baseball is considered low culture in london...

So I'm in London for the semester, and, honestly, a good part of the reason I'm here now instead of last fall when I had originally planned to go is because of October and my inability to fathom missing the post-season. This way, I only have to miss April, and we all know April doesn't really count anyway (as the Astros proved last year), although I am bummed about missing opening day, because I LOVE opening day and that fresh, new, spring's-coming-even-though-it's-still-40-degrees-in Boston, baseball buzz in the air. Of course, now I'm definitely talking about Boston, because the baseball atmosphere in Houston (excepting the past two years) is next to nil at almost any time you can think of. But back to my point. I'm in London, where, as you can see by the title of this entry, baseball is considered "low culture" and looked down upon in comparison to their revered football (soccer, remember, soccer) and whatever else it is they consider "sport" here. And no, they don't say "sports," they say "sport." And it's still funny every time.

At least I can still keep track of what's left of the hot stove, which is more like cooling embers at this point, over the internet, so I do get my baseball fix each day. (Which, by the way, leads me to the point that I can't really decide how I feel about Arroyo getting three years. I mean, good for him for taking the discount price so he could stay in Boston, but ... is he really worth three years for us? At least he didn't get a no-trade option. He's young... maybe he'll stabilize.)

However, the entire point of this entry when I decided to write one was that I left my baseball caps in the States. Yep, that's it. When I was packing to come to London, I had my two Red Sox hats and my Astros hat sitting there on the floor next to my suitcases, debating whether I should take them or not (or even just one of them). But I decided, no, I'm not going to be the stereotypical American with a baseball cap on all the time when living in another country for four months, and I should try to adapt to the English culture as much as possible. So I didn't bring my cap. And now.... I miss it. I don't miss anything else (at least not yet) about the U.S., except for that one thing. Sad, isn't it?

I want my Sox hat.