*Warning this is a long post! A hot milo and vegemite on toast is recommended!
After the very busy brainwork of Monday, we boarded the bus very early as we had to get to Georgetown early for our full day of classes. Before we had to go to class, we had enough time for a group photo on the Georgetown campus and also a visit to the Georgetown bookstore where we raided the store for everything with Georgetown monograms. It was a great bookstore – and the Georgetown gear was fantastic. You can view photos of the day at Georgetown here .
Our class was to be held in White-Gravenor Hall which was like going back to high school!
Our lecturer for the day was Professor Jose Luis Guerrero. Four words – the man can lecture!
His lectures focused much on cultural differences not only around the world but the markets within the USA itself and then also a session on Social Responsibility and Ethics. I think we went through about 300 powerpoint slides and it was not the kind of lecture where you sit and take notes. It was about what he presented and the insights he gave.
We had lunch in the Georgetown food court which consisted of fixing my Taco Bell cravings that I seem to get anytime I am in the Northern hemisphere. Then it was back into class for the rest of the afternoon. Class finished by 5 and I had organised for a group of us to go to the UMD Vs Holy Cross match here at Maryland.
We walked all the way from Georgetown to the Rosslyn metro station. Seeing as we were all half asleep when we left, the walk woke us all up. Half of us had left straight away from class and then the other half left later, but we all ended up meeting up on the train platform. Then Anthony, Barry and Marni thought that they had a quicker way than ours. The race was on! In the meantime, our accent seemed to entertain the whole, packed carriage of the train and the carriage was in hysterics with Joe’s one-liners. Sure the train was packed, but people weren’t angry like whilst traveling on Connex. Here there are basically trains every 5 minutes – it is fantastic. Each of the suburban stations have multi level carparks with lift access to the station and everything. How commuters stations *should* be. Anyway we boarded the train to College Park, assuming that the other ‘team’ had boarded the train before. Little did they know, they ended up boarding the carriage we were on! Out of all the trains running on the green line and they ended up on ours and on our carriage! It was hilarious.
I had originally planned for us to leave the Quality Inn at 6.30. This wasn’t happening anytime soon as we were still walking to the hotel at 6.15 so we changed the time to 6.50. In that time Marni, Lisa and I had to go to the outfitters store to grab some Maryland gear to look the part, dump our stuff back in our room, get ready and leave. In the end we had 20 minutes. I ended up getting changed in the middle of the store, wearing my Maryland hoodie and getting them to scan the tag while I was wearing it. Then we ran back to the hotel and made it downstairs only 5 minutes late! Benny Hill music would have been the best soundtrack to the whole situation! We were all so exhausted and then we had another 30 minute walk ahead of us to get to the Comcast stadium to get to the actual game. Eeeek!
The walk to the stadium was fantastic as the campus is idyllic and the lighting at night is beautiful. What I couldn’t believe was the crowd. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper and it was obvious this was not going to be a small game.
I have put up photos from the night here.
We made great time and we able to get all our tickets together which was great. We got to the ticket barriers when Marni was told she could not enter with her backpack. Even though her backpack was empty and only had her camera in it – she has a large, expensive camera. The security response was ‘go put it in your car’. Even though we repeatedly stated it wasn’t that simple as we had just walked (albeit power walked) 30 minutes to the stadium as it was so to go there and back it would be an hour and therefore we would miss half the game. Even after fully checking it and seeing it was empty, they still would not let Marni in. With that I said to Marni I would walk back with her (the campus was too dark to let her walk back on her own) and we left the stadium. It was as we were walking down the steps that I had a revelation which is what I now refer to as, ‘Aussie Girl Ingenuity’.
“Marni! I have an idea!” I yelled as she had started walking ahead. My idea was for her to take out her camera and purse and put her camera around her neck. I had my Vera Bradley Villager in Java Blue with me that looks just like a handbag and that they had no issue with when I was entering the stadium. My plan was to roll her backpack up and squash it in my bag and they can check my bag and just see that it was full. So here we are crouched down on the concrete and I rolled up her backpack like a sleeping bag and voila… it was a perfect fit in my bag.
Then I put my little makeup purse on top with my tiny camera and also Marni’s scarf. Marni decided to stay outside for 10 minutes so the security woudn’t think it was strange that she was back so soon. I walked up to the turnstiles and security came over to check my bag. I moved my makeup bag and just said “Oh can you believe this bag is just full of girl stuff?” And bang… through I went. The security didn’t even want to look. hehehhehe SUCCESS! I made it to our seats where I was a sweaty, nervous mess! 20 minutes until game time and we were set!
The game was one of the most amazing experiences ever! I have been to two NBA matches and neither of those can compare to the passion that is shown at a college game. When Holy Cross ran out on to the court, all the crowd pulled out newspapers and opened them up, waving them whilst pretending to read them. As if to insinuate that reading the newspaper is more exciting than paying attention to Holy Cross! The marching band, cheerleaders, dancers and spectacle was definitely a highlight of all my visits to the United States. I could not believe how huge Comcast Stadium was – we’re talking like Rod Laver Arena. The team was fantastic and the school spirit so admirable and we ended up winning 73-48. Fear the Turtle! By the end of the game, everyone was, to put it mildly, absolutely exhausted and we all basically slept walk back to the hotel. We had another early start on Wednesday with a visit to Black and Decker headquarters, but I think on that night, we all became Terps in spirit.