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Post Departure Blog

When going back and reading my pre departure blog, it’s almost cringe worthy to hear myself babble about how I was nervous to come on the trip. This is what I wrote about when asked for one thing we were nervous about. When reflecting on this trip, I realize I made a ton on friends and had an amazing experience studying in a foreign country that I will never forget. After reading over the next section, I saw that I was most excited for the tour of Wimbledon that we were fortunate enough to receive just weeks before the tournament started. In reflection, this honestly did end up being one of my favorite parts of the entire trip and ultimately my favorite stadium tour that we embarked on. Having the opportunity to visit such a famous and historic sporting ground was a unique opportunity that I really enjoyed. Prior to this trip, I was hoping to gain an overall understanding of sport in general since I was the only non SLAM major on the trip. I am glad to say that I not only gained a large background of sport in Europe as a whole, but I also made personal ties to certain issues that are going on in the sports world. We had the opportunity to walk around the Tottenham area and view the “Regenerating” that is currently going on in this city. Being able to meet first hand with people who are being pushed out of their own communities gave me a connection to this issue on a personal level and ultimately made me want to pursue this topic for my video journal. 

Prior to this trip, I knew little to none about sport culture in Ireland and England. Being able to tour the football stadiums in London along with having personal interactions with locals who supported their favorite clubs, it was clear that football was much more than sport to these people. English football fans are known to be so rivalrous that they have to split up the seating for home and away fans while also not allowing alcohol in the bleachers of the games. Ireland on the other hand have a much more local and personal connection to their sports. Growing up in a GAA club system, you are intertwined with your local team from the time that you are born until you die. I don’t even want to think about the slander that one would receive for leaving their local club for another team. Prior to this trip, I had made assumptions about European sport that were totally wrong and honestly the relationship that fans have to their teams are much stronger than the bonds formed in the United States in my opinion. All in all, I had a life changing trip that will not only change the way that I think about sport but also the way that I think about my everyday life.

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Exploring the Irish country side in Howth

On one of our first days in London, we took the train up to Howth for a day trip to explore an Irish city outside of Dublin. Once we arrived, we walked through the down town area and it was immediately a very cool change of pace from the busyness of Dublin. Once we walked through the town, we headed up to the country side to start a hike along the coast. We started to walk through a neighborhood for a while and some of the houses along the coast were enormous and had some overly expensive cars sitting their vacantly. Once we made it up to the hillside where we started the hike, the first view that I hadover the coast was one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen. He started to walk up hill on a small path with nothing but nature around us and it was an extremely peaceful and calming change of pace from the up beat vibes that I had in London and Dublin. We kept walking and I put my headphones in and listened to some relaxing music while soaking in all of the peace around us. 

After the hike, me and some friends headed down to a pub to get lunch and some (Irish) coffee. After lunch, we headed over to the pier and took a few ferry boats over the an island off the coast of Howth called the Ireland’s Eye. Once we landed on the island, most kids headed up to the summit of the massive island we were on. I decided to take an opposite route and found a peaceful area with a small cliff hanging over the beach. I sat in peace alone looking over people enjoying their day at the beach with the beautiful background of the coast of Howth. It was such a pleasant experience to be able to sit in silence alone for a few minutes since I had been around my friends all day and for almost all of the trip. I took this time to reflect on myself, my experience in Europe, and ultimately how lucky I was to have such a great opportunity to study in another country. Once we headed back to the coast, we visited the local market before heading back for Dublin. The day trip that we took to Howth was a great change of pace that was much needed. 

Blog #14: Writer’s Choice

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Seeing David Blaine Live

On one of our Last nights in London, my friend approached me with the opportunity to go see the magician David Blaine who was closing his European tour in London. At first, I was skeptical of going since I really didn’t have a passion for magic and haven’t seen much of David Blaine’s work in the past. After thinking about it for a while, I decided I would go since the tickets were decently cheap and we had a load of free time that night. When we got to the show, we had to wait for will call for a solid 30 minutes due to the popularity of the show (which I wasn’t expecting coming in). We got in our seats and the show began a few minutes later. I was not ready for what was going to happen next once the show began.

The first trick that Blaine did involved him tearing off a piece of a card and putting it in his pocket. Next he had a fan come up on stage, where he proceeded to literally sew his mouth shut using a pin and string, then having the fan tie a knot around his mouth. After this, he had the fan cut the string that had sewn his lips together, where he then pulled out the torn piece of the card that had previously been in his pocket, the crowd went wild. After seeing this, I was completely invested in the show and I was on the edge of my seat. As the night went on, I saw tricks that ranged from a memory trick with a Rubik’s cube all the way to David Blaine Swallowing Kerosine and spitting out fire. At the end of the night, David Blaine truly blew my mind. He entered a tank of water that was roughly 8 feet tall. He proceeded to lower himself to the bottom of the tank and started to hold his breath. I was expecting him to hold his breath for a max of 5 minutes, which would’ve been one of the most impressive things i’ve seen before. 

Once he hit the 5 minute mark, he looked perfectly fine, then it got to 6 minutes, seven minutes, all the way until the clock hit double digits at 10 minutes. After hitting this mark, he shot up out of the tank, clearly in a load of pain. He sat there and recovered for several minutes and was then handed a microphone. He then let the crowd know that he had just held his breath for the longest he ever had before and that since this was the last date on his tour, he had to break the record because it was the last time he would do this act. Overall, I was so glad that I took a leap of faith on seeing David Blaine because his act truly changed my mind on live magic. Seeing this live blew my mind so much that I doubt I will ever forget that time that I saw on the final clock before he came up for air, 10:27.

Blog #13: Writer’s Choice.

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Seeing Jimmy Pages Les Paul.

On one of our last days in London, my dad let me know that he could potentially get me and a few friends a tour of the Hard Rock Cafe’s rock vault. I knew little about the vault in the past, but I knew that London was the location of the First Hard Rock Cafe so there would be some serious Rock gems in the vault. When we arrived at the cafe, they took us downstairs for a private tour of the vault. Once we made it downstairs, my mind was blown. I always grew up being a fan of classic rock and from playing guitar for the majority of my life I became a fan of famous guitars and instruments that some of my favorite musicians are known for using. We had the opportunity to see artifacts from music all the way from B.B. Kings famous Gibson ES-335 “Lucille”, all the way to Fender Stratocaster that Duane Almond used to record part of the guitar riff on the song Layla with Eric Clapton.

It was insane to be able to see all of these mind blowing rock artifacts, but one guitar caught my eye more than any other. It was one of the Les Paul’s that Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin used to record some of their earlier works like Led Zeppelin 3 and 4. I’ve been a fan of Led Zeppelin since I’ve been a kid (primarily from my parent’s music influence) and being able to see the guitar that was used to record some of my favorite songs of all time was a surreal experience. Everything from the blues oriented hard hitting riffs of “Since I’ve Been Loving You” to the speaker blowing classic rock riff on the track “Black Dog”. Overall, being able to see this amazing Rock N’ Roll artifact really enhanced my visit to London and made me appreciate this great guitar player that much more

Blog #12: Writer’s Choice

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Meeting a former Shamrock Rovers player (and current taxi driver).

Two days ago, we headed out into another section of Dublin to play some Gaelic games like Hurling, Hand ball, and Gaelic Football. We spent the afternoon at a local GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) club practicing these sports with several instructors who have been playing the game since they were kids and it was one of the most unique experiences I’ve ever had with sport. After we finished playing these sports later in the afternoon, I called a cab for me and a couple of my friends. 

Once we got in the car, we started chatting with the taxi driver for a while about Gaelic sport. My friend Will mentioned before we got in the club that the driver was clearly an athlete and I agreed. We asked him what GAA sport he preferred and he said that although he never grew up playing GAA sports he always enjoyed watching Hurling for the fast pace game and the skill that was required to play. Once he said this I asked him “what made you decide to not play GAA?” and he let me know that he used to play soccer. We could tell that he was being modest, so we asked him how long he played for. This was when he let us know that he actually used to be a professional soccer player who had grown up in the academy team for Bohemians, a local soccer team based in Dublin. We talked to him for a while about soccer and he let us know that he used to play for a pretty substantial team in Europe known as Shamrock Rovers.

We chatted with him for a while and he turned out to be a really cool guy, he recommended a few pubs to us that were close to our accommodation. He jabbed at us a little bit when we told him we were at O’Shea’s the night before, saying “oh you probably could’ve picked up a few grannies there”. We laughed for a while then he dropped us off. Once we got back, I looked up his Wikipedia and learn that he was a fan favorite on his team, since he was known for his plethora of bookings that he acquired over the years and his various issues with the ref. In the end, talk to your cab drivers because you’ll never know when they turn out to be a really interesting person.

Blog #11: the interview

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Exposure to gay pride in Dublin

It is very clear just from the month that I’ve been in Europe that they do a great job representing the gay community. When we arrived in London, I noticed multiple advertisements for gay rights and many flags that were hung up around the city. Being from a small town in Ohio, I never really had the exposure to a progressive big city like London or Dublin, so gay pride month was never really something that was celebrated around my hometown. With that being said, seeing the representation that London provided for the gay community was very cool in my opinion. I thought that London was doing the best job possible with standing with the gay community, until I got to Dublin.

 The representation that Dublin provided for the community was evident the second that we entered the city. On every block I saw at least one flag or advertisement in a window supporting gay pride month. It was very interesting to see this month celebrated almost as a holiday. I even saw a burger restaurant with a specific burger that had a rainbow bun in support of the movement for the month of June. After being exposed to such a great representation of a group that I’m used to seeing be oppressed or discriminated against, I decided to research Dublin’s gay pride a little bit more. After this, I learned that Dublin hosts one of the largest pride parades in the whole world. The endeavor is so large this year that even the local police will be joining in on the festivities and marching alongside everyone else in the parade. I thought that it was very cool to see Dublin represent a discriminated group of people so well and I would love to see most areas in the U.S. adopt this same tradition in the near future.

Blog #10: The current event

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Trying to understand Brexit.

When it comes to hearing about brexit during my time in Europe, you hear a lot about the concept. While having various conversations with local people, as well as other tourists, the topic of Brexit was brought up but not much depth was gone Into. On various accounts I even asked locals what brexit was and not many of them knew much past the point that “Great Britain is leaving the EU”. This made me think, does anyone really know what Brexit is around here?

After researching Brexit, I learned that it was an extremely close vote that almost didn’t pass at all. The total passing vote was only 52.5% of the vote in favor of Brexit. This is the probably the main reason that there hasn’t been much change so far after the vote was passed. Initially, Britain was supposed to leave the EU earlier this year in March. As of now, Britain is set to leave the EU at the end of October, a date that many think isn’t set in stone yet.

When looking at the effects that Brexit has had so far, it seems to have little impact on the actual laws of Britain. The only noticeable changes are people changing their minds about Britain, and I’ve seen Brexit change the public opinion of Britain for the worse. The main push for Brexit came after Theresa May stepped down. In my opinion, there is no way to tell the impact that Brexit could potentially have. As of now, I think the move doesn’t change much for Britain other than the way that other countries in the EU view them.

Blog #9: Brexit

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the Difference between being Irish and Northern Irish.

Earlier today, we had a lecture with Mike Cronin and he focused on the tension in Irish sports between the republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Over the course of the lecture my mind was truly blown over how little I knew about the cultural discrepancies between Ireland and Northern Ireland. During the lecture, Cronin mentioned the terrible tragedy that happened nearly a century ago, Bloody Sunday. During Bloody Sunday, 14 people were killed during a Gaelic Football match at Croke Park. This caused huge issues between Ireland and England, especially in the future between Ireland and Northern Ireland. 

Before the lecture I knew about Bloody Sunday, but I was oblivious about the future issues between Ireland and Northern Ireland. With the Northern Irish being predominantly protestant and the Irish being mainly Catholic, many cultural issues have arose over the course of both countries history. One point that I was blindsided by was hearing about all of the gang violence that dominated both areas during the 20th century. Multiple stories were told about shootings that happened in response to sporting events and that both of the countries have had hatred for each other for centuries. 

When thinking about what defines Irish people, you have to take the differing countries into account. People from Northern Ireland basically consider themselves English and do not relate with the Irish people. Ireland on the other hand are mainly a Catholic nation who relate with the Irish culture very heavily. They focus on their historical nature and represent their homeland on a large scale whereas the Northern Irish don’t consider themselves Irish at all. In the end, the cultural differences between Northern Ireland and Ireland make them completely different countries even though they border each other.

Blog #8: The Nation.

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Experiencing the posh feeling from Wimbledon

During our time in London, we had the amazing opportunity to visit Wimbledon, arguably the most important and historic tennis ground in history. Some of the greatest players of all time have walked the grounds and almost all tennis legends have won there. I’ve been a tennis fan from years due to both of my parents playing while I grew up and watching Wimbledon has been a piece of my life ever since I was a kid. With that being said, I was extremely excited to visit this historic ground and learn more about one of my favorite sports. 

When we arrived at Wimbledon, I immediately could tell that there was serious money fluctuating within the club. From the state of the art facilities to the tennis courts with grass shaved to be as hard as concrete, they took extra special care of these grounds. When linking Wimbledon with a sense of identity, I thought that it was very interesting how they approved members. Our guide made it very clear that anyone is welcome to join the club, but you must pass an approval process of being recommended by several members and then being put on a waiting list for decades. With that being said, they allow young prospects from England who definitely don’t have the reputation to gain access to train on the grounds during their amateur careers. 

When looking at the culture and practices of the club, I think it is very cool how they stick to their traditions, even when dealing with superstar players like Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. One of the biggest traditions at Wimbledon is wearing white clothes when you play. Our guide told us multiple interesting stories about professional players who have been “suggested” to change their clothes to fit the style of Wimbledon. My favorite story is after Roger Federer won Wimbledon, the faculty noticed that he had neon green bottoms on his tennis shoes. After the match, they let the best tennis player in the world know that we wouldn’t be welcomed back with those shoes. The traditions and cultural of Wimbledon is what keeps the club a major topic to this day and I’m extremely glad that we had the opportunity to visit the grounds. 

blog #7: The Imagined Space. 

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Visiting the Olympic village and seeing the rings from the 2012 games

During the beginning of our trip to the England we took a day trip to visit the Olympic village where the 2012 games were held. Once we arrived to the village, it was clear that everything around it had been built specifically for the games. From the giant shopping mall to the skyscraper apartments, it was clear that the village gave off a feeling of being larger than life. Over the course of the day, we got to see different stadiums and buildings that were used for the games, including the London Stadium, the Olympic Velodrome, and the Olympic swimming pool (where Michael Phelps won 4 gold medals). During the trip, we got to visit the actual olympic rings that remain on the grounds of the village today. I remember being twelve years old and seeing videos of the rings on tv and it seemed really surreal to be able to see them in person. When considering the importance of the rings to London it is obvious that they represent things like nationalism and unification of our world, but what purpose do the rings serve today? In my opinion the olympic rings do more than just mark a significant event in history, they bring back memories that I had from being a kid. Seeing those rings made me think of things like hearing about amazing athletes like Usain Bolt and Gabby Douglas for the first time. It also brings back memories of  the Mens and Womens national basketball teams dominating everyone in their way. The Olympic rings give me a tidal wave of sport nostalgia that I will never forget. In the case of London, it represents a period of time that will always be associated with the city and I think it’s really cool that London keeps these historic facilities around instead of letting them go to waste.

Blog #6: The historical marker.

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Eating escargot in Paris

Last week on the morning of the 16th, we left London to depart for Paris for the United States women's World Cup match against Chile. When we arrived in Paris, we checked into our accommodation then departed for the game. I didn’t get to experience French food that night since we had to be relatively quick getting to the game, but going to the Eiffel Tower after the game to drink French wine and hangout with everyone else has been a highlight of this trip for me. When we left for Paris on the 16th, I knew that one thing that I wanted to do while I was over there was try a french dish that I knew couldn’t be replicated in the United States. 

When we headed out the net day to explore Paris on the 17th, we stopped at a local cafe with a perfect view of the Arc de Triomphe. When I saw that they had escargot on the menu, my first thought wasn’t that they would be great. I thought to myself “I mean they are really just snails”, but I knew that I needed to venture out to experience the cuisine in another country so despite my skepticism I decided to order them. Once the dish was brought out fit with a lemon for flavor and loads of pesto, I decided to try one. Once I tried the first one I was pleasantly surprised by the garlic flavor of the dish, something I really was not expecting. I’m really glad that I decided to reach outside of my comfort zone and try a such a unique dish like escargot.

Blog #5: The cuisine

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Playing Cricket for the first time

A few days into our trip to London, we headed to Hyde park to experience some European sports that we weren’t very familiar with. We played games like Net ball, Lawn bowls, and Cricket. Net ball was a high paced game that relied on teamwork and Lawn bowls was a relaxing game with competition similar to bocce ball, but I want to talk about Cricket. The sport of Cricket not only grabbed my attention the most due to the fun of the game, but also the history that surrounds the sport. Once we got to Hyde park, we had the opportunity to “bowl” the ball, which is very similar to pitching in baseball. In Cricket, players will start from however far back they would like and get a running start towards the batter heaving the ball towards the wicket in a cannon like motion, which will cause an out if it is hit. The batter on the other hand must protect the wicket from the bowler with his bat, and runs are scored by running from wicket to wicket. Being able to bowl the ball and bat like an actual game gave me a great first experience with the sport and made me interested in learning more. Later in London, we got to visit the Lords Cricket Grounds, the home of rugby. 

The tour that we attended gave me a very cool insight on the history of the game as well as the history of the grounds that the game has been played on for years and years. The stadium surrounding the grounds contains a load of history and was the fanciest sporting venue I have ever attended. Cricket is unique from football due to the crowds that have been involved in the game. Cricket originated as a sport for the wealthy to play and Lords is one of the hardest sporting clubs to gain membership to in the entire world.The same reason that the game gained traction over the years due to the status and prestige that are needed to play are the same reasons that the game has lost popularity today. When looking at the traditional style of cricket, games can last up to 5 days at a time and need to be continued day after day, commonly being played at private cricket venues. Young people looking for sport to play are mainly focused with accessibility, which traditional cricket lacks. Another reason that cricket fails to catch on today is the disregard for the accomplishments of women in the sport. While visiting Lords, there were many stories told about great male cricket players and entire walls devoted to the male achievements in the game, but only one spot on a wall in the locker room contained the achievements of females in the sport. Unless traditional cricket can find a way to incorporate fair acknowledgement of all people as well as make the game more accessible, it will continue to lose viewership. When looking back at my first experience with cricket, it is an entertaining and traditional game that I believe would be an enjoyable match to see live one day.

blog post #4: the sport

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My exposure to rugby at Twickenham & the Webb Ellis Cup.

Last week, we visited the home of British Rugby, Twickenham stadium. Going in to the tour of the grounds, I had very limited knowledge of not only the English history with rugby but the sport as a whole. Getting to experience Twickenham first hand gave me an extremely unique experience with this sport, mainly due to the history of the stadium. It was very cool to be able to experience the shift all the way in the past when the field was called to cabbage patch to the current historical grounds that have held so many monumental rugby world cup games. After the tour we had the pleasure of visiting the English rugby museum. After looking around at some of the artifacts that were in the museum, I noticed one trophy that had its own room with a flat screen tv devoted to it, a glass case surrounding it, and spotlights shining down on it from the ceiling. Once i started to read about it, I realized it was the Webb Ellis Cup, the award for winning the rugby world cup. This was an extremely cool surprise to have the most valuable trophy in the entire sport sitting right in front of me. I started to read the names on the trophy and noticed England a few times on the list of teams, including winning the cup in 2003. 

After researching the 2003 cup, it was very interesting to see the hecticity that England had to endure to win the cup. Initially, games were supposed to be split between New Zealand and Australia, but after marketing disputes all games were assigned to be played in Australia. After battling the entire tournament to the final, England clinched the victory with 20 seconds left in overtime, making it one of the most famous world cup games ever. Of course this major victory was followed by a massive parade through the streets of London. In the end, without seeing the major display that was put on for this trophy, I may have never been able to learn about one of the greatest sporting matches of the last 20 years.

Blog entry #3: The museum

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Visiting Tate Modern

On the first day that we had free time in London, I knew that the modern art museum Tate Modern was the first thing that I wanted to visit. The previous day, we had taken a bus tour around the entire city and after seeing Tate and hearing our guide talk about it, I knew that it was a must see while I was over here. Being from the Toledo area, I have had the experience of having a great art museum close to me, but seeing Tate Modern blows the other museums out of the water. The specific piece of art that I wanted to focus on was the Mud Bath by David Bomberg. I enjoy art that incorporates various forms of geometry and I was truly drawn to this painting once I saw it. 

After visiting Tate, I researched Bomberg and was pleased to realize that he was a British artist who lived in London for the majority of his life. When trying to make ties between Bomberg and other artists, it was easy for me to compare him to Henri Matisse who was known for incorporating various forms of geometry into his artwork. Without the life changing visit I had to Tate Modern, I would have never discovered not only one of my favorite paintings, but also one of my new favorite artists.

Blog #2: Writers Choice.

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Pre departure blog

Coming into this trip I am filled with a mixture of anxiousness and excitement. This will be my first time flying by myself, let alone on an 8 hour cross continent flight. Over the course of the next 3 weeks, I hope this blog can develop into a resource I can continue to benefit from and write in even after this experience. After looking over the itinerary in depth, the activity that seems most interesting to me is visiting Wimbledon. I’ve been watching this event year after year with my dad and it will be an extremely unique experience to be able to tour the historical grounds. Although this trip will be an amazing experience that will help me to better understand the world, I am nervous about doing this on my own. I know that we will be in a group, but I hadn’t met any of the other students before the pre departure meetings. I know it seems similar to going to Miami, but the effect of culture shock and being far away from home could have an effect on me. Coming into this program, I am lacking a background in sport that other students have. During this trip, I am excited to learn about not only the culture of English and Irish sport, but also how these countries’ cultures of sports differ from the United States. 

blog #1: pre departure.

#travel #sport #london