"Are You Ready For Some Football?!?!?"

ahhh can't you just hear it... Monday night football! Even though I am not a fan of any other football except college, and to be more specific SEC football, this song still reminded me of that atmosphere that comes with football season. I swear the air is different in the south! People are more friendly (as long as their team has won), the trees are a beautiful and rightful orange color, the weather is perfect and let's admit it- you can use a football game as an excuse for nearly everything!!!

That is not so much the case here and their football.... no excuse me- SOCCER!! I know we changed it, but I really cannot call a sport that is soooo boring to watch "football." It degrades my favorite sport in the world!


I don't know what the news covers there, but if you haven't heard there is the Euro Cup going on right now. It happens every 4 years like the World Cup, only just with Euro teams... hence the name. So, for the past couple of weeks I have been trying to partake in this phenomenon and really have tried to enjoy it as much as the other fans do. I adorned myself with German war paint, drank German beer and even caught myself yelling in German at the TV a bit ("OHHH NINE!!!" - that would be "oh no" for those of you who know absolutely no German.) However, I'm still not convinced that this game holds even a match flame to AMERICAN football.

*see... German "war paint"... and even festive gummy bears!!

The games are low scoring, short in length, do not allow strategy, have no breaks so you can go pee and honestly, most of the time just reminds me of what Americans call "fussball" or Germans call "kicker" (you know the guys on the stick in the table.)

I'll recap my experience for you anyway despite the horrible comparison with SEC, even more specifically, AUBURN football! So, my 1st experience was Germany vs. Poland game- Germany won, people set stuff on fire (not dangerous though- just for color- it was red) and there were loads of people in the Pointstraße... yeah nothing exciting at all... 2nd experience was maybe Germany vs. Austria... the only thing that I recall from that game is that of course Germany won and I was surrounded by English speakers (Aussies and a guy from TN!) who distracted me with their conversations. My 3rd game was last night- German vs. Turkey. I met up with Kristin and Andreas and we finally settled down in the Marktplaz for dinner and the game. I was nervous about this one because there is a lot of tension between the Turks and Germans- I even received an email from the Embassy warning about this night and to take extra caution! Dinner was great, beer ok, game... egh... the most exciting parts were when the signal went out and we were left with a blank screen! Now, if this were to happen in the states THIS would cause riots most likely... Germans however all quieted down and began to listen to the commentary- which you can only bet I understood every bit of!! In the end Germany won yet again and will move onto the Finale on Sunday- Germany vs. Spain.

I will say that despite my disinterest in the game- I do love to watch these Germans celebrate! I left Kristin and Andreas and met up with a group of friends and we just stood on the side of the street and watched the traffic/parade of fans! Now this WAS impressive... people in Aachen were celebrating this win with flags, horns, music, yelling- you name it- and the game was played in Switzerland!! The only thing I can compare it to is trying to get outta AU after another Bama win!

the Street in Aachen after the game

Sunday is the Finale; maybe I'll begin to appreciate the game... most likely not.... but let's hope for a Deutschland win so I'll at least be surrounded by HAPPY people ;)

and just for the hell of it- WAR DAMN EAGLE!!!