Heading to Bulgaria soon. For those of you who don't know, it is a long, technical, boring story. It's basically a case of more developed European countries telling us we can stay longer but it has to be "over there". Bulgaria seems to be the little engine that might. It is part of the EU but not yet part of the Schengen Zone because the money that other European countries sent for infrastructure was used on infrastructure.......and sick vacation homes for government officials. What's the problem!?!
The city that we are going to start out in seems quite pleasant. Varna is a tourist destination for Western Europeans and sits on the West bank of the Black Sea. Tourism is the major industry so I think it is going to be like a European version of Cozumel, Mexico. The visitors might be middle class back-home but in Bulgaria they are rich. I have already made a down-payment to a guy named Laszlo to wait in a bread line for me. What can I say, I live large.
Also, I think I have counted 3 different, active, usable versions of the Latin alphabet letter "B". One of them just represents a gurgling sound. The number eight is pronounced, "awesome", not kidding about that one. For those of you who may be concerned, don't be. Bulgaria is a safe country.....really.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
USA vs Canada.....from Paris
I was at a place called, "The Moose", in Paris for the incredible showdown between the Americans and the Canadians in the gold medal Olympic Men's hockey game. What more could a fan, or a patriot, of either team or country ask for? If you missed the game, do yourself a favor and find a way to watch the replay. I think the USA coach, Ron Wilson, said it best. Wilson described the game as 'played the right way'.
The style of play, combined with the teams involved, made for the most watched hockey game on the planet since the 1980 "Miracle" game when the USA defeated the USSR. The game has already been referred to as 'the greatest international game ever played'. It is hard to disagree. Every check had a purpose, there was no back-checking for the sake of not being called out, nothing was done without anticipation of a meaningful result. This made for a unique environment inside "The Moose".
This place was around 70% Canadian, 30% American, with a few Frenchmen mixed in. People were draped in flags. It was quite literally wall-to-wall humanity. Continual U-S-A chants were rebutted with CA-NA-DA chants. Camera shots of Vince Vaughn in a USA hockey jersey blew the roof off the place as much as shots of William Shatner did. A few of the canucks started a, "we-have-health-care" chant. I think this summarizes the intensity of the atmosphere. We were booing and cheering each others' celebrities and public policies.
When UND alumn Zach Parise scored with 24 seconds left to tie the game at 2 goals apiece it was even louder than when UND alumn Jonathan Toews opened the scoring for the Canadians. A bunch of us went outside after regulation ended so we could stretch our legs further than a few inches. I noticed that my voice, which was fine for the first 59:30 of the game, had faded. I also noticed that the other Americans had the same symptom. For all the nationalism it was quite civil. I think North Americans feel a common bond when put together on a different continent.
The style of play, combined with the teams involved, made for the most watched hockey game on the planet since the 1980 "Miracle" game when the USA defeated the USSR. The game has already been referred to as 'the greatest international game ever played'. It is hard to disagree. Every check had a purpose, there was no back-checking for the sake of not being called out, nothing was done without anticipation of a meaningful result. This made for a unique environment inside "The Moose".
This place was around 70% Canadian, 30% American, with a few Frenchmen mixed in. People were draped in flags. It was quite literally wall-to-wall humanity. Continual U-S-A chants were rebutted with CA-NA-DA chants. Camera shots of Vince Vaughn in a USA hockey jersey blew the roof off the place as much as shots of William Shatner did. A few of the canucks started a, "we-have-health-care" chant. I think this summarizes the intensity of the atmosphere. We were booing and cheering each others' celebrities and public policies.
When UND alumn Zach Parise scored with 24 seconds left to tie the game at 2 goals apiece it was even louder than when UND alumn Jonathan Toews opened the scoring for the Canadians. A bunch of us went outside after regulation ended so we could stretch our legs further than a few inches. I noticed that my voice, which was fine for the first 59:30 of the game, had faded. I also noticed that the other Americans had the same symptom. For all the nationalism it was quite civil. I think North Americans feel a common bond when put together on a different continent.
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