Snap Judgments for the Undeserving

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Fussball-Weltmeisterschaft Deutschland 2006!!!!

That's "the inexplicably over-hyped championships of a strange sport played by damaged people" to my American friends. To Germans, apparently it is life itself.

Oh yes, the World Cup of Soccer opened in Germany yesterday, and the country has exploded into mass hyteria. I quickly realized that I needed to blend in, and I needed to do this FAST ... so I went to the opening of the first game, Germany vs Costa Rica, at the Münsterplatz, and watched the game on the enormous screen they set up, with my friends and seemingly the rest of the population of Ulm.
Here are Katie and I, blending in ...

This is the enormous screen upon which we watched the game:
(I have no idea why that fire engine was there, it left when the game started)

And here's what it looks like when Germany scores a goal ... except you can't really see the jumping and screaming very well.

It was great!!! I got my own free flag to frantically wave and noise maker to annoy everyone else with before I entered the square. The game was actually a lot of fun to watch, and Germany won!! I've decided that this World Cup thing is okay with me, as long as Germany keeps winning, because I really really don't want to be around any Germans if they don't ;)

4 Comments:

  • Anna... the World Cup IS life. I woke up at 1:30 am four years ago to watch the games. I am jealous. See.. here is me being jealous in smiley-form:

    ~~>:[

    See the steam? See how jealous I am? I saw some hooligans on Bathurst yesterday, honking their cars. I think they were Puerto Rican hooligans. I watched Sweden/T&T this morning before going to softball practice. Can you say sore butt? I can, especially after softball practice. Call me :~(

    By Blogger ARM, at 4:15 PM  

  • Yes, here in Europe the World Cup is bigger than Jesus. Melissa and I helped host another baby shower yesterday, but even the masses of cooing women, pink wrapping paper, and delicious Mexican food could not keep the men away from the TV.

    We missed the second half of the game, but fortunately that didn't stop us from seeing Carlos Gamarra of Paraguay head the ball into his own goal in the first four minutes of the game, thus securing an English victory as this was the only goal of the game.

    By Blogger Dave, at 2:38 AM  

  • Anna,

    Watchout!!! World Cup fever is very contagious, and I had a horrible case during the '98 Paris epidemic. And if Germany does lose, the screaming fans suddenly transform into hideous houligans (I witnessed this in Paris). In the event of a loss, you must immediately locate your nearest nuclear bunker.

    By the way - have you seen any of those horribly offensive T-shirts in Germany yet? I hear they read "1945 - Poland defeated in 3 days. 2006 - Poland defeated in 3 hours." The T-shirts have been drawing Polish press coverage.

    By Blogger Costume Diva, at 10:51 AM  

  • Hey anna, I'm fresh from Louisville, where noooo soccer is played. However, I'll decompress from that beautiful faraway state where limestone creeps up through hills, where folks build wonderful houses on the shores of the ohio, where there are tons of funky really good restuarants, where many folks have been taught to be truly charming, where there's a great variety of architectural styles ( it's not New ORLEANS, but still, lots going on),where j Gatton still tells wonderful stories about Shelley and Byron and where I'm working on a retirement program that I can invite everyone to be a part of. Yeah, it's a pretty big program, but with order and discipline we may pull it off in not too many years. Everyone will be invited.
    I don't think we're going to buy the firehouse, it's beautiful but enoooormous. However, we'll show it to you, so you can tell us if we're nuts not to do it. You know, drive into the batcave. Install an elevator and voila, you are in the warehouse space of the world.
    Can you tell how much fun it is to set up a conversation in your mind about where you'll build your next 30 years?
    mille bises,
    Camille

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:49 PM  

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