mentioned earlier, my brother and I were apparently sitting in the American friends and family section, but we were still stunned to see an athlete making his way up the stairs to sit with his supporters near the end of the night. It was no other than Lopez Lemong, the 5,000 meter runner! You may not be familiar with him, but we'd actually been talking about him over the whole Olympics! A friend staying with us for the Olympics had a six degrees of separation connection to Lemong: her father's cousin's husband's something-or-other had sponsored Lemong when he came to the United States after living in refuge camps. Lemong, born in what is now South Sudan, was one of the Lost Boys of Sudan and became an American citizen in 2007. The flag bearer for the US at the Beijing 2008 Olympics was now just a few rows behind us! Lemong was smiling while he signed autographs and had his photo taken with other fans. As my brother and I waited for Lemong, we chatted excitedly with a woman who turned out to be a former training partner of Bernard Lagat! Wow! Lagat had placed fourth in tonight's 5,000 meter final. Lemong was nice enough to sign our tickets and to take a photo with me!
Everyone was flying high after Mo Farah's medal and the Jamaican men's new relay world record. Even the police officers were doing the Mo-bot and Bolt's signature pose! I hope you've seen the photos of Bolt doing the Mo-bot and Mo Farah doing Bolt's pose (google it if not!). They're a pair of characters, that's for sure. I would love watch a reality TV show where they live together and work at the DMV!
We were ecstatic to have met Lemong and couldn't wait to get back and tell our friend. Leaving the stadium, my brother and I decided to just head straight home and not press our luck looking for more athletes. So, of course, we then realized we were walking behind a couple of Jamaican athletes! Since they were obviously trying to be incognito and we weren't exactly sure who they were, we left them in peace and carried on towards the train where we met Mujandjae Kasuto, a Namibian boxer!
How the sport works
The first team to score twenty five points in three sets wins the match. The winner gets the bronze medal and the loser gets nothing
I was pretty exhausted this morning since I had been out until 6:30 am with a few members of the Kiwi and Aussie Olympic swim teams. They took me to an athletes only party the previous night after I ran into them by chance on the tube! But I had no problem staying awake to watch Japan and South Korea play superb volleyball for the bronze medal.
The teams battled it out for every single point and it was anyone's game, as the scoreboard shows. Japan just nudged by to win their medal in straight sets.
Even though I didn't see the gold medal match, here are the complete results.
Medal results
Gold: Brazil
Silver: USA
Bronze: Japan
