oh my dear lord
germany is CRAZY! I am comPLETELY exhausted right now, similar to the feeling after a long football saturday. I got up ass early for this program thing with the scholarship people, which actually I quite enjoy the activities of, and we went to stuttgart and learned about some of the unions and economic stuff, and then had an excellent free lunch and then went to the baden-wuerttemberg history museum. So that was kind of interesting or whatever. But THEN comes the real point of the day, seeing the Deutschland-Argentina Fußballspiel in Schloss Platz, which is this big square in Stuttgart that's all blocked off and has huuuuge tv's and really expenisve food and drinks that you are forced to contemplate buying after they make you not bring in your water bottle. So we went and got in line to get inside at 2:30 and got in by 2:45 after literally being crushed and suffocated by a bunch of rowdy drunk teenage boys in the mass of people waiting to get in. Keep in mind that the game starts at 5. The doors were closed at probably 3:30, because there was already the max amount of 60,000 people inside the gates. So then we spent the next 4 and half hours standing in direct sunlight with no shade in a huge crowd of people, dancing around to loud music and then once the game started craning to try to see the screen. This was a big game, because it's the quarter-finals so it determines who goes on and has a good chance of being Weltmeister (world champion), because germany and argentina are both very good this year. But soccer is kind of boring and exciting at the same time for me when I watch it--it's exciting because it's so low scoring that there's always this tension of really needing to score and really needing to stop the other team from scoring, but then it's just a LOT of kicking it back and forth and back and forth and almost making it, which gets kind of old after a while, and I'll be quite honest and admit that I just kind of stared glazed at the screen not taking in a whole lot for probably huge chunks of the game. But hey whatever.
So it was 0-0 for the whole first half and we rejuvinated by sitting in down and being stepped on by a lot of people walking by. But then argentina scored a little while into the second half, which was BAD NEWS, and the whole place was really quiet and tense for a while, which was notable because people have been screaming cheers for several hours now, and even though they were still screaming them it wasn't quite the same. And THEN germany scored and it was like the best thing that could ever happen, and everyone jumped up and down and screaming and hugged each other and I'm pretty sure I got some beer in my hair from people passing by and almost fell over a lot. But then it was 1-1 for the rest of the half. So then they had 15 minutes of overtime. And nothing happened so they had another 15 minutes. SO THEN they had to do the 11-meter kicks (what are those called? penalty kicks or something? where it's just the one guy kicking and the goalie?), and I seriuosly have never been more excited about soccer in my life than at this moment. The entire city--hell, the entire COUNTRY I think was holding it's breath. There were 5 chances of kicks. Germany went first, and made it--explosion of cheers. Argentina also made it. Germany makes it again to more cheers. Argentina gets ready to kick again, and everyone is screaming the name of the d-land goalie, "lehmann", and I almost wanted to cry, his face on the screen was just so worried and wanting it so bad. But then he blocked it! And then germany went, and they made it again--more cheers. And then argentina goes and makes it = poo. Germany goes again and makes it again, to extreme jubilation. And then to much chanting of "lehmann," he blocks argentina's kick, and the schloss platz EXPLOOODDES. We were all screaming, jumping up and down and hugging everyone around us and screaming some more, and there was only even one german in our group. INSANE! You remember that movie "the big green" from elementary school that was kind of like "the little giants" except with soccer? And of course it comes down to penalty kicks at the end and of course the good guy wins. WELL it was like that, except i was THERE (ok well not at the game, but still with 60,000 other fans) and it wasn't a movie. It was like the triple overtime michigan-michigan state game 2 years ago. It was just SO RIDICULOUS to witness SO many people going SO crazy!
And then of course the wait in the train station and the train ride home were also completely ridiculous and very crowded. The train car was seriously like the party car for half the ride until a big group of teenage guys, who were of course totally decked out in deutschland clothing and had a megaphone and very loud yells and claps and bangs on the ceiling and lots of energy, got off. I hope germany is weltmeister, because seriously there's already a song about it that they sing all the time, that I quite enjoy:
1...2...3...54, 74, 90, 2006--
so stimmen wir alle ein,
mit der Herz in dem Hand
und der Leidenschaft dabei,
werden wir Weltmeister sein!
AHH so good!
(that turned out to be quite a long description)
Anyway time to nurse my hoarse voice and sunburned skin and exhausted body with some sleep.
So it was 0-0 for the whole first half and we rejuvinated by sitting in down and being stepped on by a lot of people walking by. But then argentina scored a little while into the second half, which was BAD NEWS, and the whole place was really quiet and tense for a while, which was notable because people have been screaming cheers for several hours now, and even though they were still screaming them it wasn't quite the same. And THEN germany scored and it was like the best thing that could ever happen, and everyone jumped up and down and screaming and hugged each other and I'm pretty sure I got some beer in my hair from people passing by and almost fell over a lot. But then it was 1-1 for the rest of the half. So then they had 15 minutes of overtime. And nothing happened so they had another 15 minutes. SO THEN they had to do the 11-meter kicks (what are those called? penalty kicks or something? where it's just the one guy kicking and the goalie?), and I seriuosly have never been more excited about soccer in my life than at this moment. The entire city--hell, the entire COUNTRY I think was holding it's breath. There were 5 chances of kicks. Germany went first, and made it--explosion of cheers. Argentina also made it. Germany makes it again to more cheers. Argentina gets ready to kick again, and everyone is screaming the name of the d-land goalie, "lehmann", and I almost wanted to cry, his face on the screen was just so worried and wanting it so bad. But then he blocked it! And then germany went, and they made it again--more cheers. And then argentina goes and makes it = poo. Germany goes again and makes it again, to extreme jubilation. And then to much chanting of "lehmann," he blocks argentina's kick, and the schloss platz EXPLOOODDES. We were all screaming, jumping up and down and hugging everyone around us and screaming some more, and there was only even one german in our group. INSANE! You remember that movie "the big green" from elementary school that was kind of like "the little giants" except with soccer? And of course it comes down to penalty kicks at the end and of course the good guy wins. WELL it was like that, except i was THERE (ok well not at the game, but still with 60,000 other fans) and it wasn't a movie. It was like the triple overtime michigan-michigan state game 2 years ago. It was just SO RIDICULOUS to witness SO many people going SO crazy!
And then of course the wait in the train station and the train ride home were also completely ridiculous and very crowded. The train car was seriously like the party car for half the ride until a big group of teenage guys, who were of course totally decked out in deutschland clothing and had a megaphone and very loud yells and claps and bangs on the ceiling and lots of energy, got off. I hope germany is weltmeister, because seriously there's already a song about it that they sing all the time, that I quite enjoy:
1...2...3...54, 74, 90, 2006--
so stimmen wir alle ein,
mit der Herz in dem Hand
und der Leidenschaft dabei,
werden wir Weltmeister sein!
AHH so good!
(that turned out to be quite a long description)
Anyway time to nurse my hoarse voice and sunburned skin and exhausted body with some sleep.