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Two boys from the north of England

My son has spent the past two and a half years playing soccer at a Junior College about an hour or so from our home. During that time he's become good friends with a couple of lads from England who crossed the Atlantic to play for a while on pitches in the Deep South. Last night, and with only a few hour's warning, all three boys (young men, really -- they're 20 or 21) showed up at the door. One of the Brits is from Sunderland, and the other is from Bradford. After a a flurry of greetings and a brief moment of full disclosure that I do have a history as a West Ham United fan (one never knows how important those distinctions might be), they bounded past me toward the kitchen where we had two large, hot chicken pot pies waiting. They managed to leave enough for Mrs. The_Riv and I to count as our supper as well, and we enjoyed dessert (a couple of seasonal ice creams) and another hour of fairly thickly accented good humor before they retired to the back off the house.

Today both boys flew back home for Christmas and New Year's Eve. After they've returned in January, I hope they'll pay us another visit sometime during the spring semester, and that we'll be better prepared to host them more properly! Maybe they'll need a place to spend Easter. Both of them have made our son promise he'll visit them in England which we'd be thrilled for him to do. They're talking about this coming summer, so we'll see. Anyway, a fun night! Ha'way the lads!

Comments

  • Very cool!!
  • Whose accents were 'heavy'? Theirs or yours? ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Bradford's version of the West Yorkshire accent isn't as strong as it was but it's still distinctive. Sunderland's 'Sand-dancer' accent is also distinctive and similar to Geordie (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) although both places would claim that the resemblance is superficial.
  • Neat! I spent a year overseas as a college student, and being welcomed into peoples' homes was always special.

    I miss the "international scene" I enjoyed in college in Detroit, too. My parents often welcomed unfamiliar guests for holdays. My daughter's college experience has lacked that.

    Start prepping for Easter break now.

    #stockthefridge
    #pantryblitz
    #operationlarder
    #boyzneverfull
  • Liverpool fan here. Thanks for sharing the story.
  • SarasaSarasa All Saints Host
    That's a great story @The_Riv and I'm glad you managed to get the food to stretch. I also hope you go and visit them in their home towns. There are so many great bits of the UK that visitors don't often get to.
  • The_RivThe_Riv Shipmate
    edited December 2024
    Whose accents were 'heavy'? Theirs or yours? ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Bradford's version of the West Yorkshire accent isn't as strong as it was but it's still distinctive. Sunderland's 'Sand-dancer' accent is also distinctive and similar to Geordie (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) although both places would claim that the resemblance is superficial.

    LOL. Being from the lands that straddle the Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern US, of course I speak as the rest of the country *wishes they could.*

    Yes, @Kendel -- all of that will be put into motion as soon as the Holidays pass! Thank you!

    I'd love to return to GB, @Sarasa -- I was last there in 1992! And that was far too short a trip!
  • International travel can be risky for a young student. My wife, from New York, did a junior year abroad in Scotland (as did many at that time), went back to NY for a year, and then came back to Scotland to do her MLitt. And that, more or less, is how we came to be married, 52 years ago.

    She did allow that her first reaction on arriving in Aberdeen was that if the lecturers spoke the same language as the taxi driver she would never survive the classes.
  • Ah, she hadnae the Doric then!
  • Jane RJane R Shipmate
    edited December 2024
    Other Scots find Doric difficult to understand... not just Americans and Sassenachs. It's fascinating to dialectologists though.
  • I think both boys should be back at their respective homes by now. Cheers, Fellas!
  • No doubt with happy memories of chez riv
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