East Lansing, Michigan

On Thursday 22nd September we took a leave of absence from Chicago and headed to East Lansing for three nights so Will could visit Michigan State University. We took the train which took around 4 hours, arriving in East Lansing at 9pm. When I was planning the trip I found accommodation near the university incredibly hard to come by. The closest reasonably priced room I could find was about 20 minutes drive away. It turned out that the Michigan State Spartans had a home game that weekend, hence the demand for accommodation. Attending an American Football game was on the to-do list, so I managed to get us tickets for the Saturday game. 

Will spent Friday at MSU, visiting colleagues and giving a presentation at the Beacon Center which has its headquarters there. The Beacon Center is an organisation that receives some pretty hefty government funding, currently something in the realm of 5 million USD per year, for 10 years.  While Will worked, I went for a wander around the university, then spent the rest of the day exploring the local area. I was on the look-out for a green top as the football game was running a 'stripe the stadium' promotion. At a TJ-Maxx store (which is owned by the same people as the UK's TK-Maxx!) I managed to find an official long-sleeved hooded Spartans top for the princely sum of $8. I do love the shopping in this country!

I've got to say, East Lansing really isn't a very exciting place... After spending a bit of time in the shops I went for a river walk. The scenery was pleasant enough, but I did get absolutely ravished by mosquitoes. It took at least a couple of weeks to get rid of all evidence of my bites. It wasn't until afterwards that I read that Michigan does have a rather significant mosquito problem. I was very grateful that Will decided to spend 5 months of his sabbatical in California, rather than here! In the early evening I met Will back at the university and we got taken out for a very nice meal with a couple of his colleagues plus their partners. Afterwards we socialised further at one of their houses, before being dropped back to our motel.

Saturday was game day! Originally kick-off was down for the early evening, but it got changed to midday to satisfy the demands of the TV broadcasters. College football is a HUGE business in the States. MSU fund their whole athletics programme (so all sports, not just football) from the money they receive by selling the television rights each season. The football head coach is usually one of the highest paid members of staff at the top footballing universities, much to the dismay of some of Will's colleagues!

Walking to the stadium was an experience in itself. 'Tailgating' before the game is the done thing, and people pull out all the stops. Some families arrive at 7am to get the prime spots. They set up marquees (green or white of course...) and spend several hours firing up the BBQ and eating, drinking and socialising before the game.

Spartan Stadium is unbelievable. It seats a whopping 75 000 people, which is pretty crazy when you think that it is 'just' used by a college team. To put that into perspective, Spartan Stadium is one and a half times the capacity of Eden Park, New Zealand's largest sports stadium. Security was tight with no bags of any kind allowed into the stadium, including small handbags. We were only allowed to take in a small bottle of factory sealed water. We might have been able to take our 'big' SLR camera in, but didn't really want to take the risk in case we were denied entry. It means I only had my phone to take pics on, hence no close-ups of the action.

The crowd was pretty much all green and white, apart from the odd people in red supporting the opposition; the Wisconsin Badgers. I was glad I had my new top to wear! Both teams are among the top college teams in the country.

I think my favourite bit was the pre-game and half-time performances by the marching band. Below are a couple of short video excerpts from the MSU Fight Song.

 And a few pics of the band in action.

The actual football itself wasn't the greatest. The Spartans played very poorly, and the Wisconsin Badgers ended up comfortable winners. Disgruntled fans started to leave during the fourth quarter which didn't do much for the atmosphere. Will and I loved it though, it was such a great experience and nice to be able to tick it off the list. Here are a few more pics taken during the actual game.

On Sunday morning we had an early start in order to catch our 8:45am train back to Chicago. We've been using Uber (and, to a lesser extent, Lyft) whenever we needed a ride somewhere, and living in California we had been very spoilt, never having to wait more than a few minutes for a car to arrive. About an hour before our train was scheduled to depart I used the Uber App to order our ride, only to find, for the first time ever, no drivers available! We kept trying for a bit longer, getting increasingly desperate since it was going to take 20-25 minutes to drive to the train station. In the end we had to resort to using a 'normal' taxi for the first time in America, which was still going to take a good 15-20 minutes to get to us. It didn't actually end up that much more expensive than Uber would have been, probably because we were in a small town out in the 'sticks'. The taxi driver got us to the station about 2 minutes before the train arrived. No worries! Lesson learnt however, Uber works best in large towns and cities! It was nice seeing a different part of the country, and great to take in a football match, but both Will and I were very happy being back in the bustling metropolis of Chicago.