Big Women and Swiss Men (Comparable) ALSO: In response to the Corporal

Grab a snack and your drink of choice, I may have written a short story, sorry.

So it is Tuesday night here in Grenzach, I am watching Jen, and 17 of her teammates, do weird plyometrics with their shoes off on gymnastic pads. Pretty entertaining. We spent all day in Basel, jumping from wifi hotspot to wifi hotspot. Good news is we found a true internet café, the internet is free and you do not have to purchase anything or get a password from the worker, the only problem is our plug doesn’t fit, so we have to spend time at Starbucks and Mac Diesel’s to recharge. I had forgotten how good double cheeses are though so the trip to the Big M was a plus.

If you have not heard, I am the proud owner (borrower) of a Vespa (picture below). I was able to ride it into Basel today, Jen had to take the bus. Had a little run in with the Swiss Polizei on my way out of Basel, (apparently some roads aren’t made for motorized vehicles, who knew?) but I was lucky enough to encounter a crew (4 officers) that had one guy who spoke English so I got away scotch free, no ticket or visit to a Swiss Prison.

Yesterday was interesting. I went with Jen and a couple of her teammates to the “Doctor” that Jen has been to before. They have a weight room in the basement of the office and Jen and I wanted to lift some weights. Considering we hadn’t lifted since we left the America’s, it was nice to pump some iron again. Turns out, however, that the “Doctor” had no recollection of telling Jen to come back and she was not on the schedule so we went for no reason. Got the chance to lift though, and weigh ourselves. I am small. Lost 15 pounds since we have been here and although I feel good, a lot of it was muscle I’m afraid. Jen is down a little too, so we have decided to eat more bread and drink more wheat beer. I have to say I am a big fan of the new diet.

Had practice last night, went in an hour early to work with my coach, who apparently thinks I need to get stronger as well, because he KICKED MY ASS with 4 medecine balls and crazy Euro drills for 45 minutes before teaching me the plays they run. The extra work was good for me though and I have added quite a few “fun” workouts to my arsenal if I ever get the chance to coach. Practice went smoothly, the guys are still all very nice and I am learning a lot, having a blast playing the sport.

The best part of the day, however, was the ride home. Myself and two teammates joined together to make a small, yet powerful, band of Vespa riders. Never breaking 55 KMH (about 33mph’s for you staties) we managed to own the road for the 20 minute ride back from practice. It would be shorter but it takes me 1 gear and 5 minutes to make it up the hill we live on (<50 cc and 230 lbs don’t go well together). Being passed by pedal bikers is embarrassing but you get used to it. The ride to practice was a little freaky, cars go fast on the Autobahn, and it was my first time riding the Vespa out of town but we arrived safely.

Sunday had us at Jen’s teammates for brunch. Eggs, potatoes and spinach, pretty darn good, although I will admit I felt a little like Popeye eating the amount of spinach they put on my plate. Hopefully it will help me put some muscle back on. Sunday afternoon we went and watched RTV Basel play a Handball match against another Swiss team in the Nationaliga A. The game was close and entertaining but Jen and I were not very impressed with the level of play. Granted I tried out for RTV Basel and was deemed not good enough, but we both think with another year of playing that I would not struggle to play in the league.

Imagine this, driving three hours both ways in a cramped van to watch the WNBA. Wanna shoot yourself? (Sorry WNBA fans) That is what Jen and I did on Saturday. We traveled 6 hours in a tiny van to watch a Women’s D1 Bundesliga Handball match and even though it was crazy entertaining (these girls are big and very physical, think Jen on roids with a Bonds sized dome), I will not be partaking in another of those endeavors any time soon. Although it was a comparable watch to the Swiss men. Besides, the game ended in a tie, only European sport and McNabb’s Eagles actually allow that to happen.

Highlight from Friday came from Jen’s team. They finally had a somewhat complete roster, including an old Eastern European phenom back from Holiday, and they smashed the number 1 team from the Swissland who had embarrassed them a week or so ago. Everybody is now accounted for and basically healthy and they are coming together. I think they are going to be pretty good if they can all get on the same page by season start (Sept 19 for both of us).

We both will work with Jen’s coach the next two days, a good thing, we need income. Still no jobs but we are looking daily and we have a few things in the works which could help find us a payday. Jen has practice nightly till Friday, a training game tomorrow night actually, I think as well. I have practice Thursday and than who knows, I don’t have a schedule.

Now to Corporal Dean’s intense line of questioning:
1. Does your grocery store have Hershey's Cookies and Cream Nuggets?

No, I wish they did but they do not. However, they do have a full isle of german and swiss choco goodness, filled with dark, light, white, and mixed with nuts, berries, caramel, basically everything but Cookie’s and Cream.
2. 2. Did your doctor remove the scar tissue from your achilles?

I don’t think so, she numbed the area so she may have cut some out, the wound actually looks great and I think it looks smaller now than before, however Jen assures me that is in my imagination and that I still will never be able to leg model, at least not with both legs.
3. 3. How big is your place? Never would use the word big to describe it, maybe 15 meters squared. They use meters over here so it can be tough to compare. However, meters squared is approximately 9 times the feet squared (I’m sure you already knew that, Dale).
4. Bigger than in Boston?

So, it is about the same size as our apt in Boston. Boston was 150 sq ft and this is around 140 I think, but I’m not sure 15 meters sq is the actual measurement, I may be making that up. The only thing is, the Boston apt had a separate bedroom, this one is just one big room, ipso facto, we sleep on our couch, which hurts our backs and makes us feel poor.
5. Are they tall in Germany?

There are big and little. Less fat.
6. Do they have real golf courses?
I think the answer is yes, but I have not scene anything that even compares to Turkey and have only heard of 9 hole courses or 18 hole par three joints. I have asked ppl and they assure me there are but they have nothing to compare to so I can’t believe everything they say concerning the courses.
7. Do you get American sporting events, NFL, NBA, college, etc, on TV?
 The only sporting event I have found is the US Open going on currently, live, so like from 6pm to 3 or 4 am we can watch it. No NFL, NBA, MLB, NASCAR, or anything else resembling American sporting events, although CNN Worldsport (the worst sport highlight show ever, think Jonathan Coachmen as a rookie at KAKE10) shows a few American highlights and almost guaranteed the play of the day comes from the MLB. I have heard of an American bar in a town 15 minutes from us that supposedly shows American sports like NFL, so I am interested in checking that out.
8. Are there good beers that we can get in America?

Yes and No. Becks and Radeberger are some of the best German beers and I know you can get those. However, each town/region has their own brewery and it is hit or miss. Most are very tasty but I can’t imagine you would ever get it in the states. The thing you miss out on most is the wheat beer/hefeweizen/wiessbier. Each brewery makes their own and all bars have it on tap and it’s like going to Jefferson’s to drink Boulevard Wheat but it’s fresher and so much better in my opinion. I know Hacker Pschorr is in the states in some places but it is at best an average weissbier.
9. Can you buy books, magazines, newspapers in English? Almost all the book stores either carry a few books in English or can order them, mags and newspapers, not that I have seen. I’m sure someplace in Basel I could purchase a New York Times or something but I have not seen it. Jen’s mother just sent me a batch of Sports Illustrated and it was like a gift from heaven. Although, being a Bronco fan, it may not be a bad year to be disconnected from the NFL. Pretty sure with the new guy from New England (Bowen is slowly losing his mind), we won’t win more than 5 games and that is being generous. Cutler for I Can’t Even Remember His Name, those ppl from New England are genius’s!!

Caleb Holmes, glad your still going to class, keep up the good work. Abbey, happy early birthday, hope you get a chance to take a break from school to enjoy.
Nana and Grandpa Haubrich, glad to have you aboard, hope you get many more beautiful days at the lake before fall comes.