London 2012: Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Planes, Trains and Automobiles…that’s literally what it takes to move Team USA from point A to point B during an Olympic Games and figuring out exactly how THAT works is what I have been up to these last few days!

I arrived on Thursday and descended upon a city that is anxiously awaiting their big debut! The streets are beginning to get crowded, the ‘London 2012’ signage is up and hundreds of purple and orange uniformed volunteers are stepping into their roles for the very first time. Since the Village does not officially open until tomorrow (Monday), I’ve been living at one of our secondary venues…basically like a tiny dorm room…all that is missing is Katie Allen! J After fighting off a bad case of jet lag, I ‘bumped-in’ (that is the official Olympic term) to the Village on Friday for the day to help out the staff that is already set-up there. THE VILLAGE IS SO COOL! I know that I will be spending A LOT of time there so I will talk more about that later but my teammate, Justin (no not Justin Miller…my co-worker Justin…I’ll call him Justin Rogers to be clear…so many Justin’s!) and I helped move in about 25 pallets of ‘stuff’ into our Village apartment building…everything from office supplies to crutches and ice baths to bean bags!

Then, on Saturday, we toured the city of London to get a good feel for ‘the tube’ (aka the subway), to visit the famous London sites and to figure out where important Team USA venues are located. I am now on my way to becoming an official direction giver! And I even got to unload and DRIVE a few brand new BMW's...super fun!

And today we were busy doing dress rehearsals with our shuttle buses, getting outfitted with our highly controversial Team USA gear and fine tuning our transportation/logistics/bag-hauling/smile greeting/direction giving/go team usa process…and with that, we are READY for over 50 delegation members to arrive tomorrow and get this show on the road!

Oh and my first shout out goes out to my wonderful and very handsome new husband, Justin Miller! Love and miss you! Be sure to check the mail! Just kidding! J

Smiles,

Julie

PS – When we were in the Village on Friday, they were doing a dress rehearsal for the Opening Ceremony and I’m pretty sure I heard some iconic British music coming from the stadium! It’s going to be great!