As an American living in Italy, there are several things that you must adjust to in order to “get” the culture in which you inhabit. The first thing I would throw out there would be the pace of life. My family was just here visiting me and they were constantly frustrated by not having a 24 hour shopping alternative. I’ve grown to appreciate the frequent slowness of the day and have learned to work with it. The other thing that I would say that Americans just aren’t used to, is eating fish. I took my family to the market and showed them what was available by way of “eating fresh” when it comes to fish. Both my sister and mother had to cover their noses and walk briskly past the fish aisle so they could keep lunch down. It ain’t no Long John Silver’s. One last thing I’d say would be that Americans just don’t understand soccer.
    I had the opportunity to go to my first soccer game today. Ancona was playing Perugia for the possibility to move up from Series C to Series B. When we walked in towards the stadium, I could hear the crowd’s chanting. We found out through some disgruntled fans who were heading back out to their car that the game was sold out. We kept on going towards the gate just to make sure. Well, sure enough, we found out at the gate that it was, in fact, a sold out game. There were 10 of us all together. We just kind of stood outside the gates and listened to the crowd’s excitement. We had to kind of shout because it was so loud. I saw Tarek go up to the gate and start talking with the ticket takers. I walked up to talk with him and see if he had a ticket. He didn’t. He was using his ’slyness’ to try and get them to let him in without a ticket. Something absurd, right? Tarek said to the guy, “Can’t you pick up one of the stubs off the ground and pretend to tear it and let me in?” The guy looked around for his supervisor, looked over Tarek’s shoulder, looked at me, and then told Tarek to go on in. Tarek smiled real big and said, “Josh, I’ll see you in there!” I was stunned. And before I realized what was happening, the ticket taker guy was telling me, “Go, Go, Go! Follow him in!” I didn’t skip a beat, and waltzed right past the gates into the stadium. I turned around and waved at my teammates who were staring back at me in disbelief.
    I got in and took a look at the playing field. The crowd was all wound up. This was going to be too good of a thing to let my teammates sit outside for. So, I went back down the stairs, found some ticket stubs on the ground, and went back outside to hand my teammates the ticket stubs so they could get in too. The problem was that I hadn’t grabbed enough of them though. So we debated outside how we were all going to get in. By this time, some people who didn’t have tickets started crowding the gate. Cops started to come over to sort things out. (A side note is that in Italy, they have to have massive security, not in their airports, but in their soccer games, because they get so intense!) Well after a few minutes of fans asking for sympathy, they let everyone in! Some of the fans were saying, “I knew that their hearts would soften sooner or later.” One kid, as he went past the guard asked, “Are you sure we don’t need tickets?” The guard smiled painfully while finishing the last drag on his cigarette and said, “Look kid, don’t ask me these kinds of questions, just get in there and enjoy the game!”
    So we were in! The game was intense! I didn’t know all the songs everyone was singing, but everytime there was a bad call by the ref, the entire crowd erupted. The fans from Perugia were bussed in on the opposite side of the stadium and were blocked in by cops decked out in riot gear. The Ancona fans started chanting obscene things like, “Perugia go F@#* yourself!!!” Old men, young kids, pumping their fists in the air and shouting at the top of their lungs. I leaned over to Chris Casey and said, “I guess soccer games are not a good place for spiritual formation.” In between the obscenities and blasphemy, there was no doubt that the fans were personally involved in the game.
    Ancona ended up scoring two goals, and had to win by two in order to move up in their ranking. The last two minutes of the game were the most intense. Perugia managed to get multiple goal attempts, but failed each time. The level of blasphemy quickly lessened and the spiritual fervor of the fans gained as they began shouting prayers to God beseeching His intervention. Three generations of Anconaetani stood to their feet and began chanting the ball away from the net. The last kick of the game, the ball went straight for the net, the crowd went silent. And in slow motion, the ball bounced off the post and went out of bounds. The ref indicated that the game was over and that Ancona had won. It would be an understatement to say that the crowd went nuts. Kids began rushing the fence and started climbing over. The cops in riot gear began to unleash the dogs. The drunk kids saw the dogs, and decided it was best to not jump on to the field, but to stay perched on the fence. I found myself at times getting caught up in the game. I yelled to the guy next to me, “It’s impossible! How did that not go in!” The guy wiped the sweat off his brow and looked at me with his bloodshot eyes and said, “It’s destiny man, it’s destiny…”