Sports overseas...

In this time of creative impotence, I figured I'd fill space by describing the sports culture over here.

Here, Soccer is king, but it is known as football. Every major city has a football team, and the citizens follow them with fierce loyalty. Even the most casual of sports fan here can tell you who is atop the league.

They follow American football here too, to a limited extent. Pernille's brother Mikkel is a Jets fan (poor guy). ;)

Handball is a big thing over here, too. Not the "hit-the-little-rubber-ball-against-the-concrete-wall handball; REAL handball, which is a lot like a combination of soccer, basketball, and throwing something as hard as humanly possible at someone's crotch (well, that's what it was about in High School gym class, anyway). It is as big over here as baseball is over in the US.

Hockey is followed, but not the NHL. Which is okay, because the European game is far more graceful and artistic than the thuggish American Style NHL.

But there is, sadly, no love for baseball. The closest thing they have is round ball, which is a boiled down version of the sport I cherish oh so much. I have been getting my fix of the MLB thanks to my subscription to MLB.com, I have watched a couple of White Sox games while I am here, which almost made me forget that I am 3557 miles from the nearest professional baseball stadium. Who'd have thought I'd be longing for FENWAY?!?