Flugtag

Sunday, Red Bull was hosting their "Red Bull Flugtag" in Rome. If anyone doesn't know what that is - it's exactly like some of the Red Bull commercials, where people are pushing their homemade gliders off a high platform to see how far they can fly. ...Generally, the people wind up plunging almost straight down into the water. ...the occasional few gracefully glide a few meters before meeting the water as well. JD, Gwen, Rob and I went out to watch.

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It was fun, but got repetitive. Especially since we were sitting in the sun for about 4 hours. But it taught me a few things:

1) don't trust the weather channel for european forecasts. At about 10:30am i looked online. It was only supposed to get to 73°F and had a 70% chance of rain. The hour-by-hour forecast said light rain starting at 11am and continuing all day long. So i dressed in long-sleeves and pants.

It turned out to be a cycle between mostly sunny and partly cloudy. I felt a grand total of 5 raindrops the whole time. ...and that was while the sun was shining. 73° turned out to be more like 82°. Thanks weather channel. I've learned weathermen are usually wrong, but you couldn't even get a same-day forecast correct. That's impressive.

2) Flugtag gave me a taste for Italian crowds. I still haven't made it out to a soccer game, but i have a feeling for what it might be like. The definitely aren't afraid to express themselves. We arrives about an hour early, and sat on the grass, along with several other groups of people sitting behind us. Very close to launch time for the event, people started stopping and standing on the walkway, right in front of the plot of grass we were sitting on. This drew a series of whistles (like the crowd as a major tennis tournament when they don't agree with a call). The whistles quickly turned into shouting. Eventually some garbage started flying, including someone's mostly-but-not-completely-empty McDonald's milkshake. Eventually a guy from a group behind us got up to tell the few defiant people remaining to move. When they stayed put and gestured for everyone else to stand up instead, a second guy jumped down to the walkway. ...I know italians speak with their hands, but this guy's veins were popping out and he looked like he was about to punch one of the idiots who refused to move. ...eventually, the idiots moved.

3) Europeans still love Baywatch. I already knew this one, but i got to see evidence for it. After the teams sent their glider and a few of their team members into the water, the crowd was asked to shout either "Squalo" or "Baywatch" depending on the teams' performance. Squalo meant a diver in scuba gear, with a giant shark fin attached to his back, would swim out to assist the team out of the water (to the two-note tune from Jaws). "Baywatch" meant the team would be rescued by the boat that would pull glider aside. ..set to the Baywatch theme-song of course.

To break up the sometimes monotonous repetition of gliders falling into the water, there were a few parachuters to entertain the crowd. The first time was a single guy from a helicopter who, after making his descent, made a perfect landing on the reserved plot of grass right along the water. The second show was two pairs of skydivers who each went into formation. After formation, they individually landed on the take-off ramp. 3 of the 4 made perfect landings. The fourth landed on the 2-meter strip of safety net bordering the ramp.