A rich diet of English media

I've recently returned from a family trip to London. While I often look forward to "unplugging" while on vacation, during this trip I was an avid media consumer.

That largely meant World Cup coverage and obsessive national concern with the trials and all too few triumphs of England's team. Picture the kind of over-coverage the Packers get during the NFL playoffs and multiply at least tenfold.

For me, that meant a breakfast read of the Guardian and its stable of columnists, then paging through Metro during a tube ride to whatever sight was on the day's agenda and picking up a copy of the free Evening Standard on the ride home. Follow that with watching that evening's featured match on BBC 1 or ITV and listening to talk radio as I drifted off to sleep.

While visits to the British Museum and the Globe Theater were vacation highlights, following the national team is what really made me feel like I was getting to know the real England.