I was just listening to "Indicatif Présent". Marie-France Bazzo's great show on Radio-Canada, that I get through the magic of the internet. Pierre Thibault, who was giving his revue of various magazines, naturally discussed a soccer magazine to celebrate the start of the World Cup today in Germany. And he said the winner will not be Brazil or Italy as the magazine predicted, but rather it was sure to be Holland! Holy smokes! Even here, nobody I know can claim that without laughing at the same time! If I would have known this, I would have made other vacation plans since I won't be in Amsterdam for the final match. My friend Kobus told me it would be a crying shame if the Netherlands got to the finals and won, while I happened to be overseas. I told him that would indeed be a shame, but somehow it didn't seem to make sense to make all my travel plans on the assumption of Dutch domination and victory in soccer :) But you never know.

All humour aside, people are very excited. The banners are up: Hup Hup Holland! The orange is also out, and will indeed be out in force on Sunday for Holland's first match against Serbia (and Montenegro). I'll be looking for some great pictures to post. The first match of the World Cup is this evening, with the host Duitsers from Duitsland in action.