little bitty girl

Living in multicultural Toronto, there is simply no avoiding the World Cup and despite the endless honking, I would not have it any other way. It's really how surprising how many of my friends in the US don't even realize that it's on despite the fact that their team is participating. Even in New York where I thought the racial mix is pretty much the same as Toronto.

Anyway, it's always pretty fun here as everyone gets flags and puts it on their cars and just spend all day long driving around, honking. Obviously, a lot of people are playing hooky at their jobs. Sometimes, people have several different backgrounds and all of them are participating and then they have to buy multiple flags. It's kind of like Stefan who is both German and British. Depending on which parent he's talking to, he tells them that it's their team he roots for. (Although secretly he favours the British team over the German one). There's always good natured ribbing taking place. Like if Korea beat Italy, the Koreans would drive in Little Italy and honk while people on the street flips them the bird, and vice versa.

I really like soccer despite the fact that I am not a big sports person in the greater scheme of things. I think the reason why it's so popular because it really doesn't matter how economically rich your country is, you can still have a totally awesome team. It really is the universal sport where all you really need is a ball and other people. I like that it's not an elitist sport like hockey where only those who are financially able can participate. Also, the results are pretty unpredictable as there are always upsets in the game. The best team is not always guranteed an immediate win unlike the Olympics where the favourites usually wins.

I usually go for the underdogs in the series so this time around, I'm rooting for Togo, (because I had never heard of the country before in my life! It happens to be a tiny sliver of a country in Africa) and Trinidad & Tobago (because a country that only has 1.4 million people TOTAL and still come up with a world class team has to be admired).

I like that for the time the World Cup takes place, people in this city are so much more chilled out. People take the time to learn and enjoy other people's various backgrounds and share their first experience about the sport. I love that people are proud of their culture and yet can still be loyal to Canada. A couple of days ago, a man was seen driving his car with a Hungarian flag and they're not even in it! It was as if he was saying," Screw you! Everyone is waving their flags! I am going to wave mine too!" I love that just when you think, "Togo? What country is that? Poor Togo, there won't be that many people here waving their flag..." and then you see that one lone Togonian driving down a major street, gleefully honking away.