I’m finally experiencing homesickness, and like most of my emotions, it’s for wildly irrational reasons.
Now, some may argue that feeling homesick is natural when one is spending such a long period of time away from home. This is true. I do miss everyone back in the States, and I really can’t help feel a little left out when I see all of the hi-jinks the Locos are getting up to this quarter.
But really, who has their homesickness triggered by a football match? Or, rather, the lack of a football match?
(Note: for all you Americans, when I say “football,” I obviously mean “soccer.”)
See, today is Saturday. It is the weekend. The Premiership plays on weekends. One of the biggest stereotypes of the English is that they’re all about their football. Everyone has a team they fervently support. I fully expected to be able to wander into the nearby bar and join in the football-related cheering. I don’t have a Premiership team that I’m particularly behind, but I expected to pick one up based on who York students seemed to like. I love football matches and football fans, and I am way into UCSB men’s soccer. I fully expected to be drawn into the world of English football.
Oh, and I’m not going to lie. I know guys are more into football than women are, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to meet some very attractive Englishmen.
Anyway, I went down to the pub at 15:00 (that’s 3pm), when the matches were supposed to start. The bar, not surprisingly, was full of people. But they weren’t watching TV. They were chatting amongst themselves in little groups, reminding me that nobody in England is alone except for me. And, to make matters worse, nobody was watching football.
There are five separate matches on right now. How could nobody care to even have them on the TV? About half the teams are in the same general vicinity as York! And I go to a college — there are students here from all over the country! The bloody bar advertises that they show Sky Sports in HD! HOW COULD THEY NOT BE SHOWING THE MATCHES?!
Instead, all of the TVs were on horse racing, with one on rugby. I stared in disbelief for a few minutes before slinking out of the bar. There really wasn’t any point of staying if there was no football on, and as a solo person, I was not welcome.
By the time I made it back to my room, I was feeling very self-conscious, depressed, and very disappointed. I had sort of been banking on the English preoccupation with football as an opportunity to get out to the pubs and make friends. The friends I have made in my block don’t seem to be the type to go out to pubs, and the half the study abroad people I’ve met here don’t appear to like me very much, as I don’t get invited to things and am left to see the pictures afterwards.
Anyway, I got home and felt very homesick. It’s not because I watch Premiership matches at home and miss doing so, because I don’t. It’s my mom and my brother who are way into the Premiership, not me. But I was so disappointed that I just wanted to go home. It’s been a really long time since I’ve been this let down by anything. Maybe it was stupid of me to believe such a broad stereotype, but I thought for sure it was a completely legitimate one. I didn’t expect the entire bar to be full of raving football fans, but I expected there to be at least a few. I didn’t think it would be completely devoid of anything football related.
I’m going to try again tomorrow. Maybe everyone at York is a Birmingham, Aston Villa, Sunderland, Everton, Liverpool, Newcastle, Tottenham, or Man U fan.
Oh god, if I’m at a school full of Man U fans, I just might die.
On a related note, I’m going to see “The King’s Speech” tonight. I think. I don’t know what time the film is or how we’re going to get there or where the movie theatre is, but I did say I wanted to go. I am desperate to get out of the flat on the weekend.
I’m planning on joining some societies, because I need friends. The one highest on my list is the Society of Nerds. The official name is something like the “Science Fiction and Fantasy Society,” but it is pretty much a society of nerds. But those are my people, and perhaps they can point me in the direction of people who like football. Nerds generally know who their opposites are, you see.
And I joined the Quite Interesting Society, which is also full of nerds, but they are probably less nerdy nerds. Perhaps. We shall see. It’ll give me something to do on Friday nights, at least. And I might get tickets to go see the show, which would probably make my life.
I’m sorry your eldest daughter is such a huge nerd, Mom.
Of course, I am in Erasmus and the International Student Association, and they definitely do things. I might be going to a wine and cheese fiesta on Monday. That would be lovely. Even though I can’t stand wine, I am a huge fan of cheese. Plus, Europeans are all about wine. I think. And Erasmus does pub crawls. One is planned for Thursday. I will try to meet some international people this time, instead of just Minnesotans (though the Minnesotans were very awesome). Maybe if I make friends with international students, they will take me to see their homelands, and that would be the best thing ever.
And I did go buy some groceries today. I now am a proud owner of a loaf of bread, peanut butter, soup, tea, a mug, teaspoons, milk, and cereal. They didn’t have bowls at the little grocery store on campus, so I think I will have to eat cereal out of my mug tomorrow morning. But that’s OK, I’ll live. At least I have food now.
Speaking of food, I think it is a huge error that the machine with Aero bars is in Vanbrugh College. See, I am probably addicted to mint Aero bars, and I do not like having to walk all the way to Vanbrugh (or even farther, to the grocery) to get one. There is a vending machine in Langwith, but all they have is crisps and Cadbury chocolate bars. I’m not saying that this is a bad thing, since I am in love with both crisps and Cadbury, but I need my mint Aero fix. Also, I should probably stop pumping pounds into the vending machines or else I’m going to run out of money.
Classes start Monday. Wish me luck.
(PS - I had to make a public apology on the behalf of the United States for unleashing Miley Cyrus upon the world. The English in turn apologized for Victoria Beckham. We all arrived at the conclusion that Miss Cyrus is probably worse.)
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