Most of the time, having now lived in the States for close to 5 years (!), I feel totally at home here. There are some seasons/events that slightly dilute that feeling - significant events taking place in the lives of my family members in England, struggles with the immigration process here, conversations in which Americans bash all things socialised or declare the American way of life far superior to anyone else's (particularly when said American has never left their country of birth to experience the cultures they are so willing to bash) ... and major international sporting competitions. In this case - the World Cup.
Now, before you start thinking I'm about to launch into an anti-American diatribe of some kind, let me just acknowledge that every country has its own biases and of course focuses in on its own little segment of international events. However, few countries that I have experienced indulge in this to the extent that the US does! I am not expecting to find other England fans roaming the streets of Tulsa wearing their home flags as capes, like I would in Wycombe. It just makes me sad that I live in probably the only country in the world whose population, for the most part, is totally oblivious to the fact that the first World Cup game kicked off an hour ago!
I miss England today. I miss walking down the street and seeing half a dozen pubs flying the national flag and touting their World Cup watch-parties and game-specific happy hours. I miss seeing pictures of various nations' WC squads plastered across every newspaper in the country, the double-spread bracket page that every kid in the country has blue-tacked up in their bedroom to fill out as the competition progresses, the way every TV and radio station incorporates the WC into their broadcasts and will stop regular broadcasting to announce game updates. I miss that low-level excitement that is the baseline pretty much anywhere you go in the country. The anticipation that maybe, just maybe, this will be the year that England brings it home again - but even if we don't, that there's an entire nation of people who are staunch, patriotically English, and drunk enough to proudly wear the three lions anyway! (Or to rip their shirts off and paint massive red St George's crosses on their beer bellies/chests and show THAT off instead!)
I'm so thankful that the Crouch family is so into football. I know it may seem trivial, but to me it's not. It is so comforting to me that while I may miss out on a lot of things I would love to be there for on the other side of the ocean, I will not be watching any World Cup games by myself!
COME ON ENGLAND!!!
Where have we been?
10 years ago
