Hey all,
I'm having a bit of trouble finding the right balance between hanging out with my flat, hanging out with my American friends, keeping up with people at home, doing schoolwork, and simply going out and doing things--let alone keeping up with this blog and posting pictures like I know I need to do as well. My American friends and I had dinner earlier in the week and someone suggested that we all take a trip to London over the weekend since no one had a whole lot going on. It was a complete whirlwind; I probably saw as much in about a day and a half there as I did in a week in London with the LZ band. Absolutely insane. I plan on posting pictures in the next few days and hopefully a more detailed blog post as well but it's been a little while since I've posted so I'll do a couple of highlights.
After travelling for somewhere around 5 hours, we arrived late on Friday night. Word to the wise: this is probably not the ideal time to be using public transportation. Case in point: we started out by navigating the Tube. There was nothing to note here as being unusual since the Tube is absolutely wonderful--clean, easy to navigate, fast, and extensive. I think every major city should model their mass transit around the London Underground. Anyway, once we got off, we needed to take the bus from a couple of blocks away from the Tube station to get to our hostel. By this point, it was a little past midnight. We were pretty excited when we found out we were going to get to take a red double-decker bus. After getting mildly harassed for being American by a drunken British man at the bus stop, the bus arrived, and we were on our way. There's a bit of a hum of drunken conversation coming from the back of the bus when the noise level starts escalating. The conversation is turning into a heated argument of insults. The drunken man from earlier makes a racist comment toward some other man's wife, and the first punch is thrown. These are clearly two strangers so I figured that the one punch would be enough to get it out of their systems. It wasn't. The two men started going at it. At one point, one of them grabbed onto the poles on either side of the aisle to lift himself up to kick the other man. The bus stopped as another man tried breaking up the fight. The bus driver called the police, and no one was allowed to leave the bus until they arrived. Trapped, we decided it would be safer to be on the second level in case the men decided to branch out. We could still hear the insults and sporadic ruckus from upstairs as the police car arrived. We ended up stalled along the side of the road for around 30 minutes as the police interrogated the men and other witnesses. Another bus on the same route passed us on the way as did some random lady along the side of the road who was in hysterics watching an arrest on a double-decker bus. I was on the street-side of the bus so I didn't get to watch the actual interrogation process although I think Stephanie got video of it.
One of my other personal favorites from the trip was when we first took the Tube Saturday morning. Our first exit point was at Waterloo station, and Lisa's ticket wasn't working so she was trapped on the opposite side of the turnstile. I'm not sure who suggested it, but someone said that we should start calling her Napoleon because she got defeated at Waterloo which I think is brilliant. (Granted, my ticket stopped working later on that day, and Steph has video of that too. Thank goodness mine didn't happen at Waterloo though. Poor Lisa.)
Another highlight for me was walking around London at night. I think everyone was getting a little tired and testy a few hours before dinner. It had been a long couple of days with a lot of travelling with the added pressure of trying to use our time to the fullest. Just speaking for myself, I was wanting to just end the day at around 4. We grabbed some dinner and by the time we left and started walking around London at night, my mood completely shifted. I don't know what it is about seeing a city at night but it creates an entirely different atmosphere. I felt like I was in a new city altogether which reinvigorated me and gave me the extra energy to get excited to walk around for the next couple of hours. We stumbled upon Trafalgar Square which was really cool to just chill out at for a bit with its fountains and giant lion statues. I wasn't able to get great pictures from there because my camera, while absolutely amazing when I'm taking a picture while speed-walking through a city, is not the best when it comes to low-light situations. Unfortunately, that means that you all are going to have to look at pictures I'm tagged in to see those instead of looking at just my albums. In particular, the pictures we took with the giant lions are a lot more complicated than they appear. The statues were elevated about 6-7 feet off the ground--not a convenient picture location for someone who's only 5'3". Although it's technically frowned upon, a few of us climbed up there anyway. Nicole gave me a boost as I scrambled up there in a most unladylike fashion. I took a picture of me standing next to the lion and another with me giving him a kiss on the cheek because clearly lion=Simba and The Lion King is one of the best movies of all time. Afterwards, Nicole literally lifted me down. A perk to being small?
That's all I'm going to write for now. There's plenty more to come when I end up breaking down the trip and adding pictures and such. I'm semi-trying to work on a bit of homework, but I'm having a bit of trouble because my light bulb burned out. =( On the bright side, however, I got some really great postcards and a few stamps as well so I'm hoping to start sending those out in the next few weeks as I slowly begin to gather addresses. I don't think I'll necessarily send them all out at once and as I'm going to Amsterdam with the Student Union next weekend and London with other U of I students the weekend after, please please be patient. I will get around to it at some point. I just don't know how timely I will be. Anyway, I hope you're all doing lovely. If not, keep in mind that pitchers and catchers report to spring training this week. So there's definitely some good news happening this week. Haha, I'll talk to you later. =)
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
First Rugby Match
Hey all,
I'll do a catch-up post sometime after my big essay is completed. There was a lot that went on in the first couple of weeks and since I have a ton of pictures as well, it's going to take up several lengthy posts which I can't really justify before I turn in my paper on Monday. Next week, however, is when I hope to catch up with all of that.
I don't want to get too terribly behind, however, so I figured I could do a quick post about tonight's authentic British experience. So there's a big European sporting event going on right now called Six Nations. I believe the six countries involved are England, Wales, Scotland, France, Italy, and Ireland. Basically, these countries send their best competitors out and play each other. Tonight was a rugby match between England and Wales--a rivalry which is close to home for many of the people here given that there's a significant number of both Welsh and English students at Swansea. Since this is an important cultural event, I went with some of my flatmates to the bar here in the student village to watch the game and meet up with a couple of my American friends. I've never really gone to a bar before to watch any big sporting event--partly because I normally have my own TV and partly because my favorite sport is baseball which mostly takes place in the summer when I'm at home. Given that bit of background, I won't try to compare the American and British bar atmospheres because for all I know, it's exactly the same back home. Here, however, they really get into the game. We arrived at a little past seven because the game itself started at around eight. I probably should have gotten a beer to complete the picture but I've never actually had a beer before because it always smells so nasty so I ended up getting a tropical breeze which looked embarrassingly out of place but was quite tasty. All the seats were filled already so we ended up just finding a post to stand next to. Nicole and Rachael arrived about twenty minutes after my flatmates and I had gotten there. As we were waiting, a flood of students was pouring into the bar, dressed from head to toe in their team's colors. If anyone from U of I knows the Green Guy who shows up to the football games in a head-covering green bodysuit, then they can probably picture what I mean when I say there was a similar guy dressed in a full bodysuit with the English flag on it. There were spontaneous chants of "Wa-les, Wa-les" interspersed with what I believe was snippets of "God Save the Queen."
Rugby itself is a lot like American football. They have a similarly-shaped ball and a similar general gameplay. From what I understand (which, granted, is sketchy at best), there are fifteen players on each team. Each team's goal, like in football, is to get the ball into the end-zone for a "try" which is worth five points. They run down the field and pass the ball to someone running behind him. If he gets tackled, the ball-carrier must pass the ball to another teammate behind him who will continue to run down the field. Getting tackled does nothing to change possession of the ball or pause the clock. The other team can steal the ball during any of this. If you score a "try," you then kick a field goal for an extra two points. If you can't make it all the way down the field, you can also kick a field goal for three points. At some point, they form a scrum to determine which team possesses the ball. It's almost as physical as football and yet they wear a t-shirt and shorts with no helmet or padding. It seems pretty brutal. There was a close-up of one player on England's team, and his nose was practically pointing to the edge of his lips because it was so crooked from getting broken so often.
The bar was packed; I had to stand in almost the exact same position the entire time so as not to elbow anyone else or block someone's view. No one could hear the announcers on the broadcast because of the general bar din accompanied by spontaneous national chants supporting both teams. The game was being played at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff which was neat to see because that's where I'll be going at the end of March for Varsity which is a series of sporting events between Swansea and Cardiff--a rivalry which is apparently only beaten by that between Oxford and Cambridge in the U.K. Throughout the game, I was struggling to pick a team to root for. My flatmates were rooting for England because they're British so it felt like I should join their side. On the other hand though, I'm not living in England but in Wales so I felt like I should show loyalty to my current home. Wales's status as the underdog mostly won me over, and I felt myself instinctively rooting on the boys in red. Apparently that didn't do any good however because they lost to England but it was certainly a competitive game. The bar went in an uproar near the end when Jonny Wilkinson came in for England's team. I guess this guy had basically won them the championship last year and was a national sporting hero. The cheers and boos from both fanbases were fighting to drown each other out. Overall, it was an exciting experience. It was intriguing to see the passion the English and Welsh fans have for their respective countries and to witness arguments between strangers over a game. It felt like something I would probably find in a bar back home if a big football game was on with the pitchers of beer, the slew of jerseys, and people standing up to cheer whenever something big happened. While I still don't understand the appeal of soccer, I can understand the excitement of rugby, and I can definitely see myself going to a game in the future.
That's the basic gist of my British experience of the day. I figured it'd be better to get it out now while it's fresh on my mind. The next time I go to one of these, I'll definitely bring my camera to paint a better picture of the scene. I hope you all have a great weekend! =)
I'll do a catch-up post sometime after my big essay is completed. There was a lot that went on in the first couple of weeks and since I have a ton of pictures as well, it's going to take up several lengthy posts which I can't really justify before I turn in my paper on Monday. Next week, however, is when I hope to catch up with all of that.
I don't want to get too terribly behind, however, so I figured I could do a quick post about tonight's authentic British experience. So there's a big European sporting event going on right now called Six Nations. I believe the six countries involved are England, Wales, Scotland, France, Italy, and Ireland. Basically, these countries send their best competitors out and play each other. Tonight was a rugby match between England and Wales--a rivalry which is close to home for many of the people here given that there's a significant number of both Welsh and English students at Swansea. Since this is an important cultural event, I went with some of my flatmates to the bar here in the student village to watch the game and meet up with a couple of my American friends. I've never really gone to a bar before to watch any big sporting event--partly because I normally have my own TV and partly because my favorite sport is baseball which mostly takes place in the summer when I'm at home. Given that bit of background, I won't try to compare the American and British bar atmospheres because for all I know, it's exactly the same back home. Here, however, they really get into the game. We arrived at a little past seven because the game itself started at around eight. I probably should have gotten a beer to complete the picture but I've never actually had a beer before because it always smells so nasty so I ended up getting a tropical breeze which looked embarrassingly out of place but was quite tasty. All the seats were filled already so we ended up just finding a post to stand next to. Nicole and Rachael arrived about twenty minutes after my flatmates and I had gotten there. As we were waiting, a flood of students was pouring into the bar, dressed from head to toe in their team's colors. If anyone from U of I knows the Green Guy who shows up to the football games in a head-covering green bodysuit, then they can probably picture what I mean when I say there was a similar guy dressed in a full bodysuit with the English flag on it. There were spontaneous chants of "Wa-les, Wa-les" interspersed with what I believe was snippets of "God Save the Queen."
Rugby itself is a lot like American football. They have a similarly-shaped ball and a similar general gameplay. From what I understand (which, granted, is sketchy at best), there are fifteen players on each team. Each team's goal, like in football, is to get the ball into the end-zone for a "try" which is worth five points. They run down the field and pass the ball to someone running behind him. If he gets tackled, the ball-carrier must pass the ball to another teammate behind him who will continue to run down the field. Getting tackled does nothing to change possession of the ball or pause the clock. The other team can steal the ball during any of this. If you score a "try," you then kick a field goal for an extra two points. If you can't make it all the way down the field, you can also kick a field goal for three points. At some point, they form a scrum to determine which team possesses the ball. It's almost as physical as football and yet they wear a t-shirt and shorts with no helmet or padding. It seems pretty brutal. There was a close-up of one player on England's team, and his nose was practically pointing to the edge of his lips because it was so crooked from getting broken so often.
The bar was packed; I had to stand in almost the exact same position the entire time so as not to elbow anyone else or block someone's view. No one could hear the announcers on the broadcast because of the general bar din accompanied by spontaneous national chants supporting both teams. The game was being played at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff which was neat to see because that's where I'll be going at the end of March for Varsity which is a series of sporting events between Swansea and Cardiff--a rivalry which is apparently only beaten by that between Oxford and Cambridge in the U.K. Throughout the game, I was struggling to pick a team to root for. My flatmates were rooting for England because they're British so it felt like I should join their side. On the other hand though, I'm not living in England but in Wales so I felt like I should show loyalty to my current home. Wales's status as the underdog mostly won me over, and I felt myself instinctively rooting on the boys in red. Apparently that didn't do any good however because they lost to England but it was certainly a competitive game. The bar went in an uproar near the end when Jonny Wilkinson came in for England's team. I guess this guy had basically won them the championship last year and was a national sporting hero. The cheers and boos from both fanbases were fighting to drown each other out. Overall, it was an exciting experience. It was intriguing to see the passion the English and Welsh fans have for their respective countries and to witness arguments between strangers over a game. It felt like something I would probably find in a bar back home if a big football game was on with the pitchers of beer, the slew of jerseys, and people standing up to cheer whenever something big happened. While I still don't understand the appeal of soccer, I can understand the excitement of rugby, and I can definitely see myself going to a game in the future.
That's the basic gist of my British experience of the day. I figured it'd be better to get it out now while it's fresh on my mind. The next time I go to one of these, I'll definitely bring my camera to paint a better picture of the scene. I hope you all have a great weekend! =)
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