Britishness

Finishing up my last midterm paper (the welfare state versus the Church in 20th c. Britain) basically overnight Sunday to Monday, I rested for a couple of days and decided I had had enough of all of this foreign travel nonsense and decided on a purely British Wednesday to respect my adopted country.

Setting out with Mel, one of my best friends here from Leeds (who has recently be inspired by my tourist tendencies), we made the journey to Wimbledon to check out the famous tennis arena. After a few transportation woes, we reached the village of Wimbledon, a high-class shopping district and plenty of beautiful expensive homes. Walking through the neighborhood, the arena appeared almost out of nowhere.

Brit Andy Murray v. Roger Federer

American Serena Williams v. Agnleszka Radwanska

As we had already missed the last tour of the day, we got reduced price tickets to go to the museum and see center court. So straight to center court we went! It was pretty cool seeing the arena where so many tennis legends have payed throughout the decade. The last match's players names were even still up on the scoreboard, which gave the feeling that it had just happened.

After seeing center court, we headed to the Wimbledon tennis museum, which was a pretty cool homage to the sport. We learned about the beginnings of tennis (beginning with Victorian lawn tennis) and the evolution of tennis, especially through the famous arena.

As we were the only ones in the museum that afternoon—traveling in the off season definitely has it s perks—we got a private screening of a 3D movie highlighting a "behind the scenes" view of Wimbledon and its most famous players. From there, we saw an exhibit featuring Wimbledon's role in the 2012 London Olympics as well as a general background of Olympic tennis.

We also saw an exhibit on the apparel of tennis players throughout the century (including the Williams' sisters HUGE trainers), including the outfits that some of the most famous contemporary tennis stars wore when they won major championships, including Nadal, Djokovic, Federer, and the Sharapova, and the Williams sisters.

Last and most exciting, we got to see the two Wimbledon trophies, complete with the most recent winners engraved on them! Along with decades of names, there was definitely a lot of history there.














After a quick stop at the gift shop that sold a myriad preppy, strawberries and cream laden items, we headed back into the city to meet Alex and Brian to see the latest Bond film, Skyfall.

Two-for-one Orange Mobile movie tickets and giant pop corn & soda in hand, we went into the theater only to be met by no less than THIRTY FIVE minutes of "adverts." Yes, apparently here in the UK, they don't just have previews, but at the start time of the movie they also play a bunch of commercials for things like Coke, shoes, etc.

I must say, it was pretty cool seeing Skyfall IN London. Not only was I used to all the big sites in the movie like Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey, but the tube station most prominently featured in a chase scene between Bond and the villain is the one I use EVERY DAY to get to the Strand Campus.

Am I an official Brit yet?