JANUARY 18 - 19, 2011
The normality of Tuesday had already been eclipsed by the time that I, having used my easy day to sleep in, awoke around noon. After a while of fiddling around, eating lunch and checking emails, I received a call from my mother explaining that my grandfather had passed away the previous evening. All of a sudden, flow of emotions: shock, confusion, sadness, topped off by a tinge of guilt that I could not be there; that I wouldn't be able to say goodbye, or to mourn with my family. I was at a loss for what to do next - what could I do? I felt like I was the odd man-out with the whole family coming in from all over the country.. and then there I am, across the pond having the time of my life. I felt like I should be more sad, and I am, but not to the extent that I know I would have been if I was home. While I'm sure that there will be times while I'm talking with my parents where it becomes a reality, I don't think that it will really hit home until I go back to the Grandpa-less states. And so, somewhat guiltily, I take my moment.. and I try to move on. After all, what was a long and sad all-night ordeal for the majority of my close family was just a sleepy Tuesday morning in London. And when I heard the news, it was already pressing towards the busy London evening ahead..
For more on my grandfather, feel free to read my previous post.
After the shock wore off, and I sadly came to the conclusion that there was nothing that I could do, I persevered on through the evening.
Tuesday night was an interesting night - after attending my first Thermodynamics lecture (it doesn't seem like it's going to be too bad) at 5:00pm and eating dinner, I met up with some friends to head towards a 'Boat Party' that was being sponsored by our apartment complex and geared towards welcoming the international students.. Slightly curious, we joined up with the group congregating in the courtyard before heading off towards the river. A brief walk later, and with the Millennium Bridge rising to our right, we were looking down at "Royalty", a medium-sized boat sporting a top-deck dance floor and below-deck sitting area.
Royalty indeed
Annnnyway, here's what I did take pictures of - the sights from the boat!
Passing the city
The O2 Arena, formerly The Millennium Dome. I think it's a big entertainment venue for a variety of things. It's cool-looking, whatever it is
The London Eye, as seen from the water
Parliament and The Clock Tower
More Parliament
.. different angle.
So we traveled up and down the river and sang/danced the night away to an assortment of current popular club hits and 90s one-hit wonders. Not really my thing, but it was a good time. Big Ben struck midnight (or 00:00 on the clocks over here.. still weird seeing that even though I'm used to reading military time now) and we headed home for the night.
(Note to readers, that's all the pictures I have for this post, sorry!)
Wednesday offered one lecture in the morning: Abstract Algebra at 10:00am for an hour. It wasn't too bad - the professor seems like he knows what he's doing and he knows how to handle the students. Harking back to my rant on English student behavior earlier, I still haven't seen much of a change. But this guy knows what he's doing, even if it does seem a bit harsh - he explained, to our pretty large lecture of about 150 students, that he won't tolerate loud talking and will mark names down if he has to continuously warn people. It seemed a bit strict, almost high school-like, but whatever works with these kids. Afterwards, I made a quick lunch and prepared myself for the next big thing - my first Football match as part of the KCL Football Club.
That's right. In the midst of a strange Tuesday, I received a text from the captain of the KCLFC 4s squad asking if I could come to an away game they had on Wednesday afternoon (by the way, the majority of the departments at KCL recognize Wednesday afternoons as times when clubs organize activities so they try to schedule lectures around it - how cool is that!?). Of course, I accepted right away and so was in the current position of gathering my gear and clothes together and heading towards the train station to meet up with the team.
Well, to say the least, things weren't looking to bright from the get-go: I eventually met up with a couple of the guys, but as we watched the first train to Egham leave the station, we sat there with only 8 men. Hectic calls were made to the other squads to see if they could spare a man, and right before the next train left, we found two more, giving us 10 and at least a fighting chance. We hopped on the train, and took the long ride Eastward towards Royal Holloway, a sect of the University of London, in Egham. We arrived only just before kickoff since we took the later train, and changed quickly before skipping warm-up and lining up. I played as right midfielder.
It was absolutely wonderful being back on the pitch, and while there was a little rust to be shaken off (mostly in my first touch and passing), my field-vision and conditioning hadn't aged a day - I was up and down that right side for the entire 90 minutes, dropping back to help the defense, and sprinting back up to support our lone striker when there was the chance of a rush. We weren't playing fantastically, but our defense and goalkeeper were the main reasons we stayed in the game. The problem stemmed from us playing a man down - there was just one less body in the middle or up front to receive passes and goal kicks, so it was tough getting the ball through the middle and maintaining an attack. We did the best with what we had though, and stopped a lot of their good chances through solid defense. After a scoreless first half (they probably had about four or five decent shots to our one), the second half looked like it was going to be just as even. However, a terrible call proved good fortune for the opposing team - a clearing attempt by one of our defenseman bounced off of his chest before being punted away. The referee, from where he was standing, thought he saw it hit his hand and so awarded the other team a penalty kick.
1 - 0 to Royal Holloway when the opposing striker hit the mark.
For the rest of the game, our attack continued to press forward, trying to get chances at the net. A little bit later, I had a break down the right side and took a line-drive shot from just inside the 18 that spun wide left. After that, I helped earn us a corner and a free kick from just outside the 18 to the right of the net, but we couldn't convert. In the end, they just had that one more man, plus two subs on the sideline, and we couldn't find the net with our limited offense.
Royal Holloway 1, KCL 0
SO, my record as part of KCLFC 4s: 0 - 1
I'm thinking about doing 'Gameday Posts' for future games, should be a good time. There are usually games on Wednesdays and Saturdays so we'll see what happens.
English football is great. I'd say that when it comes down to it, a lot of the fundamentals are the same, and while there are certainly the few players who are exceedingly good, the stereotype that all English kids are good at football just isn't entirely true. If anything, they know the game extremely well, having probably followed a single team from childhood on. But skill-wise, I'd say I was easily in the upper 50% of players on the field. Gotta represent America woooooo. But overall, the main difference is the speed of play - there is just so many people who know what they have to do and where they have to be, that passing becomes so much easier and faster. Over here, there's a reliance on your teammate to make good decisions with the football that I only feel with certain players back home (here's looking at you, Tom!). These kids love the game, and so do I, and you're all out there to just have a good time. It's great, and it's something I definitely miss doing back home (but I will say that hockey is just as fun!).
A walk back to the station and a train home later, I was eating a quick dinner before gearing up for a friend's birthday celebration at the student union pub, The Waterfront. I head out with my flat-mates and a few other friends, and when we get there, it's PACKED. I don't think I've mentioned it, but Wednesday is like the Thirsty Thursday of America. It's nuts how college kids over here regularly go out on Wednesday nights - clubs, pubs, you name it. I do the occasional weekday party back home, but my major and my lifestyle (and my wallet..) can't support going out as often as these kids do over here - and when I say kids, I mean kids! Like 18 years old, since the drinking age is lower here. Crazy.
Anyway, I take in the surroundings - a DJ bouncing out the latest crappy club music, the guys and girls in costumes and skimpy outfits, the bunch of kids standing on a table singing a drinking song (that's the one thing that I do find pretty cool though; where in America, you'd have something as ludicrous as 'fist-pumping', over here, you get renditions of drinking songs that EVERYONE knows and EVERYONE joins in on, it's actually really neat) - and I eventually muscle my way to the bar and am just about to order my drink. Then.. the fire alarm goes off. First time that's EVER happened to me, or to anyone I know. And since it's in a school building, they have to evacuate. So we go outside and stand on the cold streets of London with about 100 other people and wait for about half an hour. Eventually they let us back in, but the majority of the crowd had already moved onto their respective clubs or some other activity. So once there was less people, it was actually pretty fun. I got myself a Fosters (slowly becoming my favorite beer, but still deciding) and chatted with pals and new people for a while. A couple of guys got a pitcher of 'Snakebite', which is half cider and half beer with a little blackcurrant-flavored liqueur. It was actually the first alcoholic drink I ever had in London when I visited five years ago or so, so that was funny. It's pretty good - the sweetness of the cider and the liqueur mixed with the beer. The only problem is the liqueur turns it like a purply/pink color, which makes it look a bit girly..
Anyway, when the birthday girl, Sarah, decided to move the party to a club, I decided I wasn't paying the £5 just to get in and dance (which didn't sound that great, since my legs were pretty tired from the football game earlier..). So I went home and finished off a busy day.
And that was pretty much it as far as middle-of-the-week fun times goes!
Good music to get pumped up for a football match:
Arctic Monkeys - "Still Take You Home", off their album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not"
Great band, great album. Just an all-around solid English alt-rock band.
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Still playing catch-up. BIG post coming up in the next couple of days: Edinburgh, Scotland!
Cheers!
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