Grown Man at Work

My resolution to write more often has been, to this point, completely broken. I’m sorry. I haven’t even come close to writing once a week, much less every two weeks and I am not only embarrassed but also ashamed. It has been over three weeks since the last update and therefore, I have much write about, including our handball endeavors, my new job, our second year in experiencing Germany’s biggest and in my opinion best festival celebration, and the other ins and outs currently happening in our lives. So, onward we march (no pun intended) into my latest attempt to bring humor and relevance to those who take the time to read the blog!



Our faithful reader’s may recall one of the last blogs of our experiences in Germany from last year included a bit about Halloween on Steroids. Known as Fasching here in Germany, it is a celebration running for some three odd weeks ending on Ash Wednesday, in which the German’s appear to tire themselves of everything one should give up for Lent. They party a lot. People don’t go to work because they don’t have it, I’m pretty sure some people haven’t worked for two straight weeks. Every town, large and small, has a parade, some have two and some even have three, including one just for kids. These parades are not like parades in the States, do not think Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or even your local yearly parade; think of the best costumes you have ever seen on Halloween, multiple them into groups of twenty and than imagine they are either the loudest band you’ve ever heard or pretend they are pelting you with candy while shouting ‘HELAU’ (still don’t know what it means, neither do the Germans we have asked) as loud as possible. It is a show. Kids scream, young adults drink way too much, usually starting at the local pub before noon, older couples seemingly enjoy the entire charade and everybody has a grand ole time. I have never seen anything like it and with the exception of being in Germany for Fasching, never expect to see anything like it, except maybe Mardi Gras in N’Orleans. Needless to say, Jen and I enjoyed ourselves as well.



We did have to work through most of the parades and such, but we did manage to celebrate with her team last Saturday evening. I joined Jen’s team for an away game and was able to watch Jen score her first goal for Mainz. Mainz ended up losing the game but Jen played very well on defense and put in good time on offense as well. The highlight of the day came after the game anyway. Spending three plus hours on a bus celebrating with your wife and numerous other young women all dressed up for Fasching with plenty to eat and drink is almost always a good time and this one proved to be as well.



So… I took another week off without writing and I have no excuses. It is now the 16th of March 2011. And I have even more to say than when I started this blog a week ago.



Freshest in my mind is where I have just come from. Wednesdays are running and weight lifting day for TV Gelnhausen and my coach allowed me to train at home this week considering it takes me 2.5 hours of train riding to get to and from Gelnhausen and I can accomplish the same thing at the gym in Friedberg. So I got my lifting and running done early and went to a local small café to use the internet (our internet is not working again, the German system continues to SUCK! More to come on this subject later) and was pleasantly surprised to find that they were having their first ever live performer. It turned out to be young man who played a mean guitar and I have since spent the last two hours of my life enjoying a few beers and listening to him play and sing (all in English, mind you, even though the guy doesn’t speak English conversationally) instead of doing important things with my limited time on the internet. Whatever, I enjoyed myself. I only wish Jen could of joined me but she had practice tonight and hence has spent the better part of her evening (close to 4 hours) on a train to get to and from.



Now let’s go back a month or so. I’m pretty sure last time I checked in we were still working on making our house a home. That is no longer the case. With the use of my good friend, Dieter’s, car we were able to construct our living via IKEA. You may be surprised to learn, as we were, that a sleeper-sofa, two lounge chairs (think Joey and Chandler, but not nice leather recliners), a coffee table, a desk, a desk chair and a TV stand will all fit in the back of a sedan, but it can. Our ENTIRE living room fit in the back of the car and as sad as that is, our living room looks good and is a very nice spot to relax and hang out. We even entertained our good friends Ken and Hans Self for appetizers and drinks one Sunday afternoon and all present complimented not only on our cooking but also on our layout and what we have done with the apartment. I am proud to say that with Jen’s taste and style and my building skills, we have built our house into a home that we are proud of and look forward to getting home from work to relax in. I’m actually writing this masterpiece in complete comfort lounging in my chair.



Speaking of work, in last month’s blog my 25 year old self still had never had a “real, grown up” job; that has changed. Be proud, Mom and Dad. I started my career as a pre-kindergarten (kids 3-6) teacher three weeks ago and I am proud to say I am finally a contributor to this family’s income! Jen no longer can boss me around (let’s get real, she still does and always will boss me around) and I am no longer (at least for now) a stay at home husband. I must say that I always thought teachers were blowing smoke when they said they do it for the kids and the job is very rewarding, etc, etc. But, in my short time in the profession, I have since changed my opinion. Watching these kids learn (it’s incredible, we have numerous tri-lingual 4 year olds!!!) is something to behold. They are like big sponges; they pick up everything. It is fun to watch kids from such vastly different backgrounds learn and play together. My class alone has kids from Korea, South Africa, America, Mexico, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany! The best part is, with both of us working; we can finally prepare ourselves financially to continue to pursue our dreams of representing the USA in the Olympics.



Handball continues to be our main focus and things are looking up for both of us. Jen was granted permission from the German Handball League Office and the Immigrant Office to join Mainz and has since blossomed with the team. She netted her first goal, as mentioned before, two weekends ago. She plays the entire game on defense and is seeing increased time on offense. Her coach often praises her in games for her aggressive defense and uses her as an example in practice. She is continuing to improve in all aspects of her game and finds the practices in Mainz challenging and intense. Her goal is to be the best player she can be and help lead the U.S. to a successful Pan Am appearance next October. Mainz had last weekend off and resumes play this weekend at home against a top tier team.



In Gelnhausen, we are still struggling to find ways to win. We haven’t won a game since January, but we continue to improve. We have had a lot of heart to heart talks and very physical, intense practices. We have shown signs of improvement, as seen in our last game against a top tier team in our league. Up by a goal at halftime, we squandered away our lead in the second half and lost by six, but we battled till the end and I believe in the next few contests we will find a way to get a win. I finally broke through on offense two weekends ago, scoring four goals and playing the majority of the game on both ends. Last weekend, I played all but 10 minutes on both sides, managing to put one ball past the opposing keeper. We have suffered a bit from injuries and with two key players returning this weekend; expectations are high for Saturday, even though we are playing another top of the league foe. I hate losing so much, that even though I continue to see improvements individually, I take no solace in the fact that I have not been able to help us win more games. This will change. On a side note, a local paper in Gelnhausen found this blog and wrote a nice article about Jen and I that highlighted the last blog and poked a little fun at me for visiting an OBGYN when looking for a Doctor in Friedberg. Needless to say, my teammates got quite a kick out of it. They greeted me one morning with laughter and jokes after reading the article; it’s nice to be a part of such a great group of guys.



In other news, the week before I began work Jen had a week off and we were finally able to enjoy Friedberg and relax together. We did a little sight seeing around Friedberg and found some more hidden gems in the city, including a wonderful coffee place that offers some very tasty coffee at a reasonable price that tastes exquisitely good every morning from our drip coffee maker. We also took advantage of our recent joining of a local movie rental place and enjoyed a week long movie marathon that included all of the Harry Potter movies (surprising good) and the Spiderman trilogy (3 was bad!) We decided to join the movie rental store because of our continuing dilemma with our Internet provider, which brings me to my one rant of this blog.



German Internet providers are like Social Security; I continue to pay for it but will most likely never anything in return. We had been using a USB stick for the last two months while waiting for somebody to come “turn on” our Internet. Assured that the stick was free until this happened, we were quite surprised to receive a bill to the tune of 88 Euros for our first month. Needless to say we didn’t pay it and the provider has since shut down any use of the Internet. They have missed one appointment to set us up and have since rescheduled for a date in April. We are not holding our breath. It seems so simple, in America, you call the provider, they come to your house, set you up within a week, usually a day or two in actuality and than you use the Internet and pay your fee. Apparently in Germany, this is a foreign concept, as it has been two months and we are still Internet free. This is frustrating. We have received two bills for usage of the stick, which we were guaranteed was free, and have had more visits from Jehovah’s Witnesses (they seem perturbed and disappointed when we tell them we don’t speak German) than we have had from our provider. Consequently, my NASCAR fantasy team is not doing as well as it could be doing, I have no idea who is in the March Madness tournament and I was forced to make my picks blindly. Jen and I are forced to hog the computer at work, which seems to irk our coworkers and I have been getting the shakes without my daily ESPN fix. To all of you with a solid network connection, please don’t take it for granted.



My lovely wife is due home from training shortly and although I now have a job, I still have chores to do so I must bid you all ado. Dishes need to be cleaned and laundry must be folded. I do want to give congratulations to my father and his Alma Mater, the University of Northern Colorado on making their first ever NCAA tournament and to the Jayhawks of Kansas University on winning another Big 12 title (the last) and garnering a 1 seed in the tourney. Last, but not least, big ups to my high school, McPherson High, for taking another state basketball title (#11) and hanging yet another banner in the Round House!