To all Spanish: enhorabuena por gana la Eurocopa. It was about time, after so many years. And please, now that you are also part of the club of winners, stop torturing those bulls. It is not funny. Spain’s most sophisticated city, Barcelona, declared itself anti-bullfighting years ago. Time for the rest of the country to follow.

That said, it was most enjoyable to watch Spain kick Germany’s ass in the finals. I went to a pub with both parties represented which adds much to the suspense. Although I know some really cool Germans, the Dutch anti-Germany sentiments take over when it comes to football. Some Spanish friends intended to jump into a fountain after the win, but since I have to finish a grant application which is due tomorrow I had to let that pass. These are the last days before my next around the globe stint. In the next couple of weeks I will be on a tour similar to the last one and I will visit the Netherlands and Singapore. Plenty of time to practice my recently started Spanish lessons!

The Bad News: I am not going to Wacken this year. Too much traveling obligations in July with a trips to Amsterdam, Singapore, and New York. The Good News: I am going to see my long time heroes Iron Maiden tonight, who are playing their last US show in Mansfield, MA.

It is not the first concert that I will see in the States, so it is no surprise that tonights’ venue is seated. Yes, Iron Maiden in a chair. I have a hard time contemplating that and doubt that I will be sitting all the time.
The Maiden concert is just another reason why work is kind of slow at the moment. I spend perhaps too much time following the ongoing European Championship which is broad casted during work hours. And many evenings have been spend watching basketball (my new second favorite sport). The latter has been successful with the Boston Celtics clinching the title of NBA champions this week. Fortunately all these sports does not mean I do not get anything done and we are still slowly but certainly working towards that manuscript.

Click the picture for larger view In an hour from now, the Netherlands will play France. This is the second match after astonishingly blasting away Italy 3-0 on Monday. I think all of Europe (except Italy) was thankful for that.

At least that is the impression I got with the many congratulations I got here. I decorated my house and desk in orange, and came dressed in orange to work today and it is great fun. Speaking of my house, it looks like I will have to move again soon. My landlord asked if I wanted to renew my one year lease and I occasionally dropped that I might be moving out beginning next year. He immediately responded that in that case he did not want to renew. Oops. Unless I pay two months extra - no way Jose! So now I am looking at other apartments with hopefully more flexible terms. But all of that is of lesser importance - Romania and Italy just played 1-1, it looks positive for us so far!

Slowly my heart is coloring orange. I frequently feel disconnected from my home country, but there is no point in denying the patriotic feelings that are currently flowing through my veins. It is a well known fact that people in a foreign country start to appreciate their customs a lot more then they were used to (such as klompendansen).

So far I have not really been complying to that habit. But with the European Championship of the greatest sport on earth starting tomorrow, it is time to release the orange beast inside. That greatest sport of course being football, and by that I mean that sports actually being played with your feet, not the silly American variant.
Netherland’s first game is scheduled on Monday and it is played in the European evening so I will have to take the afternoon off to watch it. With the diverse group of Europeans that are my friends, somebody from the other team is always close by so the stakes are high. “We” made it to the semi-finals four of last five cups - let’s hope we do at least that good this time as there is always somebody around to confront me with national failures!