The big event here this past weekend was the rugby world cup semi-finals. I had no idea that rugby was such a popular sport in France, but as we learned from trying to navigate the packed streets during last weekend’s game against New Zealand, the French are mad about it.
Up to this point, Dave and I had been supporting the French squad. It’s our adopted home team, after all. But everything changed last weekend when France squared up against England in the semi-finals. This was when Dave’s English passport came out and our allegiances changed.
We decided to be comfortable about the whole thing and watch the game from home. Our reasons were twofold: 1) we were literally more comfortable sitting on our couch and watching our tv than standing in a crammed bar trying to see around other people. 2) as England supporters, we were not in the mood to get hassled by the French.
We did invite David’s colleague Guillaume over, though. Guillaume Pham is a lot different than my colleague Guillaume because he is calm and quiet and just plain nice. We knew he wouldn’t hold it against us for supporting England. But just to be safe, we didn’t tell him until he got to the apartment.
My knowledge of rugby is vague, but suffice to say that it was a really exciting match. And in the final minutes, England pulled ahead for a comfortable victory. Guillaume was bummed out, “my” Guillaume called me with a string of curses against the English, and Dave and I acted very much the gracious winners.
Bouhouhouhouhouhouhouhouhou.
ReplyDeleteI'll never overcome it.