Superbowl Monday... huh?

Hey all. Just wanted to post some quick pics from our first Kiwi Superbowl experience. So of course the game was only on sattelite television, which we don't have, and no one we knew who wanted to watch it. Mark and Hannah were keen to watch it and it was a holiday the Monday it was played, so we all had the day off. We met up with them and Charisa's coworker, Fiona, who is from San Francisco. She brought along some other Americans who have moved here to work for the local basketball team. We all met up at the biggest sports bar in New Zealand. It is quite a place actually. It has three levels and one side is stadium seating. Since our beloved Seahawks were not present, we kind of chose the Colts. I was hoping Manning would win the big one finally. From what I understand he is decent guy and not a jerk of an athlete like some, so he's OK to win.

So the whole experience was rather surreal. He we were sitting in a place that could easily be in any U.S. city. We're watching THE American game like we would any other year. On my right is a guy who is from Chicago, on his way back from Antarctica. One my left are my Kiwi friends Mark and Hannah in all their accented glory asking questions about the game and being just as confused as I am about rugby. All the people in front of me are rooting for Indy because a few of them are actually from Indy. The row behing us are also Americans. There were none of the in/famous Superbowl commercials. We had advertisements for cricket and rugby instead. So there were several moments it didn't seem like we were in NZ at all. Yet we weren't in the U.S. either. And when the game was done, we walked outside it was midday and sunny outside and people were driving on the left side of the road. Go figure.

Fiona and Charisa with Manning.


Charisa, Mark, Hannah and a grumpy Mark. Mark and Hannah were our token Kiwis of the party. Mark had some very intense questions about American football.