June Gone

So, WOW, where did June go? Guess I just spent June watching soccer. Now we have only four weeks of classes left! Ridiculous!

Um, a little recap, I guess. I can't really think of too much that I've been doing. My friends, Sonca and Sinisa, live in a house and they have a great living room for watching matches and a great backyard for BBQs. I've been spending a good amount of time over there. It's fun! Very summer nights-y and laid back. Especially since my living area consists of the distance between my bed and my desk.

We sat outside at the table and watched TV through the window. Then we realized that was ridiculous and went inside.


Delicious food! We had bratwurst (see how small the Bavarian bratwurst are? They sell them two at a time (ein paar) with a piece of bread), chicken wings, rolls and a super fancy salad that this guy just whipped up really quick. Check out the fancy tomato!


We had another bbq Sunday to watch Germany destroy England. The next round (Germany vs Argentina) is on Saturday, so I'm not sure the plans for that. They always show the matches on big screens downtown, so we might go for that. After Germany won, all the cars were driving around honking their horns for hours.

Here is a silly video that is Germany's official WM song. (WM is Weltmeister (world master), Germany's name for the World Cup)

Sportfreunde Stiller -- 54, 74, 90, 2010 - MyVideo
It's called "54, 74, 90, 2010" which are the years that Germany was world champions (assuming they win this year, haha). This German girl that I met said that last World Cup they had the same song, but for 2006, and right after they lost they changed it to 2010. I wonder if they have a 2014 version ready just in case.

On Saturday, I met up with my friend Thomas from Munich, the one I went to London with. I hadn't seen him since the trip, so it was fun to hang out. He came to Bamberg and I showed him around, and then we went to Nürnberg. We went back to the Nazi rally ground museum, and since I had been there before, I got to be sort of a tour guide. The student becomes the teacher? Haha. On the train, some kid asked me a question in German, even though Thomas and I had been speaking the entire time in English and I had been talking about the most American subjects (US soccer team, 4th of July, Americans at Wimbledon). He thought that I was the German one and Thomas was the American one! It was so funny. I laughed about it all day.

In Nürnberg, the US vs Ghana match was to be on TV right when I was going back to Bamberg. Since it was such an important match, I didn't want to miss it. Thomas had to take a train back to Munich, which is about 2 hours from Nürnberg, but since Bamberg is only 40 minutes away, I stayed in Nürnberg and watched the match at a random Irish pub near the train station. There were a lot of Americans there. The game ended up being really long because it went into overtime and I got back pretty late. Oh well! It was a fun experience even though they lost. Boo! Now I am a Germany fan.

It was really fun to hang out with Thomas! He's really fun and we get along really well. I hope I can see him again before I leave.

Wow! This whole entry is about soccer. Look at me now!

World Cup

Hi, Aunt Celia! Thank you for letting yourself be known :)

So yesterday was Germany's first match in the world cup, versus Australia. There was a party at the university with an outdoor screen and bratwurst and beer. Of course I had to go, it's not like I'm gonna get this experience in the US, especially involving soccer. Not that I care about soccer but I do care about group events where other people are excited. Contact fandom, I guess.

It was fun, everyone was dressed up and decorated and excited. Luckily, German murdered Australia so I got to see a happy crowd. After each goal (four for Germany, none for Australia) an announcer would come on and announce the standings and the crowd would answer. It went like:
Announcer: Deutschland!
Crowd: Drei!
Announcer: Australien!
Crowd: Null!
Announcer: Danke!
Crowd: Bitte!

So polite at the end with the "thank you" and "you're welcome." So yeah, it was fun. Apparently they show all of the matches on screens outdoors, so I definitely see myself watching more of these matches.

Oh I went to my friends' house to watch the USA-England match on Saturday night, and on another channel there was pretty much just karaoke for inspirational World Cup songs. It was awesome. One was like "54, 74, 90, 2010" which I guess is the years that Germany won (and is going to win) the world championship and then another was an official World Cup song called "Wavin' Flag." These kind of worldwide events are my favorite.

Hello! Long time, no type, amiright?

Not too too much to report on this end. Bamberg has entered into summer with guns a-blazin'. I mean, literally, some days it feels like I am in the barrel of a gun, being fired, it is that hot. Unbelievably I was wearing a coat at the beginning of June, and now it is just sun sun sun from morning until late late evening. I look at the clothes I brought and am thinking about cutting off all my jeans into shorts and burning my sweaters, because I'm sweating just looking at them.

It's weird how people think that I am dramatic sometimes.

I went on a little day trip last Sunday to Weimar and Erfurt. It was, eh, not the best. It was pretty hot, and pretty far away, and pretty boring, and two of my favorite travel buddies were off having other adventures in Paris and in Morocco (RUDE), and I'm a little sick of little German town after little German town. But it wasn't overall a bust, we got some nice sun and hanging out time and seeing some sights. Oh and also we found this creek/river thing in the middle of town, and got to put our feet in the icy water, and I REALLY enjoyed that. We ate some gummy bears and sat with our feet in the water until they turned purple. I would have stayed there for hours. Any time getting out of Bamberg is a good day. This little town is nice, but it is definitely growing smaller every day. When I got here I was all, this town is so much bigger than I imagined! But now it's feeling über-klein. (That is my bastardized German, means something in the realm of "very small".)

Here's a picture for you though. (I have no idea who "you" is. As far as I know, only Dad, Mom, Jenny and Grandpa read this. Anyone else? I'll try and include some tidbits for you if you'll make yourself known.)

This was in Erfurt. I don't know why this picture turned out all weird and hazy, but I kind of like it. Sinisa (superman next to me) bought this 1 euro tripod and was SO excited about it. He took one picture with it (this one) and then realized later than he lost the tripod. Such a tragedy. Also I wore these weird purple shorts that really have cost me a lot of respect from people in the world (specifically, from a realtor and from a waiter, but I kind of feel like people just know that I own them and don't take me seriously even when I'm not wearing them.) I'm pretty sure it's the last time I will ever wear them. They're really weird.


I decided I like this blog a lot more with pictures. So I will try to keep putting them up.