I'd written a long post about how I was worried about attending a live soccer match last weekend and how I wouldn't be able to hear anyone and how lonely I was going to be and how badly the crowd noise would mess with my implant etc etc. Anyway, I went to post it and something went wrong and I attended the soccer without the lead up post to how terrible it was going to be.
I went to the soccer game and had a wonderful time! The crowd noise didn't bother me as I couldn't hear it. I could hear those people standing close to me on my CI side but I couldn't hear the kid yelling at the umpire on my non-CI side. The kids said it was really noisy but it didn't bother me at all. Nobody much wanted to talk to me except the kids (to ask for money to buy junk food) so I just happily watched the game (my team lost) and watched the people walking by. People watching is a favourite activity of deaf people.
Come half time the sky opened and it poured down. My first instinct was to panic about my CI getting wet ($8500 to replace the processor - wouldn't you?). I covered up with my hoodie and my cochlear survived our first rain together.
I must admit, I was delighted to spot a young guy with hearing aids in (I'm constantly searching people's ears for evidence that they are just like me and feel delighted when I spot something) but he seemed more prepared than me and whipped out his rainproof hood. Will learn.
So, turns out that live sport is cochlear friendly, who would have thought?
