Enough of the nonsensical existential ramblings; I reread Faulkner's As I Lay Dying this week on my Kindle (thanks Aunt Mary, using it every day) and finished it this afternoon so the influence of that probably seeped into the post. Quick note: if you haven't read it, do it. You need to. If only to prep for the James Franco adaption that's premiering at Cannes or because the title sounds sufficiently angsty for you--although it's not like that, it's so much more. Especially after rereading it (addendum, if you have read it before, especially several years ago, possibly in Mr. Connell's AP American Lit class, reread it) I put it up against Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as my favorite book. Or, if not my favorite in reality, the answer I give when people ask me because I can't choose one. It's that damn good. Enough that I don't care too much about looking like an annoying lit-snob to recommend it so enthusiastically to anyone who might read this.
This was, to put it simply, an incredible week. Like I said, I came here without knowing really anyone here or anything about the place. I can confidently say that after a week I'm more comfortable than I imagined I could be, and that I have some great teammates who will be counted as treasured friends by the end of this experience. As I traverse Germany and everything that goes along with that, I have two fantastic guides in my American housemates/teammates, Mitch and Steve. I'm thankful that they arrived so much sooner than I did, by forty days. They know the lay of the land, which means the not only the practical things, like the layout of the pedestrian area of Osnabruck, ways to walk in Wallenhorst, the village/town/suburb we live in (founded circa 851 AD, whoa), and the bus routes to and from the city and the gym we lift at, but also how to approach practices and acclimating to a new, unfamiliar set of circumstances. Steve was joking with me yesterday after we tried to buy bus passes that the driver looked over Steve's shoulder to me, as if I could speak German any better than he could. The funny thing is I can't, because all that I know he has taught me. We've been to the city three or four times now, and walking in the town once. Good times. Hopefully, I'll be as familiar with the place as they are.
Take a bow, guys. Once you get off the bus and your phones.
Other teammates are great as well. It's an interesting dynamic, especially with another group of teammates, the other imports. In addition to we three Americans, there are three Serbian players. We form a kind of haphazard fraternity, both groups being Others here. We are quite different from each other, but still together within that Otherness. We have a good time together; they're all great guys. Branko, Vlad, and Strahinja. They provide a parallel to the American group; Branko and Vlad are older, more experienced, while Strahinja is young. All three are among the best players I have been around. I'm happy to be able to play with them. I'd especially hate to be a corner covering Strahinja or a linebacker having the misfortune of encountering either Vlad or Branko in the open field.
The Germans, last but not least, have been more welcoming than I could've ever imagined. I felt at home immediately at the first practice, as all of the guys took the initiative to introduce themselves before I could even begin to put names to faces. Don't worry guys; I'm picking it up as we go. I'm already pretty good on a lot of people. Steve says the trick if I don't remember a name is to guess Bjorn, and if not Bjorn, Sebastian. Then I'm out of luck. Just joking, guys. But we do have quite a few Bjorns and Sebastians. Because of this immediate camaraderie, both practices (we practice Wednesday and Friday evenings, 7:15 PM or so til we're done) have been fun and the game was fantastic.
We played in Lubeck for the first game, which was supposedly five hours away but felt like twenty-five. As you see above, we travel in style. The bus is pretty cool looking, and not terribly shabby on the inside either. I did a lot of reading and napping on the ride there. It was like any other bus ride to an away game, minus the bus driver smoking a cigarette in the bus. That provided some culture shock.
We were lucky to play because, as you can see in the picture above, it rained from the beginning of the day til the game ended. In our league, the GFL2, most teams play on soccer fields. The owners of these fields don't take kindly to their being torn up by the upstart American footballers, so many times when it rains, the games are cancelled. All games in a nearby region were cancelled, but Lubeck's field crew did a good job and we were able to play. Not only could we play, but, given the conditions, the field was in tip-top shape.
The game itself was a familiar experience. Pregame was the same as most any other football game I have played: the tense, determined individual organization and donning of equipment and uniforms surrounded by others doing the same in their own way, in their own world, the terse conversations between nervous teammates whose minds are occupied with the uncertain events of an hour into the future. I even delivered a familiar pregame prayer after being asked to. Having similar preparations really helped keep me comfortable with playing. We weren't sure how much I would be able to play, since I had only two practices under my belt and jetlag was still a pressing concern to everyone but me. I felt ready. Nervous, but ready. Mitch and I decided that I would play as much as I could within reason, and I would handle my substitutions accordingly. I'm happy to say that I was able to play every offensive snap. Our running plays are similar to plays I've run my entire football career, so I was able to run those easily, and Mitch explained the pass plays to me when we would break the huddle. I was happy to see that I could pick the game up quickly. I can attribute my readiness to all of my training during track season and afterwards and to all of the time I spent in the past four years at Kenyon, learning plays and how offenses work. I'm still working on learning all of the pass plays, and while it's coming along slowly, I feel that I'll have command of them sooner rather than later. Personally, I was able to contribute to the team immediately, which was exactly what I wanted. I finished with 20 carries for 73 yards, a touchdown (1 yard) and a two-point conversion along with 5 catches for 89 yards. So, not a bad day. The competition was in some ways better than I expected; in others it was much worse. The crowd was louder than I imagined it could be; European sports fans blur the line between passion and insanity, and not just for soccer. But what really matters is that we were able to win. We beat a good team that had won its last game 63-0, and, if not for penalties and mistakes on our part, I believe we could have beaten them much more handily than 26-20. I'm excited to play them again, to see how we'll match up in the second game. Everyone that played contributed to the win, and the team dynamic is as good as most teams I have played on.
I can't say enough about my German teammates and their commitment to the game. In the grand scheme of things as I understand, for most of them, football is little more than a glorified activity, a club they join. They don't receive a ton of recognition outside of people associated with the program, and with the program being such a niche subculture in the larger context of things, they're not half as appreciated as even the Kenyon Football team is back home. But when it comes down to the individual's approach to things, that doesn't stop them from being passionate about the game and really dedicating themselves to the team. These are people that I am proud to count as teammates, and that I will play as hard as I possibly can for.
So, here I am, one game into a long season, one week into a long stay. To revisit my opening remarks, time doesn't feel real. I look ahead, and everything is uncertain, but filled with potential, mostly because even though I am comfortable I am still far from settled in. I look behind, and the huge events that I came from lend a possibly unnecessary weight to the going-ons of my day to day life now. Once I get all of my firsts out of the way I can sink into a routine, shake off the novelty of things and become a part of life here. Or maybe that will never happen. Either way, I'm happy. My head is still a good amount back home, along with the entirety of my heart, but it's not a bad split. Missing something or someone that is worth missing isn't tragic; it's a part of life. I'm thankful I was able to learn that during my last semester at school, rather than learning it now. Decisions are made, adjustments are made to those decisions accordingly, and life goes on. Right now, I'm doing my best to go along with it. Just like you told me to.
*Throughout my entire crazy, amazing senior year, Kenyon's PR departments were very kind to me. Most recently, the sports media people published an article on the athletics page about my trip here and my first game. Unfortunately, I can't access the Kenyon Athletics page in my house, or maybe not even over here at all, or I would share the link here. But I can access the YouTube video interview that went along with it, so I'll share it here. Thanks to everyone who was interested enough in my trip to write, read, and watch these things. It's always nice to be recognized.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoRMY79OJTY
We were lucky to play because, as you can see in the picture above, it rained from the beginning of the day til the game ended. In our league, the GFL2, most teams play on soccer fields. The owners of these fields don't take kindly to their being torn up by the upstart American footballers, so many times when it rains, the games are cancelled. All games in a nearby region were cancelled, but Lubeck's field crew did a good job and we were able to play. Not only could we play, but, given the conditions, the field was in tip-top shape.
The game itself was a familiar experience. Pregame was the same as most any other football game I have played: the tense, determined individual organization and donning of equipment and uniforms surrounded by others doing the same in their own way, in their own world, the terse conversations between nervous teammates whose minds are occupied with the uncertain events of an hour into the future. I even delivered a familiar pregame prayer after being asked to. Having similar preparations really helped keep me comfortable with playing. We weren't sure how much I would be able to play, since I had only two practices under my belt and jetlag was still a pressing concern to everyone but me. I felt ready. Nervous, but ready. Mitch and I decided that I would play as much as I could within reason, and I would handle my substitutions accordingly. I'm happy to say that I was able to play every offensive snap. Our running plays are similar to plays I've run my entire football career, so I was able to run those easily, and Mitch explained the pass plays to me when we would break the huddle. I was happy to see that I could pick the game up quickly. I can attribute my readiness to all of my training during track season and afterwards and to all of the time I spent in the past four years at Kenyon, learning plays and how offenses work. I'm still working on learning all of the pass plays, and while it's coming along slowly, I feel that I'll have command of them sooner rather than later. Personally, I was able to contribute to the team immediately, which was exactly what I wanted. I finished with 20 carries for 73 yards, a touchdown (1 yard) and a two-point conversion along with 5 catches for 89 yards. So, not a bad day. The competition was in some ways better than I expected; in others it was much worse. The crowd was louder than I imagined it could be; European sports fans blur the line between passion and insanity, and not just for soccer. But what really matters is that we were able to win. We beat a good team that had won its last game 63-0, and, if not for penalties and mistakes on our part, I believe we could have beaten them much more handily than 26-20. I'm excited to play them again, to see how we'll match up in the second game. Everyone that played contributed to the win, and the team dynamic is as good as most teams I have played on.
I can't say enough about my German teammates and their commitment to the game. In the grand scheme of things as I understand, for most of them, football is little more than a glorified activity, a club they join. They don't receive a ton of recognition outside of people associated with the program, and with the program being such a niche subculture in the larger context of things, they're not half as appreciated as even the Kenyon Football team is back home. But when it comes down to the individual's approach to things, that doesn't stop them from being passionate about the game and really dedicating themselves to the team. These are people that I am proud to count as teammates, and that I will play as hard as I possibly can for.
So, here I am, one game into a long season, one week into a long stay. To revisit my opening remarks, time doesn't feel real. I look ahead, and everything is uncertain, but filled with potential, mostly because even though I am comfortable I am still far from settled in. I look behind, and the huge events that I came from lend a possibly unnecessary weight to the going-ons of my day to day life now. Once I get all of my firsts out of the way I can sink into a routine, shake off the novelty of things and become a part of life here. Or maybe that will never happen. Either way, I'm happy. My head is still a good amount back home, along with the entirety of my heart, but it's not a bad split. Missing something or someone that is worth missing isn't tragic; it's a part of life. I'm thankful I was able to learn that during my last semester at school, rather than learning it now. Decisions are made, adjustments are made to those decisions accordingly, and life goes on. Right now, I'm doing my best to go along with it. Just like you told me to.
*Throughout my entire crazy, amazing senior year, Kenyon's PR departments were very kind to me. Most recently, the sports media people published an article on the athletics page about my trip here and my first game. Unfortunately, I can't access the Kenyon Athletics page in my house, or maybe not even over here at all, or I would share the link here. But I can access the YouTube video interview that went along with it, so I'll share it here. Thanks to everyone who was interested enough in my trip to write, read, and watch these things. It's always nice to be recognized.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoRMY79OJTY
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