ORANJE!If you don't follow football (and by football, I mean soccer), you might not much care about this post. I'm not a big fan of football, and never could get into club play, but I do like international competition, such as the World Cup and the FIFA Euro Cup.
Which is currently happening in Austria and Switzerland.
The Netherlands, which seems to accept the name "Holland" for international football tournaments, is in a pool with France, Italy, and Romania - which left most Dutch people rather pessimistic about their chances. I figured I would root for Holland, but if neither Holland nor the Czech Republic made it I would just as happily root for France or Italy.
And then, lo and behold, Holland comes out and beats World Champion Italy, 3-0. I watched the game in House 4, on a huge screen, with 20 or so other students - Alex Whitcomb from Zimbabwe and myself being the only non-Dutch people in the room. After the victory, we sang Dutch football songs, karaoke style.
Faith was restored, but next, Holland had to play France. For this match, on Friday night, Dilyana and I went to Cafe Brooklyn, where televisions were set up outside, beers were 1,50, and waiters and customers alike were decked out in orange. (I was too!)
And Holland won, 4-1! We were at the back of the crowd and couldn't see very well, but of course you can tell when a team scores by all of the jumping Dutch people shouting "Hoera!" And singing that "de overkant is stil" - the opponents are silent - in the direction of five or so French fans dressed in bleu.
Afterwards, of course, we had to go out and celebrate.
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