the national team

last friday night jarred and i went with some of our good friends here to see the men's national soccer team here play against syria. we didn't really know what to expect, but we were pretty sure there wouldn't be popcorn and nachos waiting for us. we have been in the middle of a week-long downpour so the field was more like a shallow swimming pool, making for some pretty ugly soccer, but we were thankfully dry since the stadium seats were covered. the night ended up being really awesome because we rarely do cool things here like go to a huge soccer game with thousands of other people in a stadium in the big city that we didn't even know existed. it was also awesome because the south african vuvuzuelas have invaded this country as well. i am pretty tempted to think that all of south africa's were exported from here. and as if those things weren't bad enough through the tv at the world cup, they are way worse in person. especially when your friends buy them! and then the 4 guys with us (my husband included) deemed it their responsibility to introduce the people of this country to the art of celebrating a goal by taking off your shirt (or all 3 layers if it is really cold) and waving it around your head. as if we didn't already stick out enough, people all around turned to look at the foreigners going crazy with their shirts off. cameras started flashing, aimed at our boys and not at the field. thankfully they were cheering for the home team (although it did make us a little nervous to cheer against syria). the night was great, even if there were zero concessions, no mascots, and no band or cheerleaders. actually come to think of it, i think it was better without cheerleaders. much better. it did make us miss football season in america, although it was a decent substitution. the fun things we get to do living here!

i didn't have my camera, but check out the picture below i yanked from josh and danielle's blog:

coffee on the porch

this year jarred's and my schedules aren't quite as matching as they were last year. with a change in a lot of things we have been scrambling a bit more to pencil in things like phone calls to america and quality time with each other. a couple weeks ago we sat down for a bit and looked at each of our schedules to try to figure out our mutual free times. and when we finished we had instituted a new weekly event in our schedule: coffee on the porch.
once or twice this summer we both grabbed a cup of coffee and headed to our porch to chat with each other and read. and so when we were looking for time in our week to get quality time together and realized we have most saturday mornings free, we wrote in coffee on the porch.
so the past number of saturday mornings we have been sitting on our porch together in what is becoming brisk morning air nursing our cups of joe and hanging out. and it has become our new favorite time of the week.