Everybody (well, everybody in the world except maybe most North Americans) knows that the World Cup is now well underway, and it’s certainly inescapable here in England. It started with the “football” branding of just about everything, from beer bottlecaps to pizzas to Babybel cheeses, about a month or so ago. Then all the grocery stores began stocking “England” merchandise – flags for one’s car, bunting, light-up “head boppers,” and so on. And it took over TV advertising – if a company isn’t seen to support the World Cup, it seems they’re not worth buying from!

Then our neighbours went absolutely football-crazy and decorated their houses (and the entire street) with England flags and other England paraphernalia. (Why waste a big white expanse of van when it could be decorated with some red tape to make a nice flag of St George?) It’s way more fanaticism than we’ve ever seen before (even when I lived in the heart of the “Red Sox Nation“). Oh well, as with the recent UK election, I suppose I should be glad for the opportunity to share this cultural experience with the English.

And now with the World Cup itself underway, things have been staying interesting. We follow it at work during the day, and I’ve been watching some of the games in the evenings, too. North Korea gave Brazil a run for their money last night, and today Switzerland’s upset of Spain (one of the big favourites to win the whole thing) was the only thing we talked about all afternoon. I never thought I’d turn into a football fan, but look at me go!

England plays their second game on Friday night (versus Algeria), and we’ll all be watching closely! The first one was a bit on the boring side, but I had the good fortune of watching it (with Ori and Angela) at Sam‘s house, in the company of a dozen or more other passionate England fans. It certainly made the game more exciting than it would’ve been in front of the TV at home.

Fortunately, nobody there had a vuvuzela. (Click to listen.)