Team USA

The England v. USA game on Saturday was a big event around our house, with Mark firmly on Team England and me supporting Team USA. Calum, being half American (which I kindly reminded Mark about a million times of on Saturday), was somewhere in between but since we couldn't find a Team USA jersey around here, he sported an England "kit" for the day (kit is the word for uniform here). We had the Verghese family around despite the fact that our living room is in a state with bare walls and dust covering just about every surface, the 60 inch HD flat screen with surround sound has been dying to show itself of for just these sort of occasions!

Unfortunately due to a UK-wide error, anyone watching the game in HD missed the England goal at the start of the match! We did however get a chance to see the US "goal" and in the end, I guess I'm glad it was a tie because whoever's team lost was never going to hear the end of it. We had a bet going that the person's team who won got to have a day off from baby duty the following day. Since it was a tie, I did most of the baby duty on Sunday per usual (only joking, Mark does tons when he's around on the weekends but still got to be the one who slept in on Sunday!).

Calum pointing, which he just discovered last week. I think you can really see a resemblence in Mark and Calum's profiles here...

The World Cup is a true experience here in England and when I arrived 4 years ago, just in time to catch a few games of the last one, it was amazing. I can't begin to describe it, England is nowhere near as patriotic as the US but when it comes to the World Cup they really have us beat. Football (soccer) is THE sport-they don't have 3 big ones like we do to chose from, and the entire country backs the same team, it's fantastic. The large majority of our neighbours have England flags waving either on their cars or in their yards, and just about everyone on the day was wearing some piece of clothing with the Three Lions on it (their logo). The streets and stores are a ghost town, everyone and I mean everyone, is watching the game-mostly in the pubs but also at home like we were. Great thing here is that you can bring kids to the pubs although because they are so packed I probably wouldn't bring Calum this time, but definitely for the next one in 2014 when he's a bit older. Even though I don't understand all of the ins and outs of the game, it's still lots of fun to watch and I look forward to the next match this Friday and I will be following Team USA's progress with hopes that they finish better then England in the end so I still have a chance to gloat ;).

Mark's brother Paul, our nephew Max and Mark in their England kit

TEAM USA!

Calum posing in his new swing, just after we got back from getting his hair cut. In Mark's own words, he is "livid" about how the hair cut turned out. At least it grows back!