Tio, ¿Qué es una yarda? / Uncle, what's a yard?

Eager to get back into communication with all of you, I am posting this life update on my phone. We have been in Ibagué since Thursday night, invited to participate in a working forum on bird conservation in the area. More on that later.

_{Pepa cat loves being close, but not too close.}

Usually I would have shared a few photos on dlike by now, but my phone has forgotten my steemconnect cookie for ecoinstats on dlike. Too bad steemconnect requires active key to log in (a topic I have conducted substantial interview with their devs about, and may one day publish) because I don't travel with active keys.

Anyways, back to the adventure!

---

One thing that happened yesterday, the Superbowl, was not on anyone's radar down here. We turned it on late, into the fourth quarter, but it turns out that's when all the action was going to happen, starting with questions about the game itself.

_{source, I certainly didn't make this stuff up!}

One of the primary differences between futbol and football (or futbol americano, as its refered to here) is of course the imperial measurement system. What, indeed, is a yard to someone who knows the metric system? Why, its very nearly a meter! 'Not quite a meter' is in fact the best definition available.

Inches we are okay with, because we still have water pipes, deck screws and other hardware doodads that are measured in inches. Everyone's inch (pulgar, or thumb) is different, but that's just the way imperialism works.

Now, what exactly these big bashing men are trying to do is another set of confusion. Of course they want to score a goal! And when we turned on the game, it was apparently 3 goals to 3, a game tied with a score that seemed very exciting to our soccer fans. But no no, in football, I explain, this is very low, due to the fact that we don't use arqueros (goaltenders/goalies).

_{Colombia's national flower, clatlaya triani, living on a tree fork.}

The manufactured nature of american football, the six points for a touchdown plus one or two extra depending on if you pass or kick, a possible two point saftey if one team pushes the other too far back, the hordes of players running on and off the field; all seems arbitrary compared to the 'freedom' of running a soccer ball up and down the field with friends, each trying simultaneously to score a goal worth just one point.

And in the end, what they liked the most was not the excitement, nor the bashing, nor the byzantine rules, but the cameras, replays and coaches challenge (which I explained). When, they wondered, will these wonderful innovations come to our superior sport?

---

Blessings to all! We'll be back in the office soon, and high on my list is to distribute prizes from my feedback competition! Thank you to everyone for your honest feedback :)