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Let's get this straight. I pretty much hate sports no matter what package they come in. I remember those Sunday afternoons when my entire family would be huddled around the TV, screaming at the Packers while I would yawn, trying to rouse myself from my post-brunch coma to commence my English lit homework. Give me MacBeth over Favre any day. And a baseball game? Well, okay but only if it's a perfect summer day and you promise to hand me a beer and a hot dog at some point. Basketball? Just shoot me. Hockey? A little more my style but with all of that glass, I sort of feel disengaged, like I'm at the zoo. And soccer? Well, after scoring great seats at a Real Madrid game a few years ago, I have to admit that the pace and the action of it all was more my style. I actually found it a little fun.

Regardless, I'm not the type to get excited about the "big game." However, some friends here in Berlin could not understand how I wasn't getting even a teeny bit hyped up about the Americans playing the English in the World Cup. I hadn't at all considered sitting down and watching the game until last night when my roomie suggested going to the Lido with some friends (exactly one English lad included) to see it on some giant screen. Since it was 6:00pm on a Saturday night and I had no other plans in mind, I responded ever so nonchalantly, "Sure, why not? Could be fun."

People, I barely have any fingernails today.

I don't know what happened to me but I became engrossed. In a sporting event? Really? Yes, 'fraid so. I suddenly wanted to scream at those stupid people who kept getting up and blocking my view. I had visions of my Uncle Mike back home who now says in regards to Packer games, "Can't watch 'em. My ticker just can't take it anymore."

And even though the place was filled with a pretty good divide of American and English spectators, I got the distinct feeling that the Germans in the room bonding with the English over their distaste toward the Americans. Or was that just my own paranoia? And no, I didn't feel the need for my country to dominate (sheesh..if I have to defend myself and my country as a non-bully one more time...). I just didn't want to fade away with them in this sea of EU-ness.

But I guess we didn't fade away after all, did we? The English bloke and I even shook hands. Truce.

And now tonight, things will really get heated. The German flags have appeared. Although I'm sure it will be a fun time, I've decided to stay safely tucked in my apartment and go to bed early, that is if the requisite screaming and yelling in the very near future will allow me to.