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.