Ta Ta for now!

Mary, Paula, and Rick left. We woke up bright and early to take them to the airport. It felt really strange having them leave. To really understand how weird it was for me perhaps a little background is needed. Ever since I was little, I have had a problem with being away from my family or just being away from what is familiar. I have come a long ways since I was five but in all honesty some of those tendencies remain. This is why I had never really gone for full-fledged study abroad experience because I knew that I would have a hard time being that far away from home for that long. That is why I little nervous about Mary, Paula, and Rick leaving because they were the connection I had from back home. I I think part of my nervousness also the switch from rural to urban. I don’t really consider myself too much of a farm boy but staying in Birmingham was like a fish out of water for me! 

I knew that I would be taken care of but, I was still a little nervous about being left with people I didn’t know very well. Stuart was asking me all kinds of questions about how I was feeling and about the others and that was sort of comforting because he cared enough to ask.

Anyways, Stuart took me back to the apartment telling me that he would pick me up later for a soccer game. Yea, that‘s right good ol’ English football. I was pretty pumped and was hoping to catch a glimpse of some soccer hooligans. If you are anything like me you need a little bit of an explanation of how English football works and let’s face it, I’m not the one to try to teach you even after I received my lesson. What I do know is that we were going to see West Brum (West Birmingham) and Bolton. Both of these teams were in the premier league, the top league in the UK. This game wasn’t necessarily a huge rivalry or a high stakes matchup, but as I found out ALL football games are attended as if it was a high stakes match. The stadium was packed and the fans were yelling and screaming the entire game. Stuart and I were joined by Alistair (one of the students who had visited Northwest this last summer). There was five things of particular note about the game: West Brum won, the fans were singing and as I found out later from Luke (another student that visited us in June) they have songs for almost every player, hatred for referees is universal, the lady behind me introduced me to the foul English vocabulary, and the crowd was extremely supportive of the players or rather just their team’s players.  

Here is a video clip for soccer game. As you can tell it is really loud but nothing was too exciting was really happening in the clip!

I think there is an interesting contrast in the support given compared to American games. The crowd at this football game would cheer loudly for a missed shot that was a well-executed play. The crowd cheered for failure, something that Americans rarely do. The British showed appreciation for the finer points of the game and showed appreciation for the entertainment given. Americans rarely show such appreciation for the game, let alone failure. Americans demand success or no cheer and I actually think that is rather sad and would be hard to play for. 

After the game, Stuart, Alistair, and I caught a train back to the city centre where we would be meeting Luke. We all met at a Starbucks near the Old Joint Stock and Stuart left the “kids” to what “kids” do on a Saturday night in Birmingham. While I might like to tell you that from this point, it gets a little blurry and that we partied until the sun came up, that is far from the case. I was way too tired and emotionally wrung out to do much at all. Luke, Alistair and I went to go catch a bite to eat. Our first stop was at the Victoria. It was a smaller pub and looked like a classic pub until you noticed the unique colors everything was painted and the strange pictures on the wall. I think it was more a mash of modern and older styles. I really liked it. It seemed to me to be a little more edgy but also relaxed. We found out that it was crowded and we grabbed a quick pint and soon realized that they were no longer serving food. We decided to leave and try our luck at the Mailbox (Please refer to earlier post). We decided to go classic American and ate at Gourmet Burger. Now this was pretty close to the most American that I had ate with the exception of the Italian food!

 After the Mailbox, Alistair decided to leave us and Luke and I decided to go to a movie (or cinema) at the Electric cinema. The Electric cinema was the oldest Cinema in Birmingham and don’t ask me how old because I have absolutely no idea! The cinema had special seats where you would sit on couches and be served in the theatre. Those seats are expensive, but I kind of liked the concept! We watched the Rum diaries. Luke liked it…Me? It’s been over a month and I still haven’t made up my mind. Then I went back to the apartment to catch some shut eye before my trip to London with Paul and Gemma the next day.