Sunday, January 25, 2009

"Suck it Lauren Ramsay"

After being here for 2 and a half weeks, I've been starting to establish a weekly routine, which is exciting. I'm happy to start getting in the flow of life. I like being able to know what to expect out of a day and work toward a goal at the end.

Some of the kids here at CMRS have developed a Sunday night routine.

Part 1 of the routine:
St. Peter's Sunday night church service.
My friend Matt Roe sings in the choir at the college across the street, and sings at Evensong Sunday nights. Alexia, Kenzie, Andrew, Ian (who happens to be Jewish) and I headed over to watch him sing. The choir, composed of St. Peter's college students, was amazing and incredibly talented, the music they sang was absolutely beautiful. But it turned out to be more than an evening of singing, it was actually a church service. I had previously met and chatted with Sally, the assistant chaplain, at meals in St. Peter's Hall and was thrilled that she gave the message that night.

The chapel is beautiful and old with stained glass windows and massive ceilings. I must admit that I am not used to traditional services full of hymns and pre-written prayers, but I found something strangely beautiful, calming, and peaceful about this service. So much so, that I am planning on going here every Sunday night. After the service, we drank Sherry provided by the church(so unlike the states) and then went to dinner at the dining hall, where I talked to 3 British guys about the crappy British TV shows I have been watching(for which they mocked me), we talked about American football, and other cultural differences. It was great and then my American friends and I headed to a pub.

Part 2: Pub Quiz!
This pub down the road has a quiz night on Sunday nights where they have 10ish categories ranging from sports to cooking to "Ask the Locals". Every category had 5 questions, each incredibly difficult and based on local wisdom (which as Americans, we don't have much of-but in teams we like to convince ourselves that we have a chance). Last Sunday 12 of us from St. Michael's Hall headed over to pub quiz; we formed 2 rival teams. My team of allstars cleverly named ourselves Across the Pond. We were one among 18ish teams; there were literally more than 75 people packed in this pub. It was awesome to be surrounded by a ton of British people! And I soon became the most well-known American at this pub.

The quiz master began introducing all the teams with which we would be competing and to my surprise I heard Suck it Lauren Ramsay. I could not believe it! Our American rival team had so humorously named themselves Suck it Lauren Ramsay.

I could not stop laughing. I wish I had counted how many times the announcer said "Suck it Lauren Ramsay" in the 2 hours we were there because even a conservative estimate would have been more than 15 times. Every round the quiz master announced the teams and their scores and sometimes he called out certain teams to mock their answers (obviously our rival American team was mocked a lot for their bogus answers, particularly those pertaining to a certain Lauren Ramsay). When the other team didn't know an answer their answer was Lauren Ramsay, which lead to some hilarious quotes from the oh-so-sassy quiz master:

"I am pretty sure Lauren Ramsay was not Elton John's original name".

"No, Lauren Ramsay was not the British Sports Personality of the year".

"Lauren Ramsay is not the answer to any of these questions. But she is the answer to one of my questions, to which she will probably say no". (He did ask for my number over the microphone, which I had to refuse him...I don't have a cell phone, so my friend Alexia so kindly left him my e-mail address on the last answer sheet we turned it. He still hasn't e-mailed me. Go figure.)

I also do not think the phrase "suck it" holds as much sassiness as it does in the states; unfortunately, the Brits seem to take it more literally. When the other team told the quiz master their name he asked, "Does she really? or is it not worth asking."

Needless to say I'm looking forward to what the future Sunday nights have in store. I'm anticipating delightful bonding with CMRS and ridiculous team names.

4 comments:

  1. HAHAHAHahahaha!! omg, that is SO AWESOME. lolol

    which one of your friends came up with that Team name? because i want to shake their hand. that's an amazing story.


    "Lauren Ramsay is not the answer to any of these questions. But she is the answer to one of my questions, to which she will probably say no".

    HAHAHa!! BOW CHICKA BOW BOWWWWwww
    sounds like the announcer has the hots for you ;D hehehe

    MISS YOU!

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  2. THIS IS THE GREATEST POST I HAVE EVER READ.

    I miss you. Glad you're having fun, lovey :D

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  3. Gracie is a smart person... I TOTALLY agree! Thanks for making me laugh my hiney off.

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