North American week

Here at Goodenough College they hold cultural weeks, organised by the residents.

Lucky coincidence had last week as North American week. This was perfectly timed with the US Presidential election. And while the election was a very big part of last week's activities, Natalie and I enjoyed some of the other things on offer.

The organising team for the week were successful in getting the newly arrived First Secretary of the US Embassy, London, to speak in an after dinner talk here at the college on Friday.

After an introductory talk for about ten minutes on the US Election the floor was turned over to the students for their questions and comments on the elections and US Foreign Policy. While things got a little controversial at times it was an interesting forum and certainly Natalie and I took away a bit from it.

What was really great to see was that the First Secretary stayed back afterwards for more informal chats with students. I joined in on this. He seemed to really enjoy the discussions held in the informal setting.

Saturday night was Thanksgiving Dinner night. And while US Thanksgiving is still a few weeks away this was timed to coincide roughly halfway between US and Canadian Thanksgiving, which is in early October. The food for this was really good.

Finally Sunday saw a game of flag football. Think oztag/touch footy meets gridiron.

I have been very sore since, mainly from my right hamstring which was a little stiff after the warm up. But Natalie and I both had fun, playing on different teams. Natalie's team in the end got up to win the 'Turkey Bowl' trophy. I am pleased though that I was able to score a touchdown and come close on a couple of other occasions. I also had a hand in introducing the Nebraska 'option' to our team which successfully ran it for good yardage. And yes, before some of my cricketing friends ask, there was little wind about.