Screw exams, I've got three games to watch!

It's that time again! And I'm not talking about Christmas, or Winter, or Leon's Ho Ho Hold The Payments Event.

It's the FIFA World Cup. Since I was a little girl, this has always been a major event in my house. My dad grew up in Lebanon, and though their team never makes it to the World Cup (do they even have a team? I don't actually know!) soccer is a big deal there. This is how I've come to watch most games of every World Cup. It's become a tradition in my family - my dad tapes the games during the day, drives home without listening to the radio, praying he won't see any flags or indicators of who won, and then we watch the games at night. My mom and my brother sometimes join in, but mostly it's my dad and I who love to watch.

My dad and I go for Brazil, Portugal and Spain depending on the game, but Brazil first and foremost. One of my dad's family friends is a die-heart English fan, and although they go for different teams they used to watch lots of games together. They've lost touch in the past few years, but still I remember last World Cup when England lost a major game and my dad bought him a sympathy card and stuck it in his mailbox. I don't think he took it as a joke, though - he was genuinely in need of sympathy to deal with this loss!

I remember one time in about grade four, I stayed home in the morning to watch the World Cup final. I didn't usually do this, but this game was between Brazil and England. My dad's friend was over and I really wanted to watch it with them, so they let me stay. I remember walking into class with a late slip and somebody asking me where I was. When I said I was watching the World Cup final, I remember the jaws dropping of all the boys in the class. "You stayed home for the World Cup?!" Yes, yes I did.

I have another memory of the world cup, but it's a sad one. I actually wrote it as an anecdote for my Writer's Craft class, so I'll post it up here!

"I was in about grade five. My mom and I were walking through the aisles in Fortinos when we saw a sign advertising a draw for a World Cup ball. My family is really into the World Cup, so naturally we were tempted by the possibility of winning a real FIFA World Cup ball! We entered the draw.

Some time later, we got a phone call from Fortinos with the exciting news: we had won the ball! A real FIFA World Cup ball. We were so excited – could I take it for show and tell, I wanted to know. Only if I was careful with it, I was told. We wondered which match it would come from, and would often point at the screen while watching a game and say "maybe that's our ball!" We were told to pick it up the next day, while I would be in school.

The next day, I came home from school very excited. Was it there? A FIFA ball in my house? I walked in and immediately asked, “Can I see it? Can I touch it?” My parents did not seem overly enthusiastic. They pointed to a plastic bag on the counter.

It was a dollar store ball with flags around the outside."

I can't say we've ever quite gotten over this disappointment - to this day, we still sometimes point to the ball on the screen and say "that could have been our ball..." Sadly, I'm not kidding.