Man U game, Football playing, and visits to Cambridge

Hello again everyone! It has only been a few days since the last entry and I feel like I have been doing so much. First of all, where I left off last time was with the Manchester United vs. Chelsea soccer match. It was a fantastic game and I was able to watch it at the local imperial college with hundreds of other students. I will try to upload pictures to give you an idea of how many people showed up to watch the game. Manchester ended up winning in penalty kicks and the entire game was awesome overall.

The next day, the RA's at the college hosted a football match for all the students to play in and it allowed me to show off my soccer skills! Mallory and I got to play on the same team, which we strategically planned out. The RA on the other team gave us the nickname "Italians" because he thought we were the biggest threat in the game. Pretty good feeling!! Playing soccer with everyone was so much fun and we ended up playing for almost an hour and a half! Some of the guys who didnt know how to play were slide tackling everyone. Overall, it was a great time and we plan to play every thursday at 7:00 in Hyde Park. I could tell some of the locals were making fun of us though, because 3/4 of the people out there have never even kicked a soccer ball!

Friday was a pretty relaxing day. I woke up and went to picadilly circus with Mallory and our friend named Andrew. We went to China town here and got ourselves a delicious buffet. Apparently, the best food here is non-english food! I tried soms Singapore noodles which I haven't stopped thinking about since we went. Later that night, we decided to take the tube to Hammersmith and go karaoke-ing! This was really fun because we got to mingle with locals and hear some of the awful voices attempt to sing Grease songs. The best part of karaoke was the lady who was running the show. She was old, I mean she had to be at least 97. She was wearing a mini blazer and underneath that she was wearing a training bra. It is safe to say, she didn't have the six pack she had back in her day. She would dance in the background to all the songs and pretend like she was playing the guitar. By the end of the night, she was flashing people who were taking pictures in the background! I did sing a song with a friend I met here named Sarah. We sang a Spice Girls song (wannabe -->for those who were curious). The Brits love the Spice Girls. They had a whole page of songs just by them! We took the tube there but had to take the bus back because everything closes here around midnight. I have a video of the bus so you can get idea of how crazy these london drivers are!

The Cambridge day trip was today and it was really nice to get out of the city life for the day. Our program went together by coach and it took about an hour and a half to get there. Cambridge was beautiful and the buildings were amazing! Our tour guide classified the building structures as "perpendicular gothic" and they were all built in the 15th century. For those of you who don't know, Cambridge is the second oldest University in England, right behind Oxford. Every year, Oxford and Cambridge compete in rowing contests! The relationship between the two schools is similar to Harvard and Yale. Pretty awesome. Attending cambridge can cost up to £3500 each year...a deal we would kill for here in the states! Our tour guide told us for them it is a pain because originally, they did not have to pay at allI have lots and lots of pictures from the trip as well as glamour shots. When we first arrived we took a tour of Kings Cross College, the most popular College in Cambridge. . We got to go inside the chapel which was built by several of the King Henry's. Henry VI began the chapel as well as part of Kings College and Henry the VIII ended up finishing most of it off. The stained glass inside the chapel was beautiful (I have some up close shots of that too). After visiting the chapel we went inside the tower which allows you to overlook Cambridge as a whole. It was quite the hike up the tower, and it is definitely not for the claustraphobic!! The stairs we climbed were winding the entire way and the space was very crammed. When we came downstairs (which was much easier than going up) we heard the Beatles playing outside!! When we ventured outside, a Beatles cover band was playing and they were fantastic. They played the song, "She loves you, yeaa, yea, yea!" Not sure if that is the correct name. The drummer was playing on an old coffee maker box!

After seeing the sites, we visited the local market and grabbed a bite to eat...the infamous hotdog. Do not be fooled by the hotdog...for it is not what you think it is. It was a jumbo pork sausage link and it was not very good. The inside of the hotdog was gooey and was similar to the taste of soggy bread. Weird, I know. Last, but not least, we finished off our day trip by going "punting." This was definitely the best part of the trip. A punt boad is similar to the gondolas you see in Venice and in Paris. You stand on the back of the boat and guide the boat down the river with a pole about as heavy as a 50 lb baby and as long as something that is 16 ft. (Yao Ming times two) That is a good analogy...pushing myself down a river with a skinny version of two Yao Ming's. I rode in the punt boat with Mallory and Sarah (the girl I karaoked with). Sarah was definitely the best at it, but we all gave it a try. There were lots of bachelorette parties going on at the river this weekend as well, making it very crowded. Can you imagine a bunch of drunk women in their late 20s trying to go punting? Everyone was crashing into each other and we were really hoping to see one of the ladies fall in. Unfortunately, the ladies were sober enough to keep their balance! We then took a short walk along the river and took pictures in the flowers. Afterwards, we took the long trip home and immediately stopped by the pub to grab some fish n chips (FANTASTIC and very filling). Tonight we plan to just hang out and actually do some schoolwork (who knew!)

Upcoming Stuff!!!

National Cheese Rolling Day ....you will just have to find out what this is after I experience it! Youtube it if you are interested! We are going this Monday, which is also a national holiday here. I absolutely can't wait!

Mallory and I purchased tickets to Ireland and we are going in a couple of weeks. We got a round trip ticket for only £26!!!! One of the girls going with us has a friend there and she already has a place for us to stay. We will be landing in Dublin and hopefully taking in all the sites. I can't wait to take that trip, for sure! I want to try to get tickets to France as well but with our budgets, it may be impossible. Make sure to keep an eye out for the Ireland blog!!

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