"When A Man Is Tired Of London, He Is Tired Of Life"

Two years ago today, I was studying abroad in London, but only barely. I don't remember what day my last final was, but either way, school was now officially over (even though classes had finished at the end of March. You go, England!). My friends and I had finished at different points over the last several weeks, but finally everyone was "on the island." And some of us still had several glorious, school-free days left of London to soak up. I didn't leave until June 9th, which was the day they kicked us out of our flats. My visa expired a week later, at which point I would've been kicked out of the country, so I guess it worked out. :P

If you know me or my blog even a little bit, it's no secret that I miss London desperately. My time there was the best five months of my life. Even now, two years later, I can't find the words for it. So much of who I am now and what I've accomplished stems from my study abroad experience; it was my first time living in an apartment and cooking for myself, it was the first time I spent any significant amount of time doing things alone (because who cared if nobody wanted to go with me? I wasn't about to waste a day in London!), it was the first time I was in charge of all my own travel arrangements, and it was the first time I was involved with the Olympic movement. I feel like I really grew into myself while I was abroad, and it sure didn't hurt that I fell head-over-heels in love with the city. (Seriously though. If I could, I'd be on the next plane there. Wouldn't even pack. I'd just hit up Primark when I landed.)

It also didn't hurt that I happened to stumble into friendships with some of the most awesome human beings you could ever hope to meet.

:)

But all my blog posts from back in the day are mostly words. Words that I'm forever grateful that I wrote, because my whole experience is so well documented, but I really skimped on the pictures. So today we have a giant London photo dump! #sorrynotsorry (I could've easily included another several thousand, so be grateful I have some modicum of self control. You're welcome.)

I'm trying not to be sad about not being there, and just revel in the happy memories; not a single bad day in five full months. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't currently looking at these pictures and pretending the lump in my throat is due to my tea being too hot. (Tea with milk in it, FYI. British habits die hard.)

I love you, London. Never change.

Blog From The Balcony: Musings On Olympic Bids

This blog post is coming to you live from my balcony on a beautiful 70-degree day here in Colorado Springs.

Just thought I'd brag for a second, because blogging from the balcony is pretty glorious. It's hard to get too worked up out here on a day like this, but I felt the need to share some thoughts that've been clanging around in my head for a while now. Namely, thoughts on Olympic bids, specifically those for 2022.

(Before I continue, I kind of feel the need to say that these opinions are strictly my own and not those of the U.S. Olympic Committee. I'm also not an "expert" per se, but since I do read a lot about this kind of stuff in my free time, that probably makes me more qualified than most hacks out there on the interwebz.)

If you haven't heard much about the 2022 bids, read the following articles and you'll be pretty much up to speed. Actually, you really only have to read the titles of the first two: Has Russia "destroyed" the Winter Olympics? and The Sochi effect and the unwanted Olympics and Winter Olympics: A Look At Potential Host Cities For 2022.

In a nutshell, potential bid cities for the 2022 Winter Olympics are dropping like flies. Of the four that haven't officially withdrawn due to lack of support, two are all but dead in the water (Oslo, Norway and Lviv, Ukraine), and the two that are still alive are in countries in which the people don't have a say in the matter (Almaty, Kazakhstan and Beijing, China).

Experts, journalists, and pretty much everyone else with a keyboard and an internet connection are freaking out about how Sochi's enormous price tag has effectively killed the Winter Olympics, no city will ever want to host the Winter Olympics again, yada yada yada. But I, for one, am not buying it.

For one, a huge portion of the $51 billion it cost to host the Olympics in Sochi was not put to effective use. It was a corrupt operation. The cost would've been high otherwise, yes, but it could've been kept way, way down had business been conducted legitimately. $51 billion is by no means the new benchmark cost. Unless, of course, the future host cities want to build every single venue from the ground up and then flush billions of dollars down the toilet.

But, okay, so the most recent Winter Olympics cost $51 billion and no cities seem to want to host the 2022 Winter Olympics because of it. Those are the facts. But let's look at bids of the past, shall we? 'Cause there are some facts there too. All we need is a little context, which is where I come in!

Exhibit A: 

(I underlined the year in which each host city was picked, and the arrow indicates the Games that this year corresponds to/immediately follows.)

The 1976 host city was chosen in 1970, which came after the Mexico City 1968 Olympics. Those Games are most famous for the controversial black power salute, and were also marred by the Tlateloco Massacre only 10 days before the Opening Ceremony, as well as tons of opposition. In 1970, there were only three bid cities.

The 1980 host city was chosen in 1974, which came after the Munich 1972 Olympics. I'm sure everyone is aware that those Games are known for the Munich Massacre. It's no small wonder that only two cities cared to bid in 1974.

The 1984 host city was chosen in 1978, which came after the Montreal 1976 Olympics. Those Games were an absolute financial disaster that left Montreal still paying for Olympic debt well into the 2000s. So, in 1978, only Los Angeles was crazy enough to want to bid. ('Murrica.)

The 1988 host city was chosen in 1981, which came after the Moscow 1980 Olympics. Those Games were boycotted by a large portion of the Western world. (Fun fact: people thought that the boycotts of 1980 and 1984 would kill the Olympics. So clearly experts are right on the money with their deathday predictions! /sarcasm) In 1981, only two cities wanted to bid.

Something important to keep in mind: The Los Angeles 1984 Olympics changed everything. Everything. They were the first Games ever to involve sponsors in a major way, as well as other serious corporate funding, and they were the first Games to earn a profit. This forever altered the face of the Olympic movement. That being said...

Exhibit B:

The 1992 host city was chosen in 1986, which followed those 1984 Games. As you can see, suddenly there were SIX bid cities. Coincidence? Uh, how about NOPE! Seoul and Barcelona also earned profits, so bidding remained pretty stacked up through the 2000 Games. After that, the amount of bid cities slowly declined. (Three cities bid for the 2020 Games.)

Now let's look at Winter Olympic bids, since this whole bid issue is surrounding a Winter Olympics.

Exhibit C:

Note about 1980: I crossed out Vancouver, the only other applicant city, because it ended up withdrawing its bid before the final vote. So Lake Placid was ultimately the only bid city.

Let me draw your attention to that first circled bit. Denver was originally awarded the 1976 Games in 1970. But in November of 1972, Denver was like LOL NO THANKS and decided to withdraw, so Innsbruck took over. The people of Denver were concerned about the huge cost and the environmental risk... but please also note that the Munich Massacre occurred in September 1972, and Denver withdrew in November 1972. This could be a coincidence, but I'm thinking that at the very least it didn't help the situation.

The 1980 host city was picked right after all of this, in 1974. Again, no small wonder that Vancouver peaced out at the last second.

The 1992 host city, as you can see I've circled, was picked in 1986, after the huge successes of 1984 (Sarajevo 1984 earned a small profit as well). And, oh hey, SEVEN bid cities! Like the summer bids, winter bids have slowly declined afterwards. (Three cities bid for the 2018 Games.)

MORAL OF THE STORY: Olympic bids are not an accident. And if you take a look at the Wikipedia page I got my info from, you can see that this stuff happens in cycles. Bidding goes from being WILDLY POPULAR to like the plague in a really short period of time depending on the circumstances (just look at 1936 and 1940). And all it takes to fix it is a couple of Games done right. Clearly Rio 2016 isn't going to be a shining example of a Games done right, but I do think that PyeongChang 2018 and Tokyo 2020 have a good chance of changing peoples' minds.

It's also kind of funny that the two times (in the post-war era) that the Olympics have been awarded to a city because it was the only one in contention, it was an American city (L.A. and Lake Placid). And now people are crying doomsday again, as America is gearing up to pick a city to bid for the 2024 Olympics. So don't worry, guys, we got this! We'll fix it! :P

Holy crap, this became so much longer than I intended it to be. Whoops. In the time it took me to write this post, it got cloudy. And then it hailed. And then it got sunny again, and now it's cloudy. (Though this says as much about the Colorado weather as it does about this post. But I digress.) So here, have a picture of Charlie as a thank you for sticking with me this long.

Dog pictures make everything a win, right?

So what was I saying? Ah, yes. I honestly think all these "Olympic experts" should just chill out and stop crying wolf about the destruction of the Olympics. Baron Pierre de Coubertin himself thought it was a miracle that the Olympics survived Paris 1900, and the movement has weathered this financial, controversy-ridden storm before. It'll be fine.

Hope you're having a happy Sunday!

The Master List Of Olympic Trips

I found out the other day that the Olympic Stadium that hosted the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games has hosted its final sporting event and is being torn down to make room for the new 2020 Olympic Stadium. Maybe I hadn't been reading about the 2020 stadium enough, because this is the first I've heard of the 1964 stadium being torn down. And I'm SO SAD! I like that stadium! And it's no secret that it's my goal to visit all Olympic sites, so the fact that this one will soon no longer exist is just flat out depressing. I've been all worried about places like Sarajevo and Athens and Sochi, but Tokyo?! Not so much. Sigh.

The fact that a perfectly good Olympic stadium is being demolished was a good, albeit harsh, reminder that I have a crap ton of Olympic cities I still need to visit, and that those venues won't all be around forever. It's kind of hard to plan big trips, let alone take them, when you're not sure where (or if) you'll be employed in a month's time... but nevertheless, I've started planning my (dream) Olympic trips!

Back in the good ol' days, when backpacking through Europe was a thing I did. Berlin, you're fab.

I did a kind of hilarious amount of research for this, what with finding all the cities and Google mapping things and such. Do you realize just how many Olympic cities there are? Because I'm pretty sure I didn't. I'd be trucking along just fine, and then realize CRAP I FORGOT ABOUT ALBERTVILLE and have to go back and tweak things. Why is it always the French cities I'm forgetting?! (Maybe it's because France has hosted the Olympics five freaking times and still doesn't have much sports legacy to speak of. I mean, uh, what?)

Ahem. Getting out of France... Let's begin! (And if you would like to be a travel companion or host me in any of the following cities, please form an orderly line and express your interest in the comments. Thank you.)

 Sydney, Australia | Melbourne, Australia

Yeah, there's not really much else I could do with these two, is there? :P But I'm down for some exploring in Australia, so no complaints here.

Salt Lake City, Utah | Squaw Valley, California | Los Angeles, California

True story: America is very inconveniently large. This is either a beast of a road trip or a couple of extremely short flights. Or three separate trips. Y'know what the funny thing is? I have flown into or through LAX, SLC and Reno-Tahoe, but never done Olympic things. Actually, I'm pretty sure I flew through SLC while going to Reno-Tahoe. So next time I just need to leave the airport (or, uh, not be working).

Vancouver, Canada | Calgary, Canada

The only Canadian city I've ever been to is Toronto, so some Canadian quality time is definitely in order! Vancouver and Calgary were a couple of awesome Games, too. Might have to pick myself up a pair of those awesome Canadian mittens!

Montreal, Canada | Lake Placid, New York

Okay, so, I've been to Lake Placid before, but I did it wrong. It needs a redo. And I didn't know until now just how close it is to Montreal! (Fun fact: these Games were also held in back to back quads, in 1976 and 1980. What I wouldn't give to have lived nearby back then!)

Sapporo, Japan | Tokyo, Japan | Nagano, Japan | PyeongChang, South Korea | Seoul, South Korea | Beijing, China

These little countries sure have a high concentration of Olympic cities! I'm down with a whirlwind tour through Asia, especially one ending with the Bird's Nest and the Great Wall of China. Uh, yes please!

Lillehammer, Norway | Oslo, Norway | Stockholm, Sweden | Helsinki, Finland

I love Scandinavia. My trip to Copenhagen was only about a lifetime in the making. And the prospect of this trip excites me greatly. Like, I don't think you understand.

London, England | Paris, France | Antwerp, Belgium | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Rome, Italy | Barcelona, Spain

Want to see the great European capital cities? Well, the Olympics sounds like a perfectly valid excuse to me! (Also, yes, I've been to London. And Paris. Aaaand Rome. But I didn't do anything Olympic in Paris or Rome, and only went to one of London's Olympic stadiums. Pretty sure this was me subconsciously giving myself a concrete reason to go back, besides that gaping hold in my heart that's been present since I left.)

Grenoble, France | Albertville, France | Chamonix, France | Torino, Italy | St. Moritz, Switzerland | Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany | Innsbruck, Austria | Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy

Alright, eight Olympic cities all within a couple of hours of each other? Yes. Just lots of yes. All of the yes. Albertville and Chamonix are about 20 minutes away from each other. How epic is that?! You could do three cities in one day! Basically, this trip needs to happen, and pronto.

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina | Moscow, Russia | Sochi, Russia

Technically Yugoslavia was never in the USSR and was only an ally of it until 1948... but sshhh. Sarajevo's venues are abandoned and crumbling (and destroyed by war), and I wouldn't be surprised if Sochi followed suit (except maybe not the war thing), so I should probably start practicing my Russian and get my butt over there before there's nothing left! Ugh, that's so sad to even think about.

Olympia, Greece | Athens, Greece

Ah, Greece. It's been on my "must visit" list since 2004... which is when Athens' now crumbling and abandoned venues were brand spankin' new. It's also kind of where this whole Olympic thing began, so it's kind of a big deal. Kind of.

Atlanta, Georgia | Mexico City, Mexico | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

These are the cities that, try as I might, just did NOT fit anywhere else. However, for someone that hasn't already been to St. Louis, that could be worked into a trip with Atlanta. But since I have been to St. Louis, Atlanta is a floater. And there's really nothing to do with Mexico City and Rio. Sorry kids. Those are solos.

(Please note: I left off Munich and Berlin because I have already been there and frolicked in those Olympic stadiums. But for anyone actually reading this for legitimate trip planning ideas, Munich and Berlin is easily it's own trip. Take an overnight train between the two and you're good to go!)

So basically, now my wanderlust is acting up and my bank account is cowering in fear. I'll probably be working on this list for the rest of my life. Here's hoping some cities are awarded future Games for the second and third times, 'cause the prospect of this list getting longer is mildly frightening.

However, earlier today, Kara and I promised each other that we're both going to Rio 2016, whether it be for work or as spectators. We pinky swore, too, so this is legit. Two-plus years and counting! Let's see if I can make anything else happen before then!

How (Not) To Define Yourself

The end of May is such a strange, conflicted time of year. Is it just me? I mean, for the last five years, the end of May has been a period of major life changes, stress, and packing up whatever room I happen to be living in and moving out. I know some of you folks out there feel me on this one!

My struggle to find a real, big-girl job is something I've been pretty frank about on this here bloggity. I've mentioned how I hate the impermanence of my life at this stage, but a huge part of what scares me about not having a job has to do with having a sense of identity. Call me crazy, but what I do plays a pretty big part in how I perceive myself. Even when I was a student, it was the same thing. I identified myself by my class, or my grade, or my school. I mean, think of how you'd talk about yourself if prompted. "Hi, I'm Darci. I'm a recent graduate of the University of Miami working in the sport industry." Name, school, job. So when I didn't have a job for a month earlier this year, I was beyond afraid of being totally unattached to anything.

Recently, I was flipping through my old reporter's notebook (and I already don't remember why. But let's just roll with it). I got that baby back in 2011 when I went to the National College Media Convention with The Miami Hurricane. It was a long weekend of various critiques and sessions and workshops, so the first few pages of my notebook are filled with notes from those. When I flipped open the cover, on the very first page, one of the top bullet points from a session called Make Money Blogging said: "Don't let your school, job, etc. define you."

Granted, this was in the context of blogging, but I was kind of struck by how relevant to life it is. We get so caught up in studying and working that we sort of stop being ourselves. When I hit high school, I had so much damn homework to do that I stopped reading for leisure. Me, the kid that spent entire weekends at a time with her nose buried in a book! I'm still trying really hard to get back into reading regularly. Way too many people find it way too hard to answer questions like "what are you passionate about?" and "what are your hobbies?" and "what do you do in your free time?" (Myself included. I spend too much time each weekend sleeping or otherwise spending time in my pajamas, recharging from the previous week.)

There's a great article on Business Insider called "5 Things To Realize About Unemployment" that makes some really good points about dealing with being jobless (seriously, it's 100% worth a read). My personal favorite takeaways are that, 1) everything ends, and 2) I am not what I do. Our lives are about so much more than work and school, and there's so much more that we can (and should) focus on. Hobbies! Passion projects! Yay!

One of my favorite quotes is by C.S. Lewis, who said, "Don't let your happiness depend on something you may lose." For myself -- someone who's driven to the point of single-mindedness -- my employment status has a huge effect on my happiness. Being unemployed for a month kind of forced me to work on that, and I think I've gotten better about it. But there are still good moments and bad moments (and really bad moments). This is definitely a process. Having a sense of self after stripping away anything you may lose is a very interesting challenge. But I'm hanging my hopes on the fact that it's bound to get easier! (...Right? RIGHT?!)

How do YOU define yourself?