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UNC71-00

UNC71-00

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@BlueKicks - My daughter (no, I don't have any pics) is going to the UK for 6 weeks and Verizon has no international plans to speak of. How much of a hassle is it to get a prepaid cell phone that she can use to text while she is there?

Also, how is the free Wifi? She will be in Cambridge, Oxford and London for the most part.
 
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You can buy really cheap pre-paid phones (pay-as-you-go as they're called here) in our supermarkets. I think you can grab one for around £19.99 in most places, that'll be good just to use for texts/calls. For ones that can also connect to Wifi, I think you can find them for just a little bit more.

Tesco's and Sainsbury's are all over the place; you're probably never five miles away from one if you're in London especially. I think Morrisons also sell them, while there are the main electronic companies (Curry's, PC World, Maplin) that will too if she happens to find any of them close by.

I'd imagine she will be just fine for the free Wifi. London will be no trouble, and Cambridge/Oxford are obviously big University destinations, so internet access should be pretty well available.

Hope that helps!
 
Cheers mate

@BlueKicks other questions about pay as you go phones- do they allow texts/calls to the US? Approx how many texts does 20 euros get you?
 
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UNC71-00 said:
Cheers mate

@BlueKicks other questions about pay as you go phones- do they allow texts/calls to the US? Approx how many texts does 20 euros get you?
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It's a good question. I haven't used a pay-as-you-go phone for a long time.

May have to go to a phone store and pretend she's thinking of buying one of their products (so she can ask about calls/texts to the US on pay-as-you-go).

Will she be taking a laptop with her at all?
 
@UNC71-00

There are apps out there that she can use to call and text anyone from anywhere in the world for free. So if you want to talk to her while she's out there, you'll need to get it as well and call her through that rather than the traditional way.

My dad went overseas for work some time ago, and we used Viber to keep in touch, and it worked rather well. The calls are ok quality (some lag here and there) and texting works pretty much the same. Just another option I thought I'd throw your way.
 
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I haven't really looked into the whole Brexit thing too much to know what impact it would have on the US, and what the different outcomes would be the the UK.

I'm kind of rooting for it to happen though - without the UK and Germany the whole EU would be a complete dumpster fire. Might stop the left in the US from trying to be like the EU so much.
 
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I saw somewhere that the country of Iceland would be somewhere around the 60th largest city in the US by population.
 
As much as I rip on ESPN, the one show I do really like is SportsCenter at Night with Scott Van Pelt. He always discusses betting lines and bad beats (insta-credit in my book), and just overall seems to have a better, less douchey show than everything else on that network. Anyway, SVP was subtly ripping England after the loss. Saying how he doesn't understand why England fans think they are some super power that shouldn't ever lose a game like this. He acknowledged that yes, this was a big upset, but that England seems to think they're some super power in international soccer - when, as the past international tournaments have shown, they have no reason to think that way.

They won the world cup in '66 or whenever, have never won a Euro, and I think he said something like they haven't made the final in a major international tournament since the 66 cup they won. With that track record, how do they think they're any better than any other run-of-the-mill average European squad?
 
Hark_The_Sound_2010 said:
As much as I rip on ESPN, the one show I do really like is SportsCenter at Night with Scott Van Pelt. He always discusses betting lines and bad beats (insta-credit in my book), and just overall seems to have a better, less douchey show than everything else on that network. Anyway, SVP was subtly ripping England after the loss. Saying how he doesn't understand why England fans think they are some super power that shouldn't ever lose a game like this. He acknowledged that yes, this was a big upset, but that England seems to think they're some super power in international soccer - when, as the past international tournaments have shown, they have no reason to think that way.

They won the world cup in '66 or whenever, have never won a Euro, and I think he said something like they haven't made the final in a major international tournament since the 66 cup they won. With that track record, how do they think they're any better than any other run-of-the-mill average European squad?
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Because they invented the game and then spread it across the world through their empire, and now they can't beat any of the countries they taught the game. Additionally, the English Premier League is the most-watched and most successful (commercially) soccer league in Europe and the world, and English soccer players are notorious for never leaving England to play professionally (i.e., every single England national team player always is an EPL player as well).
 
TarHeelNation11 said:
Because they invented the game and then spread it across the world through their empire, and now they can't beat any of the countries they taught the game. Additionally, the English Premier League is the most-watched and most successful (commercially) soccer league in Europe and the world, and English soccer players are notorious for never leaving England to play professionally (i.e., every single England national team player always is an EPL player as well).
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The EPL is different, as players from other countries can go there and dominate as well. This was just focused on the national team. The point was more: they haven't won anything in 50 years... why do they think (expect) they'll make a major finals now?

As for the inventing/spreading of the game - if that happened fairly recently I could see that point, but it was long ago. That'd be like wondering why the Springfield, MA YMCA basketball team can't beat the Cavaliers - just because that's where the game originated. Or even to take the hyperbole out of it - the closest major college bball program to Springfield is Umass - Amherst. That'd be like wondering why Umass can't routinely beat UNC/UK/Duke in the final four since the game originated close to them. The English should temper their expectations for their national team - they're not a major player in the soccer world at this point (again, the national team - not their club league).
 
Hark_The_Sound_2010 said:
The EPL is different, as players from other countries can go there and dominate as well. This was just focused on the national team. The point was more: they haven't won anything in 50 years... why do they think (expect) they'll make a major finals now?
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I'm aware other nationality players can play in the EPL as I watch between 2-4 EPL matches every weekend lol. I was giving you the reasons why England thinks they should win every tournament. They invented the game, their domestic league is the best in the world, and they're a cocky people just like Americans.

Hark_The_Sound_2010 said:
As for the inventing/spreading of the game - if that happened fairly recently I could see that point, but it was long ago. That'd be like wondering why the Springfield, MA YMCA basketball team can't beat the Cavaliers - just because that's where the game originated. Or even to take the hyperbole out of it - the closest major college bball program to Springfield is Umass - Amherst. That'd be like wondering why Umass can't routinely beat UNC/UK/Duke in the final four since the game originated close to them. The English should temper their expectations for their national team - they're not a major player in the soccer world at this point (again, the national team - not their club league).
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You're thinking way too micro. Remember when people freaked the fugg out when the men's Olympic basketball team didn't win the gold a few Olympics back? Same exact thing. We were like "we invented the dang game, we better win." A better analogy is baseball. Baseball is a game that is uniquely American but we'll never be as good again as Latin American countries. If there was a World Cup-esque baseball tournament (I know there's the WBC, but I mean if there was one with the same draw and popularity as the World Cup), we would say the same thing if we didn't win the gold.
 
The British losing this game made me think of a quote from Community by John Oliver's character after he loses in a game of "hot lava": "This is why the British never win at sports, because everyone else cheats!"
 
TarHeelNation11 said:
I'm aware other nationality players can play in the EPL as I watch between 2-4 EPL matches every weekend lol.
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I'll catch an EPL game on the occasional weekend myself, when I don't have grass to watch grow, or paint to watch dry.

TarHeelNation11 said:
You're thinking way too micro. Remember when people freaked the fugg out when the men's Olympic basketball team didn't win the gold a few Olympics back? Same exact thing. We were like "we invented the dang game, we better win." A better analogy is baseball. Baseball is a game that is uniquely American but we'll never be as good again as Latin American countries. If there was a World Cup-esque baseball tournament (I know there's the WBC, but I mean if there was one with the same draw and popularity as the World Cup), we would say the same thing if we didn't win the gold.
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Yes, and I agree with this for the USA in basketball. And the same case can be made for Canada in the Olympics in regards to hockey: both those countries invented those sports and have the best leagues in their country (well, even though the NHL has less than half their teams in Canada). But the reason why the USA was pissed about botching the Athens games, was that we had the best players in the world from the USA (not just a bunch of international greats that came to the USA to play in the NBA - a la the EPL). If you named the top 20 basketball players in the world - how many wouldn't be from the USA, maybe 1? If you named the top 20 soccer players in the world, how many would be from England... maybe 1 (Rooney?).

The USA has won the Gold Medal in 14 out of the 18 Olympics in which it has been played. That is why the USA should expect to win gold in the Olympics. If there comes a time where the USA hasn't won gold in 50 years, then it should be long past time for Americans to temper expectations and realize they're not the premier basketball country anymore and haven't been for a long time. England hasn't even been to the final in a major international soccer tournament in 50 years. That is why England shouldn't expect to win or even do really well. They can be pissed off about losing all they want, thats fine - but them expecting to win is just stupid with that track record.
 
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UNC71-00 said:
@BlueKicks

Iceland? Seriously?
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Crippling.

Even in my lifetime of utter choke jobs by England at major tournaments, I think that's the worst.

(For people wondering, it's basically North Carolina getting comfortably beaten by Florida Gulf Coast in the first round of the NCAA tournament).
 
BlueKicks said:
Crippling.

Even in my lifetime of utter choke jobs by England at major tournaments, I think that's the worst.

(For people wondering, it's basically North Carolina getting comfortably beaten by Florida Gulf Coast in the first round of the NCAA tournament).
Click to expand...

So you are saying that the NCAA and the refs conspired to beat England?
 
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