Polo Perfect
Sunday was a perfect day for polo. Had you talked to me a few weeks ago and I probably couldn’t have told you what a perfect day for polo looked like, but Sunday seemed pretty good to me. Sunny skies, no rain – a definite feat for London, that’s for sure.
My friend Lauren is working for a company that was helping with Polo in the Park 2014 and we decided this would be an opportunity to experience a side of the “posh” British society.
We got there and immediately felt out of place. Yes, we were dressed the part, like everyone else, but that didn’t matter.
Any sport where you have to own a minimum of two horses to play is already out of my league. I know my way around horses thanks to the Walkers and their days showing but this was a completely different crowd. Cowboys in boots mucking stalls and riding from the show arena to the barn are in another bracket all their own.
We quickly learned that polo is a fairly quiet sport. There is clapping involved but we clapped too loud and cheered, which was out of place with the rest of the crowd. Oh well – we are just silly Americans after all.
The food…I can’t even begin. I barrage of food trucks and stands were set up in one area; picking what I wanted to eat was the hardest decision of the day. Surprisingly, little pieces of home popped up. Stella and Dot had a tent set up, selling their jewelry. Who knew they were international? A Kansas license plate hung from one of the food tents: KC BBQ. While it was tempting to have some brisket, I opted for something I have never heard of and couldn’t name if I tried – it was delicious.
Perhaps my favorite part of the whole day was halftime of each of the matches. The matches themselves were exciting and I enjoyed trying to figure out the rules but halftime required audience participation. Close your eyes and picture this: hundreds of fabulously dressed men and women, some in heels, taking to the pitch and fixing the divots in the ground. That’s right, during a break between the first two chukkas and the last two, spectators are asked to go clean up the pitch so the horses don’t trip. It was comical watching little kids race around to see how many holes they could fill in contrast with women in stilettos prancing around putting dirt and grass back in its place. Something about it made me feel a little less out of place.
While I enjoyed my high society experience, don’t expect me to be following polo anytime soon. Oh and in case you were wondering, Abu Dhabi won the tournament.
Cheers, Abby
Things I miss:
- My bed. Yes mom, my mattress at home that I complain about is better than the one I have here. A visit to the chiropractor may be in order when I get home.
- Not living with 8-11 other people. I love the group I am with, don’t get me wrong, but you can imagine the living quarters of nine girls and three guys….
- Traveling above ground. Ask anyone I am with, my number one complaint is that you don't know where you are when you get there, you just pop out from underground with not a clue in the world where you are. (I don’t miss paying for gas, the cost here is about $9+ a gallon; if I complain about that when I get home, you have ever right to remind me of this.)
- An endless supply of peanut butter. I’m in week four and have already finished a whole jar…
- Dollars. Pounds are overrated.
- Stick gum.
Things America needs that London has:
- English muffins – actual English muffins. Don’t be fooled Americans, we are doing it wrong.
- Switches on outlets. It allows you to turn off the electricity flow to each outlet when you aren’t using it – genius! For a country that always talks about our carbon footprint, we should probably look into this.
- Posts that you put your gum and cigarettes in. Seriously, the streets here are actually crazy clean and I think this has something to do with it. (See picture in Facebook album)