Wednesday, January 26, 2011
A Mindreader...
During one of the several days we spent in London, a few of us spent some time searching for Platform 9 3/4, at King's Cross, where Harry Potter found his way through the wall on his way to Hogwart's Express. Although we had directions from others, who had previously been there, we still managed to get lost. We followed the signs toward Platform 9&10, and walked down Platform 9. We saw platform 9a, 9b, 9c...etc but no obvious 9 3/4. So we turned around and figured that it must be elsewhere. As we were walking back to the beginning of Platform 9, there was a rail-worker standing at the end of the platform. If a picture can say 1000 words, a smile can say a million. He knew exactly what we were trying to find, and it was plastered across his face that he thought it was hilarious that we were lost. As we approached the worker, a muttering of ...you ask...no you... occurred. As we got closer, Heather was the first to walk by. Embarrassed she barely sqweaked a "Hi" without cracking up. A number of us burst out laughing. Finally Nick asked if he could direct us to Platform 9 3/4. The worker mildly laughed- and told us to walk out and make two left turns (I think he has answered this question a few times- and knew exactly what tourists are looking for when they are randomly wandering around between Platform 9 and 10). We follow his instructions, and we FINALLY found our destination. Unfortunately, this area of the station is currently undergoing renovation (most likely for the London 2012 Games), and there really wasn't much to see. But I must say that I think everyone involved enjoyed the evening, and we all realized that no question is ever too stupid to ask. :)
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Walk Like an Egyptian - Part 1
Although this blog is a few days delayed, it took awhile to access suitable means to do this. We spent three awesome days in Torin, and I think that it is very safe to say that I walked more in those three days than any other three days in my life.
The marathon began when Stefano picked us up on the morning of Friday, January 14th from our hotel. For those of you who don't know Stefano, he is an acquaintance of Brad, our professor, from a few years ago when he was in Deborah on a Rotary Club Trip. Stefano acted as a volunteer in the 2006 Torin Winter Olympic Games, and when Brad contacted him, he was able to put together a panel of volunteers to talk to us about their experiences with the Games. In order to reach the panel, we first took a very brisk, twenty minute walk across town, possibly exceeding Brad and Craig's racing speed, which according to Aaron, was arm destroying (he was still on crutches from his ACL injury). We finally reached our destination, a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching children to read. They have quite a collection of books, especially Pinocchio, which their collection occupies three shelves. After a brief introduction of the foundation, by the founder's sister, we got into the meat of the presentation. There were four volunteers present from the 2006 Torin Winter Games and they generously shared their experiences and stories. It was quite obvious that they all felt proud to have been part of the 2006 Games, and were honored to talk to us. From their perspective, the Games are probably the best thing to happen to Torin ever. The whole experience opened a lot of locals up to new things. Before the Olympics tourism was essentially non existent, but the Olympics definitely put Torin on the map. After their presentation was over, they again very generously gave us a gift. A calendar that had been made specifically for the foundation. Each student and professor received one, and we could not thank them enough for their kind actions. One of Stefano's friends then took us on another walking venture to get to a bus stop. This bus took us to the Olympic Park. Many of us were amazed at how desolate and barren the park was. Grafitti covered the walls of buildings that many of us have seen on TV only a few short years ago. The administration offices, in addition to media and Olympic Store area was empty, with no signs of life. As we made our way across the park, we found ourselves walking across the famous Olympic bridge under the arch. On the fence of the bridge we saw locks put on by lovers. We walked over to what used to be the old Fiat car factory, which still has the test track on the top of the roof where they used to test the finished product before they would be shipped off. We walked through the old factory which has now been converted into a mall and office spaces, to reach our destination, Eataly, a specialty grocery store for high quality Italian products. This is where the majority of our group enjoyed a delicious lunch. It was personally one of the best pizzas I have ever had (Mane's doesn't even come close). After lunch, we went back to the mall and some of us got gelato, a great way to top off an excellent meal!
We then rushed back to the bus stop, thank god Stefano was taking us because otherwise I don't think we would have been able to find our way on the bus for our next meeting on time.
We then made our way to Deltatre, again after a good amount of walking, but on time. We thanked Stefano and his friend for walking us to the meeting location and then headed into the meeting.
Deltatre was founded in 1986, and essentially provides information technology for sports. This includes many sectors including: websites, video clip links, TV results, graphics, analysis, and records of a variety of sporting events. Deltatre first provided Olympic coverage for NBC's website for the Beijing 2008 Games, worked for Vancouver 2010, and are providing coverage for London 2012. Although a lot of what they talked about was way over most of our heads with exception to a few computer science majors and Brad. It was very interesting and we all learned a lot. Possibly the best part of the presentation was seeing their operations center, where there were easily 100 plus computer monitors in one room. It was empty when we were there, but during the Olympics, one could easily imagine chaos, as the controllers 24/7 all working three monitors. We said our thank yous, and made our way down to the grocery store to wait for Craig who was trying to print our boarding passes. After fifteen minutes, we split into two groups. Bodkin leading one group and a number of people leading the other. Brad assured our group we were not too far from the hotel. After fifteen minutes of walking, we finally were on the street our hotel was on. We then realized we were still fifteen plus blocks away. We started walking about four blocks when Brad saw a bus and decided to ask if it went towards our hotel. We all paused and Brad asks the driver who says yes and Brad is off towards the hotel while our group is left on the street watching him ride away waving towards us. Some of the group decided to wait for the next bus hoping it would take them to the right place, while others decided to walk the remaining distance, ten blocks. Needless to say, everyone was beat when we finally got back and didn't want to do much of anything.
This was just day one of our Torino marathon.
The marathon began when Stefano picked us up on the morning of Friday, January 14th from our hotel. For those of you who don't know Stefano, he is an acquaintance of Brad, our professor, from a few years ago when he was in Deborah on a Rotary Club Trip. Stefano acted as a volunteer in the 2006 Torin Winter Olympic Games, and when Brad contacted him, he was able to put together a panel of volunteers to talk to us about their experiences with the Games. In order to reach the panel, we first took a very brisk, twenty minute walk across town, possibly exceeding Brad and Craig's racing speed, which according to Aaron, was arm destroying (he was still on crutches from his ACL injury). We finally reached our destination, a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching children to read. They have quite a collection of books, especially Pinocchio, which their collection occupies three shelves. After a brief introduction of the foundation, by the founder's sister, we got into the meat of the presentation. There were four volunteers present from the 2006 Torin Winter Games and they generously shared their experiences and stories. It was quite obvious that they all felt proud to have been part of the 2006 Games, and were honored to talk to us. From their perspective, the Games are probably the best thing to happen to Torin ever. The whole experience opened a lot of locals up to new things. Before the Olympics tourism was essentially non existent, but the Olympics definitely put Torin on the map. After their presentation was over, they again very generously gave us a gift. A calendar that had been made specifically for the foundation. Each student and professor received one, and we could not thank them enough for their kind actions. One of Stefano's friends then took us on another walking venture to get to a bus stop. This bus took us to the Olympic Park. Many of us were amazed at how desolate and barren the park was. Grafitti covered the walls of buildings that many of us have seen on TV only a few short years ago. The administration offices, in addition to media and Olympic Store area was empty, with no signs of life. As we made our way across the park, we found ourselves walking across the famous Olympic bridge under the arch. On the fence of the bridge we saw locks put on by lovers. We walked over to what used to be the old Fiat car factory, which still has the test track on the top of the roof where they used to test the finished product before they would be shipped off. We walked through the old factory which has now been converted into a mall and office spaces, to reach our destination, Eataly, a specialty grocery store for high quality Italian products. This is where the majority of our group enjoyed a delicious lunch. It was personally one of the best pizzas I have ever had (Mane's doesn't even come close). After lunch, we went back to the mall and some of us got gelato, a great way to top off an excellent meal!
We then rushed back to the bus stop, thank god Stefano was taking us because otherwise I don't think we would have been able to find our way on the bus for our next meeting on time.
We then made our way to Deltatre, again after a good amount of walking, but on time. We thanked Stefano and his friend for walking us to the meeting location and then headed into the meeting.
Deltatre was founded in 1986, and essentially provides information technology for sports. This includes many sectors including: websites, video clip links, TV results, graphics, analysis, and records of a variety of sporting events. Deltatre first provided Olympic coverage for NBC's website for the Beijing 2008 Games, worked for Vancouver 2010, and are providing coverage for London 2012. Although a lot of what they talked about was way over most of our heads with exception to a few computer science majors and Brad. It was very interesting and we all learned a lot. Possibly the best part of the presentation was seeing their operations center, where there were easily 100 plus computer monitors in one room. It was empty when we were there, but during the Olympics, one could easily imagine chaos, as the controllers 24/7 all working three monitors. We said our thank yous, and made our way down to the grocery store to wait for Craig who was trying to print our boarding passes. After fifteen minutes, we split into two groups. Bodkin leading one group and a number of people leading the other. Brad assured our group we were not too far from the hotel. After fifteen minutes of walking, we finally were on the street our hotel was on. We then realized we were still fifteen plus blocks away. We started walking about four blocks when Brad saw a bus and decided to ask if it went towards our hotel. We all paused and Brad asks the driver who says yes and Brad is off towards the hotel while our group is left on the street watching him ride away waving towards us. Some of the group decided to wait for the next bus hoping it would take them to the right place, while others decided to walk the remaining distance, ten blocks. Needless to say, everyone was beat when we finally got back and didn't want to do much of anything.
This was just day one of our Torino marathon.
The City That Never Sleeps
Sunday afternoon the Luther College Olympics Management January Term class arrived in Newark, New Jersey at the Newark International Airport. We had a near 8 hour flight on Continental Airlines that was excellent. Over half of the airplane was empty and many of us got an entire row of three to ourselves. We also had a touch screen monitor in front of each seat that we could choose any of the 40 movies available to us. The screen also had music, TV shows, and many other options for in-flight entertainment. This was the best flight many have us have ever been on and probably ever will be on!
We then took a New Jersey Transit train to New York Penn Station where we caught a subway train to 14th Street, Russell Sq. Our hotel was only a short walk away and within half an hour many of us had settled into our rooms and met in the lobby to walk to dinner. Several groups left at different times but it seemed that nearly half the group had ended up in Russell Sq. eating at T. G. I. Fridays (everyone was ready for some American food). We finished up dinner around 7:30 and headed back to the hotel to catch up on some much needed reading and sleep.
Monday morning I woke up around 6:00 with my roommate and walked down the street to Whole Foods to get breakfast and the coffee at a nearby Starbucks (not hard to find in New York since they're on every street corner). We ate and returned to the hotel for a class discussion led by Shelby and Eric on television rights for the Olympic Games. We then had a presentation by Mark Holland, brother of Luther economics professor Steve Holland.
Mark is the Director of Operations for the NBC Olympic website. He told us about his role in creating and working on the website and he also answered several questions from students regarding his role. All of the students agreed he was an excellent speaker and a very personable guy, much like his brother Steve who happens to be my advisor.
Following this presentation we had the rest of the day to explore the city with our classmates. Shelby, Jessica, Heather, Steph, Daniel, and I headed down to the Times Square area and walked around looking for indoor activities to do since it was so cold out. We ate lunch and then went our separate ways although we both ended up at St. Paul's Church across the street from Ground Zero. This had been the second time I'd been in the church, but I don't think the memorial explaining the role of the church is one of those things that you can get used to, its a very emotional place. After seeing this sight many of us recalled where we were during the attacks and how we found out although we all found that we simply did not understand the implications and impact of the attacks on September 11, 2001.
We all walked around the area and went into a building displaying the plan for Ground Zero. It looks to be a beautiful sight in a few years.
Shelby, Daniel, and I then headed to Wall Street to get a quick picture with the famous Bull. Since my last visit to New York, the level of security around the New York Stock Exchange has increased immensely, not surprising consider the current state of world politics.
We then decided to head back to our hotel to read and relax before our final class discussion and ground dinner. Jeff and Nordy lead the class discussion which was about the use of Olympic venues after the Olympic Games had finished. They did an excellent job getting the class to talk and converse with one another, which is not always a simple task.
Following discussion we headed to an Italian restaurant in the Italian Village called SPQR. This was a great meal, the best we had arguably had on the entire trip (close race between this and the Hofbrauhaus in Munich).
Following dinner all returned to the hotel to pack and get some much needed rest before an early morning train to Stamford, Connecticut to meet with NBC broadcasting.
Tuesday morning was an early one, Matt and I were up at 6:00 in order to get ready. A few of us brought our luggage with to ensure we got to the airport for our flights, including Shelby, Joe, Paul, and myself. We all got out to Stamford and entered a conference room where NBC employees were awaiting us with donuts, croissants, coffee and an array of other treats.
This presentation was excellent and we even had the honor of meeting an Emmy Award winner, Bucky Gunt. Bucky has produced many Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics and has won four Emmy's for his role in the ceremony. This was an excellent experience for the entire class, we had no idea such an influential person would be answering questions for us.
We learned a lot from this experience at NBC and realized how much work goes into the broadcasting of the games for essentially delivering the Games for free to the public. We also learned that NBC will be bidding for the 2014 and 2016 Games although they experienced a loss in revenue in 2010 and will most likely experience one in 2012 for the London Games.
Following the presentation, we all went back to Grand Central Station and then went our separate ways; Shelby, Joe, Paul and I to Newark Airport and the rest back to the hotel to pick up luggage. Shelby and I separated from Joe and Paul on the Newark International AirTrain where they needed to go to a separate terminal. Shelby and I checked in for our flight to Dubuque, Iowa and then check through security, got a late lunch and now we sit and wait for our 5:00 flight to Chicago to leave.
Hope all is well in the Midwest, I think I can speak for us all in that were ready to get home and sleep in our own beds a few nights before the second semester begins.
We then took a New Jersey Transit train to New York Penn Station where we caught a subway train to 14th Street, Russell Sq. Our hotel was only a short walk away and within half an hour many of us had settled into our rooms and met in the lobby to walk to dinner. Several groups left at different times but it seemed that nearly half the group had ended up in Russell Sq. eating at T. G. I. Fridays (everyone was ready for some American food). We finished up dinner around 7:30 and headed back to the hotel to catch up on some much needed reading and sleep.
Monday morning I woke up around 6:00 with my roommate and walked down the street to Whole Foods to get breakfast and the coffee at a nearby Starbucks (not hard to find in New York since they're on every street corner). We ate and returned to the hotel for a class discussion led by Shelby and Eric on television rights for the Olympic Games. We then had a presentation by Mark Holland, brother of Luther economics professor Steve Holland.
Mark is the Director of Operations for the NBC Olympic website. He told us about his role in creating and working on the website and he also answered several questions from students regarding his role. All of the students agreed he was an excellent speaker and a very personable guy, much like his brother Steve who happens to be my advisor.
Following this presentation we had the rest of the day to explore the city with our classmates. Shelby, Jessica, Heather, Steph, Daniel, and I headed down to the Times Square area and walked around looking for indoor activities to do since it was so cold out. We ate lunch and then went our separate ways although we both ended up at St. Paul's Church across the street from Ground Zero. This had been the second time I'd been in the church, but I don't think the memorial explaining the role of the church is one of those things that you can get used to, its a very emotional place. After seeing this sight many of us recalled where we were during the attacks and how we found out although we all found that we simply did not understand the implications and impact of the attacks on September 11, 2001.
We all walked around the area and went into a building displaying the plan for Ground Zero. It looks to be a beautiful sight in a few years.
Shelby, Daniel, and I then headed to Wall Street to get a quick picture with the famous Bull. Since my last visit to New York, the level of security around the New York Stock Exchange has increased immensely, not surprising consider the current state of world politics.
We then decided to head back to our hotel to read and relax before our final class discussion and ground dinner. Jeff and Nordy lead the class discussion which was about the use of Olympic venues after the Olympic Games had finished. They did an excellent job getting the class to talk and converse with one another, which is not always a simple task.
Following discussion we headed to an Italian restaurant in the Italian Village called SPQR. This was a great meal, the best we had arguably had on the entire trip (close race between this and the Hofbrauhaus in Munich).
Following dinner all returned to the hotel to pack and get some much needed rest before an early morning train to Stamford, Connecticut to meet with NBC broadcasting.
Tuesday morning was an early one, Matt and I were up at 6:00 in order to get ready. A few of us brought our luggage with to ensure we got to the airport for our flights, including Shelby, Joe, Paul, and myself. We all got out to Stamford and entered a conference room where NBC employees were awaiting us with donuts, croissants, coffee and an array of other treats.
This presentation was excellent and we even had the honor of meeting an Emmy Award winner, Bucky Gunt. Bucky has produced many Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics and has won four Emmy's for his role in the ceremony. This was an excellent experience for the entire class, we had no idea such an influential person would be answering questions for us.
We learned a lot from this experience at NBC and realized how much work goes into the broadcasting of the games for essentially delivering the Games for free to the public. We also learned that NBC will be bidding for the 2014 and 2016 Games although they experienced a loss in revenue in 2010 and will most likely experience one in 2012 for the London Games.
Following the presentation, we all went back to Grand Central Station and then went our separate ways; Shelby, Joe, Paul and I to Newark Airport and the rest back to the hotel to pick up luggage. Shelby and I separated from Joe and Paul on the Newark International AirTrain where they needed to go to a separate terminal. Shelby and I checked in for our flight to Dubuque, Iowa and then check through security, got a late lunch and now we sit and wait for our 5:00 flight to Chicago to leave.
Hope all is well in the Midwest, I think I can speak for us all in that were ready to get home and sleep in our own beds a few nights before the second semester begins.
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The Empire State
After our long night of sleep we got up and had our group discussion with Mark Holland, the brother of Professor Holland at Luther, and Director of Operations for NBC Sports talked to us about the websites that Olympics and NBC uses during the Olympics and also about all the technology the goes into it. I didnt realize how long prior to the games they actually need to have the sites ready to go. It didnt seem like they had much time in there regualr lives when there job was always on the go. I thought he was very interesting and enjoyed what he did especially with all the traveling he was able to do. After we had free time from 11-5 so all of were able to tour the city a bit. Our little group decided to hit three main spots Battery Park, Times Square, and Central Park. Even though it ended up being bitter cold witht he windchill bringing it down below zero that didnt stop the tough midwesterners we are. After arriving in Battery Park and walking buy the 9/11 site we decided to take the Staten Island Ferry out past the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and then just hang out on Staten Island for a bit before continuing our day. We got some great pictures and got to visit the Yankees minor league field that is right by the ferry. After arriving in Times Square we walked around checked out a few stores. We picked up a few souvenirs and then got one thing I was waiting for, New York Style pizza and hot dogs. Yes, it was just average food but there seems to be something good about greasy pizza and normal hot dogs from a street vendor. Overall we had a great day. New York, New York treated us well besides Nick and I having to sleep in sweat pants and coats but, its the experience that matters right? I wouldve taken that more times than not just to walk around the city and have some fun.
Monday, January 24, 2011
The Today Show
This morning Courtney, Jeff, Boyken, Steph, Shelby and we (Jessica and Heather) braved the extreme cold to go try to be on tv at the Today show. Even though it was 6 degrees which may seem warm to those of you in the midwest it was the coldest it has been here in 2 years! Boyken had read online that we had to be there between 6 and 6:30 in order to get a spot and have a chance at getting on tv so we all decided to leave our "hotel" at 6 am. We followed our fearless leader Boyken who redeemed himself today by successfully getting us to the show site and getting us all back in time for the meeting. We arrived at the set at about 6:30 and found only two people there, one of which being a man who has attended the show every single day for twenty years! Needless to say we got a great spot right up against the fence in the middle. We were all dressed in multiple layers sporting our white hats and scarves for the Munich 2018 Olympic bid that we were given in Munich. We stood around for a good hour before anything really happened. Then the weather lady (Al was gone : ( ) came out to film a portion of the show outside. Luckily she filmed right in front of us so we all got to be on tv. We considered leaving after this point as we were slowly losing feeling in our feet and hands but we were told that Matt and Anne were coming out at 8 so we all decided to stick it out. After what seemed like forever in the freezing cold Matt and Anne came out and talked to all of us and shook our hands. They then filmed a portion outside as well and were once again right in front of us. So if you happenedd to see a bunch of people with brightly colored coats in white hats and scarves...it was us. After Matt and Anne went inside we were all more then ready to sprint to the nearest coffee shop and attempt to warm up and regain feeling in our extremities. Despite the cold it was a great morning and we were on TV!
-Jessica and Heather
-Jessica and Heather
Westminster Abbey
Our first night in London, most of the group went to a service at Westminster Abbey in remembrance of the one year anniversary of the earthquakes in Haiti. I chose not to go to that service, since there was a service at another church at the same time that I wanted to attend. However, I did really want to see Westminster Abbey, since it contains so much of the history of England, so I paid my £13.00 (fun fact: virtually every museum in the UK that's not free gives a substantial discount for students with id), and did the self-guided audio tour on Wednesday on my own.
The history of the Abbey is astounding. Every crowned English monarch has had his or her coronation there since 1066, and almost every English ruler is buried there. Seeing the tombs of the kings was an incredible experience. There are a total of about 4000 people buried within the Abbey, including pretty much every English person that I've ever heard of, from Geoffrey Chaucer to Charles Darwin to Oliver Cromwell to Winston Churchill. It was also nice that the majority of the memorials are in English (some are in Latin), so I could actually tell what I was looking at, unlike the tombs that we had seen as a class in Munich, Lausanne, and Turin cathedrals. The audio tour of the Abbey was excellent, and I also liked that the Abbey is still very much a working church, with daily services and hourly invitations to prayer. All in all, the several hours I spent wandering through history (yes, that's actually what it felt like) in the Abbey was one of my favorite experiences on the trip.
After experiencing Westminster, I went down the street to the Churchill War Rooms. This is a museum dedicated to Winston Churchill located in the underground Cabinet War Rooms, the location that the war council met during World War II. The bunker was supposed to be a bomb shelter, but it turned out after the war that it would not have survived a direct hit from a German bomb. The war rooms were an interesting place to be, especially since I've always been interested in World War II history, but the museum was a bit disappointing after Westminster Abbey. While there was a massive amount of information about Churchill, many of the displays seemed to be written at a very simplistic children's level, and the organization of the displays was, as far as I could figure out, pretty random. Still, it was a good place to visit just to experience where the Battle of Britain and much of World War II was directed from, and there was a cool sense of history just from walking in the same halls and rooms that Churchill worked from. This is probably the only post I'll make on this blog, but I have also been blogging about my entire Europe experience on my own blog, at jugglingnebula.blogspot.com, so if anyone wants to hear more about my personal experiences...
London Theater Visits
While we were in London many people experienced the night life at a theater or two. As a class, we went to a show called "We Will Rock You". It is a musical based on Queen's famous songs, meaning the songs were written first and then the musical was thrown together trying to use all of those songs. Needless to say, the plot wasn't complex. But I think most of us agreed it was an entertaining show. All characters and places were references to songs and there were so many hidden puns in the dialogue. It was a futuristic world where individually is shunned and all music is digitally produced. The rebels were on a mission to save rock and roll and be themselves..."we want to break free". Even if the plot lacked substance, it was a fun time. The music was great and I think most of us realized we were bigger Queen fans than we thought. The one disappointment was that Bohemian Rhapsody was not listed in the program. We were scared that it wouldn't be played at all! But luckily, after the show was over, there was an added song...yay! We all sang along and rocked out! Here is the rundown of "We Will Rock You":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Will_Rock_You_%28musical%29
In addition to this class activity, many people bought tickets on their own to shows. There are so many to choose from in London! I saw Billy Elliot with a group (really good!). Others took in shows like Wicked, Legally Blonde, Love Never Dies, and Lion King(I don't think I am missing any). These shows were a great experience for everyone and showed us how vibrant the theater districts of London are!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Will_Rock_You_%28musical%29
In addition to this class activity, many people bought tickets on their own to shows. There are so many to choose from in London! I saw Billy Elliot with a group (really good!). Others took in shows like Wicked, Legally Blonde, Love Never Dies, and Lion King(I don't think I am missing any). These shows were a great experience for everyone and showed us how vibrant the theater districts of London are!
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