From the UK to the USA: Blog 3

So, since my last blog I have really tried to learn more about American sports. I mean this is kind of important considering my major is soccer/sports journalism! I decided to watch my first ever Super Bowl and, in all honesty, I felt like it was never going to end! Now any avid American football fans reading this may need to skip to the next paragraph as you may get a little annoyed with my opinion of the ‘big’ event. What blows my mind is how many commercials there are in every break in play and between every quarter.

I understand that the commercials are a big aspect of the Super Bowl and a lot of fans only turn on the TV to rate the best one, but I felt like there was an infinite number of them. From Amazon’s Alexa, my favourite commercial, to Tide, which I thought was weird to be seen advertised considering people have been eating them, I mean, you guys have some weird commercials! I have never really watched any American football but felt I could kind of follow the game.

I thought Foles was extremely good and some of the touchdowns were outstanding, I won’t deny that. However, from an almost external viewpoint, I can see why the Super Bowl is quickly losing viewers. It is waaayy too long! If you want to draw in new viewers who don’t necessarily understand the game but would like to, they are not going to sit for four hours; I only just managed it myself! It’s hard to pinpoint what could be changed but nonetheless, I did enjoy watching it and I can see why there are so many ‘die-hard’ fans.

I also went to my first basketball game. Using your hands to move the ball is not something that is necessarily preferred in the UK, with soccer being the sport that everyone obsesses about. Despite that, I really enjoyed watching the Pacers beat the Knicks! The atmosphere was loud and energetic, and we don’t really have indoor stadiums like the Bankers Life Fieldhouse so was really cool for me to be sat inside and just enjoy the game. I also enjoyed the mini-shows during the time-outs and between the quarters. From basketball tricks shots to cheerleaders, you guys really do put on a show which never happens at soccer games.

Something else which is different here to back home is that you always have the national anthem performed before every game, in every sport. In the UK, we only play the national anthem when our national team is playing in any sport. It’s very patriotic and it’s a nice feature to have before the game, however, I’m not sure it is something we will do in the UK.

Something else that happened since the last blog was that I presented at Culture Hour. If you haven’t had a chance to read the piece on Culture Hour, it is an event run by the International Club and it allows students from both the US and from around the world to deliver presentations on different cultures. On Friday 9th February, I delivered my powerpoint on England and all it has to offer.

If you were one of the people who came to watch, thank you and an extra thank you to those who endured the whole thing! It was a really fun experience to teach other people about where I come from and what makes me, me and if you are interested in learning about other cultures I highly recommend you check it out!

All of these things over the last couple weeks have been experiences I didn’t think I would get to experience while I was here, and they have made my trip so far even better than I could have imagined. Tune in in a couple of weeks’ time to find out what else I’ve been getting up to and I will also hopefully have exciting news about some work experience opportunities I have been working towards!