In the future when I reflect on June 2026, it will be forever etched in my memory as the month when Americans were reminded just how amazing we have it in this country. I’ve always been super America-pilled and am quick to always tell others how good we Americans have it, but it’s been additionally satisfying to just see the thousands of social media posts of international tourists experiencing American Walmarts, Costcos, and Buc-ee’s for the first time. So I wanted to just take a quick minute to jot down some notes so I have a physical artifact to remember this month by years from now.
The 2026 World Cup kicked on June 11 this year, cohosted by Canada, the United States, and Mexico and across all of social media, international visitors from Europe, Asia, and Australia have been celebrating America! Our ubiquitous air conditioning, Waffle House, Popeyes, our ranch dressing. There is a German kid, Freddy, currently roadtripping across America who’s tweeting his exploits in realtime on X and has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions, even appearing on America’s national news. Apparently, we have things like crushed ice and free beverage refills in our American restaurants that aren’t the standard custom abroad.
What is wonderful to me is that Europeans generally have an ethos of “working to live” while Americans believe in “living to work.” Europeans generally enjoy more leisure time but that also means Americans are busy toiling away on side-hustles, their jobs, etc. Consequently, America has created a country —for better and for worse— with extreme optionality and excess. It’s just fun for me to see Europeans experience the American standard of living.
What I especially I love about this year’s World Cup is they chose one of the venues to be the Kansas City Stadium which seats over 76,000 people. By having a venue in the middle of America, it gives international tourists a chance to see our suburbs and daily way of life for 20% of Americans. I know it’s probably not great for the environment, but that aside, I do love how every corner of America is getting some love during this tournament. Matches are being held in Boston, New York (well, New Jersey), Miami, Dallas (Arlington), and Los Angeles. America is geographically a giant country and so I think it’s only fitting that visitors see all the vast wonders that our nation has to offer.
Finally, I enjoy that the tournament has expanded from 32 to 48 teams. I know much of it owes to FIFA’s desire to make more money. But that reason aside, I love that there are countries people have never heard of (at least, I hadn’t) such as Curaçao and Cape Verde (who is currently having a Cinderella tournament, having qualified for the knockout stages!) Media companies are incentivized to paint things in a bad light and continually harp on problems in order to get people to continually click and tune in. I really encourage people to minimize their exposure to news online. We are seriously living in an age of marvel and wonder right now. Endless entertainment at your fingertips and more knowledge than ever be consumed in multiple lifetimes at your every whim.
Meanwhile, in other news: I have been keeping up with my morning LMNT routine and also walking 45 minutes each morning. I’ve lost nearly eight pounds so far and am currently aiming to be 155 lbs which will put me at ~15% body fat. I think I’ll get there by end of summer!
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Loose Change
The Classic Tetris World Championships happened on June 5, 2026. Congratulations to Dog who won the thing! Meme got second place and sadly Alex T had to forfeit due to hand injury in the semifinals. Tetris is a tough game! I’ve definitely been there myself!
UFC Freedom 250 happened on June 14, 2026. It was a mindblowing spectacle. The American, Justin Gaethje vanquished the previously undefeated Georgian/Spanish Ilia Topuria in a four-round fight for the ages. I watched it live on Paramount+ and the fight was spectacular. 🥊 It’s still amazing to me that the event took place at all at the Whitehouse.
I discovered that the Amex Platinum card offers a quarterly $100 credit for Resy restaurants!!