Kids and teachers watching the Big Game at our house, Monday morning, February 1, 2009.
Monday morning, February 2, 2009 we crammed 45+ kids into our living room to watch the Super Bowl. That's right, I said Monday morning. The Super Bowl is one of very few programs that is aired live in Saipan on our local cable channel, and Super Bowl Sunday is actually Monday morning here in Saipan. Thus on Monday morning the island's sports bars are full and the public school system usually finds a way to dismiss classes so that everyone can enjoy that American football classic, the Super Bowl.
At the SDA School we have school but it's hardly what I'd call a "regular" day. When we first moved to Saipan, we watched the game at the school, back when the school had cable service. Now, we bring all the students in grades 5-10 up to our house to watch. For one day out of the year, our student body, which normally leans more towards basketball and volleyball or soccer for our Korean students, suddenly cares deeply about football. The kids and teachers pick a team to root for and to hear the trash talk you'd have thought we were avid fans,closely following the regular season this past fall. The truth is, many of the students have only heard of the two teams the day of the big game and they often choose their teams based on nonathletic criteria such as which team has the better looking uniforms.
Nonetheless, the kids cheer enthusiastically for their team, and during close contests like this year's Steelers-Cardinals nailbiter, they even get excited about the game itself. Of course, the game isn't always exciting--particularly when all they're doing is running the ball and no one is getting any touchdowns, the kids get a little restless. It's even worse that while we get the game itself, we miss what many call the best part of the Super Bowl--the commericals. Instead we get a handful of local commercials repeated ad nauseum, the very occasional Budweiser commerical slipped in, and awful lot of plain station identifications screens with generic rock and roll riffs looping in the background. Still, everyone's grateful for school day free of school work, and everyone manages to have a good time until the game ends, usually around 1 in the afternoon.
Look at all those shoes! We take off our shoes in the house and so the kids did the same leaving with us this monster pile of shoes.
1 comment:
We were supposed to have a Super Bowl party here but someone forgot to tape the game, so we watched Facing the Giants instead!
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