Soccer Craziness

I should call it football, because it's football, not soccer, but I figure that people reading this might be confused. I get razzed when I say soccer, so I apologize if I lapse into calling it football in this entry.

I know I haven't updated this blog in a while, but I have been highly distracted by soccer. Because of the tournament, I haven't been able to stay in the same place for very long, so as a result I was in Basel, then Bren, then back to Basel, then back to Bern, then back to Basel, then to Zurich. I haven't had much time on the internet either, so most of that has been spent figuring out where I'll be sleeping the next night. Needless to say, it has been a crazy few days, but I'm in a relaxing period now, so I thought I'd update.

I've watched 12 soccer games already, which blows my mind.

Soccer fans are crazy. Sometimes it's like a good crazy, like taking three weeks off of work, traveling several countries away, and spending three days before a match cheering with other fans, even when you don't have a ticket. Other times its not such a nice crazy, like when they get mad at Americans for being in the FanZone because we're not allowed to cheer for another country, never mind the fact that I was neither cheering, nor wearing Holland orange.

But the energy here is just unimaginable. I don't know how they care so much (I feel like a lot of it has to do with the alcohol that flows, literally, from the street fountains). I don't think you would ever see an American take off work for literally a month to go watch a sport when he doesn't even have a ticket. But it really is a good excuse to travel and see Europe for those people who never have in their lives. I think more people are coming to this one since Switzerland and Austria are so central on the continent. I've met people from every country that's playing and even some who aren't.

The major cities set up fan zones, with giant (like, several meters wide) televisions that broadcast the games for everybody who wants to come. The best part, of course, is that its free, but its also good because it's easy to find everybody I want to talk to, and they are often inebriated enough to open up to me.

I really like the fans, they're a different breed than other people. They come from all walks of life but become one giant, indistinguishable blob of their countries' colors when they show up here. I've seen more face and body paint then a whole season in UNC's risers. Watching the games with actual fans has been somewhat overwhelming, though. I try to go wearing neutral colors so nobody will bother with me. That has almost proved more difficult with people asking me (in other langauges) who I'm cheering for any why I'm there. I often say I'm cheering for the USA and they laugh and walk away. There's no real concern for personal space, and fights between opposing camps have been known to break out. The fan zones have often been so packed that they stopped letting people in. In Bern I got closed out of it after trying to get some food. In Zurich I had a place by the water and kept thinking I was going to be pushed in.

One plus of this project is that I've learned how to say, "Excuse me. I am an American journalist. do you speak English," in multiple languages, and that makes me feel like I'm learning things and other cultures. The problem is that if they say no then I don't know what to do. Often times they will keep saying things in their language, which is really difficult. I think I've gotten pretty good at the "I'm sorry, I have no idea what you're saying, I'm just an American tourist" face. I'm a little disappointed that none of British teams qualified, since I would have had more people to talk to, but oh, well.

I even got a German phrase book because my brother never filled me in on important phrases. I didn't even know how to say bathroom when I got here, which is a word I think you should know in every language. Good thing there's that international symbol of a guy just standing there to indicate where I need to go. But I figured if I'm spending two months in German-speaking countries, then I should cave and learn some German. I've gotten pretty good at "Ich spreche Deutsch nicht" (I don't speak German). Other than that though, I'm pretty much lost. I can't understand other people at all, but then again I'm not really trying.

One of the highlights of my trip's ad-lib nature is that my roommate a few nights ago was a Mexican journalist. I talked to him for a while about his job and football and globalization of football and all sorts of jazz that was both interesting and informative. I think that would be a sweet job, following your national team. You'd get to go to all sorts of cool places and talk to interesting people and, of course, watch football all the time.

I'm off for an adventurous day today that's somewhat unrelated to soccer (and when I say unrelated, I mean completely unrelated), but I'll fill you all in on it next time.