World Cup Fever

World Cup Fever is wild here. Maybe not as much as in Europe or South America, but it's pretty big.

The Chaing Mai (Thailand) market is lined with stall after stall of goods to sell. Once the Cup started, people would bring out TVs and huddle around them. (When the Cup wasn't on, they were all paying rapt attention to the King.) Right in the street there'd be TVs on. One gentleman was excited to tell us that "The Americans" were on TV at that moment. We were ashamed to admit we knew....that they were getting their butts kicked.

Last night Argentina and some other team played. We couldn't see the TV, but could just about figure out the score based on the yelling we could hear from the next bar over.

It's funny to me how different the Americans are. Most of them, on a whole, are not that into the World Cup. Yes, yes, I know the NBA finals are on now.
And the metric system. The rest of the world is on the metric system. Why aren't we? Then at least I could understand better when someone tells me they weigh 85 kilos or something is 12 kilometeres away or to cut a piece of fabric at 2 meters.

But that's another thing.

Right now I love watching people watch the World Cup. Overall, people in the same area seem to be rooting for the same team. At a bar watching the NBA finals, half could be for the Mavs, half for Shaq. But from what I've seen here, it's like they all rally around the same country. I think that's cool.

I've enjoyed watching a few bits of games here and there. You're right, I haven't sit and watched an entire game, nor do I have the desire to--there's too much else to see and do in my last days here.

Merely an observation.