In which we do some math.

There's been quite some hullaballoo hullaballooing on this side of The Pond. Sure there's some economy flopping about like a fish outta water as the Euro increases in flabbiness, but that's not what I'm talking about. I am talking about the Europameisterschaft, or the Euro Cup, if you will. (= Soccer tournament. I know some of you Americans were wondering.) That's when Greece puts out a little paper cup and everybody kicks euros into it. Or rather, tonight Greece put out their little goal and Germany kicked a lot of Fußballs into it. There was a lot of tension leading up to this match, as the quarter final time had rolled around already and, in case you missed it, there has been a lot of political tension between these two lands as of late. I started out the game secretly rooting for Greece, out of pity and all that. In a recent news story leading up to the game, one Greek was interviewed and said something along the lines of, "Well, we know there isn't much of a chance for us to win, but seeing smiles on Greek faces again in anticipation of the game has been really nice." Paraphrasing, but still. They could use a break. (Well, technically they could use a fix, not another break.) ANYWAY. I armed myself with ice cream, met up with a friend, and we found ourselves a nice spot at the public viewing at the Uni.

Despite all the good samaritan feelings I had been feeling at the kickoff, five minutes in that room and my heart was schlagging schwarz, rot, gold with the best of them.

Now for the math part.

1000 or so enthusiastic Germans + beer + soccer + (goal x 4) + beer + you should probably make sure your volume is down =

To add a little political spice to the soccer soup, Angie Merkel attended the match in her characteristic light green blazer. The camera showed her reactions to the more elating and frightening moments of the game, which was amusing to say the least. Huge cheers arose from the crowd every time she came on screen.

My favorite reactions, however, came from the German (wait! came from the balding dude in front of us who kept shouting "JAWOOOOHL" whenever he got excited) coach, Jogi Löw (You can pronounce that "Luuuurve" if you please. He is somewhat of a heartthrob for some parties, just because he is, like, totally, like, so cute, you know?). But anyway, as Accompanying Friend mentioned earlier, it is very difficult to tell when Jogi is anxious because he always has the same facial expression. Always, except for when one of the teams makes a goal. When it is not his team, he waves his arms around frantically like some sort of exotic bird mating dance. When it is his team, he waves his arms around frantically like some sort of exotic bird mating dance... followed by a fist pump. And for the record, my favorite drunken chant of the evening was the one in which all the big, burly men jump up and down while tonelessly singing, "Wie schön!", aaaaand also for the record, it is almost midnight and things are still exploding outside my window. Wie schön!

Guess the Bild got one thing right: No bailout fund could save them from Jogi. And so the fun continues.

Family time and several hundred drunken men singing old love songs.

It's true, but that explanation will have to wait until after family time adventures.

Last week sometime I got a message from Jonas (my wonderful German exchange student brother who lived with us in '04-'05) saying that he would be home in Detmold this weekend and that it would be great if I could come visit. He also introduced me to Mitfahrgelegenheit, which is a fantastic ride-sharing system used all over the country. It's so easy - you go to the website, type in where you want to go to and from on what day, and it shows you the list of all the people making that trip, what time they're leaving, how many open seats they have in their car, and how much they charge. After quickly making an account for yourself, you call/email your selected person to solidify your spot, they pick you up at the train station at the specified time and then drop you off at the train station at your destination. We used it both driving the 2.5 hours to and from Detmold and in total it cost us each 30 euro instead of the 60-80 or so euro it would have cost with the train. Hooray!

I say 'we' because Kassia came along as well. Sabine told me last time that I was more then welcome to bring friends with me, so why not! Thus on Friday we met up with our ride after an evening of historical tour of the St. Pauli area of the city with our group (and amazing hot chocolate and Kuchen at a cafe) and got to Detmold by 10pm-ish where Jonas met us at the train station. I hadn't seen him since my last visit in 2006 during my Belgian year and it was soooooooo so so wonderful to see him again. He took us back to their Haus where he fed us and we chatted and caught up on LIFE and all that good stuff. It was very bizarre for me to be speaking German with him because in person we had only ever spoken English. People's voices take on different intonations in different languages, and it was interesting for me to pick out which parts of his voice I recognized and which were new to my ear. Just something I noticed.

On Saturday, Sabine fed us and the rest of the family a fantastic breakfast and then Jonas took Kassia and I for a walk around the city. The Saturday market was well on its way and there was lots of fun people watching to be done.


This year is the 150th (?) year celebration for Hermannsdenkmal, which is a huge huge huge statue of Herman (the German) that stands high upon the highest hill in the area overlooking everything. They had mini-Herman statues that different artists had decorated all around the city, much like the bears of Belfast or the cows in Paris. They were fun.

Jonas, Duke of Detmold standing proudly in front of his castle.

One of the oldest (and cutest) little streets in the city. Most of the city still had this stereotypically German aesthetic and aged feeling that Hamburg lost to bombs during the war.

Later that afternoon after a wonderful Sabine lunch (it was a very filling weekend), we all went for a walk around a huge open-air museum where several hundred year old houses, farms, windmills, and villages were rebuilt after being taken down elsewhere, and then restored to their original conditions. It was a fun blast from the past to be able to walk around all the old buildings and see how people lived and worked back in the day.




We also got to check out a windmill. How fun!

After that excursion we took a quick trip to visit Herman and congratulate him on his big birthday. He's several hundred meters up there and we were able to walk around the base of the dome area part way up and have a look at the big big world. I had visited Herman with Sabine three years ago in the winter, so it was fun to check out the view in another season.



Down in the right hand corner is Jonas, Sabine, Trappi, and their dog Tessa, who didn't feel the need to go all the way up with us. They said they'd wave, which in German is winken (vink-en). One of my favorite verbs.

Many of Jonas' friends came over that evening to hang out. There were a lot of loud and fast-paced conversations going on at once and I was pleased to be undersanding most of it. I had somewhat of a deja-vu feeling because three years ago I'd been in the same position with most of the same people, except that then I had nooooo cluuuue about how that crazy language worked and this time I did. Mostly.

Sunday morning we had to catch an early ride back to Hamburg because our group was going to a Fußballspiel that afternoon. There are two official soccer teams in Hamburg, but only one favorite. The St. Pauli games are both famous and notorious for their extreme fan adoration that makes all their matches incredibly fun and exciting whether they win or not (and from what I've gathered they tend not to win). Before the game, the metro was completely packed with brown and white and jolly rodgers (their symbol) and beer bottles. Then when we finally got into the stadium, I didn't see a single open seat in the whole place. This first picture (click on it!) was taken when the team was walking out on the field. The whole stadium was cheering and jumping up and down and singing and chanting in adoration. The whole front half of the stands across from us was the official "fan section" where they had learned special cheers and hand clapping motions that made cool designs all together. They also jumped up and down in unison, which was quite entertaining. However, my favorite part was the old love songs that they had re-written to apply to their beloved soccer team. The best was to the tune of "You're Just Too Good to Be True," which instead of "I love you, baby, and if it's quite alright, I need you baby..." went "Hey, hey, St. Paaauuuu-li, da da da daa daa daa, hey, hey, St. Paauuuu-li, da da da daa daa daa, etc..." I'm not usually one for sports, but the enthusiasm of the place really won me over.


I was able to catch St. Pauli's one and only goal on my camera. I was a little worried the stadium would explode.


They ended up losing 2-1, but all the fans stood and cheered proudly for the team anyway until they'd left the field.

Andreas, our Hamburg Seminar teacher, brought a friend of his who just happens to be on the St. Pauli team to class on Friday as a surprise guest. He told us about the long and very interesting history behind the team and it's political and social actions in the city, as well as taught us key soccer terms in German. Having this previous knowledge about what was going on before the game made it that much better. One thing I learned that I found particularly interesting was that no sexist posters or slogans were allowed in the stadium. No half-naked objectified women in a heavily male-dominated situation? Cool!

Aaaaand now I'm sick. Blehh. However, our practical orientation leader is unfortunately/conveniently also ill, so I don't have to be anywhere today. I'm more than ready for a quiet rainy day.