Rapid Movement

And now begins the rapid movement of time towards the end of my experience here. For the next few weeks until we leave, Mitch and I have made plans so that we have something big to look forward to every week, some travel experience or goal that will be easily achieved. Although the individual days of the week still remain directly rooted in the routines that have been built up over the past few months, these events stand as markers in time that not only help identify the time, but aid in the swiftness of its passing. That's not to say that I feel that my experience should be coming to a close just yet; its simply that from day to day time moves slow. I know that once I'm home with a normal job and responsibilities I'll yearn for all this downtime, with its ample opportunities to read and write and think, but for now, it's a lot to handle. Tempering it with big activities is a great thing, because I'll be able to feel like I've accomplished something with travel while I still have the opportunities day to day to utilize this downtime.

This past weekend was the start of these trips. First, though, we had a game to play. For this we traveled to Troisdorf to play the Troisdorf Jets for a second time. Thankfully, the trip was not so long as the ride to Cottbus the week before, so we left at a decent hour on Saturday morning. The first time we played the Jets was the game I was knocked out of with a suspected concussion. I did my best not to think about this before the game, but a small amount of nervousness lingered for longer than need be. This leads me to another belief I have about football, like my tangent last week about what it takes to be a good running back. As the season and my career come to a close, reader, expect for me to wax philosophically about what I'm leaving behind in a few weeks. Bear with me. Anyway, this belief is that no matter what position, a football player cannot play scared. An individual cannot worry about being injured, whether this fear stems from a past issue with the opponent at hand or a lingering hurt. Earlier this week I spoke to a junior player about moving up to the adult team, and he admitted a feeling of apprehension because of the jump to playing against men rather than boys and how he might be more prone to injury because of it. I told him exactly what I say now: injuries aren't anything you can think about, because they are totally out of the individual's control. To avoid injury, all a player can do is play within himself, without fear, and be blessed with grace and luck. Football is a violent sport and injuries happen. They're going to happen no matter what; we can change the rules all we want and implement penalties for the increasingly destructive hits that have proliferated the game, but at the end of the day, no matter what, the game is at its most basic level twenty two men crashing into each other in limited space with sharply opposed goals in mind. The culture embraces the violence, feeds on it, and benefits from it. It's not going to go away. So, if a player is too mindful of this, he puts himself at risk. To be successful on the field one must depend not only on the preparations he has made, but also the reactions he can make to the opponent. With a mind focused on anything other than the task at hand, performance slips, and the door is opened for injury. Worrying about injuries does nothing but cause more injuries. By the time I was dressed and ready to warm up on Saturday, these thoughts were completely gone, and I was ready for the game at hand.

Once again, our team was ridiculously short-handed. Every week, we feel that the personnel situation can't get any worse, but every week somehow it does. I was prepared yet again to start on both offense and defense, as well as every single special team. At least our offense regained two of our wide receivers that had missed last week's game, although we lost Oli in trade to meningial issues and a concussion, and the last of my Serbian teammates was finally allowed to return just in time for the game after his visa issues were resolved. The defense, however, was another story. We only had one true defensive lineman healthy to play, and multiple other positions were thin as well. So, as always, we had people playing out of position and offensive players playing defense. This provided yet another obstacle to stopping Troisdorf, our league's top scoring offense, a downhill running team that plays old-school hard-nosed football. A thin defense isn't the best way to stop that. Add to these circumstances yet another terrible day for weather, with rain from game's start to finish, and the game was a challenge even before it started.

Things started well enough, though. I had several long runs in the first two drives, including a 64 yard TD; it felt like every time I touched the ball I had the opportunity to score even as I was slipping in the wet grass. Both teams traded touchdowns the first two possessions, and at the start of the second quarter the score was tied 14-14. Then, our offense sputtered to a halt, as theirs continued to grind on. Through the second and third quarters they outscored us 20-0 and 14-0, building a lead that was too much to overcome by the time we finally scored again in the fourth quarter. We struggled both offensively and defensively; although there were flashes of potential on both sides of the ball we were never able to capitalize on them. The rain added a bit to this struggle, while Troisdorf is the type of team built for adverse weather conditions. One cool thing: because of a six PM kickoff time, I played under the lights for the first time since my senior year of high school in 2008. Lights always lend some type of mystic quality to the game, even in such bad circumstances as they were. At the end of the day we lost, badly, 48-21. My stats weren't terrible, but I don't feel like I played as well as could've been. But that's that; the game is over now. Offensively, I rushed 13 times for 141 yards and 2 TDs, alongside 4 catches for 25 yards. I also returned 2 kicks for 54 yards. On defense, I felt like I played particularly poorly, but it's tough to adjust to something completely new without much practice. I was credited with 4 tackles and an interception on defense.

    After a tough game.

After the game, rather than taking the bus home, Mitch and I went with our sister Anke and prepared for a day in Cologne. Anke lives in Cologne, which isn't too far away from Troisdorf, and invited us to stay the weekend with her and see the city. We had a great pizza dinner on the way home, and passed out on the couch and air mattress not long after getting to her apartment, It had been a long game for both of us. In the morning, even though I was quite sore, we got up before it got too late and made our way into the city. 

Me with two of the major sights that we first saw: the lock bridge and The Dom.

The coolest things we saw in Cologne, in my opinion, were the Hohenzollernbrücke bridge and The Dom Cathedral. The bridge, which we approached as soon as we got off the train, is absolutely covered with padlocks. Couples put these locks on bridges all over Europe like Americans carve initials into trees, as a lasting memorial to love for all to see. Many of the locks are engraved, and they come in all shapes and sizes. It was interesting to walk down its length, and think about how many people are represented by the locks, and how many of the relationships they symbolize are still extant. 

The Instagrammed version of this picture does the bridge the most justice.

Next we saw the Dom, a huge structure that seems to dominate the city. This is apparently one of the most impressive churches in all of Europe; it is by far the most impressive that I have had the pleasure to see so far on my trip. Since we were there so early on Sunday morning, Mass was underway, so at first we could only observe the inside of the church from behind cordoned off pews. It's amazing that such a historical and cultural landmark is still in use, but it is. While we waited for Mass to be over to explore the inside of the church more Anke and I climbed the steeple, over five hundred steps up. The day after a long game this was a tougher task than it should've been, but it was still worth it. 

In front of the Dom.

After seeing more of the city, we hit the destination we really wanted to spend a lot of time at: a Bierbörse, or beer festival. Basically, between fifteen and twenty stands were set up in a square, each representing the fare of a different country or, if German, region or brewery. Even though it was raining, we made the best of it, and had a great time sampling beers from all over the world, from places like Spain, Italy, Croatia, and Belgium. I didn't have a single one that I disliked, and I had quite a few. We stayed there for quite a while, then took the train back to Anke's and passed out.

 Belgium: My Raspberry, Anke's Strawberry, Mitch's Pear. Raspberry of course the best.

Das Boot!...moments before being spilled.

Tiger beer from the Philippines for the Tiger.

To finish our trip, on Monday morning we stopped at the Haribo Factory store before lunch. I'd make the kid in a candy store joke, but Mitch beat me to it. We stocked up, got lunch at a great Italian place, and then headed home on a train.

 Our cart...yeah. Most was for Anke and friends who sent requests, in our defense

A building we saw in Munster the few minutes we had between train transfers...too cool not to share.

Last week I said that hopefully this week I'd have news that I'd planned my travel to Ireland. To give everyone an update, I'll simply show you:

That's right. September 17-September 23. Me, in Dublin.

I can't describe how excited I am for that. If you don't know me well enough to know, Ireland is the one place in the world that I've wanted to visit for as long as I can remember, and my affinity for (what I think is) the culture borders on the ridiculous. Since the trip itself is still very much in the formative stages, I'll leave the details I have planned already out for now. But, I can say for sure that I have my flights booked and a hostel in Dublin City booked for the six nights I'll be in the country.

So the next few weeks are looking pretty good, and, even with a loss, the week behind doesn't look too bad either. Right now, I'm excited to hear about news from home, what with football games and volleyball games and cross-country races coming up very quickly, but I'm pretty happy with what I have here.

Gifts of the Mind

Things are moving quite quickly here. Not necessarily in the day to day sense of life, but in terms of the experience as a whole, it feels like things are coming to a head sooner than expected. Although nothing of major import really happened this week--there was no cultural trip to a new city, no major event outside of football at which I spent my time--I felt as if the time passed more quickly than it has in weeks before. Part of this could be because of the shortened schedule: from a Sunday game last weekend to a Saturday game with a Friday departure this past weekend. I hope that this feeling is something that continues through the rest of my time here, and I have reason to believe that it will. Not that I necessarily want the end to come just yet; it's simply important that I feel like my time here is well spent, not wasted sitting around at home.

One possibly bad experience ended up turning into something good. On Wednesday after practice two of our teammates invited Mitch and I over to play poker. We thought it sounded like a fun time, so after going home for a quick dinner, we headed over to Lennart's house. En route, while stopped at a light, we were rear-ended. It was startling--for Mitch, somewhat alarmingly I didn't even flinch--and initially seemed like it would present major issues. We were certain the back of the car had sustained major damage.

The major damage.

Thankfully, as the picture shows, there was very little damage and the car was driveable, at least for the immediate future. After exchanging information with the driver that hit us we decided to go to Lennart's for cards anyway, since we were only a few minutes away and Jovi told us that there was no need to call the police. After a few hours of terrible hands and bad betting, Mitch and I both bowed out and headed home. Before this, though, Lennart and Bjorn asked us about the accident, and came outside as we left to see the state of the car. After we told them about the other driver, they began to laugh. It turns out that he is a friend of theirs who they had invited to play cards with us. He claimed that he was busy...busy hitting us with his car, apparently. The ride home was funnier than the ride there, speculating on what our reaction would have been if he had shown up to the house just as we did for the game. 

I said that this accident turned out to be a good thing, and it has: because of the accident, we traded our old car into the sponsor dealership for a different Tiger car so that they can take care of any unseen damage that may have been caused. This new car is just that: a new car. I had struggled with driving the old car; it was very much a bare bones model and the manual transmission was a bit too touchy for me to master with how little I drove it. I was working on it, and getting better, but I wasn't to the point that I felt comfortable driving anywhere further away than around the corner by myself. This new car, however, seems to have a bit more to it than the old one, and I have been able to drive it much more easily than the other. The first morning I had a chance to drive it I took it out along the streets I run on and practiced starting and stopping, and felt more comfortable even on the first shift driving out of the driveway than I ever did in the old car. Since then I've driven in and out of the city a few times, and to the gym by myself...even on the illustrious Autobahn. One of the goals I made at the beginning of the summer is finally accomplished, a goal I actually made almost a year ago for a different car and different reasons: I can finally drive stick. I'm excited for the additional mobility this will provide It makes me think of my dear departed Bampa, who bought a manual PT Cruiser with the intention of teaching all of his grandchildren to drive on it, but had to switch to an automatic before he got the chance. I think I'm the first of us to actually learn. Come on, cousins. We should all learn how if we have the chance.

The game this weekend was the furthest we've had to travel or will have to travel all season. It was in Cottbus, which is in the very east of the country. We left on Friday around five o'clock, and didn't get into the hotel until late. It was a long trip, which I spent reading and listening to music. I think that it took us near to nine hours to get there. Thankfully, we stayed at a nice hotel, with comfortable beds and a big late breakfast and the game wasn't until four o'clock, so we were able to rest and prepare for the game as well as we could at home. 

   The facility our locker room was in is a training facility used by the German Olympic Track & Field team. Needless to say it was nice. 

Before the game, Mitch and I were surveying the field (which was not quite up to spec) when we struck up a conversation with the opposing team's quarterback. He was an American as well, a guy from Boston, which was clear from the moment he opened his mouth. That made me miss my friends from school from Massachusetts. But that wasn't the only thing I took away from the conversation. It was nice to compare experiences with somebody in a similar yet different station. While the three of us are all over here as Americans abroad chasing football and travel dreams, he is having his adventure on the other side of the country from Mitch and I. He was a bit wilder than us and seems to be enjoying his experience immensely. I hope that we have the chance to talk more with the other teams' imports before or after the rest of our games; it's something I was hoping to have a chance to do, to hear more about the other places around the country and the experiences of the other guys like me. 

Once again, our roster was almost comically depleted for the game. It was the perfect storm of bad circumstances, what with injuries and outside commitments and the deterrent of a nine hour busride into the East. I think we had nineteen completely healthy players, and due to league rules, were forced to dress quite a few injured players, and two coaches who haven't played all year. Due to this, we had only one wide receiver at full strength and more than a few defensive players sidelined. I was set to play offense, defense, and every special team. To start the game, I didn't leave the field until halfway through the first quarter, when some of the defensive guys decided to play through their injuries. Offensively, we were confident we could play well, but with the short-manned squad and an opponent that boasted two Division I level imports--including a MLB who was All-Pac 12 Honorable mention at Oregon--we knew it would be a fight.

Pregame focus with a prayer

  

The game started close, and at the end of the first quarter the score was 14-13, with us leading. I was thankfully getting some rest, playing defense sparingly. After that first quarter, however, our offense exploded. We scored 14-0 in the second quarter, 7-15 in the third, and then blew it open in the fourth, 21-0. I felt great running, both between the tackles and with getting myself out into open space. Going into the game, we knew that the running game would be a major focus, but we had no idea just how successful it would prove to be. I've finally recovered something that had been just out of reach for me in my first few games in Europe: improvisation. In my opinion, that is the most important part of a running back/playmaker's skill set. The ability to turn a play that has been run the same way hundreds of times into something special while remaining within the parameters of the play is absolutely essential in a top-flight player. Sure, it's nice to be fast, or strong, or shifty, but those are only factors of this improvisation I speak of. A running back can be faster than everyone else on the field, but if he can't put himself into empty space, this speed goes to waste. A player can bull through a line and run other players over, but that strength is useless in the open field. And I've seen plenty of shifty guys juke and cut their way into the sidelines, or worse, big hits from players they thought they had embarrassed ten yards earlier. It takes a mix of all of these things along with vision, smarts, and the knowledge of how the play works to be able to be truly improvisational. Anyone can have big plays and touchdowns on trick plays that confuse or fool the defense. It takes this improvisation to be able to run a play that usually results in a four yard gain for a sixty yard gain and a score. On Saturday, I felt like I had all these factors, with of course the help of a staunch offensive line and a lackluster defense. 

That said, here is the ridiculous statline from Saturday: 19 rushes for 333 yards, 4 TDs, 2 of which came on runs of 65 and 69 yards, along with another 68 yard run that I was tackled on the two yard line; 5 receptions for 97 yards and 2 TDs. All in all, I scored 6 TDs and had 7 plays in which I gained over twenty yards. It's quite safe to say that statistically this was the best game of my life. Defensively I had one pass break up and a near interception, but I would be lying if I said that I think I played all that well. Thankfully I'm more of a running back than a safety. The best part of it all is that we won the game with a total team effort, 56-28, with guys playing out of position, coaches playing, and everyone contributing somehow. The win led to a long, raucous ride home, with an emphasis on long: my head didn't hit the pillow of my bed until 5 AM Sunday morning. I was more tired than any game I can remember, and that sleep was much needed.

Postgame win talk

Outside of the game, like I said, nothing much has happened. I'm closer to planning my trip to Ireland, and I think I have finally decided on the range of dates for that. I've found some really good deals on airfare, so here's to hoping that works out. Hopefully, next post will contain the details of my booked trip. Sadly, this Thursday would have been the Brand New concert I had bought tickets for an age ago while I was still at school, but alas, the concert was cancelled in July. I'll have to have a particularly Brand New-centric playlist for my Thursday workout in lieu of the show. It's odd that this week has finally come; back when I bought the tickets August 22 was an unimaginable future away. And so it has been. I could never have imagined that this summer would have turned out as it has. 

Poor, lonely, unused ticket.

Although I've kept my intellectual activities at a minimum, moving from the third Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire book to the fourth on the bus, I did have a moment where something I read took hold of me this week. I've never had a favorite poem, but now I do. I'd first heard it in the unbelievable film In Bruges, possibly my favorite movie of all time, in the form of a song by The Dubliners. It's been one of my favorite songs since I first saw the movie. In the film the song is used at a pivotal moment and is the most affecting use of music I have ever seen in a movie. I was listening to the song this week, and researched it, and learned more about the poem. It shook me. It's called On Raglan Road, by Patrick Kavanagh. Worth reading, and listening. 

Next week, I look forward to another game, travel, and the promise of the Emerald Isle. 

*This weekend, the Tigers were very active on social media, and uploaded videos of some of the plays of the game onto the team Facebook page. If anyone is interested in seeing some of these, they can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/gotigers.de

Second Half Starts

As I wrote last week, the halfway point of my stay in Germany has come and passed. So, this past week marked the beginning of the second half of things: the season, my time here, and mental states for me as the dynamics of things have changed. With a game this weekend, though, even as a new time has begun, I finally felt back in the swing of things as they were back in early July.

Even though the week was slow in terms of things going on outside of the normal routine, it was nice to be back in the familiarity of it all. Practices on Wednesday and Friday were attended well enough to practice as we hadn't since before the last game I had played in, the Hamburg game on July 7, and on Friday I was even interviewed for a local culture magazine. I'm interested to see how that turns out. I became fairly comfortable with interviews over my time at Kenyon, but speaking with someone as the representative of a professional team and in their third language was a bit more daunting than usual. I'm sure it will turn out well. The piece should be published around August 28, so I'll make sure to include that in the blogpost around then. If nothing else, it will be cool to have an article about myself to take home and keep that no one will ever be able to understand.

On Saturday, at long last, two of our Serbian teammates returned from home. In order to satisfy requirements of their visas, they had to go back home right after the Hamburg game for a time. What we didn't know then was that complications with paperwork would arise, and their absence went from the planned few days to over a month without much knowledge of when they would be able to come back. Due to some missing paperwork, Vlad still hasn't been able to return, but we hope that the issue will be sorted out within a week or so. For now, having Branko and Strahinja back is great. At this point in the season we need every single player we can get, and having two of our best is invaluable.

On Saturday we played the Bielefeld Bulldogs for the second time. The first game was the third of the season, a close 28-35 loss. Since then, we have evolved offensively, and play quite differently than we did then, but we have lost quite a few key players to injury and other circumstances. Bielefeld had been undefeated for almost two straight seasons last time we played them, but between our two meetings they suffered a loss. So, while we were diminished in some ways, we were eager to have a shot at a team that now knew it was not invincible. Bielefeld is not only the top team in our league, but also the closest geographically to Osnabruck. Due to this closeness, they brought more fans than any other team has to our field. The atmosphere was electric. After the youth team played a great game against the top team in their league, it came time for our time to do the same.

    Coaching the youth before our game

Toward the end of the youth game a storm threatened to blow in and it began to rain, making us think that yet again we would have to play through the elements. Thankfully, this held off, and we took the field to optimal conditions. 

Although the rainstorm held off, the storm that was the Bielefeld offense and special teams did not. They immediately showed why they are the top team in our division, scoring on their first drive. We were determined to prove that our offense is just as potent however, and returned the favor, as I capped our first drive with a spin to the pylon in the right corner of the endzone and a touchdown.

Aftermath of reaching the ball around the pylon...if only the photographer was a bit quicker***New Pictures, one was!

From there it was off to the races, for both offenses. Bielefeld go the better of us in the first quarter, scoring 21 points to our 6, but every other quarter was neck and neck, 14-13, 7-7, and 14-13, with them just ahead of us in each set. It felt great to be playing again. I stepped right back onto the field and into the swing of things, through the tackles and  into passes and touchdowns. After a full month of rest and conditioning and lifting, I may actually have felt better than before the break. Once again, because of our depleted roster, I was asked to play some defense, and I was able to stay on the field for that and nearly every special team. I took a few hard hits, something to be a bit nervous of after over a month off, but I never missed a play. 

I definitely took a few shots.

Unfortunately, we couldn't quite keep up with them, and our thin defense struggled to contain their depth at the skill positions. By game's end the score was 56-39, and we played well offensively in another loss. I had one of my better statistical games: 20 carries for 118 yards, 1 TD, 2 catches for 27 yards, 1 TD, 2 KRs for 31 yards, and 2 tackles.  

Celebrations after touchdowns are fun, but it would be much more satisfying to celebrate another win.

Apart from the game, it's been quiet here. Unfortunately, this is the first week I've failed in my goal to read a book a week. I'm currently only 64% finished with A Storm of Swords, the third Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire book. I think that I'd been at a two a week clip for almost the entire break makes that a bit more acceptable though. I've been writing a bit, and looking into some options of what to do with any work I might finish over here.

Tomorrow, Kenyon fall sport athletes report to school for camp. For the first time in four years, I won't be returning home. It's an odd feeling, and time continues to move faster than I'm quite prepared for. No matter what I'm doing tomorrow, I think I know where my head will be. One good thing about setting a date to return home, which we tentatively decided earlier in the week, is that I can start planning when I'll get to make it to Kenyon for a home game. If any of my former teammates are reading this: take care of the place. The foundations we set last year were only a base. Now, it's time to build off of it. I'll get there as soon as I can.

This weekend, we travel about seven hours to play a game in which we might not have even twenty healthy players. I'll be given a large role, and I look forward to playing it. No matter the outcome, I'm confident that next week I'll be writing about a good game, and a good week. The key is to have one after another, until it's more than just good weeks. It's a good time as a whole.

Halfway

This week marked a major point in my time here: since we recently found out our season has been extended by another two weeks, our tickets home have been extended by about three weeks, to the week of October tenth, rather than our initial return date of September sixteenth.  Due to this extension, I will be here for the full months of August and September, and most probably the first week of October.  I have been here now for the full months of July and June, as well as the last week or so of May.  As the month turned from July to August (something that seems incomprehensible to me, has it been so long yet so short a time?) I reached the halfway point of my time here in Germany.  It is surreal to reach this milestone—or more appropriately, this road marker—and I have spent a good amount of time this week contemplating the time I have spent and the experiences I have had thus far, as well as what is to come for the remainder of my stay.

As I expected, this past week was a bit busier than the week before it.  A sparsely attended practice on Wednesday night started things.  Although there were the least offensive players of any practice I have experienced and not many more defensively, it was a welcome return to the world of football. I felt good to be back on the field, even though our activities were limited because of our numbers.

On Thursday morning Eike took Steve, Mitch, and I to a sort of historic park, which I would liken to the colonial representations of the early U.S. that we have back home. The only thing missing was the droves of re-enactors that populate the villages in the U.S., something that I didn’t quite miss here. The area was set up as a village would have been ‘in former times,’ as Monika would say, with buildings that had been restored and moved to the area from all over the state and surrounding areas.  The place permeated this oldness; I could tell that many of these building had not needed much restoration but had existed in the state in which I saw them for centuries. Even some of the newest of the things we saw would be considered ancient at home, something that I still haven’t grown fully accustomed to here in Europe.

We took the tour on our own with Eike leading.  The most interesting thing to me was that many of the farmhouses that I saw (most of the buildings were farmhouses) were built exactly like the houses that I saw a few weeks ago with Kaye and her parents, buildings that had been originally built hundreds of years ago but remain in use, often by the descendents of their original occupants. From what I saw of the houses that are still in use, though, I’m fairly certain that nowadays the animals are not kept in the main house with the family.  Thankfully times have changed a bit.

Before I talk about the biggest event of the week, I’ll break sequence and talk about the day Mitch and I spent in Hamburg. On Saturday we took the train into the city and saw what was to see. Hamburg is the biggest of the cities I’ve seen thus far in Germany—although only the third, also counting Osnabruck and Bremen—and I could tell immediately, even before taking a step out of the Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station). Apparently, this station is the busiest in Germany; its hustle and bustle was more than anything I’ve seen before, even in Amsterdam. Once we entered the city this bigness became even more apparent. The city surrounding the station was more modern and spaced out than anything in Osnabruck or Bremen, and stretched further than the short expanse that I’ve grown accustomed to in Osnabruck. The most indicative quality of this ‘cityness’ I observed though was the sudden presence of an underbelly, an ugliness. Osnabruck is as safe and clean as I can imagine a city to be, even considering its smallness. The same can be said of Bremen, for the most part, although I didn’t see as much of the city as I’ve seen of the other two. As soon as we left the train station in Hamburg, however, we were met with derelicts and homeless, winos and junkies, ambling about the sidewalks aimlessly, daring you to make and hold eye contact for long enough to cause interaction. That’s not to say I haven’t experienced this type of thing before; in Cleveland all sorts of people frequent the sidewalks, as is their right. But this was the first that I’ve seen of this in Germany, where so far it seemed that if this class of people existed, they live swept under the rug of the public view. In Hamburg they were out and about and it was real and in your face, a reminder of the size and the power of the city over its people.

Hamburg Rathaus

We took a free tour of the city for most of the day from a service that Mitch has used before, and it was definitely worth the time, even if I wasn’t so free to wander as has become my wont in new places. Our guide was informative, if a bit over-eager, and we saw much more of the city than I imagine I’d find on my own. Even though it rained for half of the tour—and of course Mitch and I decided to be tough guys and forgo the opportunity to buy a souvenir umbrella to share so that we could save the money to tip our guide—it was enjoyable. My favorite stop was St. Nikolai's Church, an old church that now stands as a monument against violence and persecution.  After being built the tallest structure in the world, the spire of the church served as a marker for Allied forces during the bombing of Hamburg during WWII. The courtyard-like area around the spire, which would have been within the church building, if it were still standing, bears the signs of violence and destruction; this is a place that was certainly something proud and ornate at one time that has been left desolate and damaged from war, even, and especially, seventy-odd years on. Organizers made a conscious decision to leave the area in its damaged state to serve as a monument to those lost in the war, on both sides. Along with a statue commemorating the people killed in the firebombing campaign that took out most of the city stands a memorial to victims of the nearby concentration camp. Nearby, a center is available with information regarding the history of both Allied and German bombing campaigns. Hamburg is also the first place I've visited and seen memorials to WWII. This could be because this is the first place I've been sure about what I'm seeing, because of what I learned on the tour; it still was quite an affecting experience. I cannot imagine living through this history, something I had already been thinking earlier in the week while reading about WWII in Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.

 The spire of St. Nikolai

 Statue outside the memorial

After the tour we wandered the city a bit and got lunch. What did I order?

Of course I did. When in Hamburg...

On Friday night Steve left us to go home. He had some personal reasons to leave in regard to his family, something I won't discuss here. Nothing in his control, but enough that he had to head back to the U.S. rather than stay here for the remainder of the season. It's going to be odd at first to be here with only Mitch, not only in the house and day to day routine, but on the football field as well. The defense will miss him quite a bit, but I'm confident we'll still play well. Yet another way that the second half of the season will differ from the first, the first part of my stay from the second. 

For me personally, the biggest difference with Steve leaving is that I've been called up from the basement into my very own room. Earlier today I moved all of my things from the basement upstairs, a process that was a bit shorter than I expected. So I'm now set up upstairs, living the life. 

So, it looks like this second half of my stay will be quite different than the first, as has been prefaced by Steve's departure and my move upstairs. Things at home are quickly shifting as well, something I'm acutely aware of talking to family about how football is starting for my dad and brother, and I know that by the time I'm writing my next post, it will be time for my friends and former teammates to report back to Kenyon for camp. Safe travels, for everyone, from everywhere. Now, I move past the halfway point and dive headlong into the tides of the remainder of the trip. Best of luck at home, Steve. Let part two begin. 

Last weekend for the three of us