You know, after seven+ years of FS life, I am no longer surprised by what people and families abroad will go through to be able to live and celebrate like regular Americans do. I am, however, always impressed by lengths which our Foreign Service families will go to to participate in something as quintessentially American as the Super Bowl. Now, I'll be honest and tell you that the Super Bowl doesn't mean much to me. I've never been much of a sports fan personally, but the Super Bowl party tradition is something I can really appreciate.
Now, I'm not up on marketing statistics or where franchises of international restaurants are located; but let's suffice it to say that I'm pretty sure the majority of countries where our FS families are posted do not have Papa John's Pizza or Domino's or even Frank's Hot Sauce. But people in the Foreign Service are nothing if not resourceful! For those who are in countries where they don't get a Consumables Shipment (a ready-made pantry of wonderful, American favorites that they pay in advance for and have shipped to post), it can be really difficult to recreate Super Bowl standards like: chili, Buffalo wings, nachos, sliders, etc. There are a lot of novice chefs out there who try variation after variation of spices and sauces while using completely different and/or foreign ingredients just to attempt to replicate a family or cultural favorite. Some of us will buy/barter/beg for certain things within our respective communities. I know when I moved here, getting a can of black beans felt like winning the lottery!
Most of us are on different time zones--some twelve or more hours difference than Central Standard Time--and, therefore, go to great lengths (and sometimes hardships) to be able to watch the game. Here in Albania, for instance, one officer had a party that STARTED at midnight! Of course, some people had to go to work this morning; and some were able to take the day off. I asked people people on the FS Facebook page to share some of their stories, and here are the ones I've gotten so far:
The CLO (me) had a coffee and donuts Super Bowl party at their house, and we watched the first hour of the game before everyone had to go to work for 7:30 a.m.
In SE Asia (~12-hour time difference) I remember we hosted a few Super Bowl breakfasts at the DCR.
Super Bowl aired here in Baghdad at 2:30am - Although I was definitely asleep at that time, I know a lot of offices organized 'Super Bowl breakfast parties' for last night, and the American Club/Baghdaddy's (the only bar/restaurant on compound) had a party with the game on projector for anyone on the compound to watch! Also, since we can't really leave the compound for grocery shopping, I know a lot of people crowd-sourced ingredients to try and make some typical Super-Bowl Sunday food fare.
I have no interest in the SB! But my sons do, so I told them they could set their alarms for 1:30 and get up to watch here in Amman. They did. They are home from school today, and hopefully when they wake up, they will clean up their chips/salsa and hot cocoa mess.
We stayed up in Ouagadougou and broke out some chips and rationed salsa! Went to bed at 1am when we realized it wasn't going to be much of a game and we had to get up in 4 hrs to get the kids to school!!
Blast from the past. When we were in Guatemala ('98-'00) we all got together for a Super Bowl party. We were blessed there, not a huge time difference (from US east coast) & Guate had pirated TV from Denver, so it was like watching TV in the States but since we were Americans & the Guatemalan Government was not always happy with us, when it got to be the 4th quarter...they shut down the programming. We never got to see the end. BTW, they did the same thing when it was Oscar time...we had a big party, and when the much awaited big awards came up...bam...programming was shut down. And thus their government figured out how to piss off the Americans...take away their big TV time. Sigh...we can chuckle about it now...sort of, I'm still a bit ticked over it. LOL
We flew all day from GDL to Oregon (with a 6 year old.. easy, and a 9 month old.. not easy) so hubby could do it up with family. That's ok though, I made him go to Target and Babies R Us first.
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