Hello All!
It has been a hectic, travel filled, and faced paced last few days, but I am excited to share it with you all. I am currently somewhere under the English Channel as we head to Paris for the weekend! Our upcoming weekend is pretty unstructured, so I am hoping to do lots of sightseeing around Paris, along with hitting the Tour de France last stages. Should be a good weekend!
We left Coventry about mid-day on Monday, and headed for Blackpool, which was where we were staying for The Open Championship. Our hotel was ‘rustic’ to say the least, and many people in the group seemed to think it was haunted, especially at night. I didn’t find it so bad, especially because we were right on the beach! I hadn’t seen the water in quite some time, so it was refreshing to hear the crashing of the waves. The town we were in had the feel that it was thee place to be in England about 15 years ago, but has since been abandoned. After talking to cab drivers as we came and went from The Open, they reconfirmed our thoughts. Monday night was rather calm, as everyone grabbed some food, finished a paper we had been assigned, and went to bed.
Tuesday we headed out to a practice round of The Open, and while the golf during practice rounds are not nearly as serious or as good as it is during a real round, the players are much more open to pictures and autographs. At one point, we were able to get former U of A standout Jim Furyk to come talk to us, and we let him know that there were a bunch of Arizona students there and supporting him. A few of the people on our trip even got a picture with him and a huge Bear Down flag, which they then tweeted to Greg Byrnes, and he re-tweeted it a little later. Pretty cool to see a U of A grad so successful all the way in England!
Wednesday was much of the same, just following different players around, and while they usually hit multiple tee shots and putt from 8 different spots on the green, I still enjoyed seeing how those elite players prepare for such a huge tournament. What I found interesting was that many of the big name players did not even play a practice round on Wednesday, so Monday and Tuesday must have sufficed. I did see Tom Watson on Wednesday for a little while, and I couldn’t help but think back to 2009 when he almost won his 6th Open Championship. I hope he makes a run again this year!
We left The Open about 1:00 on Wednesday, and took a train to Manchester, sight of the two exhibition basketball games for the USA teams. Wednesday night, the women’s national team took on Great Britain, and we were able to get a little bit of floor access. Before the game, half the group was in the high-five tunnel as the team ran out, and the 2nd group was set to do so before the 2nd half. I was in the second group, which turned out to be much better. Just before tip-off, the men’s national team came out and took their courtside seats, and they were still sitting there at halftime when I was able to get floor access. I only had my iPhone, and was across the court from them, but still seeing the entire team from not too far away was pretty sweet! After we came back up, we pulled out our big Bear Down flag and got Andre Iguodala’s attention, and he gave us a nice little wave and thumbs up.
As for the game itself, team USA dominated, and it is always fun to see the best team in the world play, especially when they represent your home country.
Thursday we had class in the morning, followed by another stadium tour of Old Trafford, home of Manchester United, arguably the golden standard for international football over the past 20 years. As we do more and more of these stadium tours, I’ve gotten pretty familiar with the format, but nonetheless, still neat to be at a stadium and think back on all the captivating events and moments that have happened there. My favorite soccer team is Chelsea, rivals with Manchester United, and so I did not spend too much time in the gift shop after the tour :). Chelsea makes its home in London, and so I am hoping to make it over to their stadium before I head back to the states.
Thursday night, we had tickets to see the ‘Dream Team’ play! We got to the area about 45 minutes before tip-off, and it was absolutely packed. I was able to sneak my big camera in, and got some pretty cool pictures of the team. The game was fantastic – seeing that quality of athletes and basketball players on the floor together was simply remarkable. The game was really never close, but we still enjoyed every last dunk, right down to the last one, by Andre Ingodala. I was able to catch his approach just right, so I doctored the photo and tweeted it to him.
Someone from our group was on ESPN.com today, reading an article about the game, and the writer mentioned that there were really no “boos” from the crowd, except for the end of the game when ‘USA’ chants broke out. Our group definitely started those chants, and I have never been more proud to be booed. One thing I did find interesting was that the loudest cheers at the game were not for LeBron, but rather Kobe as he was introduced. I just figured LeBron would be the favorite internationally, but Kobe looks as if he is still holding down that top spot.
Today has been a CRAZY travel day, as we left Manchester (which I must say has been my favorite city so far), took the train back to our hotel in Coventry to get our luggage, swapped out some clothes from our big bag to our smaller bag, took a bus into London to drop our big bags at our next living arrangement there, then took a train to a different station in London in order to catch our train to Paris! Phew! Long day! The good news is, after the weekend in Paris, we will settle into London and be there for the rest of the trip, and I think I can speak on behalf of the group when I say we are very excited to be able to settle in. Don’t get me wrong, I have absolutely loved all the traveling and being able to see event and cities that I may never see again, but a little bit of calm will be really nice.
I am anxious to see how the weekend in Paris unfolds, and I will be sure to post about it when we are back in London! Enjoy the weekend everybody
Ben
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