This Saturday is the Champions League final in Madrid between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan. That brings back high school memories of trying to justify to my parents missing an afternoon class to watch one of the biggest soccer games of the year. Barcelona, the defending champions and the team I was pulling for, lost to Inter in the semi-finals. In Nicaragua, you’re either a Barcelonista or a Madrilista, Barcelona’s arch-rivals Real Madrid. They are by far the two most popular teams here, and you’re either one or the other, no middle ground on this one!
At the youth center where I work, there was so much talk of whether or not Barca would advance to the final that we did a little survey. It was simple enough; everyone who came in the center was welcome to cast a vote for either Real Madrid or Barcelona, and we would total up the votes at the end to see who was more popular. Madrid quickly took the lead, and I did my best to encourage Barcelona fans to come visit the center. Every day of the week, though, Madrid still had the lead, and of course I didn’t hear the end of it! “Barcelona is losing!” the Madrid fans would taunt me. I pretended to get a rise out of it, but as I tried to point out, the popularity contest really wasn’t that important to me; I cared much more about who would win the league.
One of my co-workers had been a little challenging to connect with over the first few months I’ve been here. Nothing worrying, but I just had trouble sitting down and having a conversation. I had figured earlier that it would be just a matter of time and I’d have to keep plugging away. Well, this Barcelona-Madrid rivalry turned out to be a blessing in disguise! Before the week of the survey, we had started to joke around a little more and she appeared more supportive of my presence here, but she just took up the Barcelona thing and ran with it! The funny thing is that she isn’t even a soccer fan, but of course she suddenly became a dedicated Real Madrid supporter when she found out about my support for Barcelona-just to try and get under my skin! I did my part to keep up the rivalry as the big game approached.
As it turned out, Barcelona did not advance to the final of the Champions League. From that afternoon on, I didn’t hear the end of it: “Barcelona lost! Barcelona lost!” Part of me wanted to respond with “Yeah well Madrid didn’t even make it to the semi-finals,” but I figured it would be better to just swallow some pride and accept defeat. My co-worker, of course, was all over me, telling me I didn’t know how to lose, and I had to admit that I have a bit of a competitive spirit.
The funny thing was, for all the teasing provoking I got, my relationship with my co-worker took a marked turn for the better. As the whole thing played out, I realized that she and I could relate much better after a little light-hearted joking. Could something good actually come out of Barcelona losing??? I never would have thought so, but I seem to have been proved wrong. It’s amazing to see what a little humor can do to improve relationships and help people feel comfortable with others. It’s a strategy I think I could have tried from day one, but I’ll be sure to remember that in the months to come.
The World Cup is coming up in less than a month, and I’m planning to create some kind of survey or bracket to put up on the wall of the center to show the progress of the tournament. The World Cup, however, is no laughing matter.
