London - Day 7

Lord's Cricket Media Center

After a pretty awesome day yesterday, I didn't have much expectations as far as how good of a day it would be by going to a place where Cricket is played.  However, I actually really enjoyed it.

We started the morning with a lecture of how Cricket was started and how baseball draws its roots from Cricket.  We then learned about how it is played and how colonialism in the West Indies, Africa, and India helped grow Cricket to what it is today.

Players Clubhouse and Members area

After the lecture we ventured out to Lord's Cricket Grounds, which is essentially the Augusta of Cricket.  It is a members only club steeped in tradition.  We took a tour of the facilities and learned that Lord's was actually the place where tennis was invented as well.  Then people from Wimbledon sort of took the idea and ran with it.  They have, what is called, Proper Tennis courts at Lord's now, which is a mixture of tennis, squash, and racquetball.  Hard to describe over the computer, but it looked a little more fun than tennis, but I can see why it never caught on.

View of the whole grounds

After we toured the grounds we received a lecture from the Marketing Director, who just so happens to be a graduate of this program I am doing and my major from Memphis.  It was fun to chat with her after everything was said and done and pick her brain on what she went and did.

Regents Park

We headed over to Regents Park, which is a famously huge park in a well-ta-do part of London and where they house the London Zoo.  While we did not make it to the Zoo, we walked around for a few hours capturing tons of photos of some of the sights.  They had some of the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen.  I even convinced my fellow friends to take a jumping picture.  They did pretty well I must say, even one is a trampoline gymnast for Canada and hoping to qualify for the London Olympics in 2012.

Beautiful gardens

The park provided much needed down time and rejuvenation, so we headed to the pub in the area and grabbed some food and headed home.  When we got to the bus station, hardly anyone was there, but we did have an interesting thing happen.  As we were standing around waiting, a man walked through our group and sat down.  I noticed it because it was rather rude how he did it and when he sat down, I noticed he had blood all over him and a towel on his face.  He dropped his towel on the bench and I realized what had happened.  His nose looked mangled and he had a gash across the brow of his nose.  I immediately felt compassion for the guy and looked at him and said, "hey buddy, are you ok?"  He looked up at me as if he had never had someone engage him before and said that he was, he just got his "arse" kicked.  It because aware to me that he had been drinking and didn't have his wits about him, but I still pressed him.  I asked if he knew where he was and if he needed help?  He said to not call the police or hospital and kept saying it.  As I looked away, he reached in his bag and presented me with a large melon (I know, completely random).  He said thank you and here, this is for you.  I told him I did not want his melons, but only wanted to make sure he was ok.  Again, he kept repeating himself and requesting we do not call the police or hospital.  It was clear to me he had some bookies take a go at him and rough him up a bit.

Jumping picture

I couldn't shake the issue and when the bus came, we left him there to fen for himself.  It was haunting me in the bus right home and an English woman spoke to me while we were driving.  She told me to not read in to it very much because it was a common occurrence there and I just needed to look the other way.  Then I asked her politely, "I understand what you are saying, but at what point did he stop becoming human?"  She didn't give me a reply.  She sat and wondered and eventually said it was just one of those things that you see a lot.  Again, I told her that I agreed that it would get old eventually seeing the same thing happen, but I still believed he was worth saving and everyone should make sure someone is well enough to take care of themselves.

Interestingly enough, one of the girls said to me after we got off the bus that she really appreciated how I cared for the man and that I showed a lot of compassion.  Made me feel good, but still was eat up with thoughts of how easily we tend to look past people in situations where they just need a little help or just some acknowledgment. 

For my UT friends

Sherlock Holmes door

Today, we head to Octagon, which, I believe is a Sports Agency.  Don't know much more than that, so I'll let you know how it goes.