Super Bowl Monday
I’ve loved football since I was a little girl and would watch the games together with my Dad. This past weekend happened to be the Super Bowl, which is something I never miss. Even if I’m invited to a party, I’m usually the girl that’s focused on every play of the game while hootin’ and a hollerin’ at the TV. When I realized I was going to be out of the country for this year’s event, I assumed I wouldn’t have any trouble finding a place to watch the game.
Not so fast…..it was a problem, however some local friends were hunting down a few options. The hotel I was staying at didn’t regularly offer the channel needed, but could call the provider if there was enough notice and could temporarily deliver the programming to my room. OK, this was good, there were options.
There were exactly two options we knew about, staying in the hotel room, or buying reserved tickets at Skinny Mike’s; a sports bar about a fifteen minute walk from the hotel…haha. A few days prior to the game, my friend and I decided we wanted to experience the game with the locals and fellow Americans, walked to the bar and bought two reserved seat tickets for Monday morning at 7:00 AM, local time (due to the fourteen hour time difference from the U.S.). That just didn’t seem right! Our work week schedule started Monday night at 9 pm to 6 am, so we would have plenty of time to watch the game, get some shut-eye and make it to work on time……perfect!
Super Bowl Monday arrived as we headed out early in the morning. Upon arrival they were handing out flags for your favorite team and ushered us to our assigned table. As my friend and I were watching the pregame show, the TV was hesitating and the connection wasn’t good. We looked at each other like this could be bad. The TVs continued to have connection issues as well as the lips and voiced not matching up. Then the TVs would randomly go black…..OH, for the love of!
My friend and I were surprised to see so many locals and few Americans. The local fans seem to love football as much as we did. The crowd was just about split down the middle for who they wanted to win. Our team was considered the underdogs. It ended up being a great close scoring game, even though part of the fun of the Super Bowl are the commercial ads which happened to be only local……drat. At one point a U.S. ad came on and everyone roared, however, no one could hear it over the loud cheers…..that was short lived, since it was the only American ad that aired….HA!
There was a couple at our table who seemed to be a little out of place. It was like they were watching the game as an after thought and it was the people watching they came to Skinny Mike’s to see. The woman would pan the room taking videos on her phone of the ruckus the fans caused during exciting plays.
What a great game and fun experience it was to watch an iconic American sporting event with people of another land and culture. Super Bowl Monday was definitely different than the normal American Super Bowl Sunday night extravaganza, but one thing was for sure, they were just as loud and passionate as back in the states…..haha!
xoxox…..Sheryl