LONDON PARKS QUEST

My group went to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park which had a more structured and man-made design. There were specified bike paths along with holding stations for bike rentals. Also, there were many people taking part in a variety of activities such as biking, running, dog walking, or even just hanging out. We also noticed a lot of schoolchildren walking around the park which could show how this park could be a popular hangout spot for students. Couples would also frequent the park, spending time on park benches and talking with each other.

Getting to the park was an interesting occurrence because it was a test of us truly trusting our instincts. The confusing part of transit was understanding directions given by workers in the stations. We would have an idea of where to go and ask someone for help just for them to tell us to go in a whole different direction. The craziest part though is that we would go around in this circle just to realize that the original direction we were going in was the correct one. I think with being a foreigner in another country we tend to second guess ourselves more so even when we might be right about a certain station or stop we might doubt how much we truly know and this happened during our time navigating the transit system in London.

The things that made sense about public transit were how straightforward the directions were and how the wait times were short. There was no struggle finding the "way out" signs or making sure that we came off at the right stop. There was also the reassurance that if we were to miss our train, we wouldn't have to wait a very long time for the next one. Also scanning in and out with our transit passes was easy for the most part. My team didn't use the tube as much as we relied more on the overground trains, however, I did notice how some trains had different interiors which could account for the years they were designed and what designs inspired the creation of those trains at the time they are from. For instance, some trains had blue interiors others had more metro bus-like designs.

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Although my team got confused along the way, mostly due to second-guessing and incorrect directions from workers, we still managed to find our way around without missing trains or being in serious problems. We would listen to everyone's concerns and make sure to double-check where we were going so we weren't just blindly going through transit. This was a fun learning experience and it helped with introducing us to the transit system in a more self-reliant way.