Watching Olympic Hockey in San Francisco!

and cheering for Canada (silently) at 901 Columbus!!!!

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1st period:

Watching hockey feels so good right now! Go Canada Go! The Swiss seem kind of aggressive though. Nervous! Thank god for Brodeur.

Canada up 1-0

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2nd period:

2-0!

I’m so happy to see the cutaway shots of the arena totally full of people in red, waving huge flags, cheering. Canadians do cheer for Canada! Yes we do! (I’ll give you some context on this later

Ok, they just showed the US coaches in the crowd. Dorks. Looks like they’re the only 2 people in the crowd not wearing red.

Other people in the cafe are kind of giving the TV a quizzical look. Hockey? A few of them glanced at me too, cuz I’m the only person sitting directly in front of the TV. That’s right people. We’re watching hockey. Deal with it!

2-1! Nooooooooooooo!!!!

Ok. Some good interceptions by Canada. All is not lost.

DIGITAL CABLE PROBLEM!!!! The screen just froze for like 10 seconds.

Oh god. NBC just did a flashback to the Canada vs Swiss game from 06. That was cruel.

2-2 in the last 10 seconds of the 2nd period. Geez! Canada was sluggish though – not completing passes, kinda struggling. If they lose here, seriously, I’m boycotting these olympics. This is just too tragic. Tragic tragic tragic.

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2nd period break:

I got some chocolate cake and tea. The mexican guy at the cash, with whom I struggled with gestures and English for some time until we figured out I wanted to watch hockey on CNBC, asked me if hockey is my favourite sport. I said no, I’m excited about it’s cuz it’s the Olympics. Then he asked me where I’m from. He was really surprised when I said Canada. This happens a lot to me here. There could be two reasons:

1. Non-white 2nd generation people like me perhaps identify with their home ethnicity here. Maybe if I’d been both in the states, I’d describe myself as Indian rather than American?

2. There are a lot of Mexicans and Indians from India here. So many, that chances are if you talk to some random person who has my skin tone, they probably are actually Mexican or Indian. So therefore people are surprised to meet me, a Canadian.

Hmm.

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3rd period:

Two british people just showed up. Girl says: “Canada’s playing hockey”. Guy turns around as score comes on screen. “oh shit”.

Ok, the brits have settled into couches near me. They’re also watching the game. Guy is bringing up the swiss upset from 4 years ago and bringing up how Canada lost then and is “losing” now. The girl pointed out that it’s tied. Now the guy is going on a really long story comparing this to some British game where England was down, something about David Beckham, etc. Now he just brought up the NFL. So confused.

His annoying accent is annoying me.

11:19 to go! Come on people. Score! We need a goal!

Ok, they’re finally on the Swiss side of the ice. Might have a chance…

Just saw a fake goal. I got excited, and so did the british guy, but no. it was just a near miss. Sigh. This has been an emotional rollercoaster.

7:27. Let’s go guys!

6:04. Hosers. Sinead OConnor is on the radio.

5:17. Just got a lecture from the coach. Sinead is still on the radio.

4:23. Puck just went flying into the air.

2:50. Wobbly attempt by Crosby. Sigh.

2:00. PASSING!!! Back to hockey school for you.

1:40. Nice try … kick it through or something!

0:32. Fans are excited. it’s now or never. The brits are excited. The cable car bell is ringing outside. Even the cable cars are cheering for Canada!

0:00. Just turned around to notice that there are a few other people here watching this including the mexican guy who changed the TV for me, the manager of this store and 3 other mexican dudes who might be contractors who are enjoying beers. Plus the brits.

OVERTIME!

Come on guys.

4:26. Swiss goalie got hurt or something. Somebody’s down. Replays. They just did 3 replays, and then 1 more from the goal angle, and one more from the top angle. 5 replays in total. Phew! He got up.

4.01. Starting to suspect the Mexicans here are watching the TV waiting for soccer or something to be on. One other guy just showed up and they started talking in Spanish. They probably hate me right now. Mental note: Learn Spanish.

3:45 “We’re not going to take it” just came on the radio. Fitting.

3:12. No progress, but I just turned to my right and noticed 3 hipsters with their macbooks and ear buds. They’re oblivious to the drama going on in this side of the room. Hipsters. They’re oblivious to everything except wayfarers, vinyl, and skinny jeans. <roll my eyes>

2:40. AGGRESSIVE attack by the Swiss on Canada’s goal. Brodeur saved the day again. The swiss are hungry.

1:30. The mexicans and british are louder than I am when it comes to going “oooh!!!” during the buildup and “awww” during the letdown.

0.04. I finally talked to the Brits. They’re sooo excited right now. Oh, and the Canadians just attacked the Swiss goal. Craziness.

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SHOOT OUT!

I can’t believe it came to this, but here we are. An olympic shootout.

A thought just popped into my head. Where is Don Cherry? This isn’t the same without him.

They just did a closeup of Crosby. He looks pissed.

WE WON!!!! Yes!!!!!

Sigh. Ok. I can wear my Olympic Toque with pride tonight. I was scared for a while, but we pulled through. What an exciting game!

The british girl did cheer louder than I did, and in fact drew the attention of some other person in the cafe, who said “what’s the score?”.