El dia 29, España Campeon

Campeones, ole!
Yo soy Español, Español, Español!
A por ellos, oé!
Podemos, podemos, podemos, si! España!

Oh I will so miss singing/shouting/humming these cheers. Eurocopa 2008 is sadly over and we won!!! AAAAHHHHH!!! España is the champion!!!

Here are some observations/highlights:

• When an important match is on, the city/country is on standby. Everywhere is silent except when a loud "goooool" erupts from inside the buildings.
  
• I love the Spanish National Anthem. It doesn't have any lyrics and it's beautiful. People sing to it with la la las and I can honestly say I know- and can sing - the anthem by heart.
• Futbol really does bring people together!
  
• About three minutes before the match was to end, the commentators started praying the Our Father. Hilarious!
• Spain has not won a Eurocup since 1964.
  
• Fiesta! Fiesta! People are dancing, singing, screaming, drinking, partying everywhere after the Finals. I was more than happy to join in the fun.
• We beat Italy!!! Ahhh! I still can't get over that match. It was the best! I will never forget it!
• Even though all of Madrid had a huge hangover on Monday, 1 million people still managed to celebrate with the team in Plaza de Colon.
  
• I finally got to wear my cheap fake España jersey. I'm superstitious and didn't want to wear one until they won the whole thing...they kept winning without me wearing one!
• And now, for my own personal MVPs:
1. San Iker Casillas: yes, he is a saint...and the team captain! We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for his amazing saves during the penalty shoot out with Italy.
2. David Silva: He's just so freaking cute!!! Ok, but seriously this guy played his ass out. He might be little but he's good and so humble and modest. I have a total crush on him! And the kid's half Asian...what?!! I am totally going to see him the next time Valencia plays here.
   
3. The defenders: Marchena, Puyol, Ramos, Capdevilla. They barely let anyone get through them. Also, they have rockin' bodies.
4. Marcus Senna: the other quiet one, but played amazingly throughout the tournament.
5. Luis Aragones: el abuelo (the grandfather). Although he got a lot of crap for not putting the legendary veteran, Raul, on the team, we owe him an apology and many many thanks for selecting the best team ever. I really want him to be my grandpa!

And there you go! There are so many things I want to write about, but I am having the hardest time putting my thoughts into words. And anyway, I'll probably just ruin the whole thing if I try to describe it. I'm going to leave it to you to imagine it. I'm just so freaking excited and so happy for the team and Spain. I love this freaking country and they totally deserve this.

On a sad note, my camera has been acting weird lately; It refuses to take pictures in the dark, so I turned to taking videos of us celebrating after the win. But more bad news: my camera was on some weird setting that it took the videos in some super fast forward mode. I really wanted to capture the moment after we officially won. I wanted all of you to hear the screams, the cheers, the celebration. But alas, there is no audio in this super fast forward mode. So, I've created a video slideshow of the tournament and added in pictures and music (so make sure you have the volume up)...this is what happens when you are semi-employed. I hope that it's enough to show how ridiculously excited and happy we are. Just to recap the super fast video, this is what happens: we scream, we jump, we call people, we drink more, we watch the team celebrate on TV, we have a dance party, we go out, people are partying on the streets, we go to a bar, we drink some more, we dance some more, we leave the bar, and then a man tries to jump from a building. The end!

And now it's all over! No more futbol until September. What will I do until then???

Well, I can't wait until Copa de Mundial 2010 in South Africa. I'm totally going with my España jersey on!

Que viva España!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2327607636863826605&hl=en