Quarter finals

Happy Friday!
Yet another week has come and gone. This one was all-in-all not bad. First off work is finally improving. I'm not able to send, or better said, receive data continiously over ethernet. It's still doesn't let me say how much I want to send, and I can't send too much real data, but I take what I can get. Otherwise the end-of-project stress is starting to build. Getting my project finished before I leave will take either a miracle or several really long days.
Speaking of which, I have only four more weeks. Actually a little less. It's hard to believe. Still so much to do. Like fly to Rome for instance. Yesterday I booked a trip to Rome for two weeks from now. It should be fun.
Most importantly tonight is the start of the "WM" quarter finals, which means Germany plays Argentina. This could very well be the end of Germany's bid, but the everyone's confident that the "Jungs" won't go out without making it very hard for Argentina. One of the German players summed it up perfectly. "It's Argentina's bad luck that they have to play against us." (Or, for those of you who know German..."Es ist Argentiniens Pech gegen uns zu spielen." Or something close anyway.)
More later! Tschuess!

Deutschland 2, Sweden 0

Tooooooooooor!!!
So last night Germany beat Sweden 2-0 in the "Round of 16". The German team keeps getting better and better, which is important because they now have to play Argentina in the quarter final on Friday.
Otherwise it's been a quiet weekend.
Have a good week everyone!

Free and Hansa-city Hamburg

Ok...this is one week late, but that's ok.

First off...Happy Father's Day! (And those of you who haven't called your father yet today should do that.)
Anyho! This weekend was action-packed and full of adventure. Ok. Perhaps that's a little bit of an exageration, but it sounds good. As the subject suggests, took a long weekend and traveled to Hamburg, but before I get into my adventures in the "Frei und Hansastadt Hamburg", we need a Fussball update. Wednesday night Germany played Poland. Since Poland lost their first game, they had to win to move on t
o the next round, and if Germany won, they were guaranteed to go on. My roommate and I decided to watch the game in Köln because we figured the atmosphere would be better. I should also mention that every city hosting World Cup games has a "Fan Fest" with a large screen for all of the fans to watch the game. The Fan Fest in Köln is located on a marketplace in the city center and really not all that big, so
when we arrived 15 minutes before kick-off there were already tens of thousands of people crowed around the screen. We managed to half-way watch the first half being bumped around in the crowd and decided to move into a largely empty pub to watch the second half. The game was largely boring. Half-time score
0-0. Finally in the 89th minute Germany scores, and tens of thousands of fans to nuts. Then they were all disappointed when and offisdes was called, but it didn't matter because thirty seconds later Germany scored another goal (minute 91 or so) with no offsides call and the game was shortly thereafter finished. Here's a photo of the celebration after the goal.



Meanwhile the German fans were out on the street with flags celebrating and singing. Someone pointed out that with the way they were celebrating they could've just won the final. What was even more surprising for me was that there were people celebrating in Bonn, driving around with flags, honking their horn. Bonn tends to be rather dead, so I was amazed to see such excitement.
Anyho! That was a rather long description of one game, but whatever. Thursday morning I headed up to Hamburg, met up with my host (the brother of a coworker), and headed out into the town. Hamburg is definitely not the most beautiful of German cities when it comes to buildings and landscape, but it does sit on the Elbe river, which provides the water for Europe's second largest harbor. Thursday afternoon I headed to the center to see the Town Hall and walked a ways around the Alaster, a large man-made lake. Then I headed to an old church, which was not terribly exciting.
Afterwards I headed to the Hamburg Fan Fest, which is located in a large park and thereby larger than Köln's. Ever country participating has a stand set up selling fod typical of that country. I watched most of the England vs. Trinidad-Tobago. England won, but Trinidad and Tobago also did very well.
Friday the weather turned crappy. Cold, rainy, and cloudy. I took a boat tour through the harbor, the size of which you can't appreciate from the mainland. It's really cool. It was like a garden of colorful cranes, and sometimes one of the cranes would even deposit a colorful box onto one of the huge ships. I now appreciate that the "big" ships that float down the Rhine are actually not so big. Anyho! The boat tour was a nice touristy activity. Afterwards I wandered through the "Speicherstadt", the world's largest contigious warehouse complex or some such. Then I wandered more thro
ugh the city center to a gothic-style church that was bombed during World War II and now is a anti-war monument.
Afternoonish I headed back to the Fan Fest for more soccor. The early evening agame was the Netherlands against the Ivory Coast. Probably the best game I've seen so far as far as skill and excitement goes. The Ivoroy Coast needed to beat Holland to go on. Sadly they didn't. Too bad really. They deserved to go to the next round but had bad luck and ended up in the "Hammer group", meaning the strongest of the eight.
After the soccor game I headed over to a Folk Fest in Altona, the part of Hamburg where my host lived. It was a cute little fair. The unfortunte weather continued into Saturday, but undaughnted I borrowed his bike and took a little trip along the Elbe. It was the first time I'd ridden a bike since September, and the first time I've ever had to pay attention to traffic rules that don't apply to pedestrians. Despite the weather I enjoyed the trip. I met up with my host in the afternoon for a quick visit to an art museum, and then we rode up to the top of the bombed church for a birds-eye-view of the top. At this point it was almost soccer time, so we
headed to the fan fest. Saturday's matches were very important, namely the teams from US's group. The 18:00 game was Ghana against the Czech Republic. Much to everyone's surprise and excitement (especially the Ghana fans), Ghana won 2-0. Ghana really kicked things up a notch and earned their win after their loss last week to Italy. The 21:00 game was the US against Italy and was by far the most attended show
ing in the Fan Fest. As you may imagine, there were easily ten times as many Italian fans as US fans, but there were some Germans who decided to cheer on the Ami's. Sadly the game itself was rather ugly. Neither side played particularly well (though teh US did play better than in the previous game), there were two red cards, several injuries, and our one goal was actually made by an Italian player. The whole
mess ended 1-1, which means it's still open as to which teams go on to the next round. On Thursday Italy plays the Czech Republic, and we play Ghana.
I must say. It's really a shame that the Americans don't pay more attention to the World Cup. It's such a great convergence of people from all over the world who party together and root for each other's teams. There are alot of Brazilian fans of course. In fact the second most common flag you see here in sto
res after Germany is Brazil. But there's also apparently a surprisely large number of fans supporting little Trinidad and Tobago. Being in the World Cup land is fun even if you don't get to go to a game. You're just so much more aware of it. You know when one game ends and the next begins. Every television in every pub and restaurant is switched to the game, so you can check up on the score as you walk around
the city. Some transit systems have even been posting the scores on the electronic message boards. I really hope Germany goes far, so the Germans stay in a good mood. But even when Germany's beated, I think many will just pick another team and celebrate anyway.

Here are some Hamburg photos:



Anyho. I guess that's all for now.

You win some. You lose some.

Or in the case the the US national soccer team, you just lose some. Thursday afternoon the US team lost 1-2 against Ghana thereby booting us out of the World Cup. In the other game from our group, Italy beat the Czech Republic 1-0. That means Italy and Ghana proceed into the Round of 16.
Thursday was also the summer MPIfR Institute party. As usual a few glasses of Koelsch were drunk, and on Friday it was the general opinion of those who actually came to work that it may have been a few too many.
Today begins the Round of 16 games with Germany playing against Sweden. I hope it goes well. I don't think there's a team in this World Cup that wants to win more than Germany.
Anyho! Cross your fingers!

"Auf geht's Deutschland schiess ein Tor"... or 3

Last night pulled off a strong 3-0 win over Ecuador making Germany the winners of Group A. Sunday the play against the runner-up of Group B, namely Sweden.
During the game yesterday afternoon the country practically came to a halt as everyone crowed around TV's. I watched the first half at work because I had to go to irish dance, but this gave me the chance to see the state of life during the game. In my bank about three people were working and the others were in front of a TV. As I sat on the bus I passed by many Cafe's and Restaurants with people crowed in front of TV's. They even announced Germany's third goal in the bus. The Germans are getting more and more excited with each win. Everyday there are more and more German flags hanging out of house windows and flapping from cars I think it's cool, but many German's think it's crazy or even embarassing. National spirit is one of the clearer differences between Germans and Americans.
There really is more going on here than soccer, but at the moment it's the most exciting thing.
Anyho! Tomorrow the US plays Ghana. Cross your fingers.

I'm back

Hi all,
Just wanted to say I had a good time in Hamburg this weekend and will post the full adventure with photos soon.
Otherwise Germany plays Ecuador this afternoon for winner and runner-up in the group. Ecuador's been playing really well, so we'll have how it goes.

next chance

Hallo,
Tomorrow I'm heading to Hamburg for a long weekend. There also happens to be a soccer game in Hamburg on that day, which should make traveling with the trains a unique adventure. Otherwise the US's next game is Saturday at 2 pm Iowa time against Italy. We more or less need to win this one if we want to go on to the next round. So cross your fingers.
Otherwise. Have a good end of the week and weekend.

Americans can't play soccer

Hi!
I guess to be fair I should've said American men can't play soccer. The US team lost to the Czech Republic last night 3-0. Ouch. If they don't get their act in gear it's going to be a very short Cup for us. In the other game of our group, Italy beat Ghana 1-0.
Otherwise last weekend was full of soccer and sunshine. First the soccer. Saturday England beat Paraguay 1-0. My favorite, Sweden tied 0-0 with Trinidad & Tobago. It was particularly amusing because the Sweden fans moarned the "loss" and the Trinidad & Tobago fans celebrated the "win". The evening hightlight was Argentina against the Ivory Coast. Argentina won 1-0. Sunday started off with the Netherlands beating Serbia 1-0, then Mexcio won agaist Iran 3-1, and finally Portual beat Angola 1-0. Of course you all could look up the results on the internet, but as most of you are Americans and don't pay attention to everywhere-but-america football, I thought I'd give you a hand.
But there is more to life than soccer. The weather's been amazing. Sunny, not a single cloud in the sky, and highs in the mid to upper 80's. Sunday my roommate and I hiked to the top of a mountain in the Siebengebirge, sat at the top, soaking in the sun and the amazing view of the Rhine valley. The simple things in life. I took lots of pictures, and I'll post some soon.
Now it's time for coffee.
Have a good week everyone!

und die WM 2006 beginnt....jetzt!

Greetings from sunny, soccer-crazed Germany!
As my title suggests, last night began the World Cup here in Germany. But first let me recap the last couple weeks.
As I'm Iowan I must first mention the weather, namely sunny and warm (upper 80's). It's perfect for the World Cup. I'm very happy. I'm also noticing the 10 degree difference in latitude between Germany and Iowa. Our sunset is currently at 9:45 (an hour later than Iowa) and it's after 11 before the sky is completely black. It's great. (Yes, yes. I'm an astronomy geek. What can I say. :-) )
Anyho...what did I do last weekend. Ah yes. Saturday I watched an open air concert here in Bonn. A cover band traded songs with a local orchestra, and they even played together at the end. It was not great music, but amusing. Sunday I visited Schloss Augustusberg, which is in Bruehl. It was the second residence of Clemens August, an important archbishop and policitian at the end of the 18th century. The castle was of course pretty, but more intersting for me was the beautiful garden and wood around it. Unfortunetly there are no photos because the batteries in my camera were not charged. Arg.
Monday was a holiday, and I used the opportunity to wander around the Siebengebirge again. A very pleasant walk.
Work was rather frustrating. I'm still working on getting Peter's project to display in realtime, and I have no idea why it's not working. Like always.
And now for the important part: the World Cup (Weltmeisterschaft, or WM for short). Last night at 18:00 began the first game. Germany against Costa Rica in München. The game started out great. Germany scored its first goal in the fifth minute, but then Costa Rica pulled off its first in the 16th and things were a little tense. But in the end Germany pulled off a 4:2 win. It was the highest scoring opening game of a World Cup ever. Ya for completely useless statistics. In the second game of the evening, Ecuador surprised the world with 2:0 win against Poland.
I can see some increased excitement here in Bonn. For one there are a lot more Germany flags flying from windows and cars, which is something you usually never see here. Germans are not the most patriotic people in the world. The big parties are in Berlin and München. Today on the news I saw footage from the streets of München after the game last night. Good times.
For those of you who might actually be interested the US's first game is on Monday at 11:00 am Iowa time against the Czech Republic, who I believe are the favored team in our group. We'll see. Maybe there will be another surprise.
Have a good weekend everyone!