World Cup Commercials

This has to be one of the cutest commercials made for the World Cup, ever. (Hope that link works, post a comment and tell me if it doesn't.)

Apparently, Adidas (WC sponsor) did a 2 part series about little Jose and his friend's fantasy football game. This is the first episode. That other one is part 2. I've had the song in the commercial stuck in my head for two days straight. I love it.

There are tons of other really hilarious commercials and ads that, unfortuately, aren't shown Stateside. However, some can be found here. (NB: Some of the commercials/ads posted in that link are Not Safe For Work.)

Now I can bring my shirt.

Last week I went to H&M for some last minute summer skimming and somehow managed to skip right over the rack of World Cup team paraphernalia that lie front and center. Almost. The items consisted of Brasil, USA, and Italy tanks, bikinis (no bikinis for Italy though, boo), scarves, hand-less arm gloves and general I [heart] Football shirts. I bought a sweet Azzurri tank top (the last one, I might add) and I was almost afraid I wasn't going to be able to bring it with me to the motherland after today's match. Almost. Because I'll be damned if Italy is knocked out of the WC by Australia the day before I get there!

But now, I can bring my shirt with me. Forza Azzurri. Don't let me down you swan-diving divas.

PS I also got this shirt off ebay.de. Mucho hard to find. Can't wait to sport it.

What I'm gonna do and where I wanna go...

In July I will be doing a month-long intensive course at the University for Foreigners of Perugia. Perugia is located pretty much smack in the middle of Rome and Florence, in the lush greeny region of Italy called Umbria. (yay for vineyards and agritourism.)

To my dismay, this lovely city is not located near a major hub airport such as Rome-Fiumicino.

However, I'm still keen on doing weekend trips, one of which I'm certain as of this posting: Berlin on Saturday, July 15th for the world's largest street parade...aka LoveParade. Over 1 million people walking and dancing around to 30 tractor trailers transformed into massive DJ vehicles. It began basically as a techno-hippie parade in 1989 with overtones of world peace and evolved into one big daytime outdoor street party. It grew annually. However, it has been on hiatus since the last LP in 2003, after which the city officials decided that they had had enough of the trash strewn over the 5 mile long road over the course of the 12 hour free for all. (Rightly so, I reckon.) So this year, the organizers of LP got themselves a sponsor and it's back. And with the World Cup going on, I'm imagining the largest LP attendance yet- perhaps it will hit 1.5 to 2 million...I suppose, depending if Germany wins the Cup or not...and I actually hope that they do, despite the fact that I have a pretty hefty bet (well, a prank rather) riding against it. ;)

Speaking of World Cup, it appears I could be there to see the Germany - Argentina game this Friday, June 30th. (..working on it..) This is what the center of Berlin looks like (same street where LoveParade is held) during every Germany game. For 5 miles. Amazing.

After my course, I'm hoping to do a bit of gallavanting to more affordable parts of Europe (I'm on a graduate student budget) such as Prague or Budapest before the obligatory visit to my relatives in Sicily from August 13th til the 27th. And hopefully Ibiza for a riotous revisit of my 2005 trip there.

Anyway, I'll be gone til September...so much more to come.

Not ready, not set...yet.

I leave in exactly 48 hours and haven't prepared for anything. Nada. For some reason I just love to pack the day I leave. (Or the night of if I have a morning flight because then I get to stay up all night to pack, which I love because who can really sleep before a big day of travelling anyway? Also tie in procrastination + life as nocturnal creature. I work better under pressure.)

Anyway, I'm strangely nervous about going. I appear calm and composed but this knot in my stomach would tell you otherwise. (Or maybe the latter can be attributed to my personal end result of my farewell party last night at Keybar in the city.) It's not like I haven't been abroad before. I can't remember if I was this nervous 4 years ago about going to England for the summer. I mean, I've been to Italy plenty of times before, so I just can't figure it out.

P.S. Well I guess this is my first official blog, seemingly my answer to keeping everyone updated sans mass-mailers on Where In The World is Daniela Sandiego (which family friends of my parents apparently love to play in my absence. Cute.) I hope I'm not too boring. ;)