I'm lying on my couch like the lazy bum I am this weekend watching the Men's Finals of Wimbledon: Nadal v. Federer. I don't know who to cheer for!! Eeep - I love both of these players - so I'm just cheering for a good game.
I feel like I've been a massive sports fan lately - y'see, I'm in Europe and both the World Cup and Wimbledon are going on. I watch more tennis than I do football/soccer - but it's impossible to avoid World Cup hype in Ireland eventhough the Irish football team didn't even come close to qualifying for the qualifiers. To be PC and on of "the cool kids" at work, you have to know who's playing when, which coworker's rooting for what team, and have at team to cheer for. Google's been my friend in helping me track matches on my Google Homepage; I knew who my coworkers were rooting for; and I chose to cheer for England for no reason other than why not? (although now I'm cheering for France in the finals - but we'll get to that in a sec).
So - when in Europe do like the Europeans - and watch the World Cup Final! (I'd better so I know if mom's going to get stampeded in Italy when the Italians play France tonight... poor Mom - she might be traumatized if she still doesn't have luggage and deals with her first trip to Europe with the Italians winning/losing to the French [I'm not sure which would be more traumatic to my poor mother]).
So, like the other night - I'm off to cheer for France. Now, I'm only cheering for France because (a) my name's French, (b) my boss is French and so into football and the World Cup, (c) I know a cheer in French 'allez les blues' (or however you spell that - "go blue!") and (d) I might be killed if I go to Sinnott's to cheer and cheer for Italy - and I really don't feel like having a hot Frenchman murder me - not the way to go.
For the semis the other night when France played Portugal, I went to see the game with my grinning boss, another one of our coworkers and bossman's friends. It was an absolute riot. We shoved our way into Sinnott's Pub: the place to watch France play if you're a French fan in Dublin. 45 mins before the game, the doors were shut and no one else was let in (thankfully) because it was packed that full; 45 mins before the game I was sweating like I was in mile 10 of a marathon and listening to the French sing their "fight song" and learning how to properly cheer for the French (and I must admit, I can say 'allez le blue' and hum the fight song after that match). We were sardines and we smelled horrible. But we swayed, cheered, sang and drank Guinness as one (ok - so I drank Kilkenny - the brewery had been going strong at work that day so I was too naucous thinking of Guinness). The French fans were absolutely fabulous and I had a great time screaming at the big screen tv's with them, going through some good ol' Irish pints and laughing as bossman shook his head at the tv in the second half muttering that the French were "crap". Such an envigorating evening.
So, I figure to get in tonight for an 7pm kickoff, I should get there around 4. However, I really want to see the end of the Nadal v. Federer tennis match - so I'm going to take my chances, get ready on commercials and scurry up to Sinnot's right after the final point of this championship to cheer for the French. Now, what clothes are comfy for jumping around, getting beer spilled on me, getting friendly with my neighbors and probably dying of heatstroke while watching football? Hrmmm - the problems of being a female football fan in Dublin!
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