World Cup Opener

As the World Cup has begun I have further realized that one thing I miss about being home is having a tv that I can plant myself in front of to watch major sporting events. This was, of course, evident to me during the Super Bowl, Olympics, March Madness and French Open, just to name a few. The World Cup is on that same platform. There are so many games and so many fabulous stories it would be cool to get to watch it all without having to sit in a bar and feel bad because all I really want to drink is water. It would be neat to turn it on during the day while I'm around the apartment just meandering around. It would be really cool to still have friends from all different countries here to watch games with. Sadly, almost everyone except the Mexican students has gone home. Don't you worry your twinkle toes though, we did watch the opening match of this year's tournament with the one and only Mexicans. As you I'm sure know, the first match of the tournament was between them and the host nation South Africa. We went over to an apartment where 4 Mexican ladies live and had some traditional Mexican food and crammed approximately 10 people in a living room surrounding a 13-inch tv. It was a grand time. Especially when there was an offsides call that everyone went bonkers about because they swore that the guy wasn't offsides due to there being a defender on the line. I calmly explained that there has to be two defenders between the ball and the goal line. My explanation was met with uproars from the Mexicans and one American. It is only one defender they demanded. I reaffirmed, actually it is two, but usually the goalie ends up being back there so most of the time it really is just one defender. Stopping a second to ponder this explanation again, I was congratulated for my thorough knowledge of the rules of soccer. This coming from a room full of soccer-bred Mexicans. Thank you very much :-)