The Leuven Lions were playing the Brussels Bulls this past Sunday morning and it was one of those bitter cold Belgian mornings. Luckily, I came prepared fully covered in long johns, mittens, ski socks, and just about every football players jacket once they suited up in jerseys. I was supposed to attend the game the previous weekend, but unfortunately was feeling under the weather, so promised to attend the following weekend. Of course, it was a morning game so none of the other Americans were interested in waking up at 8am on their Sunday morning, so I attended the game as the only American fan.
I drove to the game with T.O. one of the Dutch players both Duke and Justin had grown close to. It is such a rarity to be in a car in Belgium for us that I sat perched at the window the entire hour and a half ride while listening to the boys pre-game play list. The repetoir included everything from hard core rap to country western. T.O had studied abroad for a year in America, in Missouri to be exact, what a strange state to choose, but he absolutely adored his experience, hence the country western tunes.
Once we arrived we met up with all the other Belgian players, and with Belgian players comes Belgian fans. Loud dads screaming profanities to the referries in Dutch, moms and girlfriends drinking hot chocolate all bundled up conversing in Dutch and little kids running around playing tag, yes, you guessed it in Dutch. As soon as Justin and Duke left my side I was thrown into the Belgian cheering squad. From the little that I could understand of Dutch from some of the female spectators I could hear that they most certainly didn’t understand the concept of American Football, a rather new sporting event introduced in Belgium.
I used this as my place to slowly enter the conversation, first in Dutch introducing myself and ask how they were doing and explain my situation, then next figuring out who spoke English to help them understand American football. They were so impressed that I had attempted to speak Dutch that they swept me under their wing for the rest of the game and absolutely loved hearing about my home town and experience thus far. One of the ladies had a daughter who was five and completely captivated by my speaking of English. Evidently she had never heard English before and was most certainly confused at the concept of a foreign language. I imagined my little sister, now 8, hearing a stranger speaking a language she couldn’t understand to her. She would be so confused, so I got down to her level and broke out my elementary level dutch for the second time that day asking her her name, age, and favorite color. She began giggling and babbling some more dutch words to me I couldn’t make out and her mom told me she was saying, “the lady who spoke like an alien was really nice mommy.” Of course we all broke out hysterical laughing.
The boys sadly lost horribly, the other team was really dirty and we began counting how many times the medics had to run out on to the field instead of how many points each team had, but regardless it was a great day. Post game all the players and fans of the Lions went inside to the bar to share some beers and hamburgers, at this point the little girl was sitting on my lap, the team was amazed at her comfort level with me after just a few hours. The camaraderie between this team had obviously transcended into the fans as well and I was now part of this bond. I can’t wait to go back to my next game, it is a home game, and meet up with the other female spectators, and my favorite new little Belgian friend, Marie.
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