World Cup Fever

Hello, our names are M and A, and we are World Cup-aholics.

Flags of the World (Cup) at Mercury Bar in Hell's Kitchen
The World Cup is a fabulous month-long event for us. We try to catch as many games as we can, although it's a little more difficult this year since the games all fall during the work day. We used to wake up to the early game on Univision (back during group play) and then follow whatever games we could during the day. We cheered for USA until they collapsed and stopped playing against Ghana, and we love watching the excellent non-diving soccer being played by Argentina and Germany. We believe that soccer truly is the "world's sport." Outside of the USA, everyone seems to love soccer and adore their teams. It doesn't take much to play or learn the game and, like the Olympics, this is something where it really feels like the world is all together as one.

In honor of the World Cup, we decided to implement a food adventure during the month of the World Cup. We would try to eat at a restaurant for every country playing in the World Cup. In a city like New York, that sounds like it should be relatively easy (to find the places, at least). After some searching, it was a bit harder than it seemed. We still haven't found a Dutch place, even though that sounds like it should be easy. Other places, like Algeria, Cameroon and Slovenia, have also been a little difficult. So far, with two weeks left to the World Cup, out of 32, we've made it to 11 (together) and M's made it to 2 more. We adjusted our expectations partway through and decided that if we make it to half, this will be a success!

M also has her own side challenge going where she tries to eat lunch on work days at places with countries playing that day. It's getting increasingly difficult since the number of teams is dwindling, and it's not always possible because work days don't always have choices for lunch, but it was going pretty well for awhile.

(This World Cup food adventure has also led to a new plan to try to eat from at least one restaurant anywhere in the United States representing every country of the world, but that is a little more of a long-term and ambitious project for another day.)

Will we make it? Will we get to 16 countries by July 11? We'll start from the beginning of our adventure around the world (cup) soon!