Feasts and Football

Whew, what a hectic 24 hours.

Well, yesterday I was a complete bum, didn't go out for jack, except to buy more booze. We cooked yesterday, and it was the most multinational meal I've ever had. Since a lot of people were coming we all made something. I made Beans and Rice, but had to use English sausage, then Xiao made fish with peppers and onions to go on it as well, while Sagarika made fried cauliflower in a chili sauce. Everyone got a big bowl of beans and rice, then topped it all off with everything else. It was ledge.

Post that we stepped out for a final night busting 1st year chops before our classes start. Everyone's feeling pretty out of it from the week and a half of partying. Most people go into bed, but a few of us stay out to finish our bottles. It doesn't end up being a bad night, John comes over and has a cigarette with us. We have discovered a new chat up line that has amazing success. Simply ask the girls if they want to come over and meet an American. Most of them squeal and ask me where I'm from while babbling the bits and pieces they've heard. Most of it is pretty funny, although one snotty wench got mad at me for not thinking of Vale Colorado off the top of my head instead of Aspen. I politely informed her that it was farther from my house to Vale than it was from here to anywhere else on this island. She got snippy, said she'd been to GA too and that she knew Atlanta. I congratulated her for knowing the capital city, then asked if London was around here somewhere. She didn't like the sarcasm, so she left in a huff. She came back later, turns out she'd actually been trying to tell me her name, Vale, in a cool way. I accepted her apology and we had a nice chat. Shortly after she left we all went in and called it a night.

This morning we woke up early and went to church. Sagarika tagged along to see the place, we had a nice breakfast, although my stomach is too uneasy to do anything more than drink tea. Mass was nice, they used Schubert's Mass in G for the Kyrie and Agnus. The choir there is quite good.

When we left it was bloody cold, and windy, so we walked up to the cafe and took a break, stopped in for some more tea. Nice folks that run it, wouldn't mind having a Sunday tradition there.

We walked Anita and Suja back to their flat, then the three of us made the long journey back to Taly South.

Once we got back I had to hurry and change for Rookie Day today. I walked over to the Social Centre, and felt a bit out of place. That went away pretty soon as we all grabbed kit and headed down to the fields. To get there you just go down the Taff to the south and cross the sketchy footbridge. Once we're there and everyone is ready we play some ultimate football as a warmup and greeting thing. It's basically Ultimate frisbee...but, you know...with a football. I pushed pretty hard, making some catches and knockaways I shouldn't have.

Once everyone else gets there it's getting sunny, and after a warmup jog and stretch we break down into groups. My group goes to the first station, lineman work. I'm paired off with Aledd, a local welsh guy. We both have fun, take it a bit farther than the other guys with the shoving, but we're in kit, pads and helmet, so it's all fun.

After around 10 minutes of lineman drills we go to the running back station, which consists of a lot of running, not much else. After that we went to DB's, practiced backpedaling, watching the quarterback, and picks. Then comes receiver training. The receiver coach asked if we had any quarterbacks, I raised my hand, cause I can throw better than most of the guys here, but he pushes me back and told me, "No, you're too good for that." So we run some routes, make some catches, I even had a tipup catch. Next is linebackers, kind of lame, then rest station, where they get our contact info and ask where we want to go for the competitive section. I told the coach I wasn't really sure, I just liked running into people. When everyone else is in, the receiver coach came over and told me I was coming back to work with them, then going over to the RB coach to do fullback work. The RB coach agreed that I needed to play fullback too, but they weren't doing any drills for that today, so I just went with the receivers. We did just some basic routes first, I dropped one but caught the next two. Then we swap with the other group of WR and get to face off against the defensive backs. Very first play I run a slant across the field, and the kid from North Carolina feeds me a nice one, a bit high and behind, so I have to jump and turn, which leads my side open to Aledd, who I'm faced off against again. He hits me in the ribs as I get the ball, after a bit of a fall the ground catches me and I come up with the ball. I get a cheer from all the sidelines, the coach reminds Aledd that he can't hit me till I get the ball, but it's all good fun.

The rest of the day passes without incident, but Brew told us that there's a social tomorrow at Tiger Tiger with all the cheerleaders, so that should be fun. I gotta run though for now, we're all getting ready for the Freshers Ball, despite being completely exhausted. Oh well, I can sleep in tomorrow before Steel&Timber.

Cheers,
-JK