An American Abroad: Holy Christmas!

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Living in the United States my whole life, I have noticed that every year the gap between Halloween and Christmas advertisements and decorations keeps shrinking. Mind you, we have Thanksgiving the end of November to break up the two holidays. So naturally, in the states I feel it is disrespectful to decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving. “Black Friday” is the day after Thanksgiving and is, in my mind, the official day where Christmas starts… with a BANG. Department stores start incredible deals at midnight, then “early bird” sales, followed by similar insane sales throughout the whole day. The crazy Americans that we are will line up outside the doors hours before the stores even open. I am sorry to say, but I have I never participated in this “Black Friday” nonsense, I’m not a fan of crowds. I still want you to truly believe me that when I say steals, I mean steals… if you’re curious google “Black Friday” and see your yourself.

However, here in Belfast, as soon as Halloween was even close to arriving I noticed Christmas was peeking through in advertisements and shopping centers. And in spirit of the cold weather, fire place burning and tea drinking, I in fact bought Christmas cards in November. Don’t tell my mother! In all fairness, Thanksgiving clearly isn’t celebrated here so I think I get a free pass to fully embrace Christmas in November. I also purchased a Christmas gift already.

I have also fully embraced the show Come Dine With Me. I’ve never seen a show like it and my roommates decided we should do it. So we will be each cooking (from scratch) three course meals, with a printed menu once a week for the next four weeks. The first one starts tonight, and I will update you accordingly. The only conflict we ran into was what the prize is going to be. Unless someone would like to donate some money to the Come Dine With Me fund, we are currently cooking for sheer joy.

Let’s get back on topic of why I’m really here, which is…. Oh yes, rugby! Attending the Ulster Women’s training for the past couple weeks has been a very educational experience for me. I have been playing rugby for ten years now, but the mentality of rugby in America versus the mentality of rugby in Ireland is nearly a comparison of apples and oranges. Don’t get me wrong, the game is still the same, but the tactics and points of empahsis are slightly different. I played in Wisconsin for eight years, then moved to Montana and played for two years. And even the differences in those two states was significant enough. The way the game is taught and how practice is set up is more tactical here.

Training with the women I have been training with is amazing. The talent of these ladies makes me really excited to participate in training with them. I feel like I have learned so many different things that were never brought to my attention about the game before. I also want to mention that I, in fact, got a little excited last night when we got to use the scrum machine. Call me weird, it wouldn’t phase me! I have never used a scrum machine before and it was fun for me!

Expanding my knowledge in the game is only going to help my playing, and refereeing. I am more than honored to even have the chance to be doing what I am doing here in Belfast. When I sit back and get back to reality, I find it hard to believe. It is my goal to just soak up all the knowledge at my fingertips and become the best player and referee that I can. When, or if I go back to the states I will have a new view on rugby and how I can bring that to my teams I participate with. I say if because I absolutely LOVE the facilities here and how rugby is so popular. Maybe someday American will highlight rugby over American football!? OK, I’ll keep dreaming.

I would like to share with you my Saturday, November 3, which was just jam packed with sporting events. It started with the FRU Fotoshoot, followed by the QUB men’s rugby game and then, the cherry on top, a Gaelic Football game. I was at the Dub in line for a beer and I asked “are we allowed to take the glasses outside?” There were about three people in front of me and all of them just turned back and looked at me. Apparently, in Belfast, they trust you not to drop, throw, or break glass outside of a bar. I only asked the question initially because in America, heaven forbid you walk outside without a plastic cup holding your beverage! I have, in fact, been chased down by a bouncer for exiting the main bar and entering a patio of a bar with my beverage in a glass. I kid you not. I thoroughly appreciate the classy, nice and friendly people here in Belfast.

As a total and complete side note I would just like to add the whole washer without a dryer in my apartment is not cool; I found myself in quite a pickle yesterday. I decided that it was time to do a load of laundry, however it slipped my mind that I was washing both pairs of my training pants (trousers as you call them) even though I had training last night. One of the girls noticed I wasn’t wearing warm ups and called me out because I showed up in just my shorts. I know I come from the land of snow, but I don’t usually just rock shorts for the heck of it.

Upon taking fitness classes, going to rugby training and wandering the streets of Belfast, I feel like I can continue to enjoy each and every Guinness without worry. Phew! I mean, the second reason I came over was to make sure that Guinness is still OK for foreigners to drink. I have plans to travel it to Dublin and tour the brewery as well as the Jameson distillery. I toured the Guinness brewery in 2008, but that was four years ago I forgot how they make it.


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