One of my favorite experiences thus far on my study abroad was attending a football (or soccer, as we say here in the U.S.) match at Benfica Stadium. The arena is just outside the city center of Lisbon, Portugal and it is quite magnificent! The stadium is reminiscent of an ancient Roman coliseum, thousands upon thousands of viewers watched the Portuguese National football team play. Some classmates and I decided to band together and ride the Metro to the match; it was the Portuguese national team versus the Bosnian-Herzegovinian national team. One of the things I was most excited about was that the legendary Ronaldo (from Portugal, himself) was playing that night. I was overjoyed and grateful for the opportunity to see him play – it was certainly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I could check off my bucket-list. The story of our arrival, however, was not without conflict. Our tickets did not initially scan, and we had to rush to find a solution. Luckily, we found the ticket office and were able to convince the manager to give us new tickets (with new seats!). With our nerves settled, we proceeded to the stadium. A deep sense of awe and reverence infiltrated my mind as we walked up the corridor to our seats, which were high above the playing field. The crowd roared as the Portuguese national team took the field, and it was so easy for my classmates and I to get swept into their fervor. I found myself passionately cheering and yelling with the crowd as the ball darted to-and-fro.

During half-time we ventured down from our seats to the food kiosks, where I enjoyed a ‘bifana” – a type of pork sandwich popular in Portugal. As we heard the crowd get excited once more, we rushed back to our seats high above the field. I stopped a moment to record a brief 10 second video to send my family, and about four seconds after I pressed record on my phone the Portuguese team scored! The memory is now immortalized in my photo library. Overall, I felt truly humbled to experience such a fun part of European culture; in the United States, soccer is truly not as popular. We all left the field with official scarves that had the date of the game and the identity of the teams playing; and, perhaps most importantly, we all left true football fans!