The Essence of Life

Throughout literature, men and women often have to go places to learn about themselves, life in general, and the world around them. In Moby Dick, Ishmael goes to the sea while in Frankenstein, Victor runs to nature. If I was smarter, I could name others but I'm not fully "UD" yet (maybe one day). For me, I always thought I leaned toward nature, like Victor. But after this last weekend, I realized I was completely wrong.

This weekend, I went to Milan. Some of you might think, since Milan is arguably the fashion capital of the world, that fashion now brings me to understand the world. Sorry Mom, but that is not quite right.

But instead of spending my time shopping at Gucci and Louis Vuitton to increase my fashion sense while decreasing my walet, Ali, Khang, and I basked in the glory of San Siro (the incredible stadium) for the Inter Milan/AC Milan football game. Inter, which is known historically to be the more inferior team, was in 1st place in the Italian league while AC Milan (sort of the Yankees of Italian football) was in 2nd. I have had a difficult time thinking of a way to describe this experience but I think what follows will suffice.

For you American football fans, it would be like going to the Michigan/Ohio State (or Texas/Oklahoma or Georgia/Florida, etc) game when both teams are ranked #1 and #2...on steroids. If you are a baseball fan, it would be the Yankees vs. Red Sox with them both on top of the AL East separated by only 2 games...on HGH+anabolic steroids+amphetamines.

To start off, while we were in line before the game (more like a mob) our gate consisted of all Inter fans with the gate next to us consisting of all AC Milan fans. The AC Milan fans began to sing, chant, and give the appropriate finger to the Inter fans in our gate. The Inter fans retaliated by whistling to drown out their singing. Even though I haven't seen the movie The West Side Story in its entirety, I have seen the part where they dance and sing when the gangs "fight." Think of it as something similar to that.

Also, while Ali, Khang, and myself were in the mob, Ali noticed that the guy next to me put a knife in his shoe. A little disconcerting, to say the least. But I haven't heard of any stab incidents from the game, so that is good.

Here are a few pictures and videos from before the game to show you what a game is like. I think they give it more justice than I ever could with my words:








This is UD: Reading Oedipus before the best football match in Italy.


Inter won the game 2-1 behind goals from Adriano and Stankovich. Pato, a 19 year old phenom, scored the only goal for AC Milan. Overall, it was a great match by two incredible teams.

Of course, I really don't find my existence, truth, and the such through a football game but it definitely was one of the cooler experiences of my life.

-Justin