¡Gol, gol, gol, gol, gol, gol!

I’m cracking up because I can hear the guy on Univision announcing the goal scored by Ecuador in the Copa América game (soccer, or fútbol if you will) between Mexico and Ecuador. (You can listen to “¡Gol, gol, gol, gol, gol, gol!” scoring here.)  Mexico was winning 2-0 when I turned it on, but Ecuador scored, once, in the last half. Basically, I’m waiting for the game to be over so I can watch my telenovela.

On Saturday night in NH, though, I turned on Univision to watch the game between Argentina and Mexico. Though Argentina had possession of the ball for most of the game, Mexico scored early and the Argentines never managed to put the ball in the goal. I was somewhat torn, given that I now have friends from Argentina. During the World Cup in 2002, I rooted for the US first, of course, and then Mexico. I had dated a Mexican-American who played soccer first in Mexico then here, though not at that level; but he kinda got me interested in it. (I should say that my knowledge of the game is very limited, not helped by watching en español when I don’t even know many of the terms in English.)

When the last World Cup games were on, in Korea and Japan in 2002, I set my alarm and got up in the middle of the night to watch several games. And I got up early and drove 45 minutes to a friend’s house for the World Cup final, which started at something like 7:30 AM. I figured that most of the world was stopping work to watch the games and here we were in the US (except immigrants) ignoring it all – our “World Series” being between us and us, Canadian baseball teams notwithstanding. Even though kids here play a lot of soccer, I think we’re still not all that interested in it the way the rest of the world is. (Update: Mexico won and is now leading their group.)

Tune in to what the rest of the world finds so compelling. I haven’t read How Soccer Explains the World, but it’s an interesting concept.

9:39:50 PM      trackback [] 

Chemna Bibi

Just got back from walking Bibi, the German Shepherd that my housemate Kathy usually walks. I met her owner, Marta, yesterday (this is the woman who thought that at 45 I might be too decrepit to walk a dog for an hour at a time). She was very nice and I think she caught on that I’m pretty fit for a middle aged person. I’m going to walk Bibi twice on Tuesdays, at least until Kathy’s back from summer break, and any other time Marta might need help.

It was nice to walk a big dog. My dogs, even with their little dachshund legs going a mile a minute, needed a separate walk from my “fitness” walks. Since Bibi can keep up, I can get my exercise at the same time, albeit with regular stops for smelling things and peeing (that would be Bibi, not me).

One oddity: Marta trained Bibi her commands in Ukrainian. So I have learned a few words that Marta spelled out phonetically. Chody toot (ch like chutzpah, toot like put) for “come.” Chemna (regular ch sound) for “good dog.” And dobra also for “good dog” or maybe “good girl.” You learn something new every day. Oh yeah, Yummy Chummies is another instantly recognized term.

Bibi and I walked in a light rain and I was toasty enough with my rain jacket, but I had to peel everything off when I got home and change into dry clothes. Now I have a cup of tea and I’m ready to get back to work.

2:39:25 PM      trackback []