O, the agony and the ecstasy of the die-hard baseball fan who is studying abroad this season! From London to Tokyo, Red Sox devotees have managed to follow the unlikely success of their favorite team.
"The games don't start until 1 a.m. and for the last games we have been up until 6 a.m.," said Nathan Papazian, who is studying with the Tufts in London Program at the University College London.
"I took a nap all day, got up at 8 p.m., did some homework, then watched the game from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m., then got two hours of sleep and then had 9 a.m. lecture," he said.
Papazian, who "cannot remember not loving the Red Sox," lamented the fact that he was out of the country during this momentous time in baseball.
"It's awful," he said. "This was my one fear about studying abroad - that this would be the year the Red Sox won. And here they are in the World Series."
Papazian said the British don't understand his enthusiasm for America's national pastime. "I have two flatmates ... and they just didn't get why we found it so interesting," he said.
"I tried to explain that it was like a soccer match - Arsenal versus Manchester United - but they still didn't understand," Papazian said.
American baseball is more important as a fashion statement than as a sports interest in London, according to junior Arun Brahmbhatt, who is also abroad with the Tufts in London program at the School of Oriental and African Studies.
"Something else that is interesting is the huge number of people that wear Yankees apparel," Brahmbhatt said. "At first, you'd think that they are actual Yankees fans but if you ever stop to talk to them, you'll realize they know nothing about baseball."
Brahmbhatt said the H&M stores in London sell Yankees hats. "It's the trendy thing to do."
Sox fans are also disturbing their neighbors in Tuebingen, Germany, where Emily Kenney said her small cell of fellow fans watches the games over a sporadic Internet connection. "When the other Tufts kids come over and watch, we aren't exactly quiet at 4 a.m.," she said.
"My neighbors don't always appreciate that," Kenney said.
The recent success of the Sox gave Kenney important perspective on her real feelings about Boston, she said. "I miss it so much! I really wish I were home to experience all of it," she said.
But American baseball does have a broad following in Japan, according to Hana Sato, a junior from Skidmore College who is abroad at the University of Tokyo.
She said Yankee fans outnumber Red Sox fans in Japan, where Hideki Matsui, left fielder for the New York Yankees, is a national hero.
"I see an awful lot of Yankees shirts, more than any other American sports team," she said.
According to Sato, the Japanese also love the Seattle Mariners. "Seriously - every day I see men on the train reading newspapers and about the only Japanese I can understand is Ichiro [Suzuki, a player on the Mariners]."
But Red Sox fans are doubtless the happiest - and the most pained - to be abroad this season.
"The Red Sox nation has no boundaries - there are fans everywhere," Papazian said.
