Looking forward to the World Cup

Football: Not for the faint-hearted

Posted by Laura Geggel at 10:52 AM

This past week I've mostly been holed up in my room or cafes working on my papers and then dashing out at night when I can't stand sitting still any longer. I'm alternating my nights out between salsa classes and intensive football-watching. (And by football, of course, we mean soccer, not that silly thing Americans play.)

Yasemin and I had to check out three pubs before we finally found a little Italian restaurant that had satellite TV and was playing the Milan-Roma game. The top floor was so crowded we could barely see the screen, so the owner let us go down to the basement and join the crowd down there. Downstairs was even more packed, but at least there were chairs! Pretty much everyone except for us spoke Italian, and they were all spontaneously bursting out into cheers and taunts.

The Arsenal-Barcelona game was even more intense. We had to squeeze against the wall and watch out for overly jubilant fans jumping and spilling their drinks. Arsenal lost 2-1, which really made all the Tottenham fans rejoice. Brutal.