Have You Ever Seen "The Social Network?"

Hi Everyone!

It is a beautiful Tuesday morning here in Coventry, and I am at Starbucks before class. It has been a wonderful last few days here.

Sunday may have been one of the coolest days of my life. We attended the Henley Royal Regatta rowing event on the Thames river, which was essentially the Kentucky Derby of rowing. Lots of nice suits and fancy hats! It was about a 2 hour train ride from Coventry, but well worth it. Once we got there, we walked about 30 minutes through a beautiful town with eccentric houses and arrived at our location for the day, which was an absolutely stunning river-side view on the event. What was interesting about the event was that it is not so much about the races, but more of a spectacle and event surrounding the races. When you can only see 40 meters of the 1.5 mile race, it is hard to follow exactly what is going on and who is winning (there was a PA system - it just wasn't loud enough). Now, with that being said, it was still a great day. We got to the tents on the river side, and about 30 minutes later got on a boat and took about an hour trip down the river. As we were traveling along and waving to people like we were the queen, the rowers were passing us like we were standing still! Towards the end of the ride, the temperature took a sharp drop and the rain came down, so we were all very happy to back on solid ground after the ride. We learned later in the day that Cal, Harvard, Brown and the University of Washington were all there. Apparently Cal has the best team in the world right now! And on that note, to tie in the title of this post, if you have seen the movie "The Social Network," this is the rowing event that the Harvard team is at.

So, after leaving our hotel around 7:30 Sunday morning, we were back about 9 that night, and were all ready for bed. But it was a bright and early day on Monday, as the Olympic torch passed though Coventry! I had goosebumps as the torch passed me - I was only about a foot and a half away. There is so much history behind the torch, and just thinking that it has traveled the world, beginning in Athens, it was really cool to see. We actualy saw it in 2 different places, and 2 different runners. We missed the handoff which was a bummer, but still, what a cool thing to see.

Class has been going well! Learning about Sports PR and International Sports Management, the time flies by because these are topic I am really interested in, and have been enjoying so far. It has been cool to have 2 guest professors from England and France so far, along with our own U of A professors. It is a unique mix that has been working out really well.

Well, it is off to class for me!

Until next time,

Ben