I'm a big World Cup fan every four years. It's great TV to have on in the background during family beach week during the summer.
I was annoyed it was in Qatar this year.
It's nothing personal against Qatar. It's because they moved the games from summer to the school year.
I get it. It's hot in Qatar. Players would be dying from heat stroke if they played in the summer. That's why the start date was moved.
However, that's the middle of the school year for me. With kickoff times at 5am, 8am, 11am and 2pm I've had to battle with students watching it during class.
I don't mind talking World Cup with kids. I follow enough that I can hold a decent conversation. It's fun when I learn new things from them, too. I stopped and sat down to watch the final minutes of a tense game with a couple students more than once (Call it "morale/relationship/community building" or whatever makes it sound better to you).
But it's gone on for weeks. I sleep and commute past the morning games and the "late" games hit at the middle of my productive peek. I get that it's a global game and super convenient for people in other countries, but it has annoyed me!
On the other hand, World Cup fever would have hit around Carrie grieving for Kitsune. I probably got to experience more conversation and excitement around it, because I was in school. Carrie certainly isn't interested in it and Pop was on the wait list for kidney this year so there was no Beach Week.
So I'm not bitter. It's fun to comically complain, but it's best to acknowledge the bad and seek the best. The games have been a big factor in the last month of school and will continue to do so until they wrap up!
This year, I was rooting for Japan in addition to the US.
I liked South Korea's plucky underdog run, too. I don't hate any teams. I rooted against Qatar for the early game times in Nov/Dec, etc. I tend to root against the teams that are traditionally dominant, because I want new people to win. I was glad when Belgium went home and decided to be a Morocco fan until they bowed out. In the finals, I was okay with either team winning, but slightly preferred if Messi would get his win.
Fun times.
Pop DVR'd the World Cup games and we enjoyed watching some of it together. I didn't know about the Japanese fans cleaning up the stadium after they won the game. That is so impressive! We were rooting for USA and then Argentina because Karla is from Argentina. I don't know if you remember her or not. We sponsored her to go to college to get her engineering master's degree, but it cost us nothing because she got a full scholarship and never had to go to the hospital for anything (which the scholarship would not cover). She and some other students from Argentina came to our house for Thanksgiving one year. We also gave her a baby shower one year. She is a happily married US citizen now with 2 daughters, same husband and a great job.
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