die Weltmeisterschaft!!!!

So it's Saturday night, which means yesterday was the start of die 2010 Weltmeisterschaft!!!! (Which of course means the 2010 World Cup!!) ;) Yesterday, (Friday), Lisa, Kai, Johanna, Emilian and dog Quito and I all went to one of the friends of Kai and Lisa to have a cook-out and watch the first games of the World Cup (or WM as it is called here). The weather was amazing out, and I had made a special "WM" shirt for Emilian. It turned out so cute, it's a bear's face on the front that has been colored in with the colors of the German flag and under it it says "Los Gehts Deutschland" and then on the back it reads 'KRÜMEL', although I haven't added the number yet--so he wore it to the BBQ. The first game was between the host nation, Südafrika, vs. my previous neighbors to the south, Mexiko. They ended in a tie with 1:1. Next came the second and last game of the opening day; Frankreich (France) vs. Uruguay. If those of you reading didn't catch this particular game, go ahead and yawn and then hold that yawn for about 92 minutes. That would be the equivilent to watching this horribliy boring game. Nothing happened. The whole time. It--mercifully--ended at a 0 to 0 draw. After the snooze-fest that was the French and Uruguay game (I quickly remembered why perhaps Americans don't care for this game very much.. it can be painfully boring), we headed home. As soon as I came home I was hoping to read a little or do something, but I was exhausted and fell fast asleep as soon as I laid down. Which brings us to this morning. And I had told Kai and Lisa that in preperation for the BIG game of the night (USA vs. England) I had planned an 'Amerikaner Tag' (American Day)! I made cheeseburgers and pasta salad and french fries and we drank coke (until it was time to get serious, and then the always delicious Kölsch was brought out). Although I had hoped that we could win, I knew the probability of it happening were slim to none. England was the heavy favorite, not to mention a team that many say are contenders to win the whole thing, so most were saying that my beloved men in the Red, White and Blue would be slaughtered. Well, those people forgot that Captain Butterfingers plays goalie for the English. At the end of a very intense game, we were able to hold on to a 1:1 tie. Incredible. USA! USA! USA!

Tomorrow, Germany plays against Austrailia, and I am of course looking forward to it. Especially after I received a very special surprise box in the mail from Lisa. She surprised me with ordering, what I have called, my very own "Deutschland box". It has all these ridiculous things, like Germany necklaces, and a Germany hat, a huge flag to wear as a cape, black, red and gold noise makers, and my favorite; Germany glasses. It's so great. I'm pretty excited about it all. Even though I have never been much of a soccer (oops, I mean fußball) fan, the World Cup in countries outside of the US is really important, and its really exciting and fun to be caught up in it all along with everyone else. Not too mention people here are finally proudly hanging and waving the German flag! So, I look forward to tomorrow night to watch the men in Black, Red and Gold take on the tea from down under. Hopefully I'll be back to update soon, and to report back a winning score for meine Deutsche manschaft ;) Bis dann, xoxox MegLett