World Cup Fever

I've caught a touch of this bug from Eric. He's a big football fan, wants to watch every game for the fun of it. I'm a big fan of watching people from different countries watch international sporting events together. And watching those games in bars that have libraries of English books.

It doesn't need to be a big group of people, just watching a game with one person from a different country can be really fun. The people don't even need to be from the countries that are competing. It's just so exciting to know that, no matter how different the country, its people get equally excited about certain things. The team loyalties can sometimes get political, and lead to fascinating discussions (I really mean, you get to hear what that person really thinks about people from another country in a more honest way that you would ever hear them in any context). And it's a fun, fascinating way to learn swear words from around the globe.

Mae Sot, with its huge international volunteer community, has a large World Cup watching party every single night from 8 pm to 4 am. Monday, Eric and I watched Australia's "Socceroos" score their first World Cup goals EVER to beat Japan 3-1 -- in a group that included 3 Australians, 1 Englishman, 1 Frenchman, 2 Germans, 2 Austrians, 2 Canadians and 4 Americans. Oh, the shouting and crying and high-fiving. Loyalties for the following US v. Czech Republic game were geographically divided, with all EU natives supporting the Czechs.

I really don't care who wins, I'm just excited to be guaranteed exciting entertainment every evening for the next month.