you're splashing in?

"is that the english flag?"

(the four of us look at each other, me a little embarrassed that i don't know the answer)

"i don't know. maybe?"

"just say 'hey.'"

"hey."
(no response)

"HEY. hey, london!"

(boys draped in what we find out is the english flag turn around.)

"is that the english flag?"

these english rugby fans kinda give us an "a-duh" look and ask where we're from. we make a buncha stupid american jokes, and end up watching the whole game with these guys. we were at the champ de mars in front of the big screen, on a lawn FILLED with people for the 3rd place match between france and argentina. half the people were there to cheer for france, a handful to cheer for argentina, and the rest solely to cheer against france. every time france scored (which wasn't that much), the english fans chanted, "SIT DOWN, SHUT UP!" we (i'm clearly part of the french rugby team) didn't have much to say back, so we just sat down.

anyway, in typical american fashion, we didn't know how to play rugby. our english friends bulleted the basics for us, so we were able to follow the game (i can't say the same for the 4 drunkards who passed out next to us...lol). after the game, we all stayed around talking and snapping pictures for a while. the english boys wanted to go to a bar (as it turns out, i don't know where ANY bars are...what a good college kid i am, eh?) and wanted us to tag along. at this point it's about 11:10 and we kind of wanted to catch the last metro, but figured we could maybe go to a bar and have a beer with these guys.

ha. yeah, right. first, it took us forever to find a bar. then we found one, but it was way expensive, so after they had a drink (7 euro for them isn't that many quid...lucky bastards), we went to rhubarb cuz we knew they had happy hour drinks for girls all night on friday. it turns out they offer that because it's a gay bar...lol, oops. ashley and i are standing by the bar, waiting to order drinks, and we hear one guy go to this other guy, "so, you wanna go back to my apartment and make out?" we couldn't help but look over. the one starts hitting on ashley even though he's so obviously gay. she went downstairs, and then he asked me the craziest thing i've ever been asked in my life.

"so, how do you feel about gang bangs?"

hahahahah. we hung out at rhubarb until they kicked us out at 2 and wandered down to the next bar. we all got another beer and played kings. yeah, it didn't work that well in the bar, but we were having such a great time all hanging out with each other that it didn't matter. the english guys had a great time poking fun at us (do you know how many countries are in the EU? name them...oh, you americans, you're so innocent...you don't even have a passport, do you?) and teaching us english slang.

at about 330 we decided it was probably time to leave (and we had wanted to catch the last metro..lol now we were closer to hopping on the first one). amalia, chris and i caught a cab together and made it home by 4 am. sheesh. those english boys. they were so fun to hang out with because they were LOUD and they didn't give a crap. usually, when we go out, we're real quiet and feel bad whenever we anger the french. these guys, however, drank and yelled and didn't apologize for it. they had a good time no matter what dirty looks the french gave them. we made plans to meet them at the lawn tonight to watch the england-south africa game (we promised to cheer for england). even if we don't meet up with them, i anticipate more great times with the rugby fans :-D

p.s. a fave quote of the night: "it's better to be dead than to be french." lol.