I know there is only one football fan left in America (Alb., are you reading this?) and everytime I watch it, I have the need to inform him. I know many have pondered on why Americans don’t like football (soccer, that is)… and I will join in on this discussion, because I am very qualified to talk about this topic, having watched, like three games in my whole life.

The last time I watched it (besides the current World Cup matches) was in England, late May last year… I don’t even remember the teams or for what they were playing, but there were two teams from England, playing each other, and even though one was CLEARLY playing better than the other, the worse team WON because of penalty kicks at the end.  That’s very UNFAIR, and well, you know how we Americans are about UNFAIRNESS.  We’re all about winning on MERIT, not on some stupid rules…

So that’s ONE REASON why I think Americans will never like world football.

The SECOND REASON is that a tournament like the WORLD CUP is SO DANG COMPLICATED.  Case in point: I was trying to figure out if Korea and the US will get to the next round.  Okay, if they just win their final games, right?  NOPE.  I had to use this thingie to find out that:

• The US MUST get at least 2 goals in its next game against Ghana.  AND Italy MUST win against the Czech Republic.


• S Korea can loseor tie in its game against Switzerland and still make it into the final 16 AS LONG as France doesn’t win its game against Togo.  If France and Togo tie, then Korea and Switzerland can tie, too and Korea moves on.  If France wins, Korea has to win. 

WHAT??!??!?!?!?!?!  SEE why Americans don’t like this game?  TOOOO complicated.

Then again, I can see how it’s doubly thrilling.  A few days ago, I was cheering for the US against Italy.  Now, I need to cheer for Italy!  And if Togo beats France, then S Korea can lose and still move on… so…?   And the games are happening AT THE SAME TIME!

In “our” sports, you win the most out of 7, that’s it.  Or you win THE game, that’s it.  Simple.  Or perhaps… simple-minded.

One fun thing about the US team is the “diversity”… we have Italians, we have Germans, Brits…  we have Black-Mouths (bocanegra)…  the Korean team is funny because there are like three of each last name.  “Cho” sounds like the word for “what” in Russian (“shto”), so the Russian commentator made sure everyone knew the difference. 

I am mad.

I’ve stayed up late two nights in a row to watch football… I never ever ever watch it, but I’m a sucker for BIG events, especially when it’s “MY” team (fair weather fan, I know).

Both games were draws — and amazing ones, at that, as both Italy and France were supposed to beat the US and Korea, respectively.

I guess neither of “my” teams and “my” countries are quitters.

The US game was all about Keller, the goalie.  In Russian, his name sounds like “killer”, which is precisely what he was, with all those great saves. I am a big fan of goalies, in general.  He also tied the game for us, as the only goal was made off an Italian’s foot!  The three in the middle here were Italy fans and the couple on the left and me – US and A! US and A!

Korea does have the most amazing fans.  The audience last night in the stadium was a SEA of red.  I watched the Korea game outside on a huge screen with a good number of other Koreans.  “tae-han-min-gook!”  All the other locals were cheering for France. Go figure.

Unrelated note: I taught S School for the first time in English AND Russian…oh man, was that interesting.  5 Russian speaking kids and three English speaking kids in one class… I made dramatic gestures so as to distract from my bad accent on words I was reading that I didn’t know.

It’s 10:18pm here in Uz-land, and in a few hours, I’m going to a hotel to watch the US play Italy in the World Cup.

I really don’t care that much about “football”, in fact, but one of my local friends is crazy about I-ta-ly… and it’s kind of a “wild” thing to do, so that’s why we’re doing it.

I’ve been looking at the interesting slideshow “Soccer Wives and Girlfriends” on SI.com….. I guess if you’re a famous, hot soccer player, you gotta have a young, hot girlfriend or wife to go with. 

Which reminds me — don’t you think most normal couples you meet have similar levels of attractiveness, i.e. they are both not attractive; somewhat attractive; really attractive; or super attractive?

Melvis says that when a couple has one person who is REALLY attractive paired with another person who is really UN-attractive, the attractive person is called a “kingdom-builder”. 

New Yorkers! 

Any of you wanna go see this exhibit with me when I’m there in August?   The picture of the artist makes me want to see it even more!

I enjoy living in a foreign country and interacting with the international community. However, it’s sometimes hard when you look like a local… local Korean, that is.

Many times, when I meet a foreigner – usually a white American – they look at my kind of curiously and then wonder, outloud to me (i.e. they say this to me directly): “so… you’re not a local, are you?”  to which I reply “no, I’m from the States.  Texas, in fact” (emphasizing how “from the US” I really am, vs, say, being from California)… to which they reply “yes, I thought so… because you don’t have an accent when you speak..”

It could very frustrating but then I realize that not ONLY could I be a local Korean, I could also be from SOUTH KOREA.  There are TONS of South Koreans.  In fact, one of the international schools is about 75% Korean.

Of course, sometimes, what I want to say is “OF COURSE I DON’T HAVE AN ACCENT WHEN I SPEAK — I’VE BEEN LIVING IN THE US ALMOST ALL MY LIFE, YOU RACISTS!!!”

But I don’t.  Most white Americans I meet here never even knew any Asian-Americans personally before they came here.

A note book I bought recently. I forgot to take a picture of the back of it, which
features a fuzzy little chick.  Which you also shouldn’t … touch.

Two wonderful experiences with Afghanistan’s premier airline company…

Experience #1:

1. Three women walk into the K Air office.  Two young men sit at the desk. 
2. We ask about tickets.  They tell us the schedule and say tickets are available.
3. We discuss the schedule amongst ourselves.  We debate whether or not we should take another airline, which is $15 cheaper.
4. We talk about why the tickets would be $15 cheaper.  One girl offers “well, on THIS airline, they offer mango juice”.  We laugh.
5. Finally, we decide to buy the tickets.  In the meantime, one of the young men had left his desk and come back.
6. They tell us “nope, we can’t sell you tickets anymore”.
7. ???
8. We try to find out why.  Then this guy – with tight jeans, a sleeveless shirt, and wavy hair – struts in and declares: “I told them not to sell you tickets”.
9. He speaks Russian so one of the women, who is Uzbek and speaks Russian, asks what just happened… he says “my uncle owns this company… and I get to decide who flies…”
10. She figures out that perhaps the young men thought that we were making FUN of the airlines and therefore got insulted and didn’t want our money.
11. She tells “muscle guy” that we were just discussing the schedule…
12. “Muscle guy” says: “okay, fine.  call tomorrow and maybe we’ll sell you tickets.”

We did get them by the way.

Experience #2:

On the way back from Herat to Mazar (the plane was a Boeing 737, one of the small ones), four of us are together.  Me, a black woman, a Japanese woman, and an Uzbek woman.  We sit two to a row.  All around us are men.  From takeoff to landing (approx 1 hour), all the men around us STARED at us CONSTANTLY.  And tried to talk to us.  We all ignored them.  They were ridiculous; we were annoyed.  At least they gave us cookies and juice on the flight.