Author: amartensson

On Saturday, March 3rd, most of us went to Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium to watch
Sevilla FC take on Athletic Bilbao. We arrived at the stadium and were pleasantly surprised to
see how close our seats were to the field. Despite the rain, we were all excited to see how Sevilla
FC would compare to cross-town rivals Betis. There was a large Sevilla fan section that was in
perfect view from our seats. That section was standing and waving flags the entire match. They
had songs and chants to keep the energy high for the full 90 minutes. Aside from the hardcore
Seville fan section the stadium was surprisingly empty. This was likely due to the rainy weather,
which is uncommon in typically sunny Sevilla. The game ended in a 2-0 victory for Sevilla,
with goals coming in the 27th and 32nd minute. Watching Sevilla score was particularly fun
because their goals were not only accompanied by cheering but also by singing and dancing. We
were glad to see a home team victory!

The main difference between the Sevilla FC game and the Real Betis game was the
atmosphere. The Betis game had a more energetic atmosphere, despite the Sevilla fan’s
reputation for being lively. This disparity was likely caused by the bad weather of the Sevilla
game. The Betis game was on a clear and warm night whereas Sevilla was cold and rainy.
Additionally, Betis was playing Real Madrid, one of the most famous soccer teams in the world,
and featured one of the most famous soccer players in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Furthermore, the Betis game featured a whopping eight goals, with Sevilla took a 2-0 lead by the
32nd minute. Both games had a lively atmosphere and were great experiences but the
circumstances of the Betis game caused it to be more exciting.

On Friday February 23, we travelled to Ronda from Sevilla. After a two hour coach bus ride through the edge of the scenic Parque Natural Sierra de Grazalema we arrived at our destination. We then began our walk through the new town to the bullring in Ronda, Plaza de Toros de Ronda. There, we met up with our guide and began our trip with a tour inside of Plaza de Toros de Ronda. We learned about the basics of bullfighting, a brief history of bullfighting in Ronda, and the relevance it has to the people of Ronda as well as some celebrities who often enjoyed bullfights in Ronda like Orson Welles. While touring the ring, we got to see many pieces of art that have been featured on the bullfight tickets, including a piece of a matador done by Pablo Picasso. We were also able to see the traditional outfits worn by the matadors as well as the traditional clothing worn by men and women attending bullfights. We were able to enter the bullring and walk on the same sandy surface that many bullfights have occurred on. There we learned more about the bullfight as a spectacle, some of the new safety measures put into place for spectators, and the treatment of the bulls prior to them entering the fight. It was interesting to learn that the bulls fighting in bullrings are often worth about €12,000 and receive very good treatment throughout their lives before entering the fight. It was also interesting to learn that not all bulls die during a bullfight. If the matador believes the bull he is fighting is very brave he can have the option, with permission of the Prime Minister, to spare the bulls life. Following that, we had some time to explore the arena and complex where many of us went to see the horse training facilities in the Plaza de Toros as well as the holding areas and the tunnel that the bulls go through when entering a fight.

Following the tour of the bullring, we continued into the new town of Ronda and saw views of the countryside, the new bridge, and the many small tourist shops that exist in Ronda. From the new town, we walked over the new bridge and entered the old town of Ronda. It was fascinating to see the many old buildings, learn more about the history of Ronda and it’s past rulers, and learn more about the local wine and olive industries that could be seen everywhere.

Being nestled between two mountain ridges and atop a mountain of its own Ronda was an ideal place for cities and fortresses since the Roman times. As we walked through the old town our tour guide pointed out where the Romans first settled in the area. After the tour we were given time to wander on our own through the city. Many of us hiked down the mountainside to see the waterfall and the river. Some walked through the spanish shops and restaurants. All of us eventually found a sunny spot to enjoy lunch and the beautiful day before jumping back on the coach to head home. Ronda is an incredible place unlike anywhere in the world. The Beautiful greenery and sharp cliffs matched with the white stucco facade and barrel tile roofs of the spanish buildings created fairytale sights all over the city.

Today we went to visit Lora Tamayo, our civic engagement service learning project home in Bellavista. We were able to tour the school and get a bit of a history lesson about the town before having a chance to play with the kids at their recess. We began the day by meeting at the Sevilla San Justa train station and all took the train down to the town of Bellavista together. From there we walked through a small traditional Spanish town to get to the school. Once at the school we met with the director of the school, Rafael, who was going to lead us around for the day. Rafael took us around the school where we visited each one of the classrooms and briefly met the kids that we would be working with. We were able to see the English, French, computer, math, and science classrooms.
After we visited the classrooms, Rafael gave us a history lesson of the barrio Bellavista so we had a good idea as the heritage of the kids we would be working with and what their background is. Rafael, didn’t speak any English so we had to have our own Sam Reategui translate for us. We learned about how Bellavista was home to work camps during the Franco dictatorship, religious events that take place there, and how their everyday life represents the core values of the town.
Finally, we went outside for the kids’ thirty minute recess. We were expecting the energy, excitement, and general chaos. What we weren’t expecting was to be swarmed by kids of all ages asking us for our signatures. We each probably signed about fifty little pieces of paper by the end of the break, but not before we played with the kids. The centerpiece of recess was two large scale soccer games in the back of the school where at least forty kids in total played. The younger children were separated from the older in a fenced off area where they could play unimpeded by larger, stronger kids. Before we knew it, our time was up, and we left for the train station, looking forward to three weeks of games, kids, and fun.

It was our last road trip in London. At 11:30 everyone gathered on the bus outside of Kamen house to set out on the same route we traveled just over two weeks ago. It was to be a two-hour drive, however we were not allowed to arrive in the city of Southampton with more than 90 minutes before game time due to past issues of opposing fans. Because of this ordinance and ideal traffic we had a long break at a truck stop.

Once arriving in Southampton we walked through the industrious town to kill time before kickoff. Liverpool was overwhelmingly favored in the match and brought a strong and vocal crowed with them. Even though Southampton seemed to dominate ball possession early on, Liverpool scored in the sixth minute which provided the Liverpool fans with plenty of energy and swagger for the rest of the evening. Up one nil it never really felt like Southampton could capitalize on their few opportunities to score. Before the end of the half Liverpool scored again on what seemed to be from defensive mistakes by Southampton. Although I do not believe Southampton and Liverpool are rivals, there was much animosity between the club’s fans. Perhaps it was because this loss for Southampton nearly sealed their ticket to relegation. Nonetheless there were at least three fights which police had to break up and escort out.

As the match ended we had fifteen minute to get back to the bus otherwise we were liable to be fined. Surly this was another rule to avoid conflict between the opposing fans. Overall, it was an exciting game and a beautiful day. It was very cool to contrast our stadium visit from two weeks ago to a game day atmosphere.

Part of our community engagement on this overseas venture starts in London.  Over the past five weeks, each of us have gone with two or three classmates to Dragon Hall in order to volunteer for one four hour slot.  We were both trepidacious and excited at the prospect of working with about thirty eager boys and girls in a community based after school program serving an important need in the local community.   Our Dragon Hall friends are from families that affording the cost of after school care is a significant challenge and, like London, were from families very diverse backgrounds. The charity as it states on its website and we discovered first hand is “inclusive, innovative and passionate about what we do – committed to making a positive difference to people’s lives.” Please see the following link to learn more about the community it serves: http://www.dragonhall.org.uk/about-us/

Instead of the elementary school children staying at daycare after school, we, the volunteers for the day, would go escort them from their nearby school back to Dragon Hall.  While most were content to walk in a straight line, we ensured that they were safe from any oncoming traffic.  When we all arrived back at Dragon Hall, the children would sit down amidst the activities we had prepared earlier with the other volunteers.  Some days, we would play a large game, like charades or bingo, in which all the children would interact together or in a few small groups.  Others, however, we would jump straight into the meat of the afternoon.  The children would disperse and go to various stations, and we would oversee, help, and even participate with them.  For example, I enjoyed a few rousing games of Uno before moving to Connect Four.  The ping pong table and the Nintendo 64 were the hottest ticket items, and I dared not enter the queue.  If none of those options interested you, there was fussball, drawing, and other board games.  Not only that, but there were healthy snacks served throughout.  While four hours had seemed like a long time at the start, it went in a flash.  Volunteering at Dragon Hall not only taught us how better to interact with the children, but was also a blast!

Our journey to the city of Manchester to watch our second EPL match was a success.The day was an adventure in itself consisting of quality bus time, tasty food and a Manchester City win.

In Bob’s words, our abroad program is “basically a minor league baseball team”. In total, our travel time to Manchester added up to around 10 hours. Despite a long bus ride, the travel was worth it to experience what game night feels like in Manchester. When we arrived at the stadium and got our tickets, we browsed the Manchester City store. There are a few die hard Man City fans on our program, so it was essential to purchase some match day attire. We then set off to find a place to grab a bite to eat. We found a local pub where most of the locals go before the game. The environment was toxic; filled with passionate fans who are eager to watch good football. We enjoyed being a part of that atmosphere.

After dinner we entered the Etihad Stadium. The stadium was large (55,097 capacity) but was not as grand as Tottenham’s Wembley stadium, which holds around 90,000. The shape of the stadium looked similar to Arsenal’s Emirates stadium. We had seats higher up in the stadium that were located near the halfway line. Our great view let us see the pitch and fans better which, in our opinion, made for a better overall experience. Before kick off, the players did a traditional World Cup walk out. They held children’s hands as they walked out. Due to Man City’s nickname, there was a blue moon located at the center circle.

The game kicked off at 8:00 and from the begining Manchester City held possession of the ball for most of the game. The technical aspect of Man City is down to a science. Their pristine football is beautiful to watch. Whenever West Brom had the ball Man City would steal the ball back in seconds. After checking post-match, we found Man City had possession for 74% of the game. In the end, this ended with a 3-0 win for Man City. Their three goals included Fernandinho scoring at the 19 minute mark, De Bruyne in the 68th minute and Aguero in the 89th minute. There was dirty play on West Brom’s side who received three yellow cards. Despite the match being very one sided, the crowd was enthusiastic for the whole time. We enjoyed watching the crowds reactions to calls, goals and fouls.

It started to snow on our way back to central London. It reminded us of the cold Minnesota winter that we get to skip to take this amazing trip.

Monday January 29th, we had the opportunity to visit St. George’s Park where all of the different English National Teams train. In total there are 24 English teams that train at the 300 acre, £105 million, 12 pitch facility. We began our day by visiting the locker rooms that the national teams use when they come and train at St. Georges’ Park. We then took a tour of the facilities. We were able to see the wall of signatures with autographs of some of the best players in the world, including Leo Messi, Wayne Rooney, Luis Suarez, David Beckham and even Prince William.

We then were able to see the recovery rooms where the players utilized both a hot and cold pool, and an underwater treadmill to help with injury recovery.

After this they took us to the futsal indoor court and we learned about the rules of futsal. Futsal is played with five players on each side on a hard floored service and with a heavier ball than a usual soccer ball in order to keep it on the ground. Apparently futsal is becoming more and more popular in England as coaches believe it helps players develop their touches and speed of play. After this we got to see the strength and conditioning gym where the athletes workout which overlooks an outdoor grass pitch that is an exact replica of the Wembley stadium pitch. By having glass windows overlooking the pitch it is a reminder to the athletes of why they are training. The next stop on our tour was the indoor turf soccer pitch. The pitch was being used for a training session in which a coach was being evaluated for his UEFA A license by other coaches. He was coaching a group of boys from some of the local teams and there was about ten coaches watching him. He was also being filmed so that he could watch it and see what he could improve on. It was clear that making sure there coaches are well prepared was a huge emphasis of the facility. After this our tour was complete and we were taken to one of the soccer pitches outside for a training session with two English coaches.

We started our practice with a lot of movement to get us warmed up including some running and jumping. After this they let us play a game of 11 v 11 for the next hour. It was an incredible experience to be able to play on one of the pitches that some of the English National Teams also practice on. We were split into two teams of 11, a blue team and a pink team. The pink team got off to a quick start going up 3-0 in the early parts of the game. The blue team however slowly made their way back in the second half evening up the score 3-3 with five minutes left in the match. As the final whistle blew, we all thought that we were going to end in a draw, but our coaches had another idea for us. We then went into penalty kicks to decide which team was going to win and which team would lose. The two teams tied in penalty kicks 2-2 after some incredible goal keeping by Aaron Prentice of the blue team and Dylan Rye of the pink team. We then went into sudden death penalty kicks, where Anna Huber scored a goal in the bottom left corner to seal the victory for the blue team. It was an incredible day being able to walk in the shoes of the English National teams, and be able to train in the exact location that some of the best players in the world train.

On Monday, the 22nd, we took a trip to Southampton to get a rare insider’s look into Southampton Academy, one of the finest soccer academies in Europe.  Producing players, such as Gareth Bale, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Adam Lallana, James Ward Prowse, etc. we were treated to a day learning about the Southampton Way thanks to our generous host Toby Redwood, Southampton Football Club Education Manager.

We boarded a coach bus as a team at 6:30am and departed very sleepily to first visit St. Mary’s stadium. Upon arrival at the stadium we were all excited to stretch out our legs and begin the tour. The stadium was similar to Arsenal’s in that it took pride of their team achievements but the Emirates stadium is newer and therefore more technologically advanced in terms of design. The seating was very typical of any other stadium except it only held 30,000 which is about half the seating of a typical stadium constructed in recent years.

Southampton’s stadium is much more intimate. The risers go right up to the edge of the pitch. The field’s grass is pristine but a bit torn up given the match Southampton just had against the Tottenham Spurs the day before (the match ended in a draw 1-1). We got to experience the views from the box seats. Oliver stated, “The box seating was cool because they didn’t just use their box seating for the football matches, but also rented them out for other business events too.” That showed how Southampton is doing their best to maximize the utility of their stadium. After, we made our way to the locker rooms for both the away and home team. It was eye opening to see the difference between the away team locker room and the home team’s. They put mirrors on the backside of the away team’s bathroom stall doors in attempt to intimidate their opponent by making it appear as though they are wearing Southampton’s kit. It was a funny prank to help get inside the heads of the opposing team. It all ended though when an angry arsenal player decided to tear it off. They haven’t replaced it since.

The tour took us through Southampton Academy’s headquarters where the recruiting takes place. We also saw the lounging area where the players relax, the training fields, classrooms where they keep up with their schoolwork, and even a room where they can stretch out their boots and steam them before practicing. The visit to Southampton Academy left this group of athletes dreaming up potential improvements to Carleton College athletic facilities.

On Friday, after class, the group took the tube to the Tower Bridge and Borough Market. The Tower Bridge is a beautiful bridge in downtown London. It is very close to the London Bridge. However, the London Bridge is much older and has more history. The Tower Bridge is a popular tourist spot to take photos and check out the view of London on the water. We took a couple group photos and enjoyed the view before hunger took over and headed out to get some food.

Then we walked down to the Borough Market and had lunch. Borough Market is a very popular spot for locals and tourists to grab a quick bite to eat. Once at the market, everyone sort of split off to check out the different stands and foods available. The different food stands seemed to cover cuisine from every corner of the Earth. There was everything from Indian cuisine, to vegan burgers, to fudge to fruit stands. Arguably the best part about Borough Market were the samples. Nearly every stand offers free samples for their products. After eating a sample from nearly every food and drink stand, Carleton purchased a variety of food nearly as diverse as our campus itself.

The atmosphere and food was great and everyone in the group agreed that a return trip to the market is completely necessary in the very near future.

On Thursday afternoon, we had the opportunity to visit Lord’s Cricket Grounds which is widely considered the home of Cricket. We began our visit with an hour long clinic, where we had two instructors teach us how to play Cricket. As none of us had any experience with Cricket, we certainly were not the best players to ever walk through their training grounds, but we all tried our best to learn Cricket with an immense amount of enthusiasm. We began the training session by learning how to bowl. The hardest part for everyone was keeping their elbow straight as they spun their arm in a windmill fashion in order to get the desired bowl. Since all of us had grown up either playing baseball or softball it was extremely difficult to convince our bodies that it was ok the keep your elbow straight and bounce the ball into your target. We finished the clinic by playing a live scrimmage. Our group was broken up into two teams, one in the field and one as the batsman. It took us a while to figure out how to hit the ball as it came in on a bounce, but soon both teams were scoring runs, and we even had a few members of our group achieve the six run hit, where they hit it past a line on the fly.

After our training session, we were able to have a tour throughout Lord’s Cricket Grounds. Having been built in 1814, the stadium revealed to us Cricket’s longevity as a sport. Baseball, often considered the classic American game, and even football are both nearly a century younger than Cricket.   We began our tour in the long room, which is where the 18,000 members of Lord’s are able to dine and watch the Cricket matches. Probably the most impressive aspect of long room was the sheer multitude of Cricket-centric paintings varying from the famous image of GC Grace to Charles Cundall’s view of Lord’s in 1938.  We then went up stairs and visited the two dressing rooms for the home and away teams. What was surprising to us was how modest they were. There wasn’t any fancy equipment or anything that you would see in a locker room for a Football club, Baseball clubhouse, or American Football locker room. In addition, both the home and away locker rooms were exactly the same, which our tour guide accredited to the fact that Cricket is the gentleman’s sport. They were simple and clean; white walls with past statistics of the finest performers in Lord’s two hundred year history adorned the walls. We concluded our tour at Lord’s in the large media center overlooking the Cricket grounds as the last bit of light disappeared from the sky. As a result of our visit to Lord’s, the group gained a level of respect and admiration for Cricket that certainly none of us had before the afternoon.