With Sabrina and Caleb's wedding quickly approaching, it was time to get serious about suit shopping. Currently the only black "suit" I own is my Navy Dress Blues and Sabrina quickly shut that down, so it was time to go shopping!
So, on Saturday, September 30, Katie and I headed to Modas Rodriguez in downtown Rota to try and find a nice, fitted suit. We walked in and told the owner what we were looking for, he eyed me up and down and immediately found a suit coat and pants that fit me. Of course, the sleeves and pants legs were slightly too long, but they fit across my shoulders, chest, hips, and thighs perfectly! Mr. Rodriguez' talent for eyeing a customer's size was pretty amazing! He also found me a nice fitted white shirt and measured my arm and leg length to have the suit tailored in-house. The following Friday, October 6, we headed back to the store and picked up the suit! I was really excited because A) it's the first slim-fitting suit I've ever owned and B) the pants feel like sweatpants!
Now bring on December 2nd, so Sabrina can get married and I can wear my sweatpants-suit and break out my dance moves in style!
Plaza de España
On Thursday, October 12, Katie and I joined our friend Meghan and a couple of her husband's friends from the Spanish Navy, Gonzalo and Ignacio, for the UEFA Euro Qualifier match between Spain & Scotland in Seville! UEFA stands for the Union of European Football Associations and is essentially the group that oversees all of the European soccer leagues and national teams. The UEFA Euro tournament is scheduled for next summer in Germany, so Spain is playing against Scotland to try and qualify!
Prior to the game, Katie and I met the rest of the group for a drink and about an hour of quick exploration in Seville. The highlight was definitely Plaza de España, where many of the Naboo scenes from Star Wars, Episode 1: The Phantom Menace were filmed. After quickly exploring the beautiful cobblestone streets, plazas, and cathedrals of Sevilla, we made our way back to our car to head to the game!
Estadio La Cartuja de Sevilla
After a serious struggle finding parking (which was free by the way) which almost led to Katie and I's divorce, we finally made it to Estadio La Cartuja! It was about a 15-minute walk from the parking lot to the stadium, but the energy was palpable!
We made it into the stadium right after the singing of the national anthems and found our seats. Apparently, in our section, it was a free-for-all because the seats we bought tickets for were already taken. No big deal because we ended up getting to sit in the front row of our section!
The game was absolutely electric! I would compare the entire stadium's fanbase to a rabid student section at a college football game in the southeast. Between the chants and booing the Scottish fans for not joining in with the wave, Katie and I had a great time. We thought Scotland had scored first, and the stadium went almost completely silent outside of the contingent of nearly 3,000 Scottish fans sitting in the corner section! Fortunately, the goal was disallowed and Spain went on to score two goals in the last 20 minutes to win the game 2-0! The stadium absolutely erupted when Alvaro Morata headed the first goal home!
Check out the brief video below to see what our experience was like inside the stadium with all of the wild Spanish fans! To say we are España fans now is an understatement! We need jerseys to complete our ensemble and I gotta say, they are the right color red to fit in with my wardrobe of Washington Nationals and NCSU gear!
After the game and feeling high off a big win towards qualification to EURO next summer, we exited the game and fought the crowd of tens of thousands of Spanish fans, singing and cheering! We eventually made it to our car where we sat in ridiculous traffic for nearly an hour before we started our 1.5-hour journey back home.
We made it home around 1:00 a.m. and I know tomorrow morning is going to come early since I still had to go to work! But it was all worth it and now I don't think I can get enough of going to soccer matches here in Europe; I've already started looking into tickets to go to more games!
Thanks for tagging along! ¡Vamos España!
Bryan
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