finally!

After November weather in the mid-70s, I was so ready for winter to get here.

And get here it did!

After the Arsenal win, I walked to campus with the vague idea of getting food. Then I realized that it was the first snowfall of the season, and so I had to get a peppermint mocha from Starbucks. When I got downtown, I decided to pick two up and take one to my friend LA, who was holed up inside her apartment because she hates snow.

On the way over however, the snow went from a light but steady dusting to a blinding swirl of white, and by the time I got there, I was soaked. So I ended up staying the afternoon because I didn't want to walk back in the blizzard.

Home sweet home!

south africa 2010: be there

We did it!


In what I hear was an incredibly unconvincing win, the USMNT beat Honduras 3-2 to secure a spot in World Cup 2010. OOO-sah!

I didn't watch the game because 1) I've already gotten in trouble once for streaming too many games so I didn't want to get a judicial referral (fuck college) and 2) I was too tired to stay up anyways, especially if all I could do was read a live report.

But Conor Casey (Conor fucking Casey???) got a brace and Landy scored the third, and Honduras missed a penalty and did other various things to choke and ensure our passage into next summer's tournament. They'll probably still make it anyways.

So yeah, go us! We better shape up massively before next summer though if we want any sort of a chance to, erm, win a game or two.

more summer soccer adventures

My computer is broken again, so I've been a bit m.i.a. lately. I want to post these though because I'm still all giddy over the game. And I don't even like Real Madrid that much!

(For Vanilla Bear)

So the game was awesome, even though it was a shut out. Poor DCU. Seeing Iker and Raul in person was so so good though!

goalie love

I love Semyon Varlamov.

He just turned 21, he just recently got called up from the Hershey Bears, and he still doesn't speak any English. But he makes saves like this against one of the best players in the NHL:


Click the HD button. It's even better.

This probably isn't the most appropriate moment to post this, seeing as how the Capitals have just lost three playoff games in a row, but whatever. He is amazing and the losses weren't his fault. Game 6 is starting...um, now. It's in Pittsburgh, and if we lose this one we're out of the playoffs. I'm nervous.

Come on Varlamov & Co. Football has sucked this weekend. Don't lose and make me even sadder.

LATE NIGHT EDIT: We won!! 5-4 in overtime to force game 7 this Wednesday back in DC. Let's all hope it will turn out better than last year's series against the Flyers. Go Caps!

the night hull froze over*

Que sera, sera
Whatever will be, will be
We're going to Wembley
Que sera sera!
Best. Night. Ever.

Hokay, so it wasn't exactly the most brilliant game I've ever seen. But it was my first Arsenal match--hell, it was my first football match--and it was an FA Cup quarterfinal AND WE WON after going a goal down in the first half...yeah, that all adds up to a fucking amazing time.

First off, let me say that live matches = fantastic. I don't see how anyone could make the "soccer is boring" argument after going to a professional game. I totally didn't think the whole short sleeved shirt thing through very well, so I was a little chilly during the match. But I didn't really notice it when the ball was in play because I was too engrossed in the action.

The other team's attack is so much more nerve wracking live too; every time Hull were at our end we were on the edge of our seats screaming "GET RID OF IT!" And by "we" I mean me, the guy sitting next to me, and his son, who looked to be about five or six. Baby's First Football Match or something, it was cute. The dad spent half the game explaining things to him, like "Number 23 is Arshavin, he's the best player on the field" or "Arsenal just made two substitutions. Niklas Bendtner came in for Song, although God knows why..."

Quick rundown of what I saw: Defense was very lethargic early on but picked up and did pretty well after Hull's early goal; Arshavin and Vela had a few lovely little exchanges; Walcott doesn't seem to like running down the middle of the pitch but also couldn't seem to get his crosses right as he had some surprisingly poor passes; Song had some unsurprisingly poor passes; Gibbs made a few great tackles; and Bendtner missed a shot or three. Most notably, he scuffed an easy chance where the goalkeeper wasn't even in sight. Credit to Hull's defense on that play though, they did well to clear the ball off the line. Overall, we should stop passing once in a while and actually attempt to shoot the ball. Novel idea, I know.

First glimpse of the stadium

View from my seat

The boys warming up

Gunnersaurus sighting!

Right before kickoff

New kid being awesome

Lull in the action

Arsenal attack that amounted to...zilch

I met two guys from Leicester walking back to the tube station after the match, who were very curious as to how a Yank came to be an Arsenal fan. They were also really excited when I told them I was from DC, and then they wanted to talk politics with me. And then on the train I sang "we've only come to see Eboue" with two other guys. Football is a great icebreaker; I haven't talked to this many random strangers in one day since like recruitment.

I come home to hear that apparently Cesc spit at Hull's assistant manager...? He claims he didn't (although what are you going to do, say "Actually yes, I did. Got a problem with that?"), but in that statement he also claimed he has never spit on anyone on the pitch before.

Um, Cesc? I think you may be forgetting this little encounter. And yeah, I know spitting is gross and the opposite of classy and all that, but I hate Ballack and might possibly spit on him too were I given the chance. (Ditto the whole throwing pizza at SAF thing, if that's true.) So more power to you. But I do hope this new spit-cident didn't actually happen.

Phil Brown also claimed that the only reason Hull's keeper was booked for time wasting was because the ref succumbed to pressure from the crowd and Wenger's complaints. All I have to say is, if he wasn't time wasting, then he is the slowest human being alive. But only when Hull were up a goal, of course. As soon as they started losing, every time he got the ball it was back in play immediately.

Curious...

I dunno, Brown's whole post match spiel sounded a little bitter. He was blaming everyone but his own team. But whatever, sour grapes. We won, we won, nah nah nah nah nah nah! And wow, I'm childish.


*Yeah, I know the Hull/hell pun has been beaten into the ground already. But leave me alone, it's one am and I can't think of anything wittier. Plus it was really cold at the game, so nerr.

ohmygodohmygodohmygod

ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod!

/incoherent

parisian skies

Everyone always says they want to go to Paris, and for some reason I've always thought of it as a rather cliché thing. Of course I was excited to see the city, but I thought of the trip more as something I should do, simply because of the hype.

I don't know what was wrong with me. I love Paris.

Seriously, love.

I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked, due to the fact that I forgot to charge my camera battery before I left and it died halfway through jour deux. And there aren't any with me in them...at least not until the ones from Brigid's camera show up on the book of face.

Jour un: We got off the train at about 1ish, then took a coach tour of the city. Briefly saw most of the typical sights, then got checked into our hotel by 4. We were all starving by this point, as most of us hadn't eaten since early in the morning, but no one really seemed to be moving, so I ventured out on my own. I got my map out, walked to the Metro station, hopped a train, and wandered around Saint-Germain-des-Prés for a while. I ended up having an early dinner at the Cafe les Deux Magots, the place where Jean-Paul Sartre used to break his fast every morning, sometimes staying to write for hours, but occasionally stopping to chat with another writer by the name of Hemingway. I felt super important and literary and philosophical. And I was able to order a meal in French!

Jour deux: Woke up early to get to the Louvre around opening time.

I only went to the Denon wing and didn't stay there too long, but I did see the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Mona Lisa, and this awesome statue of Psyche and Cupid by Antonio Canova:

[Side note: Speaking of victory, pictures from the "V for Victory" Nike campaign are all over the Paris Metro. Claude Makalele, Hatem Ben Arfa, and two French (I assume) guys that I didn't recognize.]

Then I museum-hopped to the Musée d'Orsay for the Monets, the Sisleys, the Renoirs, the Van Goghs, and of course my favorite Degas painting:


After I had my fill of paintings and sculptures, I bought a sandwich and had lunch in the Jardin de Luxembourg and sat people-watching for a bit.

In the afternoon I walked down the Champs-Elysées, was overwhelmed by the amount of people in Sephora, and saw the Arc de Triomphe up close for the first time. I didn't go up to the top, but I heard the stairs are pretty brutal. Two of my friends did it twice in one day, because the first time it was raining and they wanted to get the good view after it stopped!

Jour trois: I made up for not going up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe by climbing all the way up to the Notre Dame belltower on Sunday morning. No pictures of that yet but the view was UH-mazing. It rained all morning, which spoiled the mood a little bit, but not too much. I had delicious french onion soup for lunch and everything was fine. (I can't think of many better feelings than sitting inside on a rainy day with a hot bowl of soup.) It stopped raining soon after and the sun came out again, so I decided to crash my friends' walking tour of Montmartre. There were enough people that the tour guide didn't notice, and I'm really glad I did!

At the foot of the hill is a little place called the Moulin Rouge:
We saw where Amélie Poulin worked (as well as the little market where a few scenes from the movie were shot):We stopped at the Metro Abbesses station for a few minutes, and I had two random French guys come up and start talking to me. The first was flirting with me because he thought I was Irish, and the second was a crazy homeless dude who was yelling about how beautiful Paris was. It was quite the experience. Near the station is the "I love you" wall, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like (it has "I love you" written in every language on Earth):
We saw where Van Gogh, Renoir, Picasso, and Modigliani used to live, and the cafés and other buildings they hung around/painted.

Since Montmartre is a massive hill, it's got a great view of the city from the top:Again, there were many more photo ops, but due to my forgetfulness I am relying on others to send me their pictures. I might post a second picture entry later. After the tour was over, we walked around the top of the hill for a while, sat on the steps of the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur, and did some souvenir shopping. Then I bought a baguette and one last crêpe, and headed back to the train station.

So in summary, the city is amazing, the architecture is gorgeous, and so are the people. I swear, it seemed like every other boy I passed on the street was stunningly attractive. And everyone was so friendly and they all had fantastic style. London is still my soulmate city, but I think Paris has become my bit on the side. And don't judge me for cheating; I'm a travel whore and I know it.

The only bad thing about this weekend is that I missed this.


Ah well, I guess sacrifices must be made to the travel gods. Or maybe Arsenal just do better when I don't watch them, who knows.

hey look, this time it's real. i swear.

Okay, I think I can believe it now. This transfer has been far too exhausting. I need a nap. Or a drink.