Great Britain 1, New Zealand 0

The arrival to London was nice and easy.  Within 20 minutes I was through security and baggage claim, and happy to see my friends Emily and Christopher who were nice enough to pick me up!  It was a great time catching up, but sleep was necessary too!

On Tuesday it was off to Cardiff, spending the day with friends enjoying the awesome weather.

Wednesday was the first big day.  Something that I had been waiting for… for a very long time.

After a quick stop at Cardiff’s Olympic ring display…

 

We (being Ruth and her husband Gareth, as well as my penpal Mark and his eldest son Will) met up at the front of Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales at around 3pm.  We had been warned and had duly read the security briefing on the London 2012 website and as such we got through lickety split.  I have made notes for the future events!

There is something magical entering this stadium.  In fact, it could be any stadium.  You come to the realization that it’s something you’ve dreamed of as a little kid, something you started fantasizing about six years ago, something that you started the wheels in motion for three years ago, something you realized was going to happen a year ago, something you exited a plane across the ocean for two days ago, something you woke up to on this morning.

For you, it could be anything.

For me, it was going to the Olympics.

When we entered the stadium and got to our (pretty darn decent) seats, I had to pinch myself.  The time had finally arrived. We got to watch the warm up, and being that Team GB was playing, there was an extra air of excitement going around.

At 4 pm, the game started.  Gareth, Ruth’s husband, was the unofficial cheering guy in our section.  OGGIE OGGIE OGGIE! (OY! OY! OY!).  It worked so well with the atmosphere.

 

Football is a nice departure from the North American sports world, with the added bonus of being at the Olympics, because two things are prevalent.  First, football is played in 45 minutes halves and save for the addition of injury time, they JUST PLAY THE GAME.  Secondly, all you could see was Olympic 2012 signage – no advertisements.

 

The game itself was very exciting… especially when the GB team member scored in the 65th minute to count the only goal of the match.  GB 1-NZ 0.  Very tight, close match.  It really could have gone either way.

Following up was Cameroon/Brazil… wasn’t even close, 5-0 Brazil was your winner.  They were partying on the streets afterwards!

And there you have it… one event down, eight to go.  Up next: Tuesday and women’s soccer, CANADA vs. Sweden!!!!

Cheers,

Vick :)