I went down to the Hotel Insel Fermarhn this morning to watch NFL games with the boys, but when I got there, no one was around. I was a little late, I suppose. Insel picks up Armed Forces TV from American Samoa and shows NFL, NBA and all sorts of other American sports.

I managed to catch the last minutes of the 4th quarters of the Denver/Detroit and the NY Jets/Dallas games. I sat there, eating my pancakes and watching the games, but I can't really get into football. I'm even in a fantasy league with a few of the other PCVs. But for some reason, football doesn't seem real to me I'd much rather watch rugby. I never thought I'd say that. Even when I lived in Australia, I didn't like rugby.

Here in Samoa, rugby is different. It's like a religion. It's like football in Buffalo. It's the only show in town. Except it's really the only show out of town, since Manu Samoa, the national team, only plays 2 games a year at home, normally. They only played one this year because of the World Cup which is getting underway in Australia next month. Samoa is in a pool with England, South Africa and Uruguay, so they have their work cut out for them. I don't know how they will do, but I do know that this entire country will come to standstill to watch the matches.

It's amazing how out of touch I am with American sports. At the end of the game, FOX was running a promo for the MLB playoffs. I had no idea that they had even started, let alone that the Cubs were in there. Could this be their year? Go on, Cubbie fans. Let's hear you give a shout out to your boys.

[ I'm secretly hoping they win- ;-) ]