A little round ball and the craze of a continent

No, it's not a UFO, it's a 1.5 MILLION DOLLAR balloon that someone had the brilliant idea to float on top of the infamous Geneva fountain in honor of the Euro Cup football championships (as seen from my house ... ). I should try and dig up a photo as it appears from its "rightful" place on top of the fountain, but in the meantime I'll put it this way - the first time I saw it walking out of the office, my first thought was "how the hell did THAT get by the city beauty committee??" And that was BEFORE I knew how much money was being spent on it.

Make matters worse, the thing has to be lowered any time the wind picks up to more than 10 knots (not an infrequent phenomenon when you're talking about a lake in a valley in the alps ...) - and my trusty source of morning news has reported that it's costing them 10,000 CHF every time it has to be raised or lowered. And that was before it got a hole in it and had to be sent to London for repairs ..... (wish I could say I had been the one to put a BB gun to it!)

If nothing else though, the event is providing plenty of entertainment. As one poster I saw today said, the once-every-four-years EuroCup does not equal party, it equals business, and business it has been (though there's certainly been a fair share of party too :-) . Soccer balls are appearing in all shapes and forms, and national flags and clothing everywhere you turn ... the city lampposts have had their covers replaced with ones in a soccer ball form, the tourist info center has laid down astro turf and constructed a giant goal post as an entry, the chocolotiers are producing nothing but balls, all of the flower boquets at the florists have balls attached to them, every other balcony has a flag hanging down, school kids dressed in the jersey and long socks of their favorite football idol run rampant, air horns and ceaseless honking is heard all day - only to quadruple in force at 20h and 22h when the two games of the night are over, tour buses roll into town from all over Europe carrying crazed fans with banners plastered to the windows and luxurious buses carrying the teams are followed by police escorts and more crazed fans at every turn.

Too bad the Swiss are already out of the runnin' ....

Hopp Schwiiz!!

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Woman in a man's world

I've been looking for a just-for-fun-with-a-little-friendly-competition soccer team/club/league ever since I arrived in Geneva, without much luck at all.

One day, when I was feeling particularly ambitious in my search, I wandered over to the nearby stadium and started poking my head around looking for someone who might know something. In fact, I naively poked my way straight into the men's locker room (oddly enough, not one of of the row of 20 boys - ranging to men - seated in the entry of the locker room bothered to forewarn me...). Having turned a 360 degree circle and seeing more men's bottoms than I had intended to see that afternoon, I then exited the locker room and somewhat bemusedly asked one of the (presumably) coaches seated outside if he knew where I might get info about women's or co-ed leagues. He gave me a look as if I really were from Venus than proceeded say that, well, he knows about teams for little girls ...

So imagine my excitement last week when I saw an ad for a pick-up soccer group looking for players! I jumped on the phone, secured my spot (after being assured that Ronaldino and Beckham were not on the roster) and happily joined the troops at the agreed upon spot to play. Of course I imagined they would be a bit short on estrogen, but I didn't really think I would really be the ONLY representative of the female population.

And no, I don't mean the only woman in our group of 12, I mean THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ENTIRE SPORTS COMPLEX. Funny what sterotypes can mean sometimes ... when I first talked to the captain he said "now you're American, right? It's great when the American and Australian girls come because they can actually play - a lot of times they're even better than our guys." And it's true ... in the States a lot of girls grow up playing soccer ... in Europe, very, very few do.

Being the lifetime female sports lover that I am, it never even remotely crossed my mind to change before going to the sports complex. Places like that ALWAYS have bathrooms, lockers and showers. Then again, places like that always have those things in the States ... here they were only for men. Don't get me wrong, I am by no means a man-hater and these guys were are gracious as ever, but it didn't take long to figure out that, not only was there no women's lockerroom in the building, there was not women's toilet ... in the ENTIRE BUILDING.

Ever so kindly, the guys offered to clear out the men's lockerroom and stand sentinel at the door so none of the other teams would come in or, when I declined that offer, to wait outside of the court while I changed (shall I mention that the court had a 2nd floor viewing deck and glass windows down an entire side??). I declined that as well ... and changed in the corner of the hallway ... across from a window onto the courts and as the b-ball teams walked by, but it was the best spot I could find.

Honestly, it was one of those incredulous things that you just have to laugh about. But more honestly, it makes you think just what it must have been like to be among the first female athletes just a generation ago ... just fighting to get a private corner to change in before the big game.