Lucky Me

You may be wondering what I did for World Cup action after Italy knocked Germany out of the World Cup. At the time, I was wondering what I was going to do myself.

Fortunately, luck was on my side as France made it into the finals. Why was this lucky? Because my German friends, Uwe and Sabine, are rather well acquainted with Theo, who is an American that until recently was working at the English language newspaper The Yemen Observer.

You see, Theo knows one of the French gendarmes and as it turns out, the French ambassador had set up a pavilion for the French citizens and invited guests to watch the match at his house. Now Uwe, Sabine, Theo, and I are neither French citizens nor were we invited guests but I guess it pays to know people as once we arrived at the ambassador's house, Theo called the gendarme on his cell phone and he came and escorted us inside.

I was especially excited as there was no doubt in my mind that I would finally be able to score some red wine. I mean hey, C'mon, this is the French ambassador's house I'm talking about. But no, either the French ambassador isn't a big wine fan or he just couldn't get any. There was gin and whiskey aplenty, but that was poor consolation as I really had my heart set on some red wine.

Speaking of the France and the World Cup, the Yemeni children seem to think it's extremely amusing to call me Zidane when I walk in the streets now. I concede the fact that he and I share the same haircut, but that's where the resemblance ends as I'm much better looking than him. If you're not familiar with who Zidane is, just type his name into your favorite search engine.

A few days before the World Cup final I attended an exhibit for a Yemeni artist at the German Cultural Center (where Uwe works). I was very impressed and ended up buying one of the paintings. Now I just hope I can get it home in one piece. I thought it would be better than dropping several hundred bucks on a jambiya that I'd never wear once I returned to the states; although, I've bought a jambiya too, just not an expensive one. The nice thing about Yemeni jambiyas is that the untrained eye can't tell the difference between an old, expensive jambiya with a lot of history behind it and a brand new jambiya made to look old.