Cheers! Just one of the many fun new phrases I have picked up spending the past week wandering the streets of London, the first stop on my three-country J-Term trip.

Having never been abroad previously, experiencing a different culture from that of the U.S. was quite an eye-opening experience.

The bars, to Americans – Tiff’s, Plums, The Onion, to St. Thomas students – pubs to the British.

The difference? Pubs in London are much more than a place to party on the weekends. Pubs are a place to gather and socialize for the Brits; A place to stop at after work, chat, have a pint and maybe watch a football (i.e. soccer) match.

Alcohol is much more of a casual thing outside of the States. For instance, a local was telling me how kids have beers starting at a young age, and it becomes a normal beverage, thus taking away the “thrill” that most U.S. college students feel.

Now, I’m not British in the least (no matter how much I use my poor accent), so I spent a fair amount of time – to put it mildly – in pubs during my week in London, so I got a sense for the happenings. And I might add that me and my childish face did not get carded once, further showing the calm demeanor they have regarding drinking.

Every night of the week these pubs are crawling with people, which didn’t really come as much of a surprise.

The surprise came when a football match was on the telly. That’s when you see the real pub scene.

I was watching a match around 6:30 p.m. with a couple of the guys on my trip. There were already loads of people there to watch and loudly cheer their team while having dinner or a few drinks. The part I couldn’t believe was how many people would just come in to stand there just to see how the game turned out.

They were acting like a league match between Tottenham and Crystal Palace was the World Cup final.

Even when there wasn’t a game on, you could overhear conversations about how crucial that last loss was or what the team’s manager is doing poorly. And it wasn’t just the huge sports fans, it was men, women, everyone.

Much like the pubs, football is a huge part of the British way of life. A person’s team they are loyal to is part of their identity.

But it’s not just the professional teams the British – like much of Europe – are crazy about. It’s the sport in general.

In the States, we have basketball courts at our parks. There are all the tales of professional athletes growing up on the streetball courts of Rucker Park and whatnot.

In London, football courts.

Yes, you read that right, courts. A small, fenced-in slab of grass in the middle of a concrete world.

We were touring a museum for our class, and much like most of my schooling experience, my mind was elsewhere. As I gazed out the window, I spotted the my first ever football court. A bunch of guys playing a pick-up game in the middle of the day.

It really has been crazy to see just how much the little things like these can change in different countries, even one as closely linked to American as London is. I think that is a big part of what makes traveling and study abroad experiences such amazing opportunities. We are so familiar with our own ways and rarely get to fully immerse ourselves in the day to day of another culture.

Stay tuned for parts two and three of this three-part series of perspectives from across the pond. Up next … Paris.

Scott Sikich can be reached at siki3549@stthomas.edu.