About Me
- Kristi
- The Boy, 2 Muttleys and I have finally realized our dream of living 1 mile from the Lindt Chocolate Factory. Leaving Atlanta (the World of Coke) for Zurich (the World of Chocolate) hasn't come without challenges, incredible fun or giggles. Follow along as I chronicle our adventures as we acclimate to this new Swiss lifestyle.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Are you Ready for some Football?
So what do you get when you take a Swiss, Mexican and South African and put them in outdoor foldable chairs? We are talking pimp folding chairs, the kind that fit neatly in a bag with the all important cup holders.
a. A United Nations Meeting...with some pretty severe furniture budget cuts and booze.
b. A bar of chocolate, a tamale and World Cup Ticket.
c. A group of three people, with international flair, watching American style football.
d. All of the Above
If you answered "All of the Above", you were wrong...but that would be pretty psychedelic. The answer is right here:
Please notice who sponsors this team...please...can I give you a hint? It rhymes with "cooters".
Somehow the Boy managed to discover that Zurich has an American style football team called the "Zurich Renegades". I am a coach's daughter and the Boy a graduate of University of Georgia, so you could say we are diehard football fans. A bunch of Europeans playing football of course piqued our interest so we got a bunch of friends together and went to the Stadium. The Stadium turned out to be a grassy knoll and the field is one you can sign up for on a chalkboard, but there was a real-deal-Holyfield game going on:
The game had all the necessary ingredients: Cheerleaders (whose formations resembled more the Leaning Tower of Pisa than the Egyptian Pyramids), Refs with giant bellies, girls on unicycles (that is not a typo) and grown men in tight pants showing off their assets while beating the holy crap out of each other. The only thing missing was 5 yards between the 40 and 50 yard lines...no seriously, for some reason the 40-50 on both sides of the field were only 5 yards long therefore only making the field 90 yards long. We forgave this tiny detail.
So back to the Swiss, Mexican and South African attendees. I was walking around taking pictures and happened across a pretty serious set up, including a foldable table with cup holders:
I was so touched by their genuine appreciation for the game and their attention to detail, I mean look at this table...it is breathtaking. After chatting for a bit, I took a few more pics of the day:
No, it wasn't 7:20 in the evening rather this was their scoreboard. We still aren't sure how accurate the scores were as a little girl thought this was a toy and upon leaving, the Renegades appeared to have lost two points in the 4th Quarter.
These jackets and the 15 year old cheerleaders gave the game had a very "high school circa 1965" feel to it. We also had the all important opportunity to chant "Rudy, Rudy, Rudy" as a 5'2" running back for the Zurich Renegades scored a touchdown. It really doesn't get better than that.
Between watching a game I truly love and seeing it with great friends on a crisp fall-like day, it made for an enjoyable, hilarious and surreal experience.
You can also check me out over on ACC today talking about "Expat Types". Check it out!
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5 comments:
Go Porkchop! Good times.
I need to see this.
We apparently needed to see it badly as well. We had two options that day: 1. See American style football 2. See the Dalai Lama speak. Football won out...but in football you can also find some pretty killer wisdom:
Football is like life - it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority. -Vince Lombardi
Take that Lama!
This reminds me of when I was living abroad, in the Czech Republic. They had a pro basketball team for some lower-level Euro league. They were not good and poorly coached. I watched a practice from the bleachers, paying special attention to the guards. I left feeling confident I was better than any guard they had. (I was younger and faster then -- and probably better looking, too. Or let's hope so, anyway.)
Every culture seems to really identify and cherish their home country's sports. I am not surprised you went to the basketball game Brady and I am also not surprised you thought you were better. American style sports in Europe seems to be a little behind the times, but that is also what made it so enjoyable. While they may not be very good at it, they sure respected the hell out of it. Well except for the 40-50 yard lines.
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