La Celebración de la Selección Colombia

Sunday was a big day for Colombia. The football team returned from Brazil after making history; Colombia has never gotten this far in the World Cup before. After the game against Brazil on Friday I think everybody in Colombia were hit by a small depression. It’s funny how it all can pass by so fast; on Saturday they informed on national TV that the city will organize a “welcome home event” for the team in Parque Simón Bolivar, and it immediately changed everybody’s way of thinking. I wanted to go to the park to see this event, unfortunately Mateo had to go early on Sunday morning to a trip with his office (yes, on a Sunday morning, I still can’t believe his office can ask for that - but that’s an other issue!!). Early in the morning I went to the park together with Mateo’s sister. We arrived to the park at 8.30 and by that time there were probably more than 50 000 fans wearing their yellow shirts. Everybody was so happy, singing, shouting, dancing and waving their flags. It was like Colombia never had lost!! We waited in the park for more than 3 hours for the team to arrive. Their plane landed already at 8 am but it took them almost 3 hours to get to the park, which is only 10km away from the airport, because there were so many people on the streets greeting them. By the time they arrived to the park, it was already filled with more than 125 000 fans, 50 lost children waiting with the police and I don't know how many people who fainted.

It was such a nice feeling to be there. I know I’m not Colombian but I almost feel like one nowadays. It was really worth waiting there for those hours even though I didn’t see much in the end... Finnish as I am, I of course got a bit annoyed how the Colombians don’t have respect for other people. I have been to outside concerts etc so I don’t mind the crowds, not at all, but what bothers me is that all the people put their children/friends on top of their shoulders so nobody behind could see. This was like a chain reaction, one started and the rest followed.. And the poor people who stood behind didn’t see a thing.. I even had problems seeing the screen, and I consider myself tall! This is not the first time I've noticed this behaviour but let’s discuss that another time. In the end the event was not organized for the Finnish girl, it was organised for the football team and I really think they were happy and touched that so many people had arrived to greet them. They are kind of like heroes in the country now. The World Cup may have ended a bit too soon for "us", but in 4 years we will back.