New faces

Since my last post was such a hit, I decided I would add to my winning streak. I've already been here a month and I'm really starting to feel "at home" here. I had a pretty interesting weekend going to my first rugby match ever. The international adviser, Jim Wilson, is a funny little bald round Scottish man who sets up a bunch of programs for international students, some actually fun and some very lame. Like he organizes weekly pub nights for the students to go out and meet other people outside the classroom and those can be hit or miss based on the number of people who show up and where the pub is. Last week it was at the weirdest pub I have ever seen, half normal sit down bar half sleazy dance floor that didn't do much for me. Other than that, those have actually been pretty fun.

Anyways, Jim organized this trip to Edinburgh for the Scotland v Italy Six Nations rugby match. The tournament has been played for the past 130 years and originally started with just four nations in the UK: England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Then it added the French and Italian teams later in the 1900s. To start the story, I had never even seen rugby played until this weekend and wasn't sure what to expect when I booked the trip. The tickets cost 15 pounds (about $20) and we were supposed to find our own way to the match by bus. I woke up late the Saturday morning of the match, crawled out of bed at 11:30 am, showered and got ready at around 12:30. I was supposed to meet Jim there at 12:30 so I ran to the bus station and quickly got on the first bus I saw for the stadium. I noticed Jim standing in the middle of the station and it was then that I realized I didn't have my ticket to the game. So I asked the bus driver if I had time to quickly run out and grab my ticket, 30 seconds tops. The bus driver said in a thick Scottish accent "No" with a lot of incomprehensible muttering. I figured there was no way I would get that ticket from him at this point, so I decided to cut my losses and plan a trip to the city.

During the bus ride, I made small talk with a girl from Honduras who was in the university's masters program. She told me all about Honduras and how different it is in the UK and how amazing the US is. I told her about my little dilemma and she said not to worry because we will probably see Jim on the way to the stadium so I didn't lose hope just yet. So we get there an hour before the match starts and see a packed outdoor pub right across the street from the stadium so naturally we walk in and grab a drink while I wait for a short round bald Scottish guy to walk by, a seemingly easy task. There are millions of short round bald Scottish guys! Luckily and still unbelievably by me, I managed to spot Jim and sprinted out of the bar to chase him down. I ran up to him and completely out of breath from running 50 feet asked if I could still get my ticket. He happily told me that he had just sold my ticket because I didn't pick it up at the bus station with a big shit-eating grin that I wanted to smack off of his bald little head. My heart sank because it just started to rain and it was a good 20-30 minute walk to downtown Edinburgh. Then, he casually said he had an extra ticket for his nephew who couldn't come tot the game. I was pretty relieved, but ended up walking halfway around the stadium and waiting in a 15 minute line, but it was worth it. Finally, with ticket in hand, ran back to the bar across the street and met up with the Honduran and friends to grab a celebratory drink before heading in.

The stadium was a modern cage-like arena, but since it rains so much in Scotland it had a weird looking glass roof that only covered the spectators. It was pretty worthless because I started feeling freezing cold raindrops before the game started. We had great seats about 15 rows up behind the goal posts and made it just in time to see the Scottish "national anthem". (They don't really have a real national anthem because it is part of the UK but they sing it at all sporting matches) The game started and I was immediately lost because rugby is a sport unlike any I have ever seen. It is a mix of American football, European football (soccer), cheerleading, and a game of dogpile. Eventually I caught on to the strategy of the game and thought it would be pretty cool to play it sometime. At halftime, I walked to the food court and was amazed at how normal the price of food and drinks were, unlike the ridiculously over priced American stadiums. Beer was three pounds and a hot dog was two, not bad considering the beer was a lot better here than the "king of beers" that is budweiser. Scotland ended up winning the match 26-6, but it didn't really matter since the two teams were the two worst teams in the tournament. But, before I left there was some post-game entertainment on the field. Apparently some half naked guy broke through security and ran around the field in just a kilt. I guess this is a common occurrence because there were probably about 100 security guards in bright yellow jackets around the field. After a few minutes and close escapes, the guy gave up and was tackled hard and wrestled to the ground. I'm sure he is thinking twice about that now that he has sobered up...

Since I was just lucky to get any ticket and it was still relatively early (about 5 pm) when the game let out, I decided to hang out with my new friends and take the walk into the city. We strolled through New Town Edinburgh and it is one of the nicest looking places in Scotland, with great Georgian architecture and tons of shops and pubs. We got a bite to eat at a little coffee shop in new town and got in touch with some of their friends who were at a pub in Old Town. So we walked a little more and met up with their bigger group of friends at this cozy pub where we started to watch the Ireland v England rugby match. This one was a lot more intense, physical, dirty, and aggressive than the one I watched because I saw a lot more pushing and punching and grabbing in this game. I even saw an English player on the outside of the scrum stomping his cleats down on the Irish players' hands, not a pleasant sight and apparently legal. I met a bunch of other grad students from finance, engineering, management, etc and they were all pretty cool. I even met a Canadian girl who lived in DC for a while, so we bonded over the good old dc-metro area. It was a fun time and I'm glad it all worked out for me randomly. I met a lot of really cool people that I hope to hang out with more often.

Besides that, I am getting pretty busy with schoolwork. I didn't realize I would actually have to do work this semester. I wrote a 4 page paper about Scottish landfills, a very exciting topic and did two labs last week. Plus I have another two labs to do this week that I am not looking forward to. But, I am content with the fact that I had a pretty good weekend overall, and I am really looking forward to St. Patty's Day in Dublin in two weeks. I have the general plan and the motivation, now all I have to do is fill in the minor details of how to get there and where to stay. Then, in the beginning of April I get two weeks off for a much needed spring break. I am not completely sure where I am going yet but I have some pretty good ideas to keep me going for the next couple days. Til next time, stay classy whoever is reading this.