It's been nearly a week since I last posted. It seems that the only bit of schoolwork that I've had so far was all due within the last week which was partially the cause to my delay. It wasn't all work and no play though. On Thursday Sarah and I went to a Chelsea football match. I have been a Chelsea fan since I was about 15 years old so this had been a long time in the making. We got the stadium and were very confused about pretty everything and it was obvious. All of the security guards and staff took advantage of this and capitalized on any chance they had to make fun of "the Americans". It was all in good fun, thankfully. We got to our seats and noticed immediately that there were very few other women at the game, not surprisingly. To our surprise however was that the stadium does not serve alcohol for many of the games. This did not stop the hoards of men surrounding us from being very obviously drunk though. As these grown men would sing songs about their love for Chelsea the sound was quite similar to the sounds that could be assumed to come from an old English shipyard. Chelsea was playing Sparta Praha from Prague. They scored in the first half but Chelsea answered in the final minute of the match with a beauty from Eden Hazard. This game was one of the greatest experiences I've had while here in England so far despite being herded like sheep afterward in the street for over an hour. And yes, there were police officers horseback forming a blockade. It's becoming more and more obvious that the English have a difficult time breaking from tradition.
On Saturday I went to Oxford College with my British Life and Culture class. We were given a guided tour of part of the College campus as well as the college of Christ Church which was home to 13 Prime Minister's. Oxford also was home to many great minds such as CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, and many more. Being the oldest university it had much history to offer. While the historical aspects were quite interesting, the most exciting part for me was that scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed in various areas of the College. It was brilliant to imagine the actual filming while picturing them as I saw them in the movies.
Now I am unwinding from a fairly tiring evening by watching the movie Across the Universe. If you have never heard of it, it was produced in 2007 and is a musical featuring songs from The Beatles. It has always been one of my favorite movies as The Beatles are one of my favorite bands but to watch it here and now makes me see it in a different light and evokes different emotions. I am now able to understand more of the cultural references and distinctions made between the United States and England as pointed out in the movie. It truly is a masterpiece and a just reflection of the impact of the late 60s as pointed out in the lyrics of many of the Beatles' tunes.
This week will be dedicated to schoolwork and planning for Spring break so another blog post probably won't be made until next week.
Tally ho!
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