J-Squared: May 2011

Rob, Laura, Jackie and I got tickets to a Premier League game between Fulham and Stoke city. Fulham is the neighbourhood that Rob and Laura live in so the stadium is fairly close to their flat.

We arrived at Craven Cottage (Fulham's stadium) just before kick-off and got to our seats. They weren't the best in the house, but were covered and near the top of the grandstand. It turned out that this was an even better way to get immersed into the UK football culture! The next 90 minutes were action packed with cheers that were inaudible to the untrained ear, but everyone in the stands (except us) knew every word. There were also several rounds of wanker, bloody, etc. mixed in. One of the cheers that we were able to understand was "Come on you Whites!" which was said in a very low, long drawn-out way and was said whenever Fulham were on the attack with the ball. Fulham is the oldest football club in London and are nicknamed the Whites because of their all white jerseys.

At the end of the match Fulham won 2-0 with our fellow patriot Clint Dempsey scoring both goals! One of them was on a penalty kick at our end of the stadium!

The game couldn't have been better and I know that it certainly won't be our last!

In October we got our first official visitors since living in London. Drew and Meredith headed over to London for a little sightseeing, and more importantly the NFL game between our beloved Denver Broncos and the San Francisco 49ers. How lucky is it that the year we moved to London I got to see my own team play live! I didn't even get to do that in NYC! As another bonus I didn't have to stay up until 1:00am, watching the Broncos fumble away their season on a crappy pirated Internet feed, but I digress.

Drew and Meredith have another friend living in London that Meredith spent some time with while growing up. Her name is Lindsay and she's from Scotland so it was nice to meet and hangout with a "native" even if she isn't from London.

As both drew and Meredith had been to London before we didn't do a lot of sightseeing but got to spend most of our time together catching up and experiencing London life as a local. We made it to a Gordon Ramsey restaurant called The Warrington which was absolutely delicious and spent some time getting acquainted with some local pubs near our flat.

Drew and Meredith's visit also coincided with Halloween and one of my co-workers, Gabi, planned a huge party at a bar near Oxford circle. I had been hoping that I hadn't seen Drew's Indiana Jones costume for the last time and was elated when he pulled it out of his suitcase along with a brand new whip compliments of Meredith. For our costumes Jackie and I decided to dust off the lederhosen and dirndl from Oktoberfest, but this time I accessorised my costume with a giant pretzel from a vendor at Borough Market. Needless to say I couldn't keep people’s hands off of my pretzel! The party turned out to be fantastic and we had a really great time.

My goodness Sunday morning came quickly and we had to get prepared for the game at Wembley. We took the tube all the way out there and grabbed some lunch and met up with Rob and Laura who also had tickets to the game. We then walked around the tailgate area and took in the experience. As it was technically a home game for the 49ers, everything was themed in their team colors and with their logo, not that it mattered, at one point we were able to find a jersey from every single NFL team within a 15 minute period. Who knew the Brits loved the NFL (don't call it football) so much!

As we were getting ready to head into the stadium we placed our bets on the Broncos and headed into the stadium. On our way in we even saw Jerry Rice! Surprisingly he didn't turn around when Jackie yelled "Joe can we get a picture?” Better luck next time!

The Broncos found a way to lose the game, but all in all, it was a great time and so nice to have Drew and Meredith visit us!