Euro Craziness, and a Day Dedicated to Sex (get your minds out of the gutter!)

So... let me be honest. I've never really been a huge fan of soccer (or what they call football here... our football is called American football, and they really don't understand why it's called football when you really don't use your FEET). I always was kind of aware that big football events were going on - World Cup, etc., but, frankly, I never really cared! This past week, the Euro Championships started here. Basically, it's arranged so there are four groups, each group having four teams. Everyone in the group plays each other, and then, based on a point system (3 for a win, 1 for a tie, 0 for a loss), the top two point-scoring teams advance to the quarterfinals, etc. Trying to be supportive of my new home country, I decided I better watch Holland's first game on Tuesday... and so I did... IN GERMAN! That was the only channel I could find it on (I later learned that the game was on channel 1, which I never had in the US, so I always start my searching on channel 2 - lesson learned!). Honestly, I was kind of unimpressed. The game is 90 minutes long, and, pretty much, there are only a few minutes that I found kind of exciting... which would be when a goal was scored. Anyways, it was kind of cool to hear the people in the street celebrating after Holland won, 3-0, against Italy. Kind of reminded me of a college American football game.

The Italians at the Pub, watching Italy play Romania

Fast forward to Friday... this was Holland's second game, and Italy was playing Romania in the early game that night. I decided maybe I was missing something by watching the game at home, so I went to the "Nike pub" (pub just around the corner from campus... and always chock full of Nike people) to watch the Italy game with my Italian c0-workers. After watching all the Italians boldly sing their national anthem, I think I get it. This whole thing kind of feels like it's the NCAA basketball tournament, but it's bigger - it's your home country, so there is a lot more at stake to defend. The Euro Cup only happens every 4 years, so if your team wins or loses, you have to hear about it for the next four years! (And trust me, there was a lot of trash talk going on in the office). Anyways, at the Nike Pub, I was with one of my Scottish co-workers, Kevin, who had brought along his other Scottish friend, Juliann. We decided that we wanted to watch the Holland game in Amsterdam, since we knew it would be CRAZY. We drove back to Amsterdam, and made our way to a pub right off of Leidseplein, the main party square. Oh my goodness! I can't quite describe the craziness of this place... nor how much fun I had at the pub watching Holland kick France's butt! After Holland won, which was about 11 pm, the streets of Amsterdam were flooded with people dressed in orange, horns blaring away, and people just celebrating in general. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen... kind of a mini-Queensday. I couldn't even get a tram home, because the streets were so full that the trams weren't able to drive through them. Anyways, I'm a convert. I can't wait for the game on Tuesday - HUP HOLLAND!!

Fun at the pub as Holland beats France!

Me with my new pal, Julianne

Saturday begain early for me... my dear friend from Portland, Michelle Middlebrooks, arrived at 7:15 am. I sure didn't mind getting out of bed - I was SO excited to see her! :) And, SHE was excited to empty her suitcase of everything she brought me - 2 pairs of Nike Golf shoes (she works in Golf), 3 Golf gloves, 5 boxes of Mexican style Rice-A-Roni (what can I say - I love it!), 3 boxes of Kettle Corn (yay yay yay!), a box of Fun-Fetti Cake Mix, and two jars of Fun-Fetti Frosting. Yippy!!

All my loot - thanks Michelle! :)

Michelle was surprisingly chipper despite the 9 hour time difference, so, we dropped her stuff at my place and then went for a 4 mile run. This felt entirely weird to me, as the way that I met Michelle was training for our first marathon together in 2003... we have run pretty much every weekend for the past 5 years together, but running together in Amsterdam was pretty surreal. It was a welcome change though - I miss my running group!! We got back, showered, and then I shared my very favorite part of the weekend with her - making a ginormous breakfast (complete with fresh squeezed orange juice - my apartment has a juicer, which totally rocks!)! :)

Ready to Run!

After that, Michelle had heard about the Sex Museum and was kind of curious, and I was also somewhat interested in going. So, we made our way to the center of the city and checked it out... and were somewhat disturbed. Some things were quite funny to look at, others disturbing. In a nutshell, it's basically a musuem about the evolution of pornography through the years. My biggest takeaway was this - there have always been kinky people in this world, even in the 1800s... a time when i thought that life was oh-so-proper. Honestly, I was not so impressed, but I did get a few chuckles.

Michelle getting comfy on a very interesting chair...

After that, Michelle and I went to the grocery store, because she wanted to see what it was like, and then we went to the glorious cheese store that is right across the street from my apartment. Michelle was in heaven... she's actually an aspiring cheese maker, so this was right up her alley. http://michellemiddlebrooks.blogspot.com/2008/01/cheese-making-part-ii.html. We bought a few kinds of cheese, and then make it back to my apartment for a well-deserved nap.

After we woke up, it was game on! My friend Karyn had set up a girl's night for about 12 of us... which included dinner at Rose's Cantina (which turned out to be a super-yummy Mexican place - very rare here!) and then going to watch the Sex and the City movie (FINALLY!!!). Michelle and I got all dolled up, and then headed out. Dinner was a lot of fun... it was a mixture of a lot of different nationalities, which always leads to interesting conversation. And, the movie was GREAT!!! This was my favorite show of all time, and so to get one more night with my girls was like going back to old friends. I have to admit, I started crying when the familiar opening music started, and I really didn't stop until the end. And, at the end, I just kept hoping there was more... I'm not ready to part ways yet! After the movie, we would have loved to have stayed all glammed up, but Michelle had had a long day, and honestly, I was exhausted too (physically because of a lack of sleep from the night before, and emotionally because I had just cried for 2 hours straight), so we went home and hit the hay.

Ready for a Girls Night Out! :)

Very funny co-incidence. I'm reading this book right now called The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. It's absolutely amazing, and, since I knew Michelle also likes to read, I excitedly told her, "I have to show you this book I'm reading - it's great!". I showed her, and she kind of chuckled, went to her suitcase... and pulled out the SAME BOOK!! :) Too funny! It's a good read though, if you haven't read it yet.

Today (Sunday), we are going to the small town of Gouda (pronounced HHHOW-DA, like, Chowda!). It's where Gouda cheese comes from, and, so, of course, it's going to be a fun day for Michelle. We're going to a cheese-making museum, which will be fun. I'll post about that later in the week. Friday, we leave for Dublin - looking forward to that! :)