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| Notre Dame plays BYU in what promises to be a cold Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday. {Photo: thanks to the Deseret Morning News} |
I'm an unsympathetic father. I have to admit I chuckled when my daughter told me of her fears, of what Saturday might be like for her. No, I didn't chuckle. I laughed.
I mentioned my daughter before: she's in her freshman year at Notre Dame. She's learning a lot about life in America.
She has visited America many times, but most of those visits were in the summer. Still she has been in upstate NY around Christmas time. She's seen snow. She's felt that cold – for a few minutes before retreating into the central heating.
Today is going to be something entirely different.
As I'm sure you know part of life at Notre Dame is football. If you're a student you go to the games and you cheer. You get there early and you wait til the end, which is after the team comes to sing with the students following the game.
She had to learn. She didn't know much about football before this year. Oh and sure, the football games were great fun in the warm sun of September, but the game against BYU scheduled for November 23 in South Bend, IN was always going to be a different kettle of fish. It's going to be cold. I mean COLD.
According to WNDU the forecast for the area is, "Windy and cold! Lake-effect snow showers in many areas, although southwestern areas will be sunny much of the day. High: 29, Wind: NW 15-25." Get that? High 29 (that's -2C for those who prefer their temperatures in the Celsius). Also, see that wind? 15-25 – pleasant if you're walking along the beach on a hot day, but tomorrow in South Bend? It will be something she's never experienced.
I chuckled again just putting that in there.
Ireland has a different cold. The kind of cold, damp weather that makes you feel miserable. It never makes you feel like parts of you are just about to snap off. That's what my daughter is in for as the sun sets over the stadium this evening.
Oh, and as she's learned already, football is not like rugby. She was once at the Aviva Stadium for a big Leinster rugby match on an unusually cold day a few years ago. The big difference though is time: rugby, including halftime, lasts about two hours.
By the time she's spent two hours in Notre Dame Stadium this afternoon/evening she won't even be half way to being able to return to her warm dorm room. Nope.
It will be a minimum of four hours outside. In the cold. And the wind. And the blowing flurries.
Maybe when the wind is particularly brisk, really kicking up, she might hear my laughter cutting through the distance to reach her miserably cold ears.
