Third place!!
It could be worse.
Just wait til 2010....

So Germany's out. Everyone was shocked to see them lose, since the game was 0-0 until about the last two minutes of overtime, when Italy scored two goals pretty much in a row. I watched the game in a lecture hall, and people just started leaving as soon as the second goal was scored; there was no point in staying. When the lights turned on, I saw more than one person crying.
I loved rooting for Germany during the World Cup, but I don't think I'll ever be able to cry over a sports team!

Now I say, vive la France!

Did you know that you can recover from a stroke with a foreign accent?

My dad sent me this article.

Germans Just Wanna Have Fun

By KONSTANTIN RICHTER
June 30, 2006; The Wall Street Journal

BERLIN -- Is it possible to be both German and happy?

That's the question posed by Reinhard Mohr in his book "The New Germany Feeling." Herr Mohr thinks it's possible. Other recent releases, such as "The Best of Germany -- 250 Reasons to Love Our Country Today," and "We Germans -- Why the Others Can Like Us," come to similar conclusions.

The case for a new German patriotism has been corroborated by this summer's soccer World Cup. Traditionally known to be a sullen and serious species, the Germans have been gripped by a collective euphoria not seen since an underdog national side beat Hungary in the final of 1954. Throngs of people are flying the black-red-and-gold flag under cloudless skies, looking befuddled and drugged by their own enthusiasm: Why are we so happy? Is this really us? And, just assuming this is us, is it okay for us to be this happy?

For the benefit of those still taken by surprise, a few words of explanation may be in order. The new patriotism, though somewhat spontaneous, doesn't come out of the blue. Nor is it threatening or scary. We're just having fun, backing a multicultural team -- part German, part Polish -- that combines Brazilian flair on offense with Luxembourgian largesse on defense. (The Brazilians, on the other hand, are following a typically Teutonic game plan this time.)

So for once the national side is putting on a pleasing show, and their timing couldn't be better. Prior to the World Cup, you see, we'd been under the weather. Not the usual moroseness, but a proper slump. Years of economic stagnation had taken their toll. Time and again, we'd been told that we were lagging behind: in innovation, education -- and copulation (demographics are the most worrying part). We discussed some painful reforms. Think-tank types dominated talk-show debates. Their angst made us buy their books, which were typically called "Can Germany Still Be Saved?" or "The Deformed Society: How the Germans Suppress Their Reality." But these books made us feel worse and we stopped buying them.

Still, we are a nation of skeptics. Many of us wouldn't have thought that all we needed to do was pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. Then the World Cup started, and the clouds cleared for a Mediterranean summer. Consumer confidence figures rose to the highest level in years, and a swift-footed wingback named Philipp Lahm scored the first German goal in the fifth minute of the opening match. Ever since then, we have suspended disbelief and we haven't looked back. It all seems so wonderfully easy from now on.

I think it's time for an update. Stuff has been happening. But lately I've been feeling lazy about everything, from schoolwork to exercise to posting on my blog. But life has been pretty good (still)! In the past few week I have:

1. Went on a field trip to the "Sleeping Beauty" castle of Sababurg. I'm still not too sure why it's the Sleeping Beauty castle, but they have lots of roses there, and one breed is named after her. Lots of pretty flowers. I thought of my momma, because she loves flowers so much. Took some pics of the flowers just for her.
After the castle we went to the Sababurg Zoo, which was an awesome surprise. I'd just come along basically to get out of class, but we get to see animals?!? The zoo was pretty small, but it did have an awesome birds of prey show, during which trainers had the huge eagles and owls swooping right over the audience. I even got hit in the face with a horned owl's wing when I didn't duck in time. It was awesome!

2. Took a two-day trip to Koeln, or Cologne for English-speakers. It's about four hours from Goettingen, and my friend Jen and I made the trip out there to see the Raconteurs, a side project band of Jack White and his pal Brendan Benson. The show was pretty good; it made me wish I could play in a successful band with all my friends. It looked like so much fun to be up there on stage!

3. Stayed in Koeln the next day to sightsee a little and watch the Germany vs. Argentina game. Took a tour of the Lindt Chocolate factory (pretty cool--we got to actually see the chocolates being made!), saw the famous gothic Koelner Dom, and watched the NAIL-BITING Germany game. WE WON!! In Shootouts, for anyone who didn't watch. I love Jens Lehmann (the goalie for Germany). Not only is he kind of ruggedly handsome, I'd trust him with my life. Ok, maybe not my life, but he's a darn good goalie. So it was fun to take the train back to Goettingen after the game; everyone was in such a good mood! Even the hilarious train conductor, who announced each train stop with unusual energy and enthusiasm.

Alright, that's all the real news! I think I caught everyone up.
Brazil is out! If Germany doesn't win, I hope France does! I haven't been to France yet, so I have no reason not to root for them. I still have this glamorous and elegant image of the French, unlike all of my friends who traveled to Paris and now despise the French.

PS-I posted some pics from the last week on Facebook, fo yo info.

There was an elephant downtown today. That's right, little old Goettingen had a live elephant out in the city square this morning! I wasn't there, so I thought it was a weird joke at first when Vivian casually mentioned "Oh yeah, I saw an elephant downtown," but then she showed me the picture she took on her camera phone, and there it was! Apparently they were advertising for a circus that's coming soon.
I don't like the idea of elephants being in a setting like that, where people can come up to them and touch them and whatnot; it's dangerous for the people as well as totally unnatural for the elephant. But as my friend Jen pointed out, at least it probably gives people more of an awareness and knowledge of this animal that they might not otherwise see in real life.

Just a few pics from the last Germany victory against Ecuador last Tuesday. These are both in the "Innenstadt," or the town square of Goettingen.

Reflections after smelling myself this afternoon:
We should give the "smelly Europeans" a break. I mean sure, they can be a little more fragrant than the average American, but I have to say, it's TOUGH to smell good here! The heat and humidity have dramatically increased in the past week, and even though I shower every day, use deodorant and sometimes cologne, you'd never guess it by the end of the day.
So let's all just give B.O. a chance here, shall we?

PS-I can hope as much I want, but I could never count on Kim to do this.

I stole this poem from Alex's blog. There's a site called Holy Tango of Literature which has poems that are based on anagrams of the poet's name. (Holy Tango=Anthology, get it?) The poems, as you might assume, are quite bizarre, but some of them are funny.

For example, the Red Wheelbarrow poet we read senior year of high school:

I WILL ALARM ISLAMIC OWLS
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS

I will be alarming
the Islamic owls
that are in
the barn

and which
you warned me
are very jittery
and susceptible to loud noises

Forgive me
they see so well in the dark
so feathery
and so dedicated to Allah

YAY USA! WE WO--, uh, TIED with Italy!! I kept saying all day, if the US team scores a goal against Italy, I will be happy. Well we did get a goal, although it was an Italian that accidentally kicked it in! But honestly, I think the US should take anything it gets, and be proud of it! And the best part was that we didn't just get that goal, we TIED! Hooray! We might have a chance of going farther if we beat Ghana next week!
The only annoying thing during the game tonight was the atmosphere at the bar we went to. Everyone there was Italy fans except for we 7 US girls. And we made up for our small number with loudness. We were REALLY into the game, screaming and shouting (Michele loudly called the opposing team "f***ing Italians" about 25 times; I was starting to a little worried).
However, towards the end of the game people started getting annoyed at us for being so loud. One guy next to us told us to "sssh!" and one of the guys working there yelled at us across the room to be quiet!
That bugs me, because obviously we go out to these bars to watch the game, and you know that if it were a Germany game, they would have no problem with fans being loud! But we ignored the reprimands, since I say if there's one time it's OK to be a loud American, it's cheering your country's underdog soccer team!

Last night was Germany's second game in the World cup, playing Poland. It was a crazy/horrible game! Any other game played like last night's would have bored me to death, because NO GOALS were scored until the final three minutes of overtime. However, the fact that we all watched the game inside this cramped, humid, hot room with about 80 other soccer fans packed in helped to increase the excitement and intensity about 50 times.
I found myself screaming and jumping out of my seat several times, and by the end of the whole game, my throat was dry and itchy from so much yelling! Germany ended up beating Poland 1-0, just BARELY, but man, you'd have thought we won the freakin' World Cup! After the game ended we went downtown to see if fans were celebrating, and it was crazy. People were honking their horns, waving flags, standing up in the sunroofs of their cars, climbing fountains and statues; it was awesome!
I don't think Germany's going to win the World Cup this year, but it'd be awesome if they did; I don't know how people would top last night!

Bush makes surprise visit to Iraq

First of all, why is this his first time there since 2003?

Second of all, " 'Iraq's future is in your hands,' Mr. Bush told the Iraqi prime minister."
Like heck it is!!

Fiona Apple, where have you been all my life?!

I just watched the movie Blue Velvet with Cindy. Has anyone seen this movie? It is so bizarre...I had no idea what to expect. I liked it because it's a really good example of postmodern film noir (I wrote a paper all about that last year, so I could analyze it a little), but at the same time I mostly didn't like the film because it was disturbing and the plot was really confusing and hard-to-follow. The only movie I could kind of compare this to is Pulp Fiction, except not as violent, just random.

Ah...things are good right now.
World cup started yesterday, and Germany won! Not much of a surprise, but it was exciting to watch the game. We tried to go to this big party up the street to watch it, but it was packed with people, and only standing room (so the tall people blocked everything--I couldn't even see more than half the screen!).
So five minutes before the game started we raced back and biked downtown to the nearest bar in hopes of actually watching the game while still being surrounded by crazy sports fans. We were in luck, and got good seats with lots of enthusiastic fans. The guy next to me jumped out of his seat and right onto my bare foot when Germany scored a goal!

The other two reasons I'm happy are:
1. Spring has come back again! It was sunny for about two weeks, it rained for about three weeks, and the sun has come back again! It's supposed to be in the 80's tomorrow, and I'm not even sure how my body's gonna handle that! It hasn't seen 80-degree weather since like...LA!

2. Also, today I found a grocery store that has a fairly good Asian food section, and they had a mix for Thai green curry! I'm trying not to get my hopes up, since I think it's a german brand that produces it, but I'm really excited to see how it tastes.

Ok, that is all! Hooray for more soccer games tonight! (I'm getting more and more into this!)

I haven't posted a "real" post for quite a while, I'm noticing. I think it's partly because I've been lazy, partly stressed-out, and partly b/c there isn't that much exciting news.

I had two relatively large presentations in the last two weeks; one on linguistics (the scariest one, even though I don't even get a grade for it, you just have to do it for participation requirements), and then one on German film for my foreign-language class. I finished that one yesterday, thank goodness. The film one got me all interested in renting movies again, although I have to admit not all of the stuff I've rented recently is German. My favorite recent film has definitely been Sweet and Lowdown (see a pic of it on the right sidebar). This is made by Woody Allen, but he's not really a character in it, and it's not the humor typical of most of his movies, I think that's partly why I liked it. A really good underrated film. I especially recommend it if you like jazz music!

As for other stuff...yes, I went to the Mexico vs. Goettingen soccer game last weekend; it was really fun! Of course Mexico won, since they're a national team, but they only won 3-0. Doesn't that final score seem a little too low? Dylan says it's still a good win, but I have my doubts. Me being a soccer connoisseur and all....

World Cup starts this Friday! Me and some of the girls are gonna go watch the first game at the Lokhalle, which is basically just a huge warehouse with apparently the biggest projection screen in Germany. Imagine, in our little old Goettingen!

I am especially happy right now because I got a shipment of stuff I ordered from Amazon.de. Five cd's and a book, all for under 70 bucks! (It was birthday-certificate money.) So now I have lots of stuff to keep me entertained.

Tonight I'm going to see a Bertold Brecht play...can't remember what it's called, but I can only hope that it's not too difficult to understand. I had a bad experience with the last play I saw, since they decided to tell the story in reverse-chronological order, and use a VERY sparse set. I need stimulation! I almost fell asleep.
Ok, that's all I can think of for now.

But wait! I want to share this great poem (by Guenter Grass) we read in my Literature after 1945 class this week:

Fotogen (1961)
Ich ging in den Wald
Fotografierte Eichhoernchen
Liess den Film entwickeln
Und sah, dass ich zweiunddreissigmal meine
Grossmutter geknipst hatte.

Translation:
Photogenic
I went to the forest
Photographed squirrels
Developed the film
And saw that I had photographed my grandmother
32 times.

This is Goleo VI, the official mascot of the World Cup '06. And his sidekick soccer ball, Pille. (Where'd they come up with that name?!)

"According to FIFA, Goleo was born in Botswana in 1985. He experienced serious trauma as a child when he was discovered by poachers who caught him with a net. He was freed later on but, to this day, he is petrified by all sorts of nets and -- above all -- fishnet stockings."

Sadly, Goleo hasn't been as popular a mascot as everyone hoped. But one can't help noticing that "Goleo... is not exactly what you'd call an attractive fellow. He could easily pass for an out-of-wedlock child of mumbling Star Wars monster Chewbacca and US 1980s sitcom teddy-bear starlet Alf. And now, it turns out, nobody wants to hold him, hug him, and call him George."
Check out this funny article for the background on this poor excuse for a lion. (Sorry, Goleo, but it's the truth.)

Are you a real pansy? Then these necklaces are for you!
I saw this ad and thought it was funny.

Talking to my mom on the phone today: "Yeah! Your father and I visited your blob!"

She corrected herself a split second later, but it was pretty good times. My mom is not a technologically-advanced person, and I love her for it.

Ah June.... A time when the sun shines down and smiles upon the happy inhabitants of Planet Earth....*

OR NOT. It could also be a time when you get caught outside in a chilly hail storm so windy that your umbrella turns inside out.


*I have gradually come to realize through the years that I am not very good at poetry/descriptive writing. Despite the encouragement my 5th grade teacher gave me (sniff).