March Madness, International Style

Like clockwork, every year at certain times, I get a pang of yearning to be in the U.S. Those times include (in no particular order):

• Halloween (So Thing One and Thing Two could experience the true meaning of the holiday);

• Thanksgiving (Though I've become quite attached to our own Thanksgiving extravaganza);

• Any Sunday in January (So we could sit around and watch American football in the afternoon);

• March Madness (Otherwise known as the NCAA Tournament).

I adore March Madness, even from afar. You get 66 collegiate basketball teams, some you know, some you don't, playing their heart out to win the title of the nation's best. The best time of the entire tournament is the first four frantic days, when you get basketball joy from morning until night.

I come by my love for March Madness honestly. I'm a Villanova Wildcat, so I learned from my first year at school how much fun March Madness can be, ESPECIALLY when your team wins unexpectedly and thousands of people rush the Quad to celebrate our good fortune.

But times have changed, and I don't have a quad to rush or a keg to tap any more. Now I have to participate in March Madness remotely, which just isn't the same. Thanks to the wonders of the Interweb, I can still play in a pool, and last year I even held first place for a day! Whoo-hoo!! I also thought I'd be a lock for being the furthest participant, but I was foiled in that title by someone from China. 

This morning I dutifully filled out my brackets and sent in my payment via PayPal. I'm hoping that the CBS March Madness website will actually work this year and I'll be able to watch my beloved Wildcats (they've promised that I'd be able to do so since 2006, but it hasn't worked yet). The sad part is that if we win, I'll probably be the only person in London who cares.