I am very proud to report that I have at last found an American sport that I like to watch! I also understand it (mostly) which definitely helps with the enjoying it bit. In case you didn't read the title of this post.. that sport is basketball!
Tonight I went to my very first basketball game ever. It was such fun! The SDSU Aztecs were playing the Airforce at Cox Arena - the massive indoor arena on campus. I think it seats about 10000 people or so. It wasn't packed but it was probably about 3/4 full. Not just of students either, the public can buy season tickets to watch the games. San Diego doesn't have a pro basketball team and SDSU's team is really good so it's very popular. Tickets for students are free, you just have to go to the ticket office on campus and they swipe your student card. It was quite funny today - you can only get one ticket per student card but I needed to get a ticket for my friend Nicky who is a student too but had forgotten to get one. So I ended up asking a couple of people in the general vicinity of the ticket office if they were going to the game and if not would they mind getting an extra ticket for me? I hit it lucky third time round and a very nice girl got me an extra ticket :-)
The game started at 8pm and the atmosphere inside Cox Arena was quite something! There were cheerleaders, the SDSU band and of course all the students jumping up and down and shouting and singing. The students are also very vocal - they boo the ref/umpire when he makes a bad decision (in their opinion) and go crazy when one of the SDSU players score. Also when the Airforce had a free throw facing the side that all the students were sitting on then everyone stands up and jumps around waving signs and big cutouts of faces (like Britney with a shaved head and Borat etc) trying to distract them while they take a shot - it was really funny.
I think the other reason I enjoyed the game so much is not only because it's simple to understand but also because it's very fast paced. Which is totally unlike baseball which is just plain slow or American football which has ad-breaks every 2 seconds (the last 59 sec of the Superbowl, which is all I watched, lasted for about 5 mins!)
Oh and the most important bit of course... the Aztecs won! 49-38!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Super Tuesday
Ho Hum... yes I'm a bad blogger. I think part of the reason is that I'm so daunted by the prospect of posting stuff from all my traveling adventures. So to make my life a bit easier I've been investigating online photo albums and should have one up shortly so that you can view all my travel photos and get some sense of what I've been up to even if I haven't written about it yet.
It's super Tuesday here today which means that it's voting day in California. Not voting for a new President of course... one round of voting would just be far too sensible. Instead there's voting for the person you want to be a candidate in the presidential elections. Do I have any idea who's going to win? No. Do I care? No. The only thing I do care about is that one of them becomes President next year. Not that I have any say in the matter anyway. At least once today's over we'll set a break from the endless TV ads telling us what wonderful people they are.
Although I must say I was quite impressed with Hillary. She came and spoke at SDSU on Friday. There was a huge turnout for her - the SDSU website says 7500 people or so. In true politician fashion she kept us waiting for about 45mins but when she eventually arrived we weren't disappointed. She's a very good speaker... I'd have voted for her after hearing what she had to say and how sensible she sounded. If you want to read more about what she had to say (and see some pics) have a look at the article on the SDSU site. Next year I might also be able to claim that I've seen the President of the United States in person. Who knows.
I have to let you in on a little secret though. Before we entered Cox arena (a huge, indoor arena) which is were the talk was held we were given a whole pile of promotional information. So sitting waiting for Hillary I became bored. Now the seating in the arena is steep - similar to the top of the New stand at Kings Park - and we were quite near the top. I had a serious urge to make a paper airplane and throw it down! But Sarah warned me that I'd probably get in trouble and get kicked out. Her friend Travis didn't help when he made a paper airplane and gave it to me. The urge was just too strong to resist and I threw the plane which had quite a disappointingly short flight. The people behind me though this was a good idea and made a plane too. Before long there were lots of paper planes whizzing through the air (everyone was obviously as bored as I was with waiting for Hillary). Every time one had a particularly good flight and looked like it was going to make it all the way to the media at the bottom of the stands everyone would go wild clapping and cheering for it! The media were rather perplexed! I am rather amused with my contribution to alleviating student boredom at SDSU.
It's super Tuesday here today which means that it's voting day in California. Not voting for a new President of course... one round of voting would just be far too sensible. Instead there's voting for the person you want to be a candidate in the presidential elections. Do I have any idea who's going to win? No. Do I care? No. The only thing I do care about is that one of them becomes President next year. Not that I have any say in the matter anyway. At least once today's over we'll set a break from the endless TV ads telling us what wonderful people they are.
Although I must say I was quite impressed with Hillary. She came and spoke at SDSU on Friday. There was a huge turnout for her - the SDSU website says 7500 people or so. In true politician fashion she kept us waiting for about 45mins but when she eventually arrived we weren't disappointed. She's a very good speaker... I'd have voted for her after hearing what she had to say and how sensible she sounded. If you want to read more about what she had to say (and see some pics) have a look at the article on the SDSU site. Next year I might also be able to claim that I've seen the President of the United States in person. Who knows.
I have to let you in on a little secret though. Before we entered Cox arena (a huge, indoor arena) which is were the talk was held we were given a whole pile of promotional information. So sitting waiting for Hillary I became bored. Now the seating in the arena is steep - similar to the top of the New stand at Kings Park - and we were quite near the top. I had a serious urge to make a paper airplane and throw it down! But Sarah warned me that I'd probably get in trouble and get kicked out. Her friend Travis didn't help when he made a paper airplane and gave it to me. The urge was just too strong to resist and I threw the plane which had quite a disappointingly short flight. The people behind me though this was a good idea and made a plane too. Before long there were lots of paper planes whizzing through the air (everyone was obviously as bored as I was with waiting for Hillary). Every time one had a particularly good flight and looked like it was going to make it all the way to the media at the bottom of the stands everyone would go wild clapping and cheering for it! The media were rather perplexed! I am rather amused with my contribution to alleviating student boredom at SDSU.
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