Steak and Sushi

Hello friends and fans, welcome to another blog from Jen and Jordan: Live in Germany! I wanted to give everyone ample time to make it through the mega-blog of 2011 so I refrained from writing for a few weeks. I hope everyone has been able to make their way through it and are ready for another, however shorter, blog update. From continuing to turn our new apartment into a home, eating my first steak ever in Germany, attempting to bankrupt a Sushi all-you-can-eat buffet, working with little tri-lingual genius’s and working harder and harder at this handball thing, we have had a busy couple of weeks.

TV Gelnhausen has been slumping as of late. We have failed to nab a win in our last three contests, two of which came against other low-end table sitters in our league. We did manage to put together an okay game this last weekend but it was unfortunately against a very good team and we still came up short. In my opinion, our defense is strong enough, we could obviously play better but that is not our main problem. Our main problem comes in the form of scoring goals and in most sports; you must score more than your opponent to win the game. Our offense is at times stagnant and many times when we do manage a good possession, we haven’t been able to finish strongly as of late. Despite these facts, the overall attitude has stayed positive and we continue to practice hard and stay behind each other. I really think a turn around is possible; we just need to get a W under our belts. This weekend we play another rather low-end table dweller but we must travel five hours to get to them and to put it mildly, we are not a good road team. Nonetheless, the outlook is positive and I feel like two points is not out of reach on Saturday.

Individually, I have seen increased time on the court. I have played defense for the majority of the games and have seen steadily increasing time on offense. The refs have apparently been on the lookout for me because I have garnered four 2-minute penalties in the last two games alone, but 75% of those have come, not from aggressive play, but from pulling jerseys, or in the case of the worst call ever this weekend, from clapping my hands. The ref felt I was clapping because of the hit I put on a kid that set him down on the floor for a minute while in reality I was clapping to pump my squad up, regardless, it was the least I have ever done to become a 2-minute penalty.

Jen is in the middle of a mad scramble to join Mainz, another team in the second division. The transfer period in Germany ends tomorrow and she has to prove to the German authorities that she has a valid contract with another team and they have to stamp her passport before the German federation will accept it. We go to the Foreigner’s office tomorrow morning to hopefully get everything cleared up.

She has been practicing the last two weeks with Mainz and really enjoys the training sessions. They are intense and she has been implemented fully into their defense and offense. She feels like she has made more growth in the last two weeks than she did in the last two months with Mainzler. Hopefully everything will work for the best tomorrow and she can finish out the year with this team. It has been a month since she last played and she really has the itch to get back out there and compete.

We are continuing to turn our apartment into a home. We recently bought a washing machine, which is fantastic because now I don’t have to leave the house to do my stay at home husband duties. I can do them in the comfort of my own home! Other new appliances include a toaster, a drip coffee maker (winner of most exciting addition of the month, slightly ahead of the washing machine), a sandwich maker, a water heater and a German dryer. O wait, that’s not an appliance in Germany because they still believe in hanging all their clothes, apparently a dryer really isn’t time, effort and space saving!!! Even though we chose Friedberg because of the proximity to our former clubs, we have still decided that this is the best place for us and plan to stay as long as possible in this area, handball willing. We have been able to explore Friedberg a little bit and may have made our best discovery yesterday. Amazingly, it wasn’t the hundreds of years old church or the sweet castle at the end of the main street, no; the best find of the year so far was a relatively inexpensive all-you-can-eat Sushi and Japanese food buffet on the main drag. Jen and I treated ourselves as a Valentine’s Day gift to the buffet and I do believe we took the title of most plates eaten in one sitting. Between the two of us we managed to knock off 25 plates of sushi and other goodness! It was incredible. I’m not clear whether or not we will be allowed back in if we go back but I do think the waitress and sushi-maker-chef-master were rather impressed with us. We finished our delectable meal with an ice cream dish from another local Italian place that hit the spot. As we continue to venture out and explore Friedberg, I’m sure other treasures will surface. In our next exploration, we plan to follow in Elvis’s footsteps and check out the old-Army post where he was once stationed here in Friedberg.

On to more important things, like food. I ate my first steak ever in Germany last week and I must say I was rather impressed. You may wonder why this is big news and so I will explain. Born in raised in the Midwest, I grew up on steak. I love steak. I grill a really good steak. I hardly ever eat steak at restaurants because I like grilling them better myself and feel like I do a better job. So, to put it in perspective, steak was a big part of my life before Germany. When we first arrived in Germany, one of my greatest shocks was the lack or/difference in the quality and cut of meat. You may already know German’s eat a lot of sausage type meats; they also eat a lot of lamb and pork but not so much steak. They do not have cuts of steak hanging out in the super market. And since many don’t own their own homes, grills are also rather sparse in Germany and the ones they do have look like Fisher-Price kid’s toys. To say the least, I was disappointed, it seemed like the only place to get a steak was from a restaurant and to do so, one must have quite a chunk of change. German cows are worthless from what I gather so all the steak in Germany comes from Argentina, making the steak expensive. If you have followed our blog over the last two years, you already know dropping large amounts of money on a steak has not been in our budget and still isn’t. Therefore I have not eaten a steak in Germany ever, until last week when I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the head of TV Gelnhausen handball is also a co-owner of a restaurant, hotel and golf course and that the team had been invited to dine at his establishment. Known for it’s incredibly tasty chicken, his restaurant also carries cuts of steak and since it was on his dime, I finally had the opportunity to eat a steak. I must say, I was rather impressed, I don’t know what the Argentineans are doing with their cows but they are doing something right because this steak was juicy, had hardly any fat on it and was tastier than a hot dog and a cold beer from Wrigley on a nice day in Chicago. Paired with some fries and a Hefeweizen, that steak will be forever engrained in my food memories.

We did finally go visit a doctor a few weeks ago because neither of us could get over our sickness. It was quite an experience; the first doctor we found using a Google search turned out to be a women doctor and the second was a dentist. Neither was able to help us. The third practice turned out to be a general practice but they were so full, we got KICKED out of the office. The secretary so there was no way for new walk-ins to see the doctor and she booted us as we were both coughing and hacking away. We were in awe. After walking around half of Friedberg and wasting half a day, we finally hit the jackpot on the fourth try. The secretary was nice and told us the doctor would fit us in as soon as possible, which happened to be an hour and half later. Of course doctor waiting rooms are always pleasantly filled with others hacking and coughing and with old people who look like they were forced to come and would rather be at home smoking a cigarette and watching the news. Regardless, the doctor was very nice and tried making jokes in English that really didn’t work but still made us laugh. He deduced that Jen had bronchitis and I had a sinus-infection and than he preceded to write us the SAME prescription for our “different” sicknesses. We found this a little odd but sure enough, after a week of seemingly powerful antibiotics and pain pills, we were both back up and running. Both of us are again healthy for the most part and will hopefully stay that way.

Just got back from practice where all we did was go for a run and than do some core training, no handball. Frustrating. Running and core training is very important, but I need so much work on my handball that I hate when a practice is like that. I can do all that stuff on my own; I can’t get in the gym with a goalie and 12 other guys by myself.

On a positive note, a very, very nice man associated with the club, named Dieter, owns his own auto repair shop and has been letting me use his extra/customer use car sporadically over the last month which has really helped Jen and I out since Mainzler took their car back two weeks ago. On top of not having to ride a train for an hour both ways to get to and from practice, the car has some power so I can make it home in under a half hour. And I must say, it hasn’t gotten old going 100+ on the autobahn, not one little bit. Driving at high speeds is quite an experience and lots of fun. Getting to a place that would normally take 45 minutes in the States in under a half hour is refreshing.

Point of the story: Although German steak is expensive and their clothes drying views suck, they have the autobahn/interstate thing figured out and I like it. I’m sure there is much more to write about but I feel like this blog is struggling mightily and I’m gonna put an end to it. I only have two more weeks of freedom before I officially start a full time, grown up person’s job and I have many things to do, like make sure my NASCAR fantasy team is ready to go, before that time comes so I have to get to it.

Just wanna add a congrats to the KU basketball team; the Nation picks you as the number one team in the land and than you prove them right by playing so well against the Wildcats! Uggh! I hate K-State and all they stand for. I would like to encourage everybody to cheer on Ryan Newman this weekend in the first race of the year at Daytona.

P.S. Internet is way too slow right now to post the pics, will come back online another time and post some of our recent photographical adventures.

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