Lacrosse and Other Things

This past weekend was a big lacrosse weekend for me. My team had our first friendly match. We lost to the Walcountian Blues 15-10 which I guess we took as a good sign because they're one of the best teams in the league and we were missing our three starting attackmen and starting goalie. I had four goals on five shots. Goalkeeping is not very good here. The next day I played for a team called SOCO and Lime (Southern Coaches and Limeys) against the English National Team. Traditionally the team is made up mostly of American coaches but this year most of the clubs wouldn't let their coaches play. We only had five Americans which largely contributed to our 22-6 loss. The other factor was the night before (a beach party hosted by Reading Lacrosse Club). It was still a good experience getting to play against the English National Team though and we had alot of fun. Tuesday night I went to a Pub Quiz with a guy on my team. I proudly represented the states as the only two questions I knew were that the US is the largest English speaking nation in the world and that Ray Croc helped start McDonalds.

My House and Croydon

1. Surrey Market

2. My backyard

3. Benson Road

4. Middle one is my flat

5. 98 Escort speed machine

More pictures here

More Bath Pictures

Bath Pictures

Here's some pictures from Bath.

Festival In London

This past Monday we went to a festival on the riverfront in London. There was a Parkur exhibition and street performances. We were able to get free riverboat tour tickets through a guy we knew. Those are a few of the pictures if you click here there are more.

Here's a few pictures from London you can see more by clicking here

Bath Tournament

I just got back last night from the big tournament in Bath. I spent the night thursday in Reading at the LDO's house and went out there. The next morning we headed to Bath which was a crazy weekend. Out all night and than lacrosse in the morning. Needless to say more performance wasn't the highest but my team seemed to think I was good. I played with the Bath University team and stayed at one of the player's houses which was a blast. We didn't do too well at the tournament only drawing one game but it was still fun. I start work next monday with my first lesson at Shirley High School (high schools are like our middle schools). Until then I really don't have much to do. I have a team meeting tomorrow and than on Friday I'm going to a player on my team's wedding reception. I went into London again today with a couple of other Americans who havn't seen it yet and I brought my camera. I'll try to post my pictures from that and Bath tomorrow.

London Orientation etc

On monday the chairman of our club Paul Terry took me around London. I got to see the changing of the guards, Big Ben, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, the Royal Parks, basically all of the touristy stuff. After that we went to the Nottinghill Street Carnival which is the biggest carnival in Europe and the second biggest in the world. Think Rio but in London. We went to a ridiculously nice apartment in the neighborhood before hand for a party that was "sponsored" by Birra Pirroni. Today was theca first day of orientation which was cool because I got to meet all the other coaches. I had to come home tonight because it's not residential and I didn't have a change of clothes. Tomorrow I'm going to crash at the Reading coaches house. Completely exhausted though.