Life Outside of the Classroom – Week 4

Hi guys, I’m David from Costa Rica and last year I started a journey for my MBA that brought me to Fisher.  I arrived in Columbus and started the Full-Time MBA program about a month ago. 

The cultural difference has been quite a shock, however the homeliness and all together close-knit nature of the Midwest that I found here in Ohio has helped a lot with adapting to my new home. 

We are getting closer to the midterms, but before this happened, I wanted to get a taste of the local sports, since back home our sport is soccer, I was curious about two of the major sports in the US: America’s sport, football, and America’s pastime, baseball. 

Football game (OSU vs. Akron) 

My first game ever in a stadium in the U.S. and the first game of the season for the Buckeyes; who played against the Akron Zips.  The whole pregame atmosphere was amazing, the entire day was dedicated to supporting the team and getting ready to enjoy the game. 

I was determined to go through the full experience, so I met with a group of friends that had agreed to meet before going to the stadium. On my way over, I could already see the rows of scarlet and gray on High Street and Lane Avenue. 

That meant little, for when I arrived at the stadium there were over 90 thousand people filling the massive coliseum with chant and cheer.  The band, not only amazing, but seemingly everywhere, was in the middle of the field spelling ‘’O-H-I-O" and then almost next to you in the bleachers adding to the good spirits. 

We won, but I’ll leave the game analysis to someone better suited for it. I’ll just share that I enjoyed the game and recommend every visitor, be it student or visitor to partake in this great tradition of supporting the Buckeyes.  

Baseball game (Columbus Clippers vs. Durham Bulls) 

While I waited for my group to arrive, I thought how clever it was to have set the meeting point at the best possible place, the Brutus Buckeye statue, which sits on a bench at the Ohio Union dressed as a baseball player. 

As we started towards the bus, we noticed the rain outside and feared that the game might be rescheduled again, and we couldn’t have that, we needed a second sport to tell you guys about the experience.  We braved the shower and boarded the bus hoping for the best. 

The rain cleared and we were glad it was over; once at the stadium the field was being prepared for the game, ironically, they were hosing the infield.  Once we dried our assigned seats, we realized they were very close to the field, so we were in for a treat, plus the net right in front of us guarded us from the incoming hits. 

The entire baseball game experience was amazing.  There was room to talk casually, while still enjoying the game.  A fun fact the I found at the stadium was the set of flags on the far end of the field that included the teams and American flag as well as the State, County and City flags, a very interesting flag GPS system to find the Huntington Park. 

Turns out the rain was an omen, and the Clippers ended up losing, but for a time during the 4^th inning we enjoyed them being in the lead.