LONDON – If you’re going abroad to London, don’t schedule class early Wednesday morning unless you like taking tests with a hangover. Tuesday nights at Sports Cafe are a religion.

This two-story bar and club in Piccadilly Circus (similar to New York City’s Times Square) is an American staple. Students studying abroad through all different universities, from Syracuse University to Notre Dame, gather here. In class on Tuesday, no one asks where you’re going out for the night because after one week in London, everybody already knows.

Sports Cafe has four bars, a dance stage with disco lights and more than half a dozen pool tables. Picture the old Maggie’s Restaurant and Sports Bar, except bigger, nicer, cheaper and with fewer sorority girls wearing leggings. It’s open until 3 a.m., unlike many pubs in London which can close as early as midnight. Getting there is easy because it’s less than a five-minute walk from the tube station. Admission is free, drinks are cheap, the music is our own and the place is busting at the seams with people just like you.

At Sports Cafe, you’re more likely to hear a Southern accent than a British one. You can wear whatever you want without worrying you look like a sloppy American. With the blaring Top 40 hits, dim lighting and crowded dance floor, it’s like being back at your favorite fraternity party… without the dirty basement. There are even beer pong tables conveniently set up a few steps from the bar. After spending every second in a foreign country, it’s refreshing to be at a place that feels so much like home. Other Sports Cafe locations include Birmingham, Glasgow and Leeds, but it hasn’t made it out of the UK yet so don’t expect to find one in another part of Europe.

Sports Cafe is a haven for the poor, penniless student. Some clubs charge $5 for a single shot, but here you can get five shots for $6.50. There’s no cover charge with a student ID, a pint is only $1.50 and a pitcher (approximately four large glasses) is $6. If you get a cheap bottle of wine to pre-game with (most run around $4), you can have a fun evening out for less than 10 bucks.

The first Tuesday here, I didn’t go to Sports Cafe because I felt too tired. I sincerely hope I’m not that much of a wimp again. I woke up this morning with my contacts still in and, after taking a lap around the apartment, three questions: How did we get home? Why is someone sleeping on the couch? And did I make ravioli? I rushed off to class, too late to fill in the blanks. Taking notes at 9 a.m. in my three-hour lecture on Islam, only one question ran through my mind; is it Tuesday yet?

Courtney Egelston is a junior magazine journalism and political science major. Her column appears weekly and she can be reached at cegelston@gmail.com

Published on September 16, 2009 at 12:00 pm