T Travels: FIFA and G-Town

Good day friends!

Adventures abound, well not really, but life goes on. As many of you know the FIFA World Cup ended a few weeks ago (Viva La Espana!), however before it ended the housemates and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Granted, neither Tony nor Sara watched football prior to this week, but I think we made some believers when the tourney finished. Likewise, never before (and probably never again) had Chels and I watched as much of the World Cup (almost every game) and it was wonderful. We had some great encounters from our Libyan friend to our benevolent benefactor who gave us a wonderful opportunity.

We were pretty steady in going to this one restaurant for several of the live games; the food was good and the specials were well worth it. We would laugh and gaff, sometimes getting into it, yelling at the TV, excited when a goal would slide into that elusive net. It was fun. Some days the place was dead, other times, especially toward the elimination rounds, it was busy. We met several people. The most memorable was the owner of the place. He’d studied at USC for his MBA and has a few businesses speckled over town. At first, when we started talking with him, we didn’t know who he was, but when he introduced himself we knew immediately. We talked more and he is a pretty intriguing guy. He invited us back for the Final game, but we told him we’d be in Georgetown for a conference, but we’d love it if he would be able to suggest a spot for us to catch the match. He got back to us in a few days and told us he reserved a special place for us at this place called the Georgetown Club, the most prestigious club in Town. Wow. What an offer, he even said he set up a tab for us so we all could enjoy a burger and some libations.

At first I pictured a classy place with manners and black ties, but we were told we could wear jeans and a simple shirt. Not completely convinced, I put on a collared shirt and some jeans, compromise, right? But when Sunday came we were greeted at the door ushered to an outside table with the view of large, flat screen TV and were told to enjoy ourselves. People were wearing shorts and there was an American style barbecue tent set up with a couple of barbecues and they were making burgers (apparently it was a burger competition! Amazing.) We watched the winner of the competition accept his victory and then were invited to go up and get some burgers. It was just like home. Cheese, jalapeños, meat, lettuce, red onion; when I bit into it my eyes rolled back with pure pleasure (see above, it makes me hungry just looking at it). I couldn’t get enough of it. We even ran into a television host who works for the Travel Channel. I didn’t know who he was, but Sara was all about it! Eventually, the game started as you can see we did procure some Vuvuzuelas and enjoyed ourselves.

As the game ended we headed to our hotel to begin our weeklong conference. It was great to see everyone both staff and fellow Guy 22ers. We caught up, shared ideas, and worked on how we all could move forward for these next three months before our 6 months-at-site conference. There were also hot showers, free food, and a swimming pool. When all is said and done it was an amazing week. But now we’re back at site and ready to go. We’ll update again soon!