Tennessee 51 - 13 Georgia State

I think it's fair to say that my first American football game was a success! 

We 'tail-gated' at the International house, about 100 of us where they put on a BBQ and played the Tennessee anthems to get us in the mood before we all headed to the Neyland Stadium, which is only about a 15 minute walk from where I live on campus. It poured it down for the tailgate party and for about the first half of the game but that seemed to add to the fun of it all. Shannon, who lives next door to me claims to be 'the biggest football fan on campus' so we were guaranteed to have a good time! 

Shannon 'the biggest football fan on campus'

First Football game - Go Vols!

I definitely don't understand the rules to American football yet and there seems to be a lot of unnecessary stopping and starting, but it was still fun to watch. The highlight was the Marching band - they were AMAZING - apparently they're one of the best in the country. We also had cheerleaders right in front of us (we had great seats that the International house had got for us) so I spent most of my time people-watching, or watching the cheerleaders and the band, rather than the actual football!

Member of the Pride of Southland Marching band

UK, USA & Brazil unite

The game went on for 3 and a half hours!! So we made our own entertainment for part of it, including a game of England v America.

We've found quite a lot of linguistic differences but it's lucky that we all know how to joke about it. Today's favourite was profiteroles - that American's call cream puffs.

Rainy day at the Neyland Stadium

The rain won't dampen our spirits!

All in all it was a really fun day! I've not got tickets for the next game (next Saturday) because I didn't register in time, but I'm quite glad because I wouldn't want to do it every week, just once in a while. I can't cope with all that Orange all the time. The key to a good outfit is; the brighter the better! 

So much ORANGE at Neyland Stadium