London 2012 Olympic Walkthrough

This city is gearing up for the Olympics next year.  I have already mentioned how they seem to be doing construction on almost every famous London site, and even on the streets.

For my British Life and Culture class, we were taken on a short walking tour of where the majority of the 2012 Olympic games will be at.

We learned that the games are going to be mostly in the east side of town, which is the more run down/poor part of the city.  Our guide told us that as part of the bid, London expressed a wish to build up the economy of their poorer part of town, they wanted to not only host the games, but leave a legacy of improvement and betterment.

A lot of money has already gone into fixing up this part of town, we saw a few brand new, small parks, along the Olympic walk.  They also had drained all of the canals near the site, and put in new locks and allowed cleaner water to flow through.

There is also a lot of construction going on in terms of stadiums, arenas, fields, and a huge aquatics center.

In addition to the Olympic madness, a new sculpture is going up near the stadiums.  It will be an observation tower that will stay permanently.  Officials hope that it will become a London landmark, like the Statue of Liberty.

I also got to see my first London rat!  My professor and I tried to get as close to it as possible, we were both super excited.