2010 FIFA WORLD CUP CHAMPIONS: SPAIN!!

July 11, 2010

I don't even know where to begin!! It keeps getting crazier every single time I think that crazier isn't possible! I don’t think words can even describe the complete madness that is going on in Spain right now, but I’ll try….

We went to the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium for every other game except the finals. The stadium is always packed and always crazy, but we wanted to see what other places were like. For the finals, we went to Plaza de Cibeles, then to a bar near Sol, then to Sol. Cibeles and Sol were just as packed as the stadium has been, and all three places were equally crazy. We saw a girl at Plaza de Cibeles walking around topless with her boobs painted like soccer balls and guys kept coming up to her to take a picture with her--haha! Everyone is going nuts no matter where you are at—so you could really watch the game from anywhere. Even in your house, you can hear the entire neighborhood cheering and honking. You can even hear them gasping at exciting parts of the game! I thought being at the bar was perfect, though. I could see the entire big screen TV without people’s heads or arms blocking my view, it was air conditioned so I didn’t feel like I was going to pass out, and I had nice pint of cold beer in my hands with the bar just two feet behind me. It was awesome! We have made so many friends with people at the bars. Everyone is so friendly so we just talk with everybody around us. Someone dropped a beer bottle at the bar & it cut my toe open, but I was too involved in the game to notice/care.

I bet Spain was shaking when Iniesta scored the goal or when the game was over! Iniesta scored with only a couple minutes left of overtime! Everyone was jumping up and down, screaming at the top of their lungs, hugging and kissing each other on the cheeks. I got the chills when he scored. Actually, I have gotten the chills a lot in the past few weeks watching Spain play. It is so exciting!

After the game was over, we ran to Sol where red and yellow flooded the entire plaza! People were going insane! They were in the fountain, splashing water on everyone around. So many people were in it that it didn’t even look like a fountain anymore. People were climbing up on the horse statue (which is actually REALLY tall and would be scary to be up on). They were just hoisting each other up & everyone helped everyone else--didn't matter if you were a boy or a girl, if you wanted to go up or down, everyone helped each other and didn't complain. There were some guys playing African music so everyone started dancing to that, along with their constant cheering :) The big police vans came to Sol, but they didn’t care what people were doing. I think they were just there in case something reallyyy bad were to happen. Cars were trying to drive through, but people surrounded the cars cheering and shaking their cars. The drivers just laughed and kept cheering. There was a white car spray painted like the Spanish flag too—it was awesome! People were climbing on light posts, on top of the huge glass metro station, just everywhere!

The metro was the most packed metro I have ever seen or taken! People were packed on the platform like sardines and flooding into the hallways. Everyone kept cheering the whole time we were waiting for the metro (which was like an hour! I have no idea why it took so long). There were 3 Holland fans on the other side of the metro, and the Spanish fans didn’t even boo them or anything. I figured someone drunk would pick a fight with them or something, but they just pointed at them when they first saw them, kind of gave them this “sorryyyy” look, and then started cheering for Spain. The Holland fans put their arms in acknowledgement then started cheering for Spain too. It was so funny!

There is literally a party everywhere we go--every plaza, every street, every metro stop, seriously everywhere! The street we live by, Bravo Murillo, was packed and going crazy when we were heading home!

Walking to class the next day, there was a smile on EVERYONE'S face! By the way,
nobodyyyy went to class the next day. It was just me and my professor. I was actually pretty glad because I paint so slowly that I’m behind so I got to catch up a little bit.

There was also a huge parade & celebration the day after the game! The entire Spanish soccer team came to Madrid and circled the capital!! So much for running with the bulls in Pamplona--try running through the streets of Madrid with hundreds of thousands of crazy Spanish fans, chasing after the national team! Spain's entire soccer team was literally ten feet away from my face!!! And I made eye contact with Jesus Navas!! I was too busy drooling and enjoying the moment to take pictures when they were closest to us, so I hope my memory will last me a long time! I had my camera up in the air and was snapping pictures without looking. Even my friends who tried to take good pictures didn’t really get any good ones so I’m glad I got a good look at each of them and absorbed what I could from the moment.

After they passed by us, we chased their bus with thousands and thousands of other fans! We were running right next to their bus when I lost my shoe (I forgot to change shoes before I left the house!). I knew if I bent down to get it, I would have gotten taken out, so I left it behind. I thought I was going to get trampled even without bending over—it was absolute madness! The streets are so trashed by the end of the night, I don't know how they clean up so well by the next day. It’s a week-long party in Spain!!! They might as well just wait to clean up until the end of the week. The news said that workers collected 52 tons of trash after the parade--crazy!! The parade ended at el Puente del Rey (King’s Bridge), the team got on stage, and they set off fireworks! There were sooo many people, and we were so far away, so we climbed onto this trash can on wheels, up onto a tent, and onto the top of this little building to see the stage. The news reporters were up in this little stand right in front of us. We all have some battle wounds from getting up there though. Katrina fell into the middle of the tent when she was trying to get up and there were people running around her—she was so scared! We felt sooo bad, but she made it up fine after they stopped running.

After the fireworks, we went to a bar where we tried pig's ear. It was pretty chewy—I’m not a big fan. We made more friends, and the drunk ones were so funny! One of them told me I was from Holland after I told him I was from the United States. Then he made a sad face at me and started cheering for Spain. After about five minutes of telling him I wasn't from Holland, I was from the United States, he started cracking up and said "ohhhh los estados unidos!". I taught his drunk friend the difference between the United States and the Empire State building--he kept wanting to say empire states haha!

I love the drunk people everywhereeee cheering and singing!! And I love when they pretend that they are a matador and their friend or the car driving by is the bull, so they wave the flag in front of them and the car will drive at it or their drunk friends will put their fingers on the side of their heads and pretend to be the bull and charge after it! It usually ends with them falling down after they charge after it—it’s hilarious!! People surround cars on the streets cheering, and nobody gets pissed off. They just honk and wave their flags and cheer back. Everyone is so happy!!!

Here’s the team line-up for the 2010 World Cup Champs!

1 Iker Casillas
2 Raul Albiol
3 Gerard Pique
4 Carlos Marchena
5 Carles Puyol
6 Andres Iniesta
7 David Villa
8 XAVI
9 Fernando Torres
10 Cesc Fabregas
11 Joan Capdevila
12 Victor Valdes
13 Juan Manuel Mata
14 Xabi Alonso
15 Sergio Ramos
16 Sergio Busquets
17 Alvaro Arbeloa
18 Pedro
19 Fernando Llorente
20 Javier Martinez
21 David Silva
22 Jesus Navas
23 Pepe Reina

I’m in love with about half of them--actually all of them :) but especially Villa & Casillas!! I don't think Spain has stopped cheering for days. Preethi’s teacher was telling her about how the Spanish flag wasn’t really a symbol of unity like the American flag is to us in the U.S. before winning the world cup, but winning has brought so much unity to Spain that they waving the flag everywhere. Some people think that it is kind of like an anesthetic from all of Spain’s economic problems. The big question now is whether or not it is temporary or if Spain will unite under one flag. Either way, everyone is so happy right now, and I’m having the time of my life!