Monday, January 31, 2011
It's Official
We're moving to Bristol! We've told parents, grandparents, siblings & cousins, so we can finally tell the rest of the internet. We are very excited. Adam will share more details soon.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Football or Rugby that is the question
Since the Texas Rangers don’t broadcast to the UK, I have decided to find a local league to follow. I started watching English Premier League football a few weeks ago to familiarize myself with the teams and sport in general. I played soccer a few times as a child so, I’m pretty much an expert in the sport. However, I’ve come to realize that there is significantly more strategy than I learned as a first grader so many millennia ago.
The first game I caught was between Everton and Man City and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found myself quickly rooting for Everton in a match that saw them playing in the snow. Something the announcers assured us was a rare thing indeed. However, I have not had the chance to see the Toffee’s in another match and none of the other matches I have seen have been as riveting as that first one. There is also the issue of not having a local team to support. Most of the cities that we could be living in don’t have Premier League teams and being able to connect with locals through their local teams is something I am really hoping to accomplish.
Fortunately a soon to be in-law from England suggested I look into Rugby. I had always thought of Rugby as a bit odd and difficult to understand and wasn’t fully aware of its popularity within the UK. If you could compare sports in terms of popularity the English Premier League would seem to compare to the NFL and Rugby might be the MLB. The sports themselves are completely different, yet the size and number of followers appears to be similar. Since I prefer the MLB to the NFL, I have decided to give Rugby some serious consideration. In fact, tonight Amanda and I saw our first Aviva Premiership match between the Harlequin Quins and the London Irish Exiles. Again, it did not take me long to pick a team to root for and chose the Exiles. Somehow it just seemed fitting that an Expat from Texas would root for a team nicknamed the Exiles. I must admit that I am interested to learn more about London Welsh considering part of my families heritage derives from Wales. I will also admit that I know next to nothing about the different Rugby leagues throughout the UK and which teams they consist of.
Perhaps one of the things that I find most exciting about this adventure is the chance to be completely enveloped in a different lifestyle than we would find in the metroplex. Not a wholesale change for the rest of our lives, but a chance to see how other people around the world live and celebrate life. Watching and learning about Premier League Football or one of the many Rugby Leagues with locals at the neighborhood pub is certainly something that will provide me with that sense of belonging to our new lifestyle.
The first game I caught was between Everton and Man City and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found myself quickly rooting for Everton in a match that saw them playing in the snow. Something the announcers assured us was a rare thing indeed. However, I have not had the chance to see the Toffee’s in another match and none of the other matches I have seen have been as riveting as that first one. There is also the issue of not having a local team to support. Most of the cities that we could be living in don’t have Premier League teams and being able to connect with locals through their local teams is something I am really hoping to accomplish.
Fortunately a soon to be in-law from England suggested I look into Rugby. I had always thought of Rugby as a bit odd and difficult to understand and wasn’t fully aware of its popularity within the UK. If you could compare sports in terms of popularity the English Premier League would seem to compare to the NFL and Rugby might be the MLB. The sports themselves are completely different, yet the size and number of followers appears to be similar. Since I prefer the MLB to the NFL, I have decided to give Rugby some serious consideration. In fact, tonight Amanda and I saw our first Aviva Premiership match between the Harlequin Quins and the London Irish Exiles. Again, it did not take me long to pick a team to root for and chose the Exiles. Somehow it just seemed fitting that an Expat from Texas would root for a team nicknamed the Exiles. I must admit that I am interested to learn more about London Welsh considering part of my families heritage derives from Wales. I will also admit that I know next to nothing about the different Rugby leagues throughout the UK and which teams they consist of.
Perhaps one of the things that I find most exciting about this adventure is the chance to be completely enveloped in a different lifestyle than we would find in the metroplex. Not a wholesale change for the rest of our lives, but a chance to see how other people around the world live and celebrate life. Watching and learning about Premier League Football or one of the many Rugby Leagues with locals at the neighborhood pub is certainly something that will provide me with that sense of belonging to our new lifestyle.
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