-Victory Is Ours-

(Well, that's it for our neighbors in the East...Sorry, but that's how it goes! ...No, actually I am NOT sorry ;-) --what you see is an electronic display for bus/tram in Dresden)

YEEEHHAAA

Now, Football really takes over daily life here, especially after this grand victory over Poland 14 hours ago. We watched the match in a beer tent on the university campus (yes, right!), full of Football-crazy students. As you can imagine, the atmosphere was awesome, especially after the much-deserved 1:0 in the 91st (!) minute...

Get your audio impression of the atmosphere!

(the place where we watched and celebrated...a big beer tent featuring cheap food and beverages right behind the 'Hörsaalzentrum' (lecture hall centre) of the University of Technology Dresden...now, THAT is what deserves to be called motivational support!)

THE EFFECT ON DAILY LIFE

A few observations:

- Smalltalk about weather has been replaced by Football lingo. Everyone is expert and trainer again for the better part of the next weeks

- A steady increase of DFB-Fans ('Deutscher Fussball Bund = German Football Association) can be seen on the street...following my last post it is finally allowed to be proud of your team (and Germany) which includes the wearing of T-Shirts, flags, face-coloring...

- Even in this country of rules ('Ordnung muss sein' = Order Must Be) there are exceptions :-) As an example, during the days of the World Cup it is not an offence to sound your horn. It would have been impossible anyway to enforce this law, so I guess it is just common sense to lift the ban.

- Suddenly, the share of good news tremendously rose in the evening news. Killings, bombings, invasions, terrorist attacks don't dominate as they usually do and are at least partly replaced by celebrating fans and however-trivial stories about Football. What a blessing...I am starting to wonder whether there is/will be a measurable impact on some crisis or even the so far unimpressed German economic growth..

Short one this time! Just wanted to mark the occasion ;-)

Maik

(Me, Björn and Andi before the start; the match was a first-class fingernail-biter, which turned the present people into a crazy, screaming and of course cursing bunch)

'A time to make friends' with FIFA

(Hermann posing for his home country in his Costa Rican bar 'Pura Vida' in the Dresden Neustadt...one great place to celebrate this World Cup's opening match. Sorry guys..you played well, but...)

DEAR FIFA,

please don't sue me for using your slogan ('Die Welt zu Gast bei Freunden') in the headline of this post. We all know that it is one of the thousands of carefully staged trademarks surrounding this worldcup. However, I am still delighted by the mere fact that only American beer (what a fantastic choice!) is allowed to be poured out in all the World Cup Stadiums and in a 'safe zone' of a few kilometers around them...wonderful idea that paves the way into the very German heart..and protects all guests from the ridiculous idea that Germans have beer themselves. Please make sure with the appropriate measures that no non-German leaves the safe-zones and encounter German pubs!

Also, I am very sorry to hear that your serious attempt to trademark every possible word, saying, pun or picture related to the worldcup turned out to be unsuccessful. Protecting the term 'World Champion' ('Weltmeister') in German was certainly a great idea and should have proven successful. However, I REALLY have to admit that I am shocked to see how inventive many companies are in circumventing your well thought-through rules. One example..Emirates is the official airline sponsor of the cup, but due to the fact this airline has only landing rights on 5 airports in Germany they are simply not capable of shipping all the participating teams around the country. Which brings our Lufthansa in the game, who (how dare they) painted a better part of their fleet with a football-nose WITHOUT PAYING!

And, well...it is a shame for my country that a High German Court finally decided that a word like 'Weltmeister' is too common to be protected and therefore voids many of your expensive contracts with some advertisers. I certainly do hope that you and your fine lawyers find a quick way to prevent hazardous developments like 'Weltmeisterbrötchen' ('World Champion's Buns') that are produced in some bakeries I've seen recently. Evil usually shows itself in small things first.

Please stay on the alert!

Your sincere supporter Maik

(hopefully, we will have a colorful festival here in summery Germany. It's not gonna be a stage for the mindless, brown people...why mindless? A scientific explanation can be seen above (has proven true countless times)! - picture found in a male toilet in the university canteen 'Mensa Bergstrasse' in Dresden)

HOW TO REMEDY BALL-INDUCED FEVER

Yes! Germany is in Football fever. And we managed to WIN OUR FIRST MATCH. Wow..That day, Sandy, Ronny (my two best friends and flatmates here in Dresden) and me turned the fact that we had no TV in our new flat into a tangible advantage by watching the opening game in a Costa Rican pub in town. The place was packed, the atmosphere awesome..'unfortunately' the owner and staff of the pub had to watch their own boys lose. Well, many say that our 11 performed worse than they could and should, but (reciting the common cliché) the Germans do best in tournaments and always adapt beautifully to the opponent's capabilities, be it good or bad. Ok, enough of this warm beer..

World Cups turn even me, a non-beer-liking person (Ok, that changed a bit in my time in Singapore thanks to YOU LEIF!) who is usually not even remotely touched by ANY development in the football world into someone who screams upon missed chances and waves around with the second beer of the evening (Yes, that IS a lot for me). Even plenty of women seem to be drawn to the TV sets (Hey, whatever you might say...it IS a fact that it is somewhat unusual..I have plenty of first-hand experience!). However, it is widely perceived that a female 'Wow, that looked good!' was not in fact related to a clever move in the game but to the awesome hairstyle of one of the players ;-)

Maik

(try to walk a German city wearing a T-Shirt with this picture..you will be delighted from the warm reactions you will get. Germans are nowadays extremely conditioned to linking any feeling of proud to nationalism. World Cups and big sport events are truly the only times when it is 'permitted' by society to be officially proud of the own country. This is when you can walk with a flag in your hand without being automatically associated to rightists and looked down upon. Sad, but true. Our sense of patriotism is a bit distorted as a side effect to all the badly needed campaigning against rightist stupidity.)