Season Opener!

First off, check out the uniforms! I think they look great! Only problem: our big sponsor is Entega, and their bright orange logo dead center on our helmets doesn't exactly match the blue and silver.

Ok, with less than two minutes remaining and down by eight, we received the ball around our own 20 yard line. This was a familiar situation for me, and one that most quarterbacks love--the chance to lead the team the length of the field to tie (and eventually win) the game.

We marched the ball down the field and inside the ten yard-line with nine seconds left. I called for double slants, our most effective play in the second half. Marc, our best receiver all game, got inside his man right as I released the ball. He trapped it against his chest and fell into the end zone with two seconds remaining--just a two-point conversion away from tying it up.

Here's where the story takes a detour. I found out at practice earlier in the week that our starting center, Sasha, would miss the game for a school project. It required him to spend the weekend in a city several hours away. Stephen moved from Guard and filled in nicely as a replacement. As anyone football fan knows though, every play begins with the Center to Quarterback exchange. So to switch up Centers two practices before the first game is not ideal.

We had our third fumbled snap of the game at the worst possible time. I tried to pick up the ball and run it in myself but was stopped short. The two-point conversion failed and the Diamonds lost, 15 to 17.

I could list probably 50 reasons why we lost, but my main reflection is not about technical or schematic failures. My concluding thought is this: given some time for young guys to develop and for the offense to start connecting and playing better together, we'll soon be a very hard team to beat. And we're gonna have a lot of fun no matter what.

In other news, I received a job at Berlitz language school and will begin training on Monday. So my car washing days are finished, praise the Lord. Teaching English really is a great opportunity here. It gives me a lot of flexibility in what days I work and we'll connect me with resources to continue learning German.

Rumor has it that some Davidson boys and girls will soon visit me.... Looking forward to some adventures with Mandy, Phil, and Ashley starting May 10.

God Bless!

To Milan and Back

One thing I'd like the US to adopt from Germany is the vacation time. As a German employee, you receive six weeks of vacation in addition to the national holidays already allocated. And the holidays are quite nice by themselves. For Easter weekend, everyone takes off Good Friday and the Monday following Easter Sunday. So with my unexpected four-day weekend, I hopped on a train and headed to Milan, Italy to meet up with a friend.

I know Jaime through Campus Outreach and met the family she nannies for when I arrived. Spending a weekend with some Americans was a real blessing. Jobey and Kristen and their daughters, Isabella and Elisabetta, have lived in Italy for seven years now I think, but they haven't forget their Southern roots. Kristen made chicken dumplings for dinner on Sunday, a wonderful reminder of Southern cuisine.

The highlight of my time was a day-trip with Jaime to Cinque Terre, an absolutely beautiful arrangement of five towns along the Mediterranean Sea (pictures at bottom). The small towns are positioned along the rocky coastline wherever the steep cliffs allow. Jaime and I walked on the sometimes wide and flat, sometimes narrow and steep paths that connected each town and witnessed some of the natural beauty of the area--the lemon trees, vineyards, steep cliffs, and wild flowers. Although too cold to swim, the beaches were also some of the most beautiful I've ever seen.

.

Quick story: as Jaime and I walked nearly two miles from Monterosso al Mare to Vernazza, we climbed from the water level to nearly the top of a mini-mountain, a brutal hike. The path winded through the terrain and at many times was simply too narrow for more than one person. So when two parties approached each other at a narrow point in the path, one party would retreat to a slightly wider area and hug the cliff as the other group passed.

.

But when one pack of six or seven teenage girls approached Jaime and me, they showed no signs of stopping or even slowing down. I didn't have time to retreat so I tried to be a gentleman, and take the ledge side as they stormed through on the cliff side. There simply wasn't enough room and I took a 5 or 6 feet tumble off the ledge before a bush halted my fall. No worries though, besides some dirty shoes and itchy legs for the rest of the day, there was no damage. On other parts of the path though, I could have been in big trouble.

The other very cool part of the trip was seeing Milan. The massive cathedral in the center square was the most interesting/impressive site I visited. I could have taken and posted thousands of pictures of this magnificent structure, but I chose to include a picture of David slaying Goliath carved on the cathedral's exterior. Probably hundreds of Biblical stories are carved in marble all over the outside. From what I gathered from Jaime and my own limited knowledge of the Catholic church's history in Italy, these images served to tell the great stories of Scripture to the common people before mass literacy and access to the written text existed. So interesting to see not only the beauty but the utility of this art.

.

First game is next Saturday--my next post I'm sure.

God Bless!

Working at the Car Wash...

Not exactly what I had in mind for my 9 to 5 job four months after graduating from Davidson, but any job is a good job in this economy, right? The Diamonds offered and I accepted an opportunity to wash cars for a big Opel dealership to make some extra money. I've been there for two weeks now and have acquired all the necessary skills to make cars shine like they should.

A few pluses about this job:

1. They're new! I only wash brand new cars (on rare occasion I wash a rental). They come straight from the factory and we rip off the plastic, wipe it down with Windex, and spray a light coat of wax on it. These are how cars are supposed to look--every angle shines, no scratches, a pristine interior with that new car smell.

2. Driving. I park the cars after we finish. Ok, it's probably less than 100 yards and I rarely get out of first gear, but it's still fun to drive the new cars and rev the engine every now and then. Sometimes I get to drive a car with some muscle (see picture).

.

3. Co-workers. My partner in tackling the new cars is Ahmed, a Muslim in his early 60's originally from Pakistan and one of the most interesting men I've met in Germany. Besides being an absolute pro at shining cars, he also speaks several languages (including English), is devoutly faithful to his religion, and holds some interesting, sometimes crazy opinions about American politics. We have covered the spectrum of conversation. My favorites have been hearing his objections to the Christian faith and his trouble expressing his own in Germany.

You might think I would never want to leave this job, but you'd be wrong. I have an interview at the Berlitz language school this Wednesday for a teaching position so you can pray this goes well. The car wash is ok, but I'd love to interact more with people and use my English degree.

Yesterday I drove to Frankfurt to watch a Fußball-Spiel (soccer match) with another co-worker, Leelan. Frankfurt has a decent team in Germany's first division and 45,000 very serious fans that were ready to go. My favorite part of experience was seeing the cage they put the crazy fans into. Seriously, the loudest, wildest fans all go inside a fenced in area with probably a dozen security officers who separate them from the field. When a goal scores, the fans scale the fence, shaking it and yelling. I also realized that the stadium never stops singing the whole game. The crowd utters something that fluctuates between song and chant for all 90 minutes. I love it!

Today was our first live scrimmage and although our opponents backed out, we had a very productive innersquad practice. The offense ran over 90 plays and started showing signs of becoming a very capable unit. I'm feeling more comfortable with the starting eleven and the top several receivers. The best part about it for me though, was speaking the only language I know over here. For a few hours every week, I play football. This is a game I know well and I speak its language fluently. Those few hours of familiarity feel very much like home.

God bless!