There are some benefits of working in a male-dominated environment. One of them is that random “1 on 1s” get mysteriously scheduled on your calendar that for some reason include your entire team, and then you realize that this “1 on 1” is actually being held at the nearby pub, where everyone is drinking beer and watching the first game of the World Cup. No pale ales for me, though. I was enjoying the fruit beers on the menu.

Although I wasn’t a soccer fan prior to getting tickets for the World Cup and booking our Brazil trip, I’ve been reading about the World Cup, how the groups are formed and how the matches work, and I actually understand it now and can appreciate it. I like that the crowd seems to have a lot of energy (as opposed to those stupid baseball games. I will never understand the “excitement” of baseball. A bunch of men just standing around a big field waiting to attempt to catch a ball if it ever comes?!), and people actually wear the colors of the team they are rooting for – thousands and thousands of them in a big stadium. The world loves soccer; the U.S. loves baseball. The world is more than just the U.S.