Sports News...

A headline I never thought I would write....


Well, I certainly arrived in Leipzig on an interesting day. I will leave for my next post a summary of my trip to Prague (incredible! you have to go there!) and also my impressions of Leipzig. In case you hadn't heard, there was a little "soccer" game in South America, and now apparently Germany owns everything. I am reluctant to mention to them that that sort of thing hasn't worked out so well for them in the past...

I arrived here in Leipzig yesterday (Sunday) afternoon after an interesting train ride (more later...). We had a clear map and were in a country that prides itself on organization, so of course we got lost immediately. Not too bad this time - it was supposed to be a 15 minute walk, and it took us about 35 to get to the Ramada. The hotel is a bit weird - I don't know what is on the floors below us, but the hotel starts on the seventh floor. To get up there you have to ride a very scary glass elevator that overlooks an atrium area. (cue song: "High Anxiety").  I find I can ride it just fine if I keep my back to the scary view and focus on the doors.

After I checked in I decided to explore the city. I knew the World Cup final was that evening, but I didn't know how excited everyone (yes, EVERYONE) was until I started noticing black, red and yellow flags everywhere, sometimes painted on people's faces, arms, legs, and I presume and hope that was all. Then there was this:

I followed the noise to Richard Wagner Platz (only in Germany - why don't we have a Charles Ives Square in the financial center of New York?). The scene there looked like a hippy-dippy version of a Leni Riefenstahl film. There was shouting and singing and chanting in German, and a lot of flag-waving. I thought about singing "I'm Proud to be an Amuricun..." but decided against it. They probably would have joined in if I had any beer to offer...

These photos were taken a hour and a half before the game started.

Eventually I ran into some of our group, and we decided that while we wanted to experience this "cultural phenomenon"(quote from one of the professors), the tent crowd was a bit to wild for us. We soon found a nice bar that had set up an outside TV so that their customers could watch, and we watched the game with a bunch of crazy Germans. Yes, Barbara, I did know what was going on... even though all the commentary was in German (it's better that way - we should try listening to the Super Bowl in Farsi or something, it will greatly enrich the experience.)

The World Cup will never be popular in America. There are no time-outs, so there is no where for the burping Budweiser frogs to go. But it was nice to see a game that was done in less than two hours...

When the they won there was yelling and screaming and jumping up and down, etc. People are really the same everywhere. The World Cup integrates Germany's two favorite sports: Soccer and Public Drinking. (The latter is rapidly followed by public urination, but I won't elaborate.) The noise went on until at least two AM, and I woke up this morning to a rather hung-over community.

I plan to write about my trip to Prague in my next post, and then I have one planned on Leipzig, and also some observations on the interesting people and culture of Germany. *

Auf Wiedersehen!

*Note: This sentence was a very German thing to do - they love to say what will be happening next, often following what just happened. i.e..(the Tour Guide) "Okay, we have now seen the ******* room and the *****room. We will now be moving on to the ***** room, and then the ****** room and the ***** room. This will be the end of the tour, and you will go." This is said in every room as you go through the tour, with the places you have been increasing and the places you will go decreasing, until "you will go now..."