Shoes and a Red Card

What a weekend! We woke up Saturday morning to find a text from Jen’s coach that said to meet them at the gym at 11 to do some shopping. They took us to a shop in Weil am Rhein that is a small sponsor of the club. The owner of the shop gave each of the girls 200 Euro’s worth of credit to purchase shoes with. Jen was pumped, she has never owned a true pair of handball shoes and to be able to get a pair for free was pretty exciting for her. She managed to try on every shoe in the store before settling on a pair of colorful Asics. They are the lightest handball shoes and fit Jen’s feet the best. (They had no NIKE shoes, so Jen had to go with another brand, too bad!) We looked for shoes for me as well but they had no pairs in my size, in fact when I asked the worker if they did he laughed and made a joke about along of the lines of having feet the size of a child’s casket. I, of course, didn’t understand but it boosted my confidence to have everybody laugh at me in the store without me knowing. Lots of fun. But Jen got new shoes and she got to shop and she has enough money left over to purchase another pair whenever she wants so life is good.

After shopping we sat down across the street from the store at a Coffee shop to enjoy, you guessed it, a coffee. While we were sitting there Jen’s coach mentioned to me that he might have a job for me, the only thing is I would have to play basketball. A Swiss team is looking for an American basketball player to fill a position on their squad and they are offering said American a job as well. He did not think I would want it but I told him I was interested. So, I may be playing Handball and Basketball and I may have a job. Ha. I think it’s kind of ironic, but exciting.

Jen had a scrimmage against a Swiss team sat afternoon, it was the same team they had played on Wednesday. Jen didn’t wear her new shoes (females, I can’t figure them out, buy them new stuff and than they don’t wear it). Regardless, Jen played much better offensively, she had 7 goals in her time shortened match and she looked much more confident and comfortable with herself and her teammates. Her game was shortened because she received a red card with about 10 minutes remaining in the game. There was loose ball and Jen and a girl both dove for it. Jen ended up on top of the girl, ball in hand and played it to a teammate. A great hustle play by Jennifer, however after she had played the ball to her teammate, the girl she landed on grabbed her hand and bit (that’s right, I said BIT) Jen just above the elbow on her left arm. Jen, without thinking, I think she was incredoulous the girl bit her, kicked the girl. She than got up to go after her and pummel her but her coach got to her first and grabbed her. The ref’s, of course, saw Jen’s reaction but not the first offense and red carded Jen, sending out of the game and off the playing surface. The other girl did not even receive a two minute or a yellow card. Pretty crazy, Jen has teeth marks surrounded by a sweet bruise on her arm. I had a little trouble keeping my cool in the stands, I think the German’s all learned some new vocab, but the game ended without further incident. (Side note to young children: retaliation is wrong)

We spent the evening with Jen’s Hungarian Goalkeeper teammate and her boyfriend. They cooked us an amazing dinner of spaghetti bolognaise with salad and an apple streusel for dessert. We enjoyed some great German red wine with dinner as well. After dinner we went to a festival in Bad Sackingen, it was a typical Germany festival, I think, complete with many many beer and food tents, carnival style games and drunken karaoke singers. We found one particular tent that had its own entertainment system in the form of a middle aged German man leading everybody in one German folk song after another. It was more than mildly entertaining.

Sunday we slept in a little bit. We went to Jen’s teammates house for lunch, I cooked them cheese fries and chicken nuggets, a nice greasy, American meal. They enjoyed it I think, I know Jen and I did. After lunch we went adventure golfing, which was an experience. It was an 18 hole putt-putt course if you will, but it was like no course I had ever seen. The holes had water, bricks, wood, rock, all kinds of different obstacles and tricks. We had a blast. If your wondering, I dominated. It was sweet redemption from the last time Jen and I went mini-golfing, when she beat me by one stroke. Jen would like to state she came in second, a mere 14 strokes behind! The place also had a driving range and an 18 hole par 3 course and from the looks of the players, I am the best golfer in Germany, which isn’t saying much. We may have to go back.

That was our busy weekend. It is Monday afternoon here, we have been studying German and doing our workout (push ups and sit ups and band work) because they don’t seem to believe in lifting weights and Jen and I are both quickly losing weight which is not a good thing.

popularity of indoor pets over there? 

What about apple, are not they real into MAC and its applications?

how are you adjusting to the metric system?

are there any old-man recreational sports leagues or do they all just diet to stay slim?


In answer to Caleb’s amazing questions, (posted above)(for those of you who still don’t quite get it, Caleb reads our posts, than posts under comments his thoughts and questions, it is a great way to stay informed of what you guys are doing and we will answer any questions you have) Indoor pets are big time. Dogs are super super popular and very well behaved. Everybody takes their dogs with them to the gym, to the store, everywhere. They don’t put them on leashes or anything, it’s amazing. Cats are all over the place too but they are more like street animals.

Not that into MAC’s, at least from what I have seen. They are super expensive from what I have heard, I think more people would like one, cuz I think they are “cool” but I have not seen one other than Jen’s.

I love all their measuring systems. WHY do we have all our own systems? It makes no sense, grams and meters and everything works so well, I can’t fathom why we would have changed everything except for our complete bid for independence. Kilometers to miles is easy, divide in half, multiply by 1 and ¼, add. Grams to ounces/pounds is ok its like 400 grams to a pound I think, makes buying meat interesting. Kilograms to pounds, like when talking about human weight is a pain but not too bad either.

And the best part about Germany, they have upwards of 7 divisions in most sports. There are like 12 soccer leagues, like you could come over and play in a league right now, so old men can play until they can’t walk. The old man handball team in Grenzach has a guy that is almost 60 on the team. Makes it fun to watch. They also have many indoor/outdoor tennis clubs and many men (in banana hammocks, mind you) swim laps and lay at the pool all day. Also, everybody rides their bikes, like they put on these Tour de France 200 Euro biking suits and ride around all weekend and most weeknights. You get to see some pretty interesting individuals peddling away. Good questions. I hope we have answered them to your expectations.

Happy early birthday to Grandma Sally, your chocolate is on the way and Gooch(Braden Hawk). Brendan, golf update? I have to get ready for practice, so we are checking out. Catch ya later.