Oh The Places We’ll Go

So I’ve been stealing a lot of stuff lately.  Everything’s very innocent, of course.  It’s not like I’m out there busting a cap on someone and stealing their car.  Just harmless stuff.  So far the tally is 2 drink menus, one from Curlers and one from Buddha, and an entire jug that was left outside of Curlers the other night.  It’s a pretty good sized jug and probably fits a good number of beers inside of it, but I have to clean it before I use it.  The girls are convinced it has been peed in and thus, is unacceptable to drink out of until it is thoroughly rinsed.  Agreed.

Classes are going fine.  Lectures are for the most part boring, but they aren’t really supposed to be exciting when you’re hearing someone drone on about the different types of satire that existed when Swift was writing Gulliver’s Travels over 300 years ago.  Tutorials are even worse since I hate being put on the spot and I feel like I don’t know nearly as much as everyone else does since they’ve been studying the same books for years and years, whereas I’ve never read half of the books that people here have read.  For being an English major I really haven’t read all that many books.  More than the average American, sure, but not to the extent that people out here do.  They read a lot more of the classic novels; we tend to stick to the traditional American novel.  Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, etc.  

There’s a concert out here this Saturday for Jenny Lewis, who is the lead singer for this band I really like back home, Rilo Kiley.  They’re an indie band that no one has ever heard of, but I still love them.  Molly, Erica and I are all going to see her so that’s the only really big plan for this weekend.  Drinking, surely but other than that nothing too exciting.  

I’ve got to get writing my 2 papers due on the 31st for my 2 classes this semester since I have a feeling they are going to take a lot of reading, research and effort to get going and get through before they’re at the level that I’m going to want them to be at.  I definitely can’t put them off until the last minute since they’re worth so much of my grade and I don’t think I could bear with the idea of turning in something I didn’t feel confident with.  I haven’t written an actual essay in a while either, so it’s going to be interesting getting back into the writing groove but it has to be done.

Phillies need 1 more win to get to the World Series and the Rays are up on the Sox in the AL.  Life is good in baseball.  49ers lost this weekend, but Sharks are starting off the season well.  Warriors are in China right now, will be watching them tomorrow afternoon live from Beijing!

I’ve been a very productive girl the last few days.  It’s quite the anomaly, actually, when I am being a productive person.  Most of the time I can’t really be bothered to do anything other than lift my arm, open a can of Coke, and click to watch the next Youtube video.  Productiveness comes in very small spurts, and when it happens… it happens all at once.

I’ve finally got my ticket to go to Greece for Christmas.  A lot of you may be wondering, “why the fuck are you going to Greece for Christmas?”, which my answer to is… why not?  What else am I going to do?  While everyone else is at home drinking and watching American Football (not that I won’t be missing that deep down inside), I’ll be drinking and eating in Athens at the Acropolis trying to pick up cute boys who I can’t understand.  I don’t know a lick of Greek so I’m thinking that may be a wee bit difficult but we’ll see how it goes.  Maybe they speak English there, yeah?  Or maybe I’m just fucked.

I’ve also got a ticket to go to a rugby match in Edinburgh next month, which should be a good time.  I don’t understand any of the rules or regulations regarding rugby so this “sporting event” will likely turn into beer after beer starting at 2 in the afternoon and ending when and where I pass out.  I’m pretty sure it’s going to be England vs. South Africa, so I’m assuming I’ll be cheering for England but I honestly couldn’t tell you a single person who plays for the team.  Is rugby really even that big out here anyway?  I think more people are into football, personally, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate good looking guys tackling each other for hours on end while I drunkenly watch.

In February I scored some tickets to see Russell Brand here in Glasgow.  He’s not really big out in the states yet, but he’s absolutely hilarious and legendary here in the UK.  I guess he’s pretty famous; he’s in all the tabloids and stuff like that.  Quite the womanizer, shagger of the year, etc.  It should be a good time.  I love stand up comedy and watch way too much of it, but haven’t ever seen a show in person so I’m excited about it.  Plus I’m going with the girls so that should be good too.

I haven’t been able to watch a lot of the American TV that I have been keeping up with since the late nights and 5am bedtimes are starting to take their toll.  I was able to watch the VP Debate on Youtube since MSNBC posts them on there after the debates are over.  I thought Obama did a great job, but the town hall setup?  Whoever came up with this one needs to be fired as soon as possible.  How awkward did that whole thing seem?  It was kind of like, normally I’d avoid the moderator’s questions… but now that you’re asking them I guess I’m just going to ignore you. 

Baseball baseball baseball.  Dodgers vs. Phillies in the NLCS.  My life is over as I know it.  I’m going with the Phillies on this one since obviously I can’t cheer for the Dodgers.  I’m going with the RAYS over the Sox for the ALCS.  If the Rays make it to the World Series I’m going Rays all the way.  If it’s the Sox vs. the Phillies, I’m all about the Phillies.  And if it’s the Dodgers vs. the Sox (an obvious worst case scenario), the Sox had better get their 2-peat since I don’t think I could stand watching Joe Torre and those damn Dodgers lifting up the trophy.  I think a little piece of me would die inside if that happened.

I found out the other day that I don’t have to take exams in May, so I’m done here in Scotland after I turn in my essays for second semester on March 10th.  I have no idea what I’m going to do with myself here in Scotland.  I’m obviously not going to go home since, honestly, I’d rather stab my eyes out with a No. 2 pencil than spend April until September in Rocklin.  Thanks, but no thanks.  I think I’ll probably do what I was going to do (backpack around Europe in countries I haven’t seen yet), and then work here in Glasgow for as much as my visa will permit before heading back to the states in June to see Alicia graduate from Rocklin High.  I figure if I end up staying until June (since I have to pay rent until then anyway) and get a little job, I’m most definitely going to go on a trip to Cairo like I want to so that I can see a damn pyramid!  That would cap this whole experience off for me.  Italy, France, Spain, England, Scotland, Greece, Germany, Estonia, The Netherlands, and EGYPT?  I’d be satisfied with that kind of a travel resume, wouldn’t you?

I’m unprepared, yet again, for my tutorial on Reformation literature, but at least I somewhat read Book 4 of Gulliver’s Travels by Swift and read “A Modest Proposal”.  He’s all about the satire, bla bla bla, Go Ireland.  I’ve got it.

Now all I need is a can of that delicious beverage they like to call Coca Cola and I’ll be satisfied….

-Catherine

I’m finally ready to get back into the game.  The traveling game, I mean.  I took a good amount of recovery time, a few weeks to give my brain a break before getting back into all of the old stuff that I need to do post-summer backpacking extravaganza, and now uploading pictures is in full force.  I’ve got all of them rotated and ready to go with a fresh, new website to go.  Now all I’ve got to do is get them all online!  I’m actually in the middle of uploading a lot of them, but it’ll take a while since there’s, well, hundreds of them and they each take time to get online.  However, I’ll let everyone know when they’re online as soon as they are since I want everyone to see everything that happened while we were backpacking.

Getting my party on with the Giants jersey

Now, on to Glasgow.  This weekend was my Beer Pong 101 class for the UK natives.  Now, to give a little background info, beer pong is a big deal back home.  9 red cups on each side of a table, throw a ping pong ball in the opposing team’s cups and get rid of their cups first.  Victory.  Easy enough, yes?  Apparently, English people don’t have the cool red cups over here, so I was stuck using crappy flimsy cups in my instructing.  They didn’t work out very well, so beer pong was kind of a bust, but the night turned from crappy beer pong to excellent Kings Cup playing!  Yes, King’s Cup.

... disgusting

Get a stack of cards, circle them around a big cup and make up a rule for every card.  2 is a bathroom pass, a 3 is everyone has to raise their hands in the air, 4 is touch your chin with your thumb.  The penalty for doing whatever the task is wrong, or last: drink all of your drink.  It’s called King’s cup since anytime someone gets a King, they have to fill up 1/4 of the BIG King’s Cup in the middle of the table with whatever they’re drinking.  Thus, if everyone is drinking something else, the cup in the middle can be…. a monstrous concoction.  After nearly all the cards were gone, it was time for me to pick my card and, of course, who got the 4th and final King?  Me.

I had the pleasure of drinking 1/2 a cup of beer mixed with rum and juice, and vodka and coke.  Yum?  I held my nose and took it all in.  King’s Cup and Beer Pong moved into the living room, which turned from King’s Cup round 2 to dance party, spin the bottle, and god knows what else.  I got to play DJ, which basically meant everyone got to make fun of my “weird American music” which is apparently “bollocks” since I don’t listen to strange electronic British indie music.  Think any kind of music you could possibly imagine with some kind of backbeat put on to it.  Terrible.  Everything sounds like it belongs in a disco and guess what folks.  I don’t disco.  After DJ’ing and trying (unsuccessfully) to get people to stop doing things they’d regret later (and did), I headed to bed.  The festivities ended at 5 in the morning, and everyone passed out in their beds.

I’ve finally gotten a hold of some of the photos from the debachery that I wrote about with the Pub Crawl with the University of Glasgow Tennis Club, since my roommate Laura was tagged in one of the photos on Facebook randomly.  There’s only three photos of the whole night that I’ve found, since none of us girls brought our cameras with us, but I think anyone who has read my story will see how the night got progressively drunker and drunker with every Underground stop.

I’ve booked my first traveling plane ticket since traveling to Europe in the beginning of August.  Guess who’s going back to Barcelona?  Yes, that would be me.  I’m going with all of the California girls since none of them have ever been before, and it’s the kind of city that you need to experience with a bunch of females rather than your brother.  Don’t get me wrong, it was still fun with Thomas.  Hopefully it will be even more fun with the girls with me to oogle at Spanish boys!  I can’t wait.  We’re going to be there at the end of November, so I’m really excited about it.  The Ramblas had better be ready for me, because I’m coming back!  Erica is coming with me and I can’t be more excited.  I know Erica from back home at UCSB and her and I are really good friends, so I’m stoked we’re going to be partying in Barcelona together since she just turned 21 and was sick on her birthday, which is always no good.  Other people coming are Shaun, who is also from UCSB, Megan from UCLA and Jodie is from UCSD.  Molly is Molly, from Rocklin High School just like me, but she’s a genius and goes to Dartmouth and she’s never been to Barcelona either, so it’ll be a good time.  Here’s some pictures of the UC girls (plus Molly) from the first few weeks.

at the QMU with Jodie and Erica

at QMU Cheesy Pop night

erica and i with nicola's bunny ears in the background

Other than going places, I opened up my UK bank account today, so I’m feeling pretty accomplished.  I’m excited I can finally set up paying for my apartment and not have to worry about it anymore.  One more thing off the check list, that’s for sure.  I got my care package today from the states, with tons of goodies including BUTTERED popcorn (which they don’t do here in movie theatres!), hot chocolate stuff, RED CUPS for BEER PONG!, macaroni and cheese, and some boots that I didn’t have before.  I even have my trusty old alarm clock from the states here with me now, so that’s good too!  There’s nothing like waking up to the same old annoying sound from back home, eh?  Nicola, the Irish one, didn’t know what mac and cheese is, so I told her I’d make it for her soon.  I told her it’s an American college food staple.  Just like hot dogs, but no one gets that here either.  Whatever, I don’t care.  I still love them.

I also made guacamole the other day, so I have done a lot in the last few days.  I found avocados and practically died, so I made guac.  Pretty good, I must say for not having the same ingredients that I usually have.  The salsa here is a lot more ketchup-y so that was a bit of a downer.  That and the tortilla chips suck.  Mexicans need to move en masse to Scotland so they can teach these people about delicious food already!  Taco Night is tomorrow night, so I’m making dinner for all the people.  I’ve got ground beef ready, with taco shells and all the toppings.  Now all I need is some tequila to go along with all of my damn limes!  I’ve got like, 10 limes in the fridge and no clue what to do with them.

To finish, my Giants season may be over, but the best part of the year is here: playoffs!  For the next week or so (5 games if they go all 5), I am going to be a HUGE Cubs fan.  You know why?  The DAMN Dodgers are back in the playoffs and my adopted Cubbies had better kick their asses out!  I’m confident in the Cubs, so they’d better bring home the W’s and send Manny and company packing so I don’t have to worry about the Dodgers making it past the first round.  I like the Cubs and the Brewers this year in the NL, especially since I love Prince Fielder and JJ Hardy and I want them to come to my team!  For the AL, I love love the Rays and I hope they make it far in the playoffs.  I can’t in good conscience cheer for the Angels (i’m still bitter), and there’s no way I could stand watching the Red Sox win 3 titles in the last 6 years.  Not necessarily because I hate the team, but moreso because I hate their fans.

I hope everyone enjoys the pictures and gets a good laugh out of them.  I’ll be sure to take more this weekend and get some of my apartment and housemates for everyone to see.

I’m staying up tomorrow to watch the VP Debates with a few people so I can’t wait for that.  I’m going to get no sleep.  Crap.  Oh well, at least Biden vs. Palin should be an entertaining matchup!

Until later…

-Catherine

Sorry for the delay on this post (Debra, that’s for you… haha).  This week has been exhausting, confusing, and interesting all rolled into one.

We started school on the 22nd, but as far as time is concerned my life is pretty easy.  I have lecture at 10, but not necessarily every day since the lecture theatre is allocated between 3 classes (two of which I am in).  In other words, anytime on my schedule it says it’s being used for GC 11 (Shakespeare), I don’t have to go since I’m not in that class.  Beautiful!  This week I didn’t have class on Wednesday or on Friday so I got to stay in and sleep, drink crack (otherwise known as Coke) and hang out with my friends in my apartment.

My two classes are both honors (or honours as they spell it here) English Literature classes, one on Reformation period writing and one on Renaissance period writing.  It’s a little differently done here since 75% of your overall grade is from your exam at the end of the year (even though lectures for the class only run through first semester, the exam is still in May).  Your reading is very selective, you can turn in one or two essays, and your selections of material to read are completely up to you.  I’m used to walking in, getting a list, and being told “read act 1 before Friday”.  Yeah, they don’t do that here.  It’s almost nice because you get to learn the material as you want to learn it.  If you hate Milton, you can focus less on him and go more for Dryden.  On the other hand, it almost sucks more because you aren’t being forced to read on pace, so you can get caught behind pretty easily.  Hopefully I don’t fall into that category, but then again I’m pretty good about staying focused and besides that I have Molly here to kick my ass along the way!

The biggest event of the week so far was going on a pub crawl with the Glasgow University Tennis Club (which mind you, I don’t play tennis at all, I was there for moral support for Molly).  We all got split into teams and Elizabeth (my flatmate from England), Molly and I were all split into the same team with a few Scots and a German.  We got an unlimited pass on the Underground, and basically the idea is to go to as many metro stops as you can, and get a drink at every one at the closest bar.  The rule is, however, that one person in your group gets to choose the drink for everyone in the group.  Oh, and you can’t sit on the metro.  You have to stand and not lean against anything- think “surfing” the subway.  At first it was all good- vodka and coke, tequila, whiskey, rum and coke.  And then, of course, Elizabeth being the English girl that she is… chooses for us to drink red wine at one pub.  Red wine.  We had to chug all of our drinks, so chugging the red wine definitely was the one that did me in.  Molly, being smaller than me, was a goner already.  More pints of beer, Guinness.  Then somehow getting to a dance club downtown with everyone else.  Getting a taxi back, falling out of it (literally), spilling chips everywhere (french fries), falling over again.  It was a pretty hilarious night, but such a bad bad bad morning.  I’m never drinking again (or at least not for a couple days.  Haha)

Other than that, most of the last few days have just been ‘bonding time’.  I’ve got a good crew of people here with me, so Glasgow has been amazingly awesome so far.  I’m having a good time making fun of how the English (and Scottish, Irish) say things, trying to let them know we Americans pronounce things correctly.  Haha.  I got a chance to stay up and watch the debates last night, so that was fun.  I won’t bore anyone with who I support (*cough* Obama *cough*), but it was fun watching it with everyone, non-Americans and all.  Makes me feel all patriotic inside.  

I think most likely I’m going to stay up on Sunday and watch the last Giants game of the season.  Let’s hope Tim Lincecum pitches well at gets the W so he’ll be 18-5 and get the Cy Young Award.  Woot!  I wore my Giants jersey around the other day, and no one had any idea what it meant but I just keep telling everyone “If anyone asks, this is the greatest team that ever was.  Period.”  Haha.  They’ll all soon be converts, I swear.

Oh, and through my GENIUS I got to watch the 49ers game via Skype, so I basically got to watch the 49ers beat the Lions on my brother’s TV.  Basically Thomas turned on my mom’s webcam on her laptop and faced it towards his TV so I could watch the 49ers game.  We won, I was excited… and none of my flatmates understand American football, but I don’t care.  I still love it.  

I’m going to try and get tickets to a Celtic game soon, so hopefully I can see a real, live football game in person!  Yay!  I can wear my green and white scarf and learn words to songs that I don’t know.  Sounds fun, right?  I have to learn them before the middle of October so I can cheer for Celtic against Manchester United (don’t judge me, Thomas) and sing the songs and everything.

I think we’re still trying to plan our trip to Barcelona that we’re taking with all the California girls, so I have to get on that.  Other than that, I’m making a turkey for Thanksgiving (YESSSS) and I’m going to try and make it out to Amsterdam sometime this semester.  I will find a way.  Oh, and I have to figure out what I’m going to do for Christmas.  That should be interesting.

I’ll be better about posting, I promise.  And I’ll get ALL the pictures organized one of these days! 

-Catherine

P.S. Oh, and if anyone has a microphone on their computer or a webcam and you want to call me for super super cheap, call me on Skype.  My skype name is beach3bum.  Costs you NOTHING.  And if you call internationally, I can give you my cell number so anyone can call me out here.

P.P.S. My birthday is October 30th.  Just putting it out there.

Baseball… addict?

It’s 4 in the morning, and I’m no, not drunk.  I’m watching baseball.  Giants vs. Dodgers.  Maddux vs. Zito.  I’m half delirious, half insanely excited because I’m watching real, actual baseball live from California.  Yay!

Off to watch the game.  Go Giants.  Oh, and if anyone wants to send some caffeine my way, it’d be much appreciated.

-Catherine

After having to change our plans, going to Torino instead of leaving for Spain on Friday, we are back in Milan with 6 hours or so to kill before getting on an overnight train headed to Barcelona.  We haven’t done much of anything for the last few days, mostly because everything is closed around here for the Italians vacationing in much nicer places with better weather.  Torino is a nice place.  Cleaner than some of the other Italian cities we have been in, and much much greener.  The Olympics have definitely made an impression on the city.  You see advertisements for the Olympics everywhere, even two years later.  The metro is spectacularly clean.  You could probably eat off of the floors if you wanted to (which who does?), and the trains are graffiti-less, a first here in Italy.  If you’re looking for some adventure, though, Torino might not be the place to go.  Sure, the Alps are a nice setting and backdrop, but for travelers who need something to DO there isn’t much to offer. 

The highlight of our trip in Torino was our time spent at the Huntsman Pub, a little pub near the Porta Nuova train station where people speak English and follow football.  Lots and lots of football.  We had a chance to catch the Arsenal v. West Brom match on Saturday, which was a cakewalk for Arsenal since West Brom was only recently brought up to the Premier League level after being at what they call the Championship level for a while (think being a Triple-A baseball team playing against a Major League team… easy).  Yesterday was all about football.  The first match of the season for Manchester United was against Newcastle, who are a good team but not nearly as good as the big four: Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool.  It should have been easy for the defending champions both of the premiership and the champions league, but no.  We must have jinxed it.  Or Ronaldo did with his bum knee, the traitor.  We drew.  First match of the season and a 1-1 draw.  Disappointment for sure, but hopefully when Ronnie’s knee is better and Hargreaves tendonitis is gone we’ll be back at full strength. 

We also got to catch some of the Juventus match versus AC Milan, in Italian and none of which we understood.  In Italian football there are four main teams: Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, and Roma.  Juventus just so happens to be from Torino, so you can imagine which team all of the people in the pub were going for.  Their main guy, Del Piero, is a stud striker who has been playing for the Italian national team for what seems like forever.  The keeper for Juventus is also the keeper for the Italy national team, but he wasn’t playing yesterday. 

It’s crazy watching Italian fans watching football.  Think Boston Red Sox fans, but on crack if that’s even possible.  There are all different kinds of people who come to bars and watch the matches.  Old men, young boys, parents with their kids, grandmothers, anyone and everyone comes together to cheer for their squad.  It’s love and hate all swirled in to one.  It’s like that with any sport for any real fan, though: a constant state of agony.  You’re never completely satisfied.  Even when you’ve won, there is always something you could have done better.  Why did they pull Lincecum out in the 7th instead of letting him pitch the eighth?  Why did Lewis swing at the first pitch?  Doesn’t he know anything?  Agony.  Constant agony.

We saw two good falls, by the way, during our time in Torino.  The first, a motorcyclist trying to show off popping a wheelie going 40 down a street and having his bike slip out from under him.  He slid across the street and after a loud ‘thud’ his bike was no more.  It shouldn’t have been funny but who am I kidding- it was.  The other fall came from an elderly woman in the footballing pub, who was sloshed out of her mind and took a dive going up a step to her table.  She fell, got back up with some help, and then fell off of her chair on to the floor.  Oh, and she dropped a fry on the floor, picked it up and ate it.  Really, it happened.

We left Torino this morning after checking out of our room and watching some Olympic weight lifting.  Yes, weight lifting.  If the Italians are competing in it, they put it on TV.  We leave tonight for Barcelona around 8 and get in tomorrow morning at 9am.  A 13 or 14 hour train ride.  Oh, the joy. 

As for the experience in Italy as a whole, there’s a lot of good and a lot of bad.  There’s a big graffiti problem here.  In the big cities especially, a lot of graffiti.  As much as the cities are beautiful, all of the graffiti takes away from their overall impression on people traveling and visiting.  The food is wonderful here, let me tell you.  Pizza, spaghetti, and bread bread bread.  Sure, you get the good and the bad, but when it’s good… it’s really really good.  It sucks being a tourist, not knowing where you’re going and being in a constant state of frustration and confusion, but you find good people who remind you of home everywhere you go.  I saw a Golden State Warriors jersey while we were at the Colusseum and told the guy I liked his shirt.  Jason Richardson, an oldie but a goodie.  And the guy working the internet cafe in Florence- a Dodgers fan.  Bad decision, for sure, but still cool to talk some baseball to someone.  No one knows baseball anywhere in Italy, but they all wear Yankees hates.  Ugh.

I’m not trying to make a meaning of life out of this or anything; that’s for someone else to do.  God, J.K. Rowling, I don’t know.  What I am saying is that Italy is definitely worth a look for those people who are out there looking for a something, whatever that something is.  Romance, nature, history, food.  Something. 

I should probably go and brush up on my Spanish since I don’t think ‘Hola’ and ‘taco’ are going to cut it in Spain. 

Ciao.

It’s finally here.

It’s funny, you’d think that after months upon months of planning and speculating about where we’re going to go, what we’re going to do, we’d be prepared. But even now, mere hours away from when we’re driving to San Francisco and flying to New York before we go to Rome, I don’t think either of us feel 100% ready. It’s all such a foreign feeling: the backpack, the cubes, the new shoes, clothes. Brand new and untouched. Not for long, I guess. By the time we get going, maybe it won’t all feel so weird. Until then, I feel like I’m playing dress-up for Halloween.

Our first week plans take us on a flight from San Francisco to JFK in New York City, and from JFK to Rome, where we’ll be arriving on Wednesday morning. We’ll be in Rome until Saturday and from there we’re going to Pisa and Florence. We reserved our hostel in Rome not even an hour ago, so I doubt we’ll know the specifics of the plans for Pisa and Florence until our last days in Rome. We’re ready and armed with 300 Euros, which converts roughly into $525 US Dollars (what a great conversion rate, eh? Haha.), which if no one reading this has ever seen a Euro before it almost looks like Monopoly money. Pink 10’s, purple 20’s and blue 5’s, which are smaller than the other bills. Oh, and no dead people on European money. They stay classy- landmarks on their money.

So what am I going to miss? I guess for Thomas the obvious answer is his friends and the girlfriend, but I don’t really feel bad for him- he’s going to be back here in a month or so. For me? I’ve got almost a year until I get to come back in the house, hang out with the dogs and suffer in the sweltering Rocklin sun. The biggest thing I will miss (and the most obvious) is the family. The ‘rents (parents), Thomas and Alicia, the dogs, Uncle Scott, Grandpa, and everyone else around here. Not to mention school friends, random friends from random places. It’s not like I get to text any of them while I’m bored in class anymore. What am I going to do with myself? Pay attention? … I don’t think so.

Aside from the obvious, I’m most DEFINITELY going to miss Mexican food. I know that probably sounds really stupid, but I absolutely love Mexican food. Scottish people? Doubt they eat many tacos, enchiladas, nachos, or burritos. What is Scottish food anyway? Haggis? I’m afraid. The other BIG thing I’m going to miss is my sports. Baseball most definitely. I won’t be missing much of this season, since the Giants are obviously not going to be playing past September in the playoffs, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to miss Kruk and Kuiper, Jon Miller, Dave Flemming. Maybe if I’m up really late I can listen to The Razor and Mr. T on the internet. Maybe. I’m going to be missing the ENTIRE Warriors season and 49ers season. That sucks. I’m not expecting that I’ll be missing much, but at least the Brits get the Superbowl broadcast live as of this last year. Score. I’m holding onto a hope that they watch American hockey in the UK since there’s so many Europeans that play hockey. Cross your fingers.

There’s one guaranteed sport that I won’t be missing, though, which makes me happy: football. European football (otherwise known as REAL football, the kind you play with your foot). I’m looking forward to Sundays watching Celtic and Rangers in Scotland, and following the trials and tribulations of Cristiano Ronaldo with Manchester United. We’ll see how that goes. Maybe I’ll actually start understanding all the rules instead of just erratically screaming at the TV for the things that I do understand: block, goal, red card, yellow card, etc.

For now that’s all I’ve got. I’ll post more when Thomas and I get into Rome and have a look around.

-catherine