A big day....BIG!

Today is huge. Bigger than big. Larger than you could possibly imagine.

Okay, so it's probably not really that exciting, but we have two very noteworthy things to discuss. The first is the start of the biggest international sporting event we have, the World Cup.

Germany takes on Costa Rica today in the first match and Poland and Ecuador mix it up in the late game. I know a lot of you don't even follow soccer, I don't either, but I'm really pumped for the World Cup. Maybe it's that my travels recently have taken me to some serious soccer-loving countries, I don't know.

It was interesting to see, that in February when I was in Germany the stores were already packed with World Cup merchandise. I'm not talking just a few racks here either, I mean the majority of the athletic apparel sections were World Cup shirts, hats, jackets, jerseys and a whole lot more.

And then in Argentina, they really made me realize they love this sport. I picked up an English-language newspaper one day and after flipping through it, I came across an article about the World Cup. The article wasn't about World Cup play though, it was about how the school systems were going to handle it.

Since Germany is five hours (or so) ahead of Argentina, the games would be broadcast in the middle of the day. They're in the southern hemisphere, so it's winter and school is in session. With that being the case, school administrators were worried about students skipping school to watch Argentina play its matches.

The solution? Some provinces had already made the decision to put television sets in classrooms so the games could be broadcast. It sounds funny to us, but to them it makes sense. If you watch the 2-3 hour match, they can still have school for the rest of the day. If they don't have them in there, students skip the entire day.

In any event though, my hat is off to FIFA for starting play on the day of our other noteworthy occurrence, Jorge Pereira's birthday. Yes that's right, apparently our favorite Peruvian is also FIFA's, so they're starting the World Cup on Jorge's birthday. What a tribute. Too bad Peru doesn't have a team though.

Well, that about wraps up this post, but before we go, I'll give you my pick for the Cup. The Czech Republic. The US has a strong team this year, probably one of its best ever, but I think it's going to those feisty Czechs this year. Vybojovat Česká Republika!!!!