Really, I should have written about this sooner, but I hadn't taken my camera to class yet, and you really needed to see this to understand.
The Dutch sure do love their orange! Why orange you ask? The national flag is red white and blue! This refers back to the Dutch Royal family. Since the 13th century, the family ruling the Netherlands has been the House of Orange-Nassau. Thus, Orange is the unofficial, official color.
Ok, so I've made fun of soccer and the whole World Cup thing in previous posts, but in all honesty it isn't that bad.1. I can follow the game relatively well
2. There isn't a lot of down time the way there is in other sports (namely Football and Baseball) so I don't get distracted.
3. It's fun join in all the local's excitement.
Honestly, are any of you getting this World Cup excitement over there in the states? Is anyone taping inflatable Statue of Liberties and Bald Eagles to their front doors? Are there buildings that have been painted red, white, and blue? I'm not thinking there are. That's alright, America tends to focus on other things, but still I have yet to be anywhere in America that has gotten so excited over a single game! Alright, I know New Orleans was pretty psyched back February, and Boston went into mass hysteria over their World Series win several years ago, but there aren't places like this in Mississippi, and... dare I say it, I'm not a Cowboys fan in Texas.I'm soaking this in for all its worth.
Today at 4:00 (16:00 for you European minded folk) the Netherlands played Brazil. Brazil was most definitely favored to win this match I believe and so can you explain everyone's elation when Holland won 2-1!!
Yep, that's right. Some of my friend and I headed down to the city square and fit ourselves into the back corner of a pub and joined in with the screams (both of delight and frustration).
Then the the time ran out everything went chaotic! Apparently, its the going thing to, after your team makes it into the final four, to drive through city center honking your horn with flags and streamers.
So Holland's made it in and Uruguay and Ghana are playing right now (1-1). Argentina plays Germany tomorrow at 16:00 and Paraguay plays Spain at 20:30. (These are my times for the game because we're in the same time zone, so the translations I think are 10:00 and 1:00)We're all hoping that Germany pulls it out tomorrow and hopefully to play the Netherlands for the final. If they do all the Baylor kids are threatening to take a field trip to South Africa to see the final game. (Our Baylor Director is from Germany, we think he might just go for it! haha!)
Ah well, I'll keep you up to date. Oh, and here's the results of my to do list so far. One day down, two more to go!
1. write 10 page paper for Literature class
2. 2 walking tours around Maastricht(1)
3. find new favorite restaurant in the Netherlands
4. start 3 5 page papers for my history classes
5. Watch Holland and Germany win their soccer games (1)
6. Visit Belgium.
