Tuesday 29 March 2011
This afternoon we had a presentation by a visiting BYU education professor who is publishing a book about the candy bomber, an LDS air force pilot after WWII who, during the siege of Berlin, dropped many tons of candy (over several months) to the German children. The story was both historically educational and really inspiring. It reminded me how much I love working with children and made me question my choice of political science for a moment. I have known for a while that I want to be some sort of political lobbyist, but I think now I’ve narrowed it down a bit more. I would really love to work for a non-profit organization, perhaps as a political liaison, lobbyist, or community organizer. I think that would be such a fulfilling career. Perhaps my ASL courses could even be helpful in a non-profit organization.
That evening we had the awesome opportunity to attend an England v. Ghana Friendly (exhibition) Football Match at Wembley Stadium. Prof. Dursteler asked us, for safety reasons, to travel in groups of five and to make sure we were wearing red and white (English colors). We mistakenly assumed that, since Ghana is a few thousand miles away, the stadium would be all red and white. When we stepped off the tube at Wembley Park station, we were shocked at the crowds of Ghana fans. There were red, green, and yellow flags waving everywhere. We somehow forgot about the substantial population of Africans living in London. I think we actually stood out more for being English fans. When we got to the stadium, we found it to be split about half and half and we were, gratefully, seated in the English section.
The strange thing for me was that all my friends who are actually from London (read: not BYU students) are the Africans in my ward on Sundays. I really felt like a traitor for cheering for England.
The football match was so much fun! The whole atmosphere was awesome. I learned the England cheer (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap, clap-clap-clap-clap, ENGLAND!) and pretended to know the words to God Save the Queen. We left the match ten minutes early to try to beat the crowd of 80,102 people to the tube station. When we left, England was winning 1-0. As we hurried from the stadium, we heard a huge ruckus and knew someone had scored. We learned later it was Ghana and the match ended 1-1. Oh, well. It was still an awesome night J
