Football Fever...Catch It!

One of the odd things is that I was better informed about the the Euro 2004 football (soccer) tournament when I was in Ottawa than I am here. For some reason the Canadian papers and sports channels had thorough coverage of the tournament--I've never really thought of Canada as a soccer hotbed--whereas my lack of German knowledge makes it harder to follow here other than via the Internet. Since Norway isn't in the tournament I feel like I should pull for local underdog Switzerland (as the advertisement for the local supermarket says, "Hopp Schwiiz!"--my predecessor here said that when he ran in races in Switzerland, the locals would chant "hopp hopp hopp hopp!", as opposed to home, where you might hear "go go go" or "c'mon" or "alright" or "way to go" or "you can do it" or "pick up the pace, fat ass".) Anyway, barring a miracle--namely, beating France--Swiss hopes will be dashed tomorrow evening. After my jet lag knocked me out at 9:00 last night and made me miss the Czech Republic beating the Netherlands in what sounded like a great game, I'm hoping I can stay awake long enough to watch Spain vs. Portugal tonight.