Ha! Ho! Hey! Hertha BSC!

Hello, Hello!

 

I realize I have been missing in action for the past few weeks.  Life has been as crazy as ever!  After spending the weekend with friends in Poland I had one week to prepare for my first BIG travel experience in Europe.  I was away over Easter Break for two weeks traveling to Munich, Florence, Barcelona, and London. After returning home I was fatigued and school was beginning to pick up more and more as I prepared for my solo teaching.  Last week was my first week of solos and I LOVED it! The kids were wonderful (most of the time), we had a field trip, and we are learning about dinosaurs! How cool is that?! 

 



This weekend was bittersweet because one of the other COST students, Keli, left this morning to go home to the States.  Meanwhile, Emily, another COST STUDENT who is here with me, and I went to a fussball match! It was AWESOME!  The game was played at the 1936 Olympic Stadium here in Berlin and we had great seats thanks to Emily's friends who just so happen to have connections. :) I was one happy camper.  Experiencing a REAL European professional fussball game was on my bucket list and I am happy to say that I crossed it off today. 

 

Here is a little lowdown of the game...the two teams who were playing were both Berlin teams, Hertha and Sandhausen.  It was a big game for Hertha because this was their first season out of the top division of soccer in Europe and if they won the game today they would be back in that league.  It was a rough game because Hertha wasn't playing so well however they ended up scoring a goal in the last 10 minutes of the game to beat Sandhausen 1-0. The fans went cRaZZZy! All 55,000 of them who were in attended the match today! 

 

The fans are another topic to talk about.  THEY ROCK!  Fussball in Germany and probably most of Europe is not how we picture sports in America with all of the music, lights, and cheerleaders.  Here there wasn't much music except for the chants and cheers that the fan section was providing as well as the club song that was played at the beginning and end of the game.  When they played the club song (the song for Hertha) it was the neatest thing, all of the fans hold up their Hertha scarves all over the stadium and sing along.

 

 

 

They actually have official fan clubs that lead chants, cheers, and songs.  They have huge flags that they wave and the entire stadium, which holds 75,000 people, all follow their lead. It was an incredible site. 

 

After the win we went to eat some good ol' German döners (dune-er).  This is actually a Turkish food that was brought to Berlin four decades ago and it stuck.  It is said that the döner is to Berlin as pizza is to New York.  German-style döners are seasoned meat (chicken or lamb) processed into a large cylindrical loaf, roasted on a vertical spit (which is not the most appetizing site to be truthful), then thinly sliced with a long knife and wrapped in flat bread with vegetable toppings and, sometimes, a spicy sauce. If you are ever in Berlin I HIGHLY recommend that you try one of these bad boys. :)

 

 After eating a little too much my friends and I headed back to the S Bahn on this exceptionally beautiful, sunny Berlin afternoon to go home. 

 

Now that I am here I have been making finishing touches to my lessons for tomorrow and working on odds and ends around the flat.

 

 

 

Still more to do so that's all I will say for tonight. :)

 

I will write more this week to fill in the blanks for the past 3 weeks!

Missing everyone from home and sending lots of love!

 

Tschüss!