America.

Superbowl Sunday.

Yes, that's right. NO time zone difference was keeping me from watching the Superbowl. My friends Mike, Kristen, Kim, and Cori went to this pub named Roadhouse at 6:30 to make sure we could get a table, because we knew it was going to be packed in the place. Keep in mind, that's 6:30 our time. The game didn't come on until 11 our time. We kept joking that it wasn't Superbowl Sunday, it was really Superbowl Monday. We all split appetizers to start, and then we each got a plate of nachos. Then, we got an ice cream sundae with Bailey's in it. So good. Then I got Cajun onion rings, and then a bowl of mashed potatoes. We got cocktails during happy hour, and then beer later on. Our bill consisted of 45 pounds in beer alone.

The pub hired a few men to walk around and mingle in football uniforms. When they came over to our table, I asked them if they actually play football, because they were English, and the one guy said, "Oh yeah... proper football. Not that gay soccer shit." Best moment of my entire life.

Interestingly enough, it wasn't even all Americans in there. There were a lot of English people, and there was even a table of French guys behind me. They were rooting for the Steelers, just because that's the first team they ever saw play a game. They started cheering for me when I got my bowl of mashed potatoes too, which was a glorious moment in my life. I even saw a guy at the bar wearing an Eli Manning jersey! I approached him and creepily asked to get a picture with him. He was frightened, but knew he couldn't get away, so he took the picture. The best part is that he's from London, but he just loves American football and loves the Giants.

This entire trip I haven't really felt like I left America. London just feels like a big city, it doesn't feel like another country. This was the first time I felt like I wasn't in America. They played the Superbowl on the BBC (which Tiki Barber was on, which I couldn't understand) and they did "Football 101" in between the game where the commercials would normally go. It was slightly painful to listen to them explain what an interception is. I've never been an incredibly patriotic person. I love America, but I just don't have an overwhelming sense of patriotism. I felt so proud to be an American watching the game. We all sang the national anthem (better than Christina Aguilera, at least) and it was the only moment this whole trip that it was appropriate for us to scream, "AMERICA!"

We ran up a 200 pound bill, 50 pounds each. That's about $80. It was totally worth it though. Afterward, at 3:30 A.M. when the game was over, we didn't want to spend more money on a cab, and didn't want to figure out the bus, so we just wandered around til the tube opened at 5:30. We went to Trafalgar Square, and walked down to Buckingham Palace. Here we met five cool guys, all wearing different football jerseys. I asked them why they all had different jerseys, and why nobody had a Giants jersey. They told us that a ton of their friends decided to get into American football, so they all picked a different team randomly, watched every single game, and learned the sport by following their team all throughout the season. The guy in the Packers jersey said he didn't care that the Packers won, he wanted to be the Giants but somebody else took it, and he's returning the Packers jersey in the morning and getting a Giants one instead. That made me really happy.

We hung out with them for the a little while, and parted ways in the tube on our way home. We finally made it back to the dorms around 6:30 A.M., after being out for 12 hours, 9 of which was spent at the same table in the same pub watching a game between two teams I don't care about, spent 50 pounds each, and I slept through my Shakespeare class... and it was definitely one of the best, if not the best, nights I've had here.