Super Bowl Fever > Dengue Fever

I swear, the farther I get from Wisconsin, the better off Wisconsin sports teams are... If this is actually the case, expect a good two-year run for the Badgers, Brewers and Packers.

But the hometeam in the Superbowl presents its own challenges when you're in India Standard Time, 11:30 hours ahead of that great swath of the Central Standard Time Zone than I call home. So a 6 pm Sunday superbowl in the US translates into a 5:30 am Monday morning Superbowl in India. Plus it isn't a big enough ratings hit to warrant even on an early-morning slot on any of the 50-odd cable channels I get.

A local hotel out in the hi-tech part of the city offered a solution for the ex-pats here in Hyderabad. But it'd be hard to get your money's worth out of a $40 "all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink" party when in starts at 4 am in a country where you can get a 45 cent lunch down the street from the consulate.

So instead, I set the alarm to wake up early and stream the game over the interview courtesy of ustvnow.com, so legitimate that the State Department had recommended that we sign up for it with our personal email. In truth, though, the alarm wasn't even necessary, i'd worked myself into a frenzy reading pre-game coverage that i could hardly sleep and woke up early.

But come the fourth quarter, 7:45 here, I had to head to work. And you couldn't imagine my desperation when the game hit the three minute mark, Steelers down by 6, Ben Roethlisberger with the ball and a chance to win the game...the most suspenseful moment of Americana of the year...and the clock struck 8:30 and with it the first visa applicant began his clamoring for his interview to get into the US. Sacrilegious, I dare say! Enough time in America, though, and he'll learn... :-)

Needless to say, i sported my homemade Packer badge with pride the rest of the day...and one returning H1B even offered a congratulations when he saw it. Way to go Pack!