Wed, Oct 12, 2005.
Hey,
This is a picture of White Ladies Road. This is the road I walk down to campus (2.2miles) and walk up back to residence at the end of the day.
Today was interesting. Because it is the first week of school, I had no formal lectures. Normally i’ll have wednesday afternoons off, but not usually the mornings, so it was nice to sleep in. By the way, the whole university gets wednesday afternoons of for sport, music and other extra curriculars.
Today my sport was medics RUGBY. It was pretty crazy. First of all, i’ve never played. Second, the minute I get there it begins to rain. Then it rained harder. We start off the training session with a warm up match. For someone who’s never played before, it’s like watching an on the move wrestling match. The ball does not stop when it touches the ground like in American Football, and you’re allowed to grab your opponents shirt in a tackle. You can even hold someone’s shirt and keep them from moving in certain cases. So i’m standing there, and people are shouting things like “Stay in a line,” but do I know why? So basically I stood in the back and watch this mass of running, shouting and cheering with no clue in the world on what has actually happened.
After this warm-up. We do a bit of drills together, then we split into Forwards(more like defense in Football, more bigger guys, but not all) and Backwards (Offense). I was picked to be a forward because i’m tall, don’t know much about the game, and they need defensive players. So, now i’m a forward. I still don’t know what a forward does exactly. But I spent the next hour smashing into pads, passing the ball, practising my tackles (doing a bit of wresting), and practising my blocking. I managed to jar my shoulder, and my nose is a bit tender, but I have all my teeth. If anyone from home reads this, tell my Dad I wore a mouth guard or ‘Gum Chew’ as they like to call it here.
By the way, did I mention that this was all done in pouring rain - this rain was extreme even for England - they’ve had as much rain today as they’ve had in the past month.
So after this hour, we get back together with the offense, who’ve been practising away, and play a game. I still haven’t a clue on what to do but oh well. Basically I just pushed people around and did small tackles if someone had the ball. In one case, I was given the ball to start a play (I honestly think it was done as a joke, because they all knew I hadn’t a clue). Well, all of a sudden there’s 5 guys blocking from my team, and 8 guys attacking from the other. I just set the ball in a teammate’s hand and he got it where it needed to go.
All in all, it was a riot, I met loads of medics, and believe it or not, it rained hardest on the walk home, so when people saw me, I was one huge, muddy, soaked mess. But it was awesome.
Tonight, I’ve also joined the expeditions society. I went to a meeting, and they’re holding a trip to Wales (the BRECONS) next weekend. I’m hoping to go. It’s just a day hike saturday, and we come home sunday. It shouldn’t interfere. I’m hoping to use this club to get around England. Also, there international student Center runs events. They’re going to London this weekend, but i’m going to stay in, hoping to go to Winsor castle with them. I went with mom, but I’d love to see it again, and its only like 15pounds, which includes the travel and entrance to the castle.
Well if you’ve read this far you’ve done well. Email me if you like to hear from me, and keep reading!
-Pete
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