I shamelessly admit that I only care about football once every 4 years

I shamelessly admit that I only care about football once every 4 years during the World Cup Fever.  I am definitely one of the masses when it comes to the World Cup.  I haven't watched  a match since the last World Cup, I have no strong allegiance to any team or to any country, minus picking a team to root for only at the beginning of the match  (most of the time the underdog team, because it's more fun) and cheering and rooting them on and getting fully absorbed into the world wide frenzy, and becoming one of the trillions of pairs of eyes glued to the field and that darn soccer ball.   I do however wish to see a non-european/non south american team win (not happening this time).  The world cup, even for someone that doesn't know a thing about sports, has been twisted with strange turns of events, with random absurdities from refs not counting or counting legitimate goals to Brazil's fallout to Germany's cutting speed slaughtering Argentina out of the running for the Cup.

I must say experiencing the fever is much more eventful, much more enthused, much more exciting and much more fun outside of the States.  Restaurants and cafes are jam packed.  Yesterday my friend and I were turned away from a couple of restaurants because it was completely full before rushing over to another cafe where we dodged being turned away only because of the kindness of the cafe host squeezing in 2 seats for us. We stayed an extra three hours to catch the next game, trying to avoid the whole trying to find a spot again.
I wish America was equally enthused about this instead of ruminating in their egocentric bubbles of self-absorption where a semi-comparable energy is exerted for the Super Bowl, which is just America playing hand football and the "world series" for baseball, again just America playing, or for basketball..again which is  just America playing.

Because this frenzy takes over every 4 years, it certainly makes you think of where you were 4 years ago and makes you wonder about where you'll be 4 years from now.  It becomes a landmark in time.  Last time, I was lucky enough to be in Singapore, and this time around, I'm experiencing the game watching obsession in the Middle East.

Ramallah.  The dichotomy of a modern hip and "urban" (i put urban in quotation marks, because really Ramallah just started getting street signs last month, before there were no street signs) capital center of Palestine, undoubtedly the most liberal place, with clubs and coffee shops made very international friendly  can easily make one forget that there are refugee camps down the road or that it's a city under occupation.  Quite easily going to some of the nice cafes in town, you could forget where you are, and only "see" the nice presentation of the shops, the delicious meals, and the hospitable waiters scratching down your order and then bringing the food to your table.  Sitting at sandwich shop, I could easily close my eyes and literally feel like I'm eating lunch in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Not getting all the games at home on our TV exposed me to a number of cafes in Ramallah that I hadn't gone to before.  Y and I went to see one of the beginning games at the French and German Cultural Center, then come another game night when we went to see it in a pretty hip place called Beit Aneesa, and then to another place called Snowbar (not Snow Bar, but snowbar, which means pine nut in Arabic).  Beit Aneesa had waiters running around tending to the fully packed arena, down to the floor where me and Y were squished sitting amongst a throng of giant Brazil fans (all internationals) cheering on the match and enjoying a mug of beer.  Snowbar, damn, that place, is this incredible cafe, that reminds of me of an enlarged Cafe Driade on crack on Franklin Street back in Chapel Hill (for those that know where it is, tucked away, underneath trees, with a very earthy, humble and non-conventional cafe shop feel), completely surrounded by Pine trees, people relaxing in giant crowds on nicely furnished tables and chairs, puffing on the flavored smokes of sheesha and watching the game on a giant screen.  Really, I haven't been to a place that nice even during my college years in North Carolina. It's a surreal escape.  Ramallah, arguably, itself is a surreal escape, which at times is consoling and at times extremely disturbing.

In Amman, as I've been trying to situate myself for the last couple of weeks, boasts a fair number of cafe shops, especially on a popular international hang out street called Rainbow Street.  Loads of american college kids hanging out there.  Several very goofy named restaurants, for instance "Shwarma-mama" or "Shwarmize it" and an ice cream place called "Licky Licious".  You'll see pubs and giant gay cafe hang outs like "Books At Cafe" which is a ridiculously nice place, with giant expanded rooms, and sitting areas. Each of those separate components of the Cafe could be a restaurant by itself, and it has a nice little bookshop underneath the pub and the cafe.  Their nightly screening of the games takes place outside, with a semi view of the city of Amman or at least one of the hills with the twinkling lights of buildings behind the giant screen which is situated on a wide platform that's made to look like a football field.  Pretty nice and fabulous.  Except hanging in places like this will quickly burn a seething hole in your pockets! Jordan is expensive.

Germany's victory led a couple of kids with a giant German flag draped over their backs to go around singing crazy German songs.  While the Argentinian fans had a sad droopy faced mass exodus.  Can't imagine the tension that's coming up for the Semi-Finals! and what's going to happen when the games stop? a huge part of my Amman experience will definitely be gone.