Saturday, August 4th

Saturday, August 4th... The harsh reality of the last full free day in London set in. We got up for breakfast after our girly sleepover. We ventured out to Europe's oldest Harley Davidson store out of London. It was awesome and quite different than any of our Harley stores that I've been in. They were so amazed to see an American in there, especially females. After questioning our knowledge of bikes, I realize that they expect every American to know everything about and own a Harley! Their bikes are about double the price of ours... I assumed because of the cost of shipment to Europe. We ventured back into civilization to a souvenir shop and rushed to Buckingham palace for another Olympic event. This one happened to be the walk race. The only way I can describe it is the single most ridiculous, hilarious looking thing in the entire world. The rules are; contestants can only speed walk. One foot must be on the ground at all times. They can't lift their arms or legs past certain points. It basically looks like a big wobbling race. It was quite comical and marked the 3rd Olympic event for me to see. I needed a nap because I could feel grouchiness setting in from the long past few days. So we returned to campus to refresh when I got a short nap then went downtown to explore the London nightlife. 

We met a group of locals and my all-time favorite comment of the night was when I told someone that I was from Indiana and he said "oh, right by Oklahoma. Beautiful southern accent by the way, love." I don't know how I didn't laugh but I also didn't correct him. I just thanked him and wondered how exactly I had a southern accent. Funny Englishmen. Geography must be an optional class in Europe! Europeans do however love out accents- even the ones that aren't southern. I don't know what made him think I had a southern accent but I also don't know the different between northern English and English accents so its fair.

We just kind of played it by ear that and went into random bars and pubs that didn't have cover charges. Then we bumped into some more people in the CCSA group who were looking for someone. We joined teams and ventured around town more. Most places close at 11pm there. Another girl and I had to use the restroom very badly but since everything was closed, we had no option but to ask a local where a toilet was. His statement was "No offense, but Londoners just pee on the street. Go pee around the corner there." and pointed to a VERY busy street corner where people were swarming around. I told him we were Londoners and that we weren't going to pee on the street. We danced around London for another hour before we found a toilet, and of course it was in Burger King. We then found a McDonald's to get some late night supper and then caught a bus back to campus. It was a really fun note to leave London on and I hate that time is running out!