UCSB v. Ohio State University

I'm sure most of you already know, but March Madness is currently underway and going strong, especially here on the East Coast. I had no concept of the "madness" that seems to over-take people out here when the NCAA men's basketball tournament comes around. Bets are constantly being wagered, and brackets tweaked with.

Because UCSB won a bid into the the NCAA men's basketball tournament, of course Mike and I had to go out and watch the game with a small (but vocal) group of ex-Gauchos. According to UCSB's athletics website, the ESPN Zone restaurant and bar in Downtown DC was supposed to be THE place to watch the game with other Gauchos. Friday is our "date night" so after I got off work, we went out to dinner and then headed over to the ESPN Zone restaurant. Upon arriving there, we soon realized that the entire place had been reserved for a private fundraising party for a local junior high school system. Once we found this out, we booked it out of there and headed to Georgetown to meet up with another group of Gauchos that Mike is friends with.

Since we got to ESPN Zone just before tip-off, and we were going to have to travel from Downtown all the way to Georgetown, we decided to just hop in a cab rather than miss the first half (there are no Metro stops in Georgetown, so we would have had to take the Metro from Downtown over to Foggy Bottom/George Washington University, and then walk across the bridge to Georgetown).

Mike waved down a cab, and I kid you not, it must have been the OLDEST station-wagon I have ever seen, and a very elderly gentleman behind the wheel at that! But, always up for an adventure, we hopped in and told him where we wanted to go. As we began driving across town, Mike and I engaged our cabbie in conversation, and quickly found ourselves to be in interesting company. I don't know what his name was, but he had been in the USA since 1960, spoke English perfectly, and was originally from Iraq. He had grown up in Iraq and come over as a young man. He met his wife in a bar in Downtown DC (she was a recent immigrant from Scotland) and to this day they are still happily married. He and Mike had a very interesting discussion about US occupation in Iraq, about the recent Iraqi elections (which he participated in through absentee ballot, he actually voted in a hotel in DC!), and his regular communications with his family back in Iraq via Skype. The power of technology!

Sadly, UCSB lost to Ohio State, but it was a great game, and a lot of fun to watch with former Santa-Barbarians.

PS - As of this past weekend Mike and I have been in DC 2 months... which is crazy to think about because it feels like we have been here for absolutely FOREVER!