World Cup Mania

It's OVER! My class is done... probably not with the best result, but it's done. Now I get to focus on soccer, packing, cleaning, and vacation! I can't wait to be out of this country again. Nidhal and I have gone to Canada twice, but that hardly feels like a different country... more like a different state.

Nidhal and I have been watching the World Cup daily. We usually catch the 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. games. The 7:30 a.m. game is a little too early for us. France got clobbered by Mexico today, which is unfortunate. I was almost neutral about the game, though. I don't like Mexico and they seemed arrogant, but Nidhal says that the coach is racist (France is racist) and didn't put two Arab strikers on the team even though they're very good. I don't know if that's true, but it made me mad. And France has been really stupid lately. Sarkozy is an idiot who thinks "foreigners" shouldn't be in France even though he is half Hungarian. There's more, too, but I don't feel like doing the research right now to get my facts straight. Germany plays at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning on ESPN, and the US plays at 9:30 a.m. On ESPN2 at 2:30 p.m. is Algeria vs. England. ...I just realized that three of my four favorite teams for this year are playing tomorrow. Switzerland is the other favorite of mine for this World Cup.

In the last World Cup, I was very good at predicting the outcomes of the games even though I knew nothing about the teams. And for one of these NBA finals games, I predicted that the Celtics would win by at least five points... and they won by seven. If only I had bet some money on that...