Hup, Holland!

Euro cup 2008! It started last weekend, but the real excitement came last night. Michelle and I started out our evening with our usual volleyball routine. However we, and everyone else in the class, left early to get somewhere with a TV to watch Oranje (Dutch national team) take on defending world champs Italy.

The fütbol fever has been sweeping the town. AH is giving away free Welpie's, the Dutch mascot (if you don't know what AH is, that means you haven't visited us yet, and need to get on it!). All the shops are decked out in orange and starting at 8:45 last night, all streets were deserted, and every bar was packed to the brim.

We went to our usual watering hole to watch the match, but it was far too crowded to get inside. We watched the match for a little bit from the window, but then decided to find a less crowded place. Just as we were riding away, we could hear cheers echoing out of every house, and bar in town. The rare car that passed by us would honk and give us the thumbs up... Holland had scored! We picked up the pace, and as we approached the next bar, another chores of cheers; they scored again!

Well that brought us to half time, when we finally found an outdoor seating area in the Markt square where one of the cafés had put a large screen TV in the window for everyone to watch. We saw most of the second half, but decided, after the 72nd minute where Holland scored another goal, that it was time to head back home.

Next match is on Friday! This is just the first round, so if Holland does well, they will move on to the quarter finals!!

Holland 3, defending world champions Italy 0 !!!!!!