Watching the Super Bowl in Japan

So this Sunday is the Super Bowl, and my beloved Steelers are in the big game. (Again.) This will actually be the third Pittsburgh championship contest since I've been overseas: in 2009, the Steelers won Super Bowl XLIII and  the Penguins pulled out a dramatic game-7 win in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Given the time difference, I was working during both of those games. The Penguins game was on an in-service day at the end of the year, so I did get to watch most of it. The Steelers game, though, was just a regular Monday morning, and let me tell you, trying to teach during that game was no fun at all. I caught a brief glimpse of the fourth quarter before lunch, then had to dash off to a meeting right at the beginning of what would become the Steelers' last-minute, game-winning drive.

Thankfully, I will not have to suffer so ignobly during Super Bowl XLV. Instead, we're throwing a middle-school Super Bowl party. Students have been asked to choose a side and come in team colors (a co-worker has offered to take the unenviable position of rooting against the Steelers). During the game, they'll have a series of English, math, social studies, science, and art activities, plus snacks. 

Thanks to some cheer-leading by the faculty, the students are starting to get excited, and I'm certainly looking forward to sharing the experience with my classes. It'll be a pretty unique way to watch a game, that's for sure--and in the process, maybe I can start a little colony of Steelers Nation here in Japan!