This morning I slept in a bit, not too late, but late enough to be borderline lazy. I went over the line when I took a nap a bit later. Seriously, I seem to have fallen into my pattern of weekends while at home. I usually push myself so hard during the week that one the weekends I am nearly worthless. Typically that is Sundays when I can barely stay awake. I had a similar sort of day today. Once I got up I may as well have gone back to bed.
But I did stay up long enough to finish (well, almost) the accompanying PowerPoint to the speech I must deliver this coming week. Another speech has been added to my schedule. Now I am speaking on Wednesday to a chapter of the local Esbjerg Rotary. Thursday I will be speaking to the Handelsskoles’ English teachers – not just Esbjerg but the English teachers from all over Denmark. Then on Friday of next week I visit a university in the city of Aarhus; that is about two hours or so north and east of here. I shall be busy next week.
Though I was feeling lazy today I was not completely worthless. I get around some this afternoon and accomplished a few things. I managed to do a little grocery shopping. Also I worked a bit more on some curriculum for the Folklore class I will be teaching in the Spring. I am finished with the basic outline of the curriculum, just need to add the finishing touches. I still need to work on my Cherokee Literature and Texts course and I will be doing that in the coming days.
During the evening I attended another football (soccer) match with Thomas and his family. For my KSU friends Thomas is the David Swisher of this campus; for my NSU friends he is like our Kip Finnegan. Thomas gets things done around here. I arrived at the stadium about twenty minutes before the match began; got myself a beer and hot dog, a tradition here, and set off the join the fun. The game began incredibly well for Esbjerg. They scored within the first two minutes, and I, along with the hundreds of other fans, thought the game would be fantastic. But it turned into a defensive struggle for the next seventy minutes or so. About that time the other team scored to tie the game, and it remained tied throughout regulation.
In extra time, with only a few seconds to go, seriously only about five seconds, the other team scored what looked to me to be a fluke goal. Now I will admit that I was seated at the far opposite end of the field, and nearly every player on the field was standing between me and the goal, but from where I was it looked to be a fluke of a goal. The player who scored was hit in the head, not deliberately headed the ball, but it appeared was accidentally hit in the head with the ball, and the ball took that crazy, lucky bounce that can only end badly for the home team – it bounced right into the goal. Damn! Fluke goal or not it counted and Esbjerg lost 2 – 1. It’s too bad the statistics do not count, only the score. Esbjerg outplayed the opponent and by all rights should have won. But games have scores that supersede statistics. I was really pulling for Esbjerg. They played their hearts out and deserved the win. Some of the students at the school play for this team, and I recognized them. I really like these kids. They are incredible people. I want them to win, not just this game but in life too. I want them to win.
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