"What I Cooked Today" Day 73

Well. Seeing as how (1) Spain had to play Germany in the half finals and (2) I am half Spanish and (3) I have a lot of other Spanish family members living in Almelo and (4) I'm on my summer break and (5) Jochem didn't have to work and (6) we can still travel with public transportation for free, we decided to travel to Almelo to see a World Cup game Twente style. This meant having a mere thirty minutes to quickly eat my mom's pasta before heading to my aunt and uncle's house to watch said game, so I did not cook today either. The evening perfectly illustrated the contrast between watching soccer in Utrecht (the big college city where I've been living for almost eight years now) and Almelo (the small town in the east of the country where I lived during the first eighteen years of my life). In Utrecht, you and your friends join a crowd of strangers in a downtown bar and scream at the screen while drinking lots of beer. Afterwards, you harass the town's squares while yelling loudly and consuming more beer before ending the night in bed with your man - eyes on the TV set, Greek midnight snack in hands. In Almelo (at least when Spain wins, which it did, yay!), you and your family watch the game at home rather quietly. Afterwards, you screw your Spanish flags from the walls, hop into a bunch of cars, form a sort of train, and drive around town for about an hour whilst hanging from the car windows screaming "SPAIN" at the top of your lungs.

How awesome.





Dedicated to my extraordinary Spanish family.