Monday, August 20, 2007

Day 33 7/5/07

Queuing up for Wimbledon

I never was really into tennis or really watched it for that matter but I decided to take a risk and experience the “Queuing up Adventure,” a long-lived VC tradition. Ten of us left at 12:00 noon today to start the 24-hour wait for 1st court tickets (center court was already sold out.) I figured it would be an experience, plus I really had nothing better to do…
So it turns out we arrived wayyy to early, were the first people in line and the only people in line till about 6 pm that night. OOPS! We didn’t realize it wasn’t the first day of Queuing up so doing so, so early, wasn’t nearly as vital. O’ well it was funny (for the first few hours at least). We were referred to by the stewards as the (now eight, two dropped out) happy campers.
So it was cold and rainy up until about 7 pm when we decided it would be a smart time to build a tent for the night. We use our one small tarp and our newly purchased trash bags to construct a rather pathetic (but at the same time impressive) make-shift-tent (the only people in line by the way with a hand-made tent.) But hey it stopped raining and a Norwegian camera crew, fascinated by our story and tent interviewed us for a short documentary on Wimbledon. That night it unfortunately got really cold and again we were forced to rely purely on body heat and our pathetic British Airway blankets. The extent to how unprepared we were to sleep overnight on the street was absurd, but a little wine and Strongborough helped us laugh off the night. I didn’t sleep that night but I wasn’t the only one. Anthony and I found some cardboard boxes on the street that gave us some cushioning to lie on, but it really just made us feel that much more like a homeless person. All and all, I would never do this again so unprepared, but the whole experience was worth it because we had an amazing time the next day.

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