To be honest, I’ve never imagined myself watching any of these games.  It’s soccer.  I think we’re supposed to hate it.  I have a hard enough time watching a full game of basketball and football (I’m not even going to get into baseball).  So the idea of me waking up early in the morning to watch a match I don’t really care about or understand seems silly.  And if you told me three weeks ago that I’d be doing just that, I would have laughed and slapped you in the back and then said, but seriously, where do you want to eat?

So how did this all start?  This business of me getting into the World Cup? It started with the foreigners in my lab — the scientists.  They have been waiting for this event for four years now and will allocate the time necessary to watch every single game.  Every single one.  They would wake up at 4:30 am to watch the games and would not work from 11 am-2 pm.  Hey where’s Matt guys? I dunno. Fuck he needs to sign this grant today!  They love soccer.

I remember on the first day of the World Cup, everyone came in with their respective country’s jersey: England, Germany, Algeria, South Korea, Mexico.  I thought to myself, what the hell is going on?  I got self-conscious of my Lego’s t-shirt, and I started hating myself.  Look at this loser without a jersey.  I can’t believe he’s working in this lab.  We should just sabotage his data so he’d get fired, this asshole.  So I thought they thought.  Yes, I was paranoid and already hated the World Cup.  I didn’t want to talk about it.  But the topic inevitably came up:

Hey Don, you’ve been watching any of the games?

No, not really.  Don’t really watch soccer.

But it’s the World Cup.  Once every four years.

Yeah, just like Feb 29th…I just don’t see the point.

Well, we’re showing the Protugal-Ivory Coast game on Wednesday at our place.  You should come!  We’ll have food.

That sounds pretty cool.  What time?

6:30.

After work then?

No, 6:30 am.

…

Don?

Yeah, I’m just thinking whether this is possible for me.

So I woke up 5 am, got dressed, walked the dog, and headed out.  Why am I doing this?  They’re your labmates.  Be supportive and plus there’s food.  You’re right.  I’m always right.  This shouldn’t be too bad.  Just try not to say anything stupid.  I have these dialogues with myself sometime when I’m driving.  It was definitely more audible on this particular morning.

When I got there, all the scientists from my lab and other labs were already there ready to watch the game.  You got your Protuguese, an Aussie, two Germans, two Britons, and one American — it was like a UN conference but with food and mimosas.  They had a projector set up to watch the game, and upon closer inspection, I noticed it was the projector from our department.  This brought a smile to my face and made me love my labmates even more.

So the game started, and there was a lot of commentary by everyone.  You call that a kick!  Remember, this is just like kindergarten.  What is that magic spray?  This bagel is delicious!  The game ended in a draw, 0-0.  To be honest the game was pretty boring, and this was universally agreed.  Everyone was disappointed…but not me.  I enjoyed it, not so much the game but the moment itself — being in the company of so many different people early in morning to watch a soccer game.  It was a very World Cup moment.