España vs. Dinamarca, by guest editor Heidi

How to get the better end of the deal as a parent: Lydia wanted to go to a soccer game and Isabelle wanted to go to a bullfight- so at 10 pm last night Lydia and I were yelling ESPA-ÑA! ESPAÑA! At the top of our lungs with, I’m guessing 70,000, people (mostly men) mostly dressed in red and yellow. The match was a 2008 European Cup qualifier. There were crowds of young men with Spanish flags worn like capes shouting cheers they all seemed to know on the packed Metro getting to the game. Our seats were about 5 rows from the top row (nosebleed), but it was none the less very exciting. Lydia had a Spanish jersey given to her by her school counsellor so we got a few puzzled looks- they must have been wondering what the light haired people speaking English were doing wearing the Spanish jersey. The nice man who sat next to us wondered and after I said “lo siento, no hablo Español, pero mi hija…”- Lydia explained to him the puzzle. It was loud (very) and full of smoke (it wouldn’t be Europe unless you breathe a lot of cigarette smoke). Every good play by the Spanish was riotously praised, and every foul by the Danish or missed call was shouted down by the crowd. Every time Spain almost scored, the crowd said “EEEEE!” in unison, instead of “ooooh!” The score was 2-1, Spain (Denmark played most of the game down a player due to a red card), our ears were pounding, it was past midnight, but we made it back to our apartment and had a fabulous time.