RPM in China: Super Bowl Monday

Currently listening to: U2, Pop

Currently reading: Eugene Peterson's The Message

Because of the time difference, we didn't have Super Bowl Sunday; rather it was Super Bowl Monday here in China.

Before I discuss my opinion about the most watched football game ever, I want to give a rather sad piece of news. Chicken number two is dead. Yes, tragically my neighbor's second rooster was not able to find out why he crossed the road. But I found him. Not where you would think, though. Not in a soup or with a sauce. Take a look...(click to enlarge)

I found him hanging on the line. To dry.

(Random tangent--A few days ago, before Rooster 2 died, I was out taking a video of him. The owner came up and was very kind. He tried to help me in my endeavor of getting the animal to cock-a-doodle-do for me. So yesterday, I was out waiting for the girls and the same neighbor came up and told me that he killed the rooster. At least I think that's what he was telling me; my Chinese is still pretty nonexistent. But needless to say, he was pretty proud of himself--I would be too if I were him.)

But fast forward to Monday. I've mentioned before that we have rolling blackouts every few months. This week was exam week. We were supposed to have exams on Monday and Tuesday with no school on Wednesday and Thursday so the teachers could grade and do report cards. Key words: Supposed to. The blackout for this month was Monday. So the school decided to cancel the exams and give everyone another day to study. I couldn't complain--it just pushed everything back a day, but we got a three-day weekend out of it. Hooray! And what better timing than Super Bowl Sunday/Monday.

So 5 of my teammates and I got up at 7 on Monday (when we could have been sleeping in--dedication huh? :) and headed to an Australian bar. Kickoff was at 7.30; I can't really say that I've ever been to a bar much earlier than like 10 at night. Thankfully no one was drinking that early! The disappointment for the day was that it wasn't CBS, but rather ESPN Asia, which meant no awesome commercials. Which we all know is why most people watch, but oh well, at least we were watching football. I couldn't really complain.

It was wonderful, even though the Bears lost. Megan and I went to go get some breakfast at halftime and I had the weirdest experience--we walked out of the bar and it seemed strange, surreal almost, that we were watching NFL action in China. Talk about the collision of two worlds; it left my head spinning. But thankfully, it rarely happens to that degree.

Here's the evidence: