Hoppa e .. Hoppa a

Hey! just came back from Egypt-Morocco match.I think it's enough to say that i was sitting in the THIRD CLASS seats to know what happened!Well, last week, everbody in the course was talking bout matches and stuff and they really got me interested. Normally i don't like football matches except the ones for world/african Cups, and NEVER been to the stadium before. Anyways, last Friday, it was Egypt-Lebya, and i saw it at work. We watched it on the big Plazma screen there and it was really GOOOOD - the screen not the match - and all ppl came to watch, even our managers ... they even ordered pizza for us on E's expense!Anyways, yesterday, my dutch friend said she was gonna buy tickets for Egypt-Morocco, so i said i'm in of course. However, because this was one day before the match, she couldn't find but third class tickets. I thought it was ok, i mean wut difference would it make for me, i've never been there before aslan ... Well, that was Until they guys from work knew i was going ... they were like "WHAAAAATTTTT???!!! you're going to the third class??? Are you Nuts? We - Boys - don't even dare to go there ... bla bla bla" ... so i was really freaked out, but i was too curious not to go anyways!So, it's 5 pm, i picked up my friend and her husband on the way, another friend of ours was coming too with her husband and friends, so we had to meet her husband to give him the tickets. Anyways, moving on to the entry gates, we were walking through a bundle of flesh in a slow motion queue ... Al hamdllelah, security guys were considerate enough to let women out of the queue, we took a shortcut into the much much less crowded moroccan route then directly into the gates. Hmm, well, after a long long walk, we finally got into the stadium itself, The view was really HUGE! i mean, forget everything u see on TV! i'm talking HUUUUUUGE! anyways, luckily we found enough seats for us and for our yet to come friends too ... it was still the first half of Lebya-Cote d'evoir match, and cheers were going all around for both Egypt - they were'nt even playing, but it seems egyptians go there for one reason ... CHEER and CURSE, so the heck with whomesoever is playing, we just cheer w khalas - and Lebya ... but, Lebya lost ... and i dunno wut happened then, but suddenly all egyptian crowd around us was cursing Lebyans - who were sitting right below us - and of course Lebyans replying back ... Later, i figured out the Lebyans started cursing Egypt and stuff ... and somehow, things get rolling until i found some stuff FLYING here and there ... something came flying between me and the one sitting beside me ... i asked her "what was that" ... she said "A stone" and turned her head to continue watching the game ... OH YEAH?!!! well, looking a little closer into the flying stuff, i could figure out it was broken pieces of the seats, plastic bottles and stones - where the heck do they get stones from?!! - then i realised why they sell Pepsi in light plastic cups ... ! By the time the first half of Egypt-Moroccan match was finished, things got really heated up and national security got engaged with the lebyan crowd below us until they kicked them out of the stadium completely ... Then, the egyptian crowd got back to the game and the cheers. Anyways, let's move to my nice company ... well! There we were, an egyptian - me -, a dutch, her egyptian husband, a moroccan, her egyptian-dutch husband, an australian girl, an american guy and yet another egyptian girl ... all these sitting side by side in a Third Class row, among Football fanatic Egyptians, and all speaking in English! we made quite a scene there, specially with the Moroccan flag which my dutch friend was holding - well, actally she was too enthusiastic to hold it while we were still in the street and we had some teasing remarks on the way - but in a positive way Hamdullelah - but as soon as we entered the stadium, we told her to put it in the bag, and afterwords, i think the sight of all the red-dressed, egypt-flag-painted faces around us really cooled down her enthusiasm ... well, few ppl arond us noticed that we had a moroccan flag, but the good thing is that they were old men, so they took it easily ya3ni and were joking about it!Worst part: CURSES, CURSES and more CURSES. I really never heard such words - and in that fluency - in my life!!!! I was really blushing there ... i told my friend "It's really a bless that you don't understand arabic" ... i guess i really wished i was in a dutch stadium instead ... at least i wouldn't understand anything! And if it was only about curses ... no, they had to strenghtn their words by pointing fingers and stuff! HATED THAT! And wut really drives you crazy is that everyone around was cursing every egyptian player who gets the ball and loses it, and up till the captain who dared to change Medo with Met3eb in the last few minutes. And everyone is acting as if he's soccer geek and all these ppl in the feild are Stupid jerks who know nothing about footbal - at least that's what the 13 years old kid beside me was saying, shouting his throat out, almost getting a heart attack when Ahmad Hassan missed the score!Best parts: Hoppa e, Hoppa a ... inshaa'Allah haneksab (i really which i had a record of my dutch friend saying that, she had the most cute pronounciation saying it!) - Es7a ... fooo2 - applause ... MASR ... applause ... MASR (despite the fact that whenever the crowds cheers with that, the dutch one was saying 'maghreb' in a low voice beside me :P) - 7adarrraaaaaiii ... 7adarrraiiii (the goal keeper) - And the WAVE ... OOOH ... The waves were awesome! All these cheers and waves are really redicilus ... but it's really FUN! The pulse, the rythem of the drum coming from somewhere behind us! The fact that you are a part of some millions of ppl cheering loudly! I mean, where else do you get to raise your voice that loud w/o anyone hearing you? And Really it feels GREAT to cheer! You really have to do it to know what i mean!
Anyways, despite the fact that the match SUX, really maghreb and egypt put up a very bad performance and the match ended 0-0 ... that was pretty disappointing ...BUt ... The experience was really COOL!I think we'll go again to Egypt-Cote d'evoir next Saturday inshaa'Allah... but hopefully in Second Class this time.
Reporting from among egyptian crowds, Third class seats, Cairo international Stadium ... Stay Tune ;)