Fotos

Rund um den Bodensee

Well, its been awhile. Whats up? Wie Geht's euch? Italy won the cup. That was disappointing for pretty much everybody in Germany save the aforementioned Italian fans who celebrated the win with tears and victory laps. At least Germany got third. Bastian Schweinsteiger is awesome. Germany's coach, Juergen Klinsmann, quit, is returning home to California and hopefully will eventually take the spot of fired US coach Bruce Arena.
Elliot stopped by Konstanz on his way around the globe last week and we had a great time speaking english. We went to Heidelberg and Stuttgart to see the amazing new Mercedes Benz museum. It was one of my favorite museums I had ever been to. They had Ringo Starr's jet black sportscar and a popemobile. Check it out if you can. Heidelberg was full of tourists, expensive beer and average Doener-Kebaps. We did have a great tour of the city from a family friend that lives there, though - thanks Jen.
I rode my bike around the Bodensee this weekend. I set out with some friends at 4 on Friday and we got back at about 4 today. It was amazing. Great weather, great bike lanes and whenever we got hot or tired, we just parked our bikes and took a swim. We spent the night in the tents that we strapped on my bike rack. The first day we went through the Swiss part of the coast into Austria. After we crossed the border we found this great little secluded harbor with grass right by the water. We decided not to see the 'Camping Verboten' sign and set up shop. We were out of there by seven in the morning to avoid any potential angry Austrians.
The next day was spent half in Austria, half in Germany. We got to Bregenz in the morning and we had a herzhaftes breakfast with great bread, butter, cold cuts, jelly and cheese and went swimming and shopping for groceries and then set off. We crossed the border at one or so and went to Lindau, an island city that was having a city festival on that day. We actually ran into a fair amount of festivals in the cities that we passed through. There always seems to be something going on in the cities and towns in these parts. It is great to see a city that wants to give its people shit to do. Well, the festival in Lindau had all these little stands and stages throughout the city with bands and performers playing. We watched one band that recalled a younger version of my high school band, Short of Stable: mismatched clothing styles and instruments, nervous playing, average singing (sorry Taylor), and english lyrics, which for this group lost them a couple of cool points. I did give them a huge hand for the moment of nostalgia they provided me with, though. The bands and musicians that I have seen here seem to just sing in english because it is seen as the international language of cool. The quality of lyrics definitely takes a huge hit because of it and it usually just ends up sounding trite to a native speaker. Modern german music has definitely thoroughly disappointed me - except for the official and unofficial world cup songs, which have been in my head for the past month. There was another group we saw in Lindau; an emo/punk/hardcore group from germany called - I kid you not - 'Smile Now, Cry Later'. They screamed/grunted/sung in english cliche's as well. They were terrible.
After Lindau we rode through a little town that was having a festival, bought some cherries and had a pit-spitting contest. We found a nice nude beach with woods nearby, made a bonfire, roasted peppers and pretty much every other foodstuff we had with us and slept by the water. Today is was hot and we swam and got ice cream several times before taking the ferry back to Konstanz from Meersburg. All in all we went 74 miles in 48 hours. I am tired now and am looking forward to sleeping on a real bed. This trip made me appreciate the amazing vehicle that is the bicycle. It is really well-incorporated into the traffic infrastructure here and it is a fun, healthy way to get around. I plan to use it as much as I can when I get back home, but it will be tough because of the fact that cars rule america and everything is just really far apart. I have two exams, two weeks and a visit from the family before I come home. Bis Gleich.

Fussball Patriotism

My time here has absolutely flown by. I have been here for four months. I haven't seen home for four months. I haven't spoken english in four months (Yeah, right).
It feels weird to think about going home even though I will be returning to what I have known all my life.
Well, not all of it - I just used my calculator to find out that after this trip, I will have spent 2.3 percent of my life in Germany. That seems like a substantial amount of time and I can tell myself that I have done very well to live for that long in a foreign country, but the main thing that I get from that figure is that I am still very young. And that feels good.
And I still have a month left - complete with the World Cup finals, the fourth of July, and the ever-increasing presence of German football patriotism.
I think that most Germans would say that the flag waving going on these days has absolutely nothing to do with 'patriotism'. It has to do with the fact that the German squad just reached the semifinals with an amazing penalty-shootout win over favorites Argentina. Before the World Cup started, I think the only prominently displayed German flag I saw was in front of the Reichstag (parliament) building in Berlin. Being patriotic in this country is complicated. It is tied to a history that very few want to be connected to. For many, its just something that is not done. But it is hard to argue that the German national team has not inspired some semblance of patriotism. The people in the streets, football fans or not, are thoroughly decked out in rot, schwarz and gold. Whether they are wearing those colors to support the team or the country is the real question. Either way, I'm loving being here for it.
This Tuesday Germany plays Italy. This Tuesday is also the Fourth of July. There are several americans here, and we are planning to watch the game and have a cookout. I'll be supporting the Germans, after I eat some smores and a cheeseburger.