In order to prepare for our trip to England I elicited the help of some of my close friends. We were trying to culture ourselves at a pub in Fullerton called The Old Ship (by "culture" I mean drink beer) when we caught wind of the upcoming Brit Week to be celebrated in the southland. One of the events was a catered bus trip to the Home Depot Center to watch David Beckham's LA Galaxy battle the New York Red Bulls. Being avid football/soccer fan's Sam, Zach and Matt volunteered to sacrifice an entire weekend (Saturday for the actual event, Sunday for the subsequent recovery) to assist in my preparation for Premier League Football. Now let me make a few suggestions before we move on:
1. When kegs of Guinness and Stella are provided free of charge on the bus it is not exactly necessary to consume large amounts of Pacifico, Miller Lite, Old Speckled Hen, and/or Bass before noon on the day of the event.
2. If you are already borderline inoxicated before you board the bus, there is no need to compensate for the beer that you have already paid for by drinking as much of the free beer as possible. This always ends badly. Just because the beer is now free your body will still react based on the TOTAL alcohol you have consumed. The tabula rasa principle does not apply in the event that you move from 'paid' alcohol to 'free' alcohol.
OK, that being said we boarded the bus after eating a massive meal that started with fish and chips and ended with sticky toffee pudding. The crowd that boarded the bus from The Old Ship was as you can imagine, filled with drunk Manchester United fans. We fit in well.
Once we were on the bus we were given a bag lunch which we all promptly ate (alcohol makes people act irrationally, sometimes that means eating ungodly amounts of food. This can be demonstrated in the fish and chips, sticky toffee pudding, bagged lunch, KFC snackers, stadium hot dogs, nachos, and eventually an extra large pizza from Big Slice that we managed to eat that day). At the stadium we continued to consume alcohol. As for the game itself, I will say this, it was possibly one of the most poorly played MLS games in years. I know this not because I watched it while I was there, but because I recorded it and saw it the following Monday. No, I spent most of my time looking for Zach, heckling the Red Bulls fans, and sneaking into the luxury box behind us.
I realize that this entry is getting a bit winded so I will try and wrap it up. The bus ride home ended with the entire bus of drunk British football hooligans calling us the crazy Americans, and saying that we need to calm down. The evening ended with one of us (to remain nameless) screaming and chasing a fire engine only to be stopped by a brave and selfless concrete light post. Only the scar on his forehead will identify the culprit. Needless to say, I believe that the outing was an overall success. The four of us made valid contributions to Brit Week, and Brit Week taught us some valuable lessons as well. Mainly that we are not allowed to go back to The Old Ship, and the British Consulate recently announced that this was the first and last Brit Week due to the "Glorification and over consumption of alcohol".
