You Just Never Know

I've learned over these last few weeks to always keep my eyes peeled in London because you never know who or what you'll see. Several times this week, I didn't have to look any farther than across the hall from the News Channel office in the NBC commissary to see interesting people. I've eaten near Olympians such as former gymnast Shawn Johnson and speed skater Apollo Ohno. I passed new Today Show host Savannah Guthrie in the hall today and E! Olympics host Guiliana Rancic. Yesterday we were working away in the office and heard what sounded like a party across the hall in the dining room. We wondered what party was going on without us, and it turned out that the entire women's gymnastics team stopped by for dinner and to do a story with the Today Show.  Former gold medal decathlete champ Bruce Jenner sat directly behind me in the commissary and I was able to overhear him telling '76 Olympic stories, priceless.  It is also worth mentioning that there weren't  any Kardashians in tow. My first evening at dinner in the NBC dining hall, I sat three seats down from Matt Lauer and the Meredith Viera walked by.  I've also seen Bob Costas and Dan Patrick a few times.  It's a little hard not to be fans of people we see on tv and respect for the stories they tell, but also to realize that we're all here in London for the same reason, and we're all sort of on the same team.  We are always sort of on "Royals Watch", as in Will and Kate.  We hear after the fact that they were in a venue we were at or in the InternationL Broadcasting Centre, where our NBC compound is.  It was a political powerhouse last week at judo as Russian leader Vladimir Putin was sitting with British Prime Minister David Camerson.



Big Ben

London Eye

 Because we have had to take a car as alternate transportation to the Olympic bus sometimes, we have had a chance to see different parts of London that we wouldn't otherwise. One of the three drivers we have used has a tendency to get lost and take the scenic traffic filled routes to get us places. On the good side, I've gotten to see touristy things from the car window. But on the bad side, I haven't actually gotten to visit any of those things outside of the car.  For a stretch of five days, we did the same three events.  It was judo, fencing, boxing and it felt a little like Groundhog Day.  We've passed Big Ben many days on the way to get to where we are going, and it feels a bit like National Lampoon's European Vacation where they are stuck in the roundabout.  We have found ourselves saying, "Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament..Big Ben, Parliament...Big Ben, Parliament.". I've also seen Westminster Abbey and the London eye from the window of an NBC transport car.

Westminster Abbey

Christian Cantwell

In a bizarre coincidence, I've had to come all the way to London to meet so many people from either Missouri or Kansas.  A couple days ago I met five people from Kansas City!  It was awesome to shoot an interviews with shot putter Christian Cantwell because he is from K.C. And he threw at a high school in the same conference as mine and I have followed his progress all along. I met two distance runners , one from Leavenworth, Kansas and one from Lee's Summit, Missouri.  It is amazing how random it is, but also how good it feels to meet someone so far away from the states and know they are from the same city you are and have been to the same BBQ joints you have!