Who could have known 8 months ago when I applied to this program that I would soon be in the midst of a very ecstatic country who was about to win the soccer World Cup tournament? Yes, about to win. No matter what that octopus says.
Little trivia fact about me: I LOVE playing soccer. LOVE. But the problem with that is that this makes watching soccer almost painful... it just makes me feel antsy to go play it myself!
But now that we are in Europe, where soccer is THE BIG DEAL, everyone everywhere is involved in the soccer games whether their country’s team is still in it or not. And now I’m super into the games. Which means not only do we find somewhere to play soccer in every country, but we also watch every game we can. We’ve watched the World Cup from the first game (when we were in the Czech Republic) until this final end. And I couldn’t be more excited to be in the Netherlands right now for their epic win tomorrow night!
Oisterwiejk, the town of our residence for our time here, is decorated in more orange (the Netherland’s color) and soccer memorabilia than I’ve ever seen any city decorate in red and green for Christmas. People flock to the local bars and restaurants to watch the games together on the big screens. Just about everybody here wears a bright orange shirt and carries a vuvuzela with them on the day of a big game… and everybody waves and cheers at everyone else whether they know them or not because they just know they’re ALL rooting for orange.
Tomorrow’s game will be interesting and, I’m sure, very tense. I had originally thought it might be fun to travel to Amsterdam to watch the game on a big screen there (with TONS of other orange crazy people), just for the awesome cultural experience it would be. Since then, at least 5 people have told me… “Lizzie, stay away from the riots.” “Lizzie, don’t get trampled.” “Lizzie, don’t go anywhere near any sort of bar because the Dutch people will get crazy.” … So, for your own mental peace, I wanted you all to know that I won’t be going to Amsterdam. Just being in the Netherlands for this game is awesome enough.
Hup Holland Hup! Go Netherlands!
Oh yeah... and I finally broke down and bought cleats as souvenirs. Check out the ORANGE!
1 comment:
GOOD BUY :)
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