Name Origins

18/10 - I went out with a group of two British people, two Kenyans, two Italians, an Indian, three Americans (including me) and a Chinese guy (Sam). It was an awesome night in Bournemouth City Center, and I rode the bus home with Sam. He taught me some Chinese and I hope I remember it in the morning. Sam was drunk, and the only thing he wanted to do was go back to his room and go to sleep. I think people feel much more comfortable when you ask them about their culture, their language. There are lots of different people here, and they all do things different ways. It's fascinating.

19/10 - Defense in football is much easier than offense; it's much easier to learn. Anyway tonight I drank way too much with Bill (again, pseudonym). I got to know him a lot better and he's my friend now. But really, what American can say they've gotten drunk with a British person in England and walked home through the neighborhood with them? I'll have memories of this forever.

And during football practice I got more comfortable with playing linebacker. Linebackers basically have to shed blocks to get to the football or cover their area in coverage, and it depends on the coverage. And since there's fewer people on that side of the ball, I'll play more. I look forward to Tuesday's meeting.

20/10 - I drank and partied too much this weekend. But I'm not ashamed of it; after all, I didn't do anything I'd regret like Bill did. Anyway, today has been spent starting an essay for my sports class. It's coming along slowly but surely. And it only needs to be 2,000 words, which is very short. But it's still a struggle do start this. I never have liked academics.

21/10 - Busy day today. I woke up at 5 a.m. thanks to the tail end of the hurricane here pounding the window. But I met a fellow American named Angel today in my business class, and it turns out I'm the first American she's met so far. So it was pretty cool meeting her and her friends.

I also met with a photography student (from Iceland) working on a project about how international students are getting along in their new life. If he chooses to focus on me, he'd come to football practice and take some photos. It seems like an interesting idea, though he's had a lot more interest than he expected since he emailed all the students.

During the chalkboard session for football, we studied film of ourselves practicing, and I saw the play where I was blown up behind the line of scrimmage. It actually felt worse than it looked. But really, you think you're running fast in real life, but on camera it only looks like you're jogging. Plus, I look pretty big in pads.

I was thinking about how things are different in this country. For example, healthcare is free (because taxes are incredibly steep) and there are strict gun laws. You can own a gun, but only if you have a permit, which is difficult to get. You can't own a heavy duty firearm like an assault rifle. Even the police don't usually carry guns. It sounds like people are against guns here, and they'll demand accountability from police officers, unlike in America where the cops can shoot someone if they feel just slightly threatened. An officer with a gun makes them drunk with power, as we've seen in the states. And another thing, there's CCTV cameras everywhere you can think of. So it's interesting to think about the different ways countries do things like this.

24/10 - I know where my name comes from now: it's Swedish. It came from Brita and Olaf Lingberg when they settled in South Dakota from Sweden. Those are the grandparents of my grandfather James Lingberg. I knew he came from South Dakota, but I didn't know anything after that. I wanted to know where my name comes from after a Finnish classmate of mine asked me where my name came from.

It's been a busy week. I cooked with Stella, which came out amazing by the way, and I'm writing for the student newspaper. It's a story about the Bobcats (I don't mention myself, of course, as it's a conflict of interest already). I'm also slowly but steadily putting essays together for my sports class. I'll focus on that and then go on to the less exciting ones for the business classes.

Now that it's getting deeper into the fall, I'm beginning to see that it's always wet here. When it rains, water usually evaporates eventually. Not here.

Tonight I have football practice. I'm looking forward to it because I'm more comfortable playing linebacker now. I won't get pushed around quite as much this time around.