Mr. Moose

The weekend was spectacular and absolutely packed full of things to keep me busy. As previously mentioned, it was the sports tasters weekend and I took full advantage.

Friday I started by playing a couple games of volleyball which was followed by an hour of boxing, and two hours of squash. I also played a very small amount of badminton between squash games just to see how the team was and I honestly hope that the players who were there are not their best. I have not played in years and was playing exhausted and it was still a show. After the day at the gym I spent latter part of the afternoon on the pitch in the west end playing hockey. Not my kind of hockey but the closest they have. I experienced the game of field hockey. It is absolutely nothing like the hockey I know and love and yet I still find it entertaining and look forward to playing as much as I can while I am here. I was asked to tryout Monday night for the tier 2 team which plays all across the UK against other universities and other private clubs. I will need to curve my ice hockey tendencies as I was quickly reminded there is no hitting, no contacting another players stick, no using the backside of the stick, no contacting another player with the ball or your stick and no taking a slap shot if there are people in a hazardous area. But they like the way I play D and I am going to tryout anyways. Of 85 guys on the pitch I placed third in kings court and am proud to say that is first among rookies and first out of all the tier 2 players. Alright done bragging.

Friday night I went out with the hockey club for a true welcoming party in which we drank for free and ate for free all night and we played drinking games both at the debate chambers as well as at the bar. From this day forward I am known to the hockey club as only Mr. Moose! This is the name they came up with for me and I have no idea why but after hearing some of the guys names I am pretty happy with this one. The night was a blur but I know it was good!

Sat. I sweat out the booze with a taster session on American Football. Which is an American sport, played in Scotland, coached by Canadians. It was good but the football was terrible. Many of the guys have never seen a football before and had no idea what the rules were. So we spent the day doing the basics. If I have the time I might go out and play with them but I am afraid the schedules for games may overlap with hockey. Sat. night I took in a flick (Tropic Thunder) with John, Jess and Adam and found out you can take entire meals complete with bottles of wine into the theater with you. And the seats and leather lounge chairs with wide arm rests! Sat night I also fell in love with a banana chocolate crepe. (For the record, John is the American from Jersey, Jess is a girl down the hall from Northern England, and Adam is a Scottish guy who also lives down the hall.)

Today I spent wondering the Kelvin Grove Art Gallery which is as much of an art gallery as it is a natural history museum. I enjoyed it and did learn a little more about the country and its roots. I feel that I will return there if I choose to stay in my history class.

Classes start tomorrow and although I only have one, it should be interesting to see any similarities/differences in the education system from here to home. Tomorrow I start business law and as Will Durant once said "Education is a discovery of ones own ignorance" so I am off to once again, begin discovering.