World Cup Fever

Today is the start of the World Cup, and since Edmonton is getting all Hindenbergy on us, and there is no place to watch the Stanley Cup in Addis, I thought I’d transfer my attention to the "beautiful game." Needless to say there is much in the news about today’s start in Germany. The British Embassy pub, yes they have one, is hosting a screening of the first two games: tonight’s Germany–Costa Rica match and tomorrow’s between England and Paraguay. I was in Bruges during the last World Cup and spent a memorable afternoon watching England humiliate Germany, while a crowd of Scots, morose over their loss to Belgium earlier in the day, got progressively less standy uppy, so to speak. We’ll see what happens tonight. Ethiopia is not in the World Cup this year with Ghana, Angola, and Cote d’Ivoire carrying the colours for Africa. I share an office with a Ghanaian, so they have become my adopted team.

This weekend we are planning a hike to Mount Fury. It is a lot less scary than it might seem, but a good way to get a look at the city. Addis is surrounded by hills: Mt Fury is one of them. Some of the members of the team who have been here longer have hiked up some of the other hills around here and recommend it as a way to get out of the city and see some of the real countryside. Big cities are more or less the same: traffic, crowds, McDonalds, so it will be nice to get away. I will report on our trip on Monday, and maybe even post some photos, if I can figure out how to do it.