Experiences with football and German bureaucracy

Good news gang! After heaps of paperwork, I finally got my visa yesterday so I am no longer an illegal alien! Germany, you are mein bitch.

I realize my last few posts haven't had too much to do with life in Germany but fear not faithful blog readers, for I have now experienced a very important part of German culture! On Sunday night, Max and I went to go see a professional soccer football game! Note: I will hereby be referring to soccer as football, when in Rome... 

You can probably deduce just from reading this blog that I am not a big sports fan. I can only think of one other occassion where I attended a professional sporting event and that was when my parents took me to see a Vancouver Grizzlies game in like 1998. I also don't watch sports on TV very often so as we were heading to the football game my main point of reference was of course the Quidditch World Cup from Harry Potter. And I must say while the football game was not quite as cool as quidditch, it certainly did not disappoint! 

Football is wildly popular in Germany and the fans go all out. We went to go see Max's favourite team, Kaiserslauten, play against Cologne (Köln in Deutsch). Everyone was wearing the red and white team merchandise (most commonly a scarf) and some people even bring massive team flags to wave around. The game ended in a tie of 1:1 and it was actually really exciting to watch. My favourite part of the game was when a little cat came out and ran all the way across the field! 

If you ever find yourself in good ol' Deutschland you should definitely try and catch a football game, it is a great way to experience some real German culture. Also, since I am leaving Germany at the end of next month I want to compile a list of some very German things I should do/see/eat/drink/etc. So if you have any ideas of stereotypical touristy activities I should partake in before I venture back to Canada send them my way!

Not too much else happening here at the moment, except the weather has been absolutely lovely, hovering around 10 degrees for the past week or so! This morning I went to school with just a wool blazer as a coat and was very comfortable! Other than that I have been keeping busy with my new German class each morning and most of my afternoons are spent defending myself from Max's increasingly naughty cat Fredo, who has developed a large appetite for my feet.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend! Tschüs!