A motley crew of Mason students departed on the latest AIS sponsored study abroad course last Thursday night. After a sleepless flight (at least for me) over "the pond" we arrived at London Heathrow airport. Even though we were tired, we had to take advantage of being in London! After dropping our stuff off at the hotel, we headed to The Chandos, a pub in Leicester Square, where I had the famous fish and chips. For the 3 days that we were there I had fish and chips for 3 different meals. After lunch we went on a Double Decker bus tour. The weather was awesome and people came out of the woodworks to enjoy it. There is so much history in London, which made every second of the tour enjoyable. The following day we went to see the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace, up close. This was definitely my favorite thing we saw while in London. For such a big ceremony and tradition to take place each and everyday is remarkable. (Talk about event management skills!) On our final full day in England we went to see Aston Villa play Liverpool in the Premier League. It was the last round of matches for the season. Villa won 1-0 which obviously made Dr. Nauright very excited, as well as Villa's new fans among us. The singing and commitment to various clubs is nothing like the commitment we have to teams in the states. "We're up, and you're down, we're going up, you're going down" was frequently sung throughout the stadium as Villa's arch-enemy Birmingham City were relegated to a lower league for next season. Liverpool's 3,000 fans could be heard singing throughout the match whether ahead or behind. I definitely did not grasp how much soccer means to Europeans until I saw it first hand. We are off to Jyväskylä, Finland now, where we will be studying. Can't wait for the next chapter on this trip!
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