World Cup. and other Adventures.

'An awesome excuse for drunken parties at an international level.'
It should really be the catch-phrase around here.

There's lots'o'face paint, ass grabbing, beer drinking, and BBQ-ing. All in all it is pretty fun until you are in no mood for those asshole Italians and their fucking noise makers.

I left my apartment one afternoon to meet folks at the Fan Fest near Potsdamer Platz that stretches a whole mile to Tiergarten. The second I reached the tram I was blown away by the thick smoke possibly coming from grills in the neighborhood. Even though I don't eat meat, and haven't in over 7 years, I still enjoy the smell of people burning anything and adding sauce to it. One bottle of water later and a mad dash to the M5 I was on my way into chaos.

After a very long U-Bahn ride where my chest was stared at by unabashed Europeans, I climbed out of the station to be bombarded by Black, Red, and Yellow people everywhere. An asian woman stood near the Balzac coffee by the station crying out over the frey, 'Ein Euro, Ein Euro!!' whilst lugging around a bag stuffed with German flags and other WM crap. Occationally some half tanked blond German would stummble over to shut her up.

I met up with my Michigan-mate and we headed into a wooded path that opened to hundreds upon hundreds of screaming fans. After seeing the first girl get man-handled by a group of drunk football fans, we decided it was best to leave. The food sucked anyway and the beer was way too overpriced. ( I mean come on 3.50 euro for a plastic cup of Berliner Kindel!! ) ::note the pretention in that statement::

Since then I 've attended the 'Fan Fest Berlin' a few more times with better results. It seems everytime I go I meet up with another new group of people from some other corner of the world. Our similairties end at the languages we speak. The whole night it's German with a little bit of English for clarification when needed. I just feel like an ass for only speaking one forgein language when the average is between three and five. Maybe there is a French class in my near future...

In other news the past has started to creep into my Inbox. After January, I needed a fresh start and I was really lucky to have that until now. When I do return America, I promise to continue my resolution of starting over. I haven't looked back since the beginning of the year and I am not going to start looking over my sholder now. I might turn into a pillar of salt.