Rugby!

Last night I witnessed my very first Rugby game. I went with my roommate and some of her friends to an Australian pub to watch and learn about this sport I knew nothing about. It was strange to see a sport and have absolutely no idea how to play it. I've definitely had friends who haven't known the rules for baseball or basketball before, but I never imagined I'd be one of those people who had no idea about the rules of a game.

I'd first like to say I think Rugby is way better than football. *ignores the shouts from Americans calling her a traitor to her country* To be fair, I've never been a big football fan. I think the only times I've really enjoyed it were High School football games, but I was there more to dress up in class colors and shake my keys at the freshmen. But rugby I could get into. In football you have huge men with layers upon layers of pads on them, and once you are knocked down everyone clears away and there is down time until the next play. Not so with rugby. When someone goes down in rugby, everyone else piles in, and the poor person on the bottom frantically gets the ball to someone else on his team, and that person runs like hell with the entire field chasing them down with the sole purpose of beating the shit out of him (or I supposed to get the ball, but at times it was hard to tell). And there's no padding. It's just men and a ball and the simplistic mission of getting that damn ball over the goal line. I loved it. It was fantastic. It felt like the game never slowed, and not a single player was free of blood streaming down their faces and onto their jerseys. The team doctors dabbed them with a bit of cotton and then sent them right back out into the field. It was amazingly hardcore.

I've also decided upon an underground reason why many countries dislike Americans. All other countries have rugby and soccer (er...foooootball) and there are these big games where one country pits itself again the other. Not so in America. We have Baseball and Football and we play amongst ourselves. We are like the group of kids in High School who think we are too good to play with the other kids. We have our own sports and would rather play with ourselves than with others.

And for all those who think I am going anti-American, that is not the case at all. It's just very interesting how all the other countries of the world seem to interact with each other more, and America is just so secluded. In America it's about West coast versus East Coast, New York versus LA, and Yankees vs. Red Sox. We are very much into our own thing. Granted there are many simple reasons for this: America is divided into many states, the differences between various parts of the country are extreme, and America is not as integrated as the various countries of, for instance, the EU. And sports are just an example. Another that comes to mind is what I mentioned earlier, about how students in the EU tend to learn several languages as opposed to just their native tongue.

I went to Sweden today and need to say a few words regarding that adventure, however, that will wait for another day.

Hej Hej!