Super Bowl Monday

I never anticipated coming to South Africa and watching so much American football. Okay, well I guess it isn't a whole lot – especially compared to all those awful Ohio State games I had to sit through with my friends at Bluffton. Those were at least college games though. As far as the NFL goes, the only time I ever watch football is the Superbowl and usually my reasoning for that is just because someone is having a party and I don't want to miss out on that. And then I came here, and since I live with Constance and Kyle – two over the top football fanatics, we've made solid attempts to be at people's houses during the replaying of several NFL games on ESPN.

This Monday, however, was different. Connie and Kyle opted to stay up all night and watch the live game at 3am at a friend's house, while the rest of us went over to Andrew and Karen Suderman's house this morning to have brunch and watch the game. The sole fact that we were watching football at 9:30 in the morning was memorable enough, but regardless, the whole event was pretty outstanding.

(Okay, first of all, I have to mention that Kyle and Connie are our main drivers. Tim and Gabby only have their learners in Canada, thus aren't "legal" to drive here. And me? Well, if you have been reading my blog, you might know that I hate driving standard (it's not even the fact that I'm driving on the left side of the road anymore, but the stupid clutch), so I've hardly been contributing to driving us places at all. However, I finally have started to conquer my fears in order for the three of us to become more independent/ get the chance to watch the super bowl since we didn't want to be crazy and stay up all night long just for football). And guess what! I survived. Okay, that's hardly surprising, but even though I stalled out a few times, and had to have Gabby (who knows how to drive standard back home) tell me when to downshift sometimes, I did it. Andrew and Karen live at least a 5-10 minute drive away from the manse, so I am very proud of myself. Hooray! Am I comfortable with it? Absolutely not, but it's at least a start).

We arrived at Karen and Andrew's around 9:15, cinnamon rolls and Tim Horton's coffee in hand, ready for the celebration. Phil and Christine arrived shortly after and we all enjoyed a hearty brunch of egg, bacon and cheese biscuits, yummy fruit, and coffee and juice. (We saved the rolls for "dessert" during halftime). Phil and Christine were cheering for the Saints, while the rest of us sided with the Colts, which made things way more interesting. Cheering against Phil is always an adventure. I don't think I've ever been more into football then this morning. Wow. It was a good game. And even though they lost, I am pretty sure that I might be on my way to become a Colts fan (on more of an authentic basis that is. I decided to cheer for them today based entirely on the fact that I'm from the Midwest and might live in Indiana someday in the near-ish future. Well, that and Payton Manning). The game still got over after four hours of airtime, despite the fact that none of the American commercials (or barely any commercials at all, besides stupid, repetitive ESPN highlights), were shown. But I am definitely okay with that. Super bowl commercials are extremely overrated, especially considering how much a company will pay for a short 30 seconds.

All in all, I'm pretty sure that this Super bowl experience has probably been the best thus far, and by far, the most memorable. Besides, it's killer hot today and the Suderman's have AC in part of their house. Aha! Score!