The Night of Firsts

Friday night Michele, Jana, Jana’s sister and I ventured to Konstanz for a night of firsts. The local mens basketball team, the Schwenningen Panther’s, were playing a regular season game in Konstanz so we had the night off and thought we’d take a little road trip. Konstanz is a beautiful city located on one of the largest lakes in Europe. The lake is approximately 52 kilometers long and 12 kilometers wide and serves as the German, Swiss border. It is a major tourist area for many Europeans and is very popular for sailing, boating and typical cottage life.

The first , first of the night was Michele driving on the Autobahn. Picture our tiny sponsor mobile driving at 192 km/h maxing out at over 5000 rpm’s on the highway as a brand new Mercedes cruises by with ease at 240 km/h. No big deal!

Michele paying attention to the road as we're driving!

Again I was navigator since I don’t know how to drive stick yet, but this time I got us there without getting lost at all. Only one minor detail through a construction zone.

Probably the best part of the night was our second first....Donner Kebab! The only word that can describe these are amazing. It is a homemade tortilla or homemade pita that is filled with either beef or chicken topped with lettuce, red cabbage, tomato, white onions, tzaziki and sometimes corn. Once the first bite hit my mouth I understood why all the girls on the team had been talking about how amazing they were.

I can’t believe that I had been here for 2 months and hadn’t eaten one yet.....what was I thinking???

So after our kebab we had to hurry up to get to the game on time. We were unsure of where the game was being held but our hunch paid off and we made it their 15 minutes before tip off.

Unfortunately the guys lost....they started well and fizzled at the start of the third. But again the Konstanz fans were playing their drums, chanting and clapping for the entire game. It was a good thing we were sitting with the Schwenningen fans. All in all it was a pretty good away game and a nice introduction to the panthers for Jana and Michele as I have already watched a couple of their games.

Another eventful Friday night, as we had to prepare for our huge match we had on Sunday afternoon. I would like to report that it was a competitive match but I can’t. We won by a landslide........more to come on the games soon

Our First Hockey Game

Friday nights have usually been pretty uneventful since I’ve been in Villingen. We have either had a game on Saturday, driven to a tourney or the most dreaded....Saturday morning practice. Typically a Friday night is dinner at Franco’s (restaurant) and a couple of drinks with the girls from the team and then home to bed. However last Friday was a different story.

It was the first time we had the club car and we were determined to make full use of it! During our German class we met 2 girls who have boyfriends on the Schwenningen Wild Wings hockey team, the local pro team that plays in the second division aka second bundesliga. We got to talking about the night’s game and they invited us to come along! Being a HUGE hockey fan there was no way I could say no. My roommates weren’t as thrilled as I was but they still agreed to come along. So after picking up the club car we embarked on our little drive to Schwenningen. It should have been no big deal to get there considering that Schwenningen is only 5 kilometres away and we had the trusty directions from Google Maps. But after a few missed exits, no visible street signs in the dark, and stopping at a gas station for directions we finally made it to the game, 15 minutes late.

Walking into the arena was the coolest thing ever. Just as we entered the Wild Wings scored the first goal of the game and the crowd erupted into a frenzy with yelling, whistling and drums being banged, a very nice welcome to the game. The game itself was really good as the Wild Wings won 2-1 in overtime, their first home win of the season. A typically hockey game I would say, lots of hitting, cycling and plenty of scrambles in front of the net, just no goals.

The arena itself was open to the outside on two sides, it was about 5 degrees out that night, and it felt like a true pond hockey game. The girls warned us in advance that it would be cold because they said that the arena was being renovated but I didn’t think that the renovations would involve actually leaving two of the sides exposed to the outside. Only in Germany.......

Possibly the best part of the game were the fans!! They were crazy, insane, obnoxious; passionate....you get the idea. Our seats were located directly beside the opposing team’s fans; they even tried to start a fight with some of the people behind us. They got into a yelling match and they tried to come into our section but because we were in a private section they weren’t allowed up, but nevertheless it was still amusing. I can’t believe how passionate the fans are about the game.

They stand the entire game, have a cheer master to lead them in chorus, drink a ton of Furstenberg beer (the team sponsor), wave the team’s banners and whistle at their team instead of booing. The atmosphere was electrifying and I can’t wait to go to the next game......

My Introduction to Crazy Pants

Currently Michele, Jana and I are enrolled in German lessons in the sister town of Villingen, Schwenningen. I had to miss the first three days of class as I returned to Edmonton for the funeral of my Grandfather who passed on October 2nd after a brief battle with cancer. I was very lucky to be able to join my whole family in Edmonton for the weekend, but most important be there with my mom and her mother in their time of mourning. My Grandfather was a pretty special man and I was privileged to have him in my life for 23 years. It would have been his 86th birthday this week and I just want to wish him a Happy Birthday as I know that he is watching over his 3 children and his 7 grandchildren right now! Miss you and love you forever Gramps.

So upon my arrival back to Germany the next week I found out that the club had finally enrolled the three of us in language lessons. I mentioned that they are kinda pointless but they do serve as a sense of entertainment for us each and every day. A typical day starts with the three of us getting up about 20 minutes after our alarms go off and then we rush around the house to get ready in time so we don't miss the "schnell" bus (fast). We rarely allow enough time to walk to the bus stop and twice we've gotten there only to have the bus pull away from us. Luckily there is always another bus there but it takes twice as long to get there and we stroll into class a few minutes late, whoops!! I find that I spend most of my time in class day dreaming or staring at our teacher's crazy outfits. I have never seen a women who loves corduroy as much as Frau Bihush does.....there has only been one day with out corduroy, she went for the comfortable sweat pants and apologized because she felt she was under dressed.This is a sample of her finest corduroy, paisley. She wore these the first day that I was there but apparently it was the 2nd time that week they had made an appearance. Since then we have seen black, brown, reddy/maroon, and black suedey corduroy. On the bus we are always trying to figure out which ones she will have on. It is truly our entertainment. Class isn't as bad as I say it is.....it is just frustrating because it isn't a beginners German class and I am one of only a couple of people who know absolutely no German. I love it when the teacher asks me a question and I stare blankly because my German vocabulary consists of volleyball words, saying my name, counting and asking someone where they are from. Hopefully this class will help a bit but I think the girls from the team are going to be my best tutors in German as I am their English tutor. This week we moved onto food in class so I now know what I am ordering at a restaurant, something that is pretty essential!!! So that is how each and every day starts for me.....I don't know what I will do when class finishes in 2 weeks :(

Hello to all from Germany

So I figured that it was about time to start my blog that I have been talking about doing for the past month. I think that better late then never is in order considering I've been in Europe for 8 weeks already!!

Here is a quick summary of what has happened so far......I broke my nose 2 days after getting to camp in Slovenia and wasn't able to play for the rest of the time we were in Maribor. I was fearful that I wouldn't get a contract and that I would have to come home and start real life. But luckily Bring it was able to find a team needing a power hitter in Villingen-Schwenningen located in the south of Germany. So I started the long train ride ever to Mittenwald to pick up my face mast from the Chyzowski's.This beautiful piece of plastic found a permanent place on my face for the next 7 weeks as my nose healed. So once I finally arrived in Villingen after 24 hours of travelling I met with the Club presidents and the coaches. I trained for 2 days and they offered me a contract to stay for the duration of the season.

The second week I moved into the first apartment that had no kicthen. That was fun!! I stayed there for about 2.5 weeks until they were able to find a flat for me with Jana (girl from Czech). She arrived in late September and it was finally nice to have some company during the day! Probably the best thing that has happened since I've been here was the arrival of another Canadian in early October. Michele joined the team the week before our first game and it has been awesome having another canuck here!!

Besides playing volleyball here the three of us are currently enrolled in the most pointless German lessons ever.....I might know about 10 sentences when all is said and done. Hopefully the girls on the team will stop wanting to practice their English with us and help the three of us with our German.

Here's a little bit of info about the beautiful town of Villingen. It is located in the South of Germnay at the base of the Black Forest about an hour from the Swiss Border and less than 2 hours from the French border. It is a twin city with the team located in Villingen and Schwenningen being about 5 kms up the hill. We live inside the city walls on Färberstraße which is also conveniently the street where all the local watering holes are located! Our flat is 10 m from one of the club sponsors, Saki Bar!! The landscape is pretty similar to Canada but I do miss the big mountains of the west and the ocean from Vancouver or the puddle from the Pond!! Villingen wasn't damaged during WWII so most of the city wall is still original and in the proccess fo being restored. It is quite spectacular.

So that is all for now about where I am and what is going on.......more to come as we have already played 2 games and won both!! I have also been able to go see a few cities nearby with hopefully more to come!

Tschus for now!