Let’s Go Yankees! - By Kenza

 Last Monday, NYLC organized an activity to launch the Baseball season. Twenty-tickets were on sale offering students the opportunity to get familiar with one of the most cherished sports of American culture. In the next 5 months, the Yankee Stadium is going to welcome thousands of people, mostly supporters, to watch their team running for the championship. 

We met before 6pm in order to arrive at the stadium on time and enjoy the full game. It should probably be added in the flyer that the average time for one game is 3 hours. Once you know that, you are not in a hurry… To keep up in the tips to improve the flyers, it may be helpful to put the floor number bigger to avoid having Hector waiting in the 10^th floor. As planned we took the B train which stopped 2 stations ahead and made us wait for the D. When the train came it was so packed that I stayed on the platform with Peker and Hector (who was supposed to back me up, what a terrific team!).

Anyway, we all arrived at destination, and had the same expression of amazement: the stadium is stomaching! You feel so small inside, and it makes you feel intimidated.  Our seats were on the bleachers, the best seats ever! We were at the middle of the real fans facing the batters. The game already started but quickly you will notice the slow dynamic of the game. As the players were playing, normal questions popped up from the students as they tried to figure out the rules of the game. It wasn’t my first game, but I still remember at my first game and how I had to wait for the next day to read the name of the winner. Therefore, I completely understood their series of questions. But, how do you explain a game to a group where no one really understands? It’s not because the rules are complicated (like the rules for the American football- which is still a mystery for me), but there are too many rules and distractions that you cannot focus on the details.

The word “throw” came back very often and I finished drawing a game to explain the basics. NYLC should definitely have an American Culture Class, not based on watching Seinfeld but where we’ll learn lexical fields of different authentic and traditional customs. Anyway, we all enjoyed attending the game, and despite the weather we had an amazing time. At least no one complainedJ . Besides the game, we had the chance to experience different attractions the Stadium offers. We tried to answer different questions about some of the Yankee players.  We had to guess the correct player based on an unidentified voice or baby picture. We danced a lot that we felt like being in a club where thousands of people where invited. The best musical moment was the YMCA dance where we tried hard to be graceful and amazing for Mounie's video. We really had fun, but we have no proof to give since Mounie wasn’t actually recording properly… Therefore, you just have to believe us! We are in America, so a game without at least a drink (mostly a beer) and a snack (mostly a big one) it wouldn’t be fun.

Finally, as a tribute (for us of course!), the Yankees won the game, and we celebrated by singing with Franck Sinatra “New York, New York”.