stonehenge/bath, life, and (of course), FOOTBALL
so i haven't posted anything in the past week and a half. i've been incredibly busy until now, so i'll update you on what's been keeping me active and moving.
all the freshman in the NYU in London program went off to bath, glastonbury, and stonehenge from friday to sunday last week. we left on friday morning and took a miserable bus ride to stonehenge (everyone was hungover, and the fact that we all had to be up at 8:30 in the morning didn't help). stonehenge was fun, though. the light was bad for photography, which made me mad, but it's still a world wonder. i was happy to go, although i was feeling pretty crummy. the rocks are a lot smaller in person than they look in photographs, i'll just say that. that afternoon, we drove over to bath, where we all crashed in the hostel, ate dinner (pizza hut!!), and basically went to bed.
saturday was a much better day. the weather was sunny and warm (good for photography :p). we took a guided tour that morning and explored the roman baths that afternoon. i bought a sweet scotland rugby polo shirt with their rugby logo for only 13 pounds ($25 or so). we partied it up that night and went clubbing, too, just in time for....
we had another long bus ride that next morning, although it wasn't as bad as the one we had on friday. we went out to glastonbury, a small town. there are 2 significant things about this place. 1 - there is a big hill there with some sort of monument building on top of it, and the views from up there are really nice of all the surrounding areas. 2 - there is an old cathedral there that was destroyed by henry VIII, so all that remains are the staggering ruins. it was the size of westminster abbey, and one can just imagine how incredible it must have been.
i have pictures from all of these places on facebook, if you want to look.
monday was zach's birthday over here. zach is a hamilton freshman like me who is studying in london for his first semester of college. he's a good friend of mine, and since neither of us have class on tuesday until the afternoon, we (and about 15 other people or so) decided to go to the local pub and celebrate. "the city pride" is the place where all the hamilton people go to drink and (in my case) watch soccer on their flatscreen tv's. every night, this pub has 2 for 1 shots between 10 and 11pm. one shot is about 2.50 pounds (5 fucking dollars!!!), but from 10-11, you get two shots for that price, making it much easier to swallow (pun semi-intended). so we all got completely smashed. i went to bed late sometime, woke up at 9 the next morning still drunk, went to bed and woke up again at 10:30 feeling great. i was in class 4 hours later doing just fine.
the rest of the week passed normally, with me going to classes and doing work. i went out on thursday and friday nights, which is normal here. saturday, though, was a great day. saturday was the day that i had tickets for the soccer game i had previously alluded to in this livejournal. i had 3 tickets, actually. we went early to the store and we all bought fulham jerseys (i would like to add that one of them is a chelsea fan, the other, an arsenal fan) with all the american players' names on the back. personally, i got brian mcbride because he's a beast of a player, even though he's injured. we got to our seats (which were amazing) early and watched warm-ups.
we watched the goalies warm up (including washington native and former USA national team keeper kasey keller!) for fulham and watched the squad players do drills and play keep away with each other. before the game started, the starting 11 for each team came out of the tunnel ceremoniously next to each other, then stood in a straight line facing the fans, and then shook hands (see facebook pictures).
the game started, and so did the singing. the side behind the goal nearest to us was where all the singing came for the fulham fans, and the opposite stand behind the other goal was where all the manchester city fans were. the singing was basically a contest between the two sets of fans. when fulham scored the first goal on a beautiful cross, the fulham fans sang a lot louder. when man city scored the next goal, the man city fans sang a lot louder.
the score was 1-1 at halftime. fulham played miserable football for the first 20 minutes of the second half (except for when we scored on a beautiful set piece that curled around the wall of man city players into the top corner of the net). man city scored on bad fulham defense and a bad non-call by the ref that would've given us the ball back. the fulham singers started chanting "the referee's a wanker! the referee's a wanker!" soon, all 25,000 fans were chanting that. it was one of the funniest and most amazing things i'd ever been apart of. that might sound foolish, but it was one of those things you don't appreciate until you see (and hear) it.
man city took a 3-2 lead with about 25 minutes left in the game. after that, it was ALL fulham. we had seats right at the top of the penalty box, and in the second half, that was fulham's attacking half, so we saw all the action up close and personal. we must've had 10 or more shots on goal, and we only converted one goal (3-3 score now). everyone in the stadium thought we almost netted a fourth goal, but the ball just went just wide of the target. the final score was a 3-3 draw, but it was a roller coaster of a match. i was exhausted walking back to the tube just from sitting there. that's how intense it was. the premier league website that night called it one of the best matches so far this year. even though we didn't win, we still got points out of the game and it was one hell of a game to watch for the fans from BOTH teams. and fulham played well for most of the match. if we continue to play like that, we definitely won't get relegated.
all the freshman in the NYU in London program went off to bath, glastonbury, and stonehenge from friday to sunday last week. we left on friday morning and took a miserable bus ride to stonehenge (everyone was hungover, and the fact that we all had to be up at 8:30 in the morning didn't help). stonehenge was fun, though. the light was bad for photography, which made me mad, but it's still a world wonder. i was happy to go, although i was feeling pretty crummy. the rocks are a lot smaller in person than they look in photographs, i'll just say that. that afternoon, we drove over to bath, where we all crashed in the hostel, ate dinner (pizza hut!!), and basically went to bed.
saturday was a much better day. the weather was sunny and warm (good for photography :p). we took a guided tour that morning and explored the roman baths that afternoon. i bought a sweet scotland rugby polo shirt with their rugby logo for only 13 pounds ($25 or so). we partied it up that night and went clubbing, too, just in time for....
we had another long bus ride that next morning, although it wasn't as bad as the one we had on friday. we went out to glastonbury, a small town. there are 2 significant things about this place. 1 - there is a big hill there with some sort of monument building on top of it, and the views from up there are really nice of all the surrounding areas. 2 - there is an old cathedral there that was destroyed by henry VIII, so all that remains are the staggering ruins. it was the size of westminster abbey, and one can just imagine how incredible it must have been.
i have pictures from all of these places on facebook, if you want to look.
monday was zach's birthday over here. zach is a hamilton freshman like me who is studying in london for his first semester of college. he's a good friend of mine, and since neither of us have class on tuesday until the afternoon, we (and about 15 other people or so) decided to go to the local pub and celebrate. "the city pride" is the place where all the hamilton people go to drink and (in my case) watch soccer on their flatscreen tv's. every night, this pub has 2 for 1 shots between 10 and 11pm. one shot is about 2.50 pounds (5 fucking dollars!!!), but from 10-11, you get two shots for that price, making it much easier to swallow (pun semi-intended). so we all got completely smashed. i went to bed late sometime, woke up at 9 the next morning still drunk, went to bed and woke up again at 10:30 feeling great. i was in class 4 hours later doing just fine.
the rest of the week passed normally, with me going to classes and doing work. i went out on thursday and friday nights, which is normal here. saturday, though, was a great day. saturday was the day that i had tickets for the soccer game i had previously alluded to in this livejournal. i had 3 tickets, actually. we went early to the store and we all bought fulham jerseys (i would like to add that one of them is a chelsea fan, the other, an arsenal fan) with all the american players' names on the back. personally, i got brian mcbride because he's a beast of a player, even though he's injured. we got to our seats (which were amazing) early and watched warm-ups.
we watched the goalies warm up (including washington native and former USA national team keeper kasey keller!) for fulham and watched the squad players do drills and play keep away with each other. before the game started, the starting 11 for each team came out of the tunnel ceremoniously next to each other, then stood in a straight line facing the fans, and then shook hands (see facebook pictures).
the game started, and so did the singing. the side behind the goal nearest to us was where all the singing came for the fulham fans, and the opposite stand behind the other goal was where all the manchester city fans were. the singing was basically a contest between the two sets of fans. when fulham scored the first goal on a beautiful cross, the fulham fans sang a lot louder. when man city scored the next goal, the man city fans sang a lot louder.
the score was 1-1 at halftime. fulham played miserable football for the first 20 minutes of the second half (except for when we scored on a beautiful set piece that curled around the wall of man city players into the top corner of the net). man city scored on bad fulham defense and a bad non-call by the ref that would've given us the ball back. the fulham singers started chanting "the referee's a wanker! the referee's a wanker!" soon, all 25,000 fans were chanting that. it was one of the funniest and most amazing things i'd ever been apart of. that might sound foolish, but it was one of those things you don't appreciate until you see (and hear) it.
man city took a 3-2 lead with about 25 minutes left in the game. after that, it was ALL fulham. we had seats right at the top of the penalty box, and in the second half, that was fulham's attacking half, so we saw all the action up close and personal. we must've had 10 or more shots on goal, and we only converted one goal (3-3 score now). everyone in the stadium thought we almost netted a fourth goal, but the ball just went just wide of the target. the final score was a 3-3 draw, but it was a roller coaster of a match. i was exhausted walking back to the tube just from sitting there. that's how intense it was. the premier league website that night called it one of the best matches so far this year. even though we didn't win, we still got points out of the game and it was one hell of a game to watch for the fans from BOTH teams. and fulham played well for most of the match. if we continue to play like that, we definitely won't get relegated.