5/8/2019

The other night I was eating dinner and surrounding me was one roommate making bread with bacon in it, and the other watching Kung Fu Panda. They also sat with me in the dark on the kitchen floor one night while I pretended that the oven light was a campfire and ate marshmallows. I really have no complaints.

            I've done quite a few interesting things since last time, which is good because it has been over a month. The day after my last post we played against the (then) #2 league in the team, Gränichen. It was a 2-2 final BUT I scored a goal! This is the first time I have scored since 2014 (that I can remember) and I was really excited about it. I also got the assist on the second goal so it wasn't that bad of a game for me.

            The next game after that was the cup semi-final which was one of the most exciting games I have played in, not because of the match itself but because of the atmosphere. There was around 170 people and we were at home which was cool. The away team's fans set of flares during the match and there was chanting going on. To Europeans I am sure this seems silly to think so highly of, but for an American that was intense. The most people who has ever been at a game of mine I would say is probably like 50 and I definitely have never had a flare set off at one of my games. We came away with a 2-0 win against Wolhen (who we play again this weekend) and we are headed to the cup final on May 30! I've already been warned to expect well over 200 people at the final. I am very nervous and excited for this match.

Just a few days after the cup game we played against Döttingen and came away with a 7-0 victory. The most exciting thing for me about that game was that I scored again! It should be noted that I have been motivated with the promise of a McDonalds trip for every goal. I have now had McDonalds twice and why no one tried to motivate me with this before is beyond me.

            Saturday night was our most recent game and it was crazy cold. It was raining slush the entire game, I had the Atlantic Ocean in my left shoe and the Pacific in my right. One of my toes somehow got cut open during the match and I didn't even know about it until I took my shoe off and saw the blood on my sock. Also, didn't even feel the pain of it until the next day so that was nice. It was absolutely freezing. We won 5-1 though.

            My time off the field has been filled with some fun adventures. We got to spend a night in Muri with some of the girls from the team and it was fun to just hang out, listen to everyone's different music, and have the argument about the rules of UNO in three different languages instead of one. Cheryl and Sarah also took us to these really cool caves that are inside a mountain. I guess they were formed from the melting of a glacier or something. Me trying read everything on the placards that were in German leads to me not knowing much. They were really cool to look through though. They reminded me a lot of the ones in Tennessee I went to when I was young(er). The weather was really nice that day too. After the caves we went to our friend Manuel's house and I was again super happy because he made fajitas and fajitas are really just tacos and I love tacos and it was the first time (besides McDonalds) that I ate something that was similar to home.

            We spent a day with Maiane's previous host family and teammate. They have the most beautiful house I have ever seen. I really liked how their living room wasn't staged around a television, but instead the windows that are the entire back wall and give view to the most beautifully green hills and in the far distance the big mountains. She has an entire art studio where she paints and her house is decorated with all of the abstract art she creates. Their backyard is huge! It has a small creek, a pond with handfuls of goldfish (some that are as big as my leg), a big grassy area where we spent most of our time kicking the ball around with one of the children. We had a lovely meal with the family and we were invited over again for Easter celebrations the Saturday before Easter. Their entire family was there, including 3 three-years olds, a handful of older children, an massive Easter egg hunt, and our own hidden chocolate bunnies. I was also taught a game where you smash the eggs against each other on the ends and the one that cracks loses. That was pretty fun. We spent a lot of the day there and we just hung out and ate food and enjoyed the company around us.

            On actual Easter day we went with Manuel along with his Mom and Aunt to Laufen Castle. This was unbelievable. It is right on the cliff next to the Rhein river and a big waterfall. Being a holiday there were A LOT of tourist and people visiting but the view was still stunning. You can walk down and have the mist from the falls dust your face and if you want to you can get on boats that go directly at the falls. We did not do this because none of us thought the idea of paying money to get soaked and walk around the rest of the day getting chub-rub was fun. We went into the castle and then crossed the river to get a look from the other side. I love castles, absolutely adore them. But the waterfalls of the river were what really kept my attention. Beautiful but strong, chaotic, majestic, loud, and captivating. We then went into Germany for dinner. We were early so we went into a church in the small town we had reservations and every single time I go in these churches I am blown away by the intricacies. These are just small town churches and in terms of detail they blow away most of the churches I've been into in America. I understand the importance is not the building but really they are so carefully designed. All very "old school" but I personally prefer that look to the modern boxes we call buildings. At dinner I ordered Cordon Bleu which is not chicken. It is pork. That was the first lesson. The second lesson was that it is weird to eat the side after the main. I ate the whole Cordon Bleu and then ate the rice, and I was picked on the whole time for it. And that is okay. It took them this long to catch on to the fact that I'm not particularly fond of mixing foods together on a plate so I guess the ridicule is miniscule in comparison to the amount of time I could have had to deal with the heckling.

            Oliver took us to the French part of the country and surprisingly it was noticeably different. I think the French part of Switzerland looks more different than Germany does. Our first stop was at a chocolate factory. I thought it was nice because the museum for the chocolate explained how this specific brand uses hazelnuts specifically because during the second world war the amount of sugar that could be traded was very low and so the founder started importing hazelnuts because they were permitted and were cheap. I find it really fascinating how much you can see the impacts of the war here. When we went to Interkaken when I first got here there were still barricades that were put in place if Germany ever decided to come in. The chocolate is called Ragusa and it is delicious. Afterwards we went to a very cute little restaurant and had some coffee then continued to look into some small churches that are absolutely beautiful. All of the churches here are nice, with stained glass windows and high steeples and arched doorways. That day we also went into Neuchâtel and took a look at the big lake and the French-influenced architecture. On the way we passed by a castle and took a stop to look around. The original castle was built in the 1200's and then continually added to throughout history. Some of the original was still there and it was cool to see. It blows my mind that on a very regular basis I am passing by buildings and structures that are older than my country. I've passed houses that have older dates than the constitution.

            . Manuel took us to Geneva and we spent the day walking around, seeing different notable things, and enjoying the weather. A big majority of the day was spent walking next to Lake Geneva. We saw the Jet d'Eau which is a fountain that shoots water roughly 460 feet into the air. Originally it was just to help relieve pressure from a power plant but even though it lacks historical significance it is very cool and can be seen from over a mile away. We walked through The Conservatory and Botanical Garden of the city of Geneva which is 69 acres big. I found it historical that out of all of the plants and beautiful things to look at the Brazilians spent the most time watching the birds fight. It should be noted that while at Lake Geneva they stopped to feed the birds our potato chips, just like they stopped in Neuchatel to feed the birds french-fries instead of looking at the lake at all. From there we walked what felt like directly uphill to the United Nations. I do not know what I was expecting but a small city of houses each specifically for one country's political elite was not it. It looked like something from the Hunger Games. The headquarters itself was cool. There were protestors outside from Venezuela asking for recognition and support for the crisis of their country. This being the same day that Maduro claimed that the opposition was dead. We sat at the fountains and watched for a little bit before getting some ice cream and walking back to the car.

            Last weekend we got to meet some of our coach's old team and they cooked a really good dinner for us and then took us out to a karaoke bar. It was nice because a good few of them spoke English, and the bar was very old fashioned. There was one girl there (not part of the team) who took it way to seriously. Remember those kids in middle school who took gym class way too seriously, like they thought gym class was the Olympics? Well this girl was the karaoke equivalent of that but with a higher blood alcohol level. Everyone had a really good time.  

Pictures below!