Memoirs of the Travelling Seavers

So, it's late friday night in Dublin, everyone has gone to bed and I'm blogging a little. We've been out in the irish countryside for a few days hence the delayed news. I'm tired, so I'm going to post a few pics and leave them to do the 'plaining. To cap it, we went out west ireland with Ryan and Cecilia, to the dingle peninsula. We spent a day biking 30 miles, half of which was through wind and rain. Last night we spent the night at the oldest hostel in ireland, a 14th century norman castle, playing a little settlers and drinking beer. good stuff. Tomorrow we're off to the czech republic and I dont think i'll be on the internet anytime soon. love to all.

posted by SamErika @ 8:28 PM 3 comments

So we have now arrived in Hamburg after an extremely eventful two days in Berlin. I have a feeling that soon my feet might explode from the pressure of all the walking we have done. We basically walked all the sites in Berlin in one day and managed to survive!

We arrived in Berlin with three hours to spare before the game started. So much time you think! well we didn't realize that the hostel was not in the center of the city and that we had to take two trains and then a bus to the town that it was in. No big deal, two trains were easy, the bus on the other hand was not so easy, we ended up asking a girl where the street was and she acted as if she knew but i am not sure if she did. But to be honest she at least gave us a starting point. So we get off the bus and ask at a gas station where the hostel might be. Little did we know that the address was supposed to be Kornerstrasse 53 not 3! so we were walking and walking asking so many people (not speaking much english) where this street was, pointing here and there we finally found it with about an hour to go before the game. Ahhhhhhh, we dropped our bags at the hostel and started run to the train and then run to the statium and then RUN to our seats. I honestly think we ran more than the players on the field! We got there and were lucky to only miss 10 minutes of the game. It is so us, not to figure it out in enough time. But if we would have known where the hostel was we would have been fine. I was just so thankful to find the hostel and then go to the game, i almost started crying at the thought of missing the reason we came here! It was an uneventful game but such and experience. But I will let sam tell you about the Germany game experience, man -o- man!

well my cold has started to work itself through my body, starting with the throat and then the ears and then the nose and now the chest. But we had two bad sleeping nights in the hugh berlin hostel but are so excited to be in the Hamburg hostel/ hotel, it is so nice we have our own shower and a double bed with sheets you don't have to pay for and water you can drink! I am actually going to Auf Wiedersehen and take a quick nap before the england game. Sam has a better memory of everything we have seen and will hopefully give you the run down.

For all the couples with children that were going to come with us to German, we were just talking today about how hard it would have been for all the little ones like Calli and Koji, this place was backed with people and people going crazy over the germany win. We wish you could all have come but when it comes to the kids it was probably a smart decision.

Love you all

Well, it indeed has been a furiously hectic last two days after the calm of Wiesbaden, Cologne and Munster. We got bikes in Munster and joined the biking crowd. I'm not sure our arses are so grateful, being highly pedestranized (read cobbles) we rattled our way everywhere. Erika took this picture of me while riding, I'm not sure how she did it. The cathredral was a great place, more fascinating somehow than Cologne and this astronomical clock, built in 16th century but dated forwad to 2107?!? We went for dinner in Pinkus, which was the most German place so far, the interior was like a Brauhaus should be, the food was famously German and even a Frau, complete with blond hair and an apron. I ordered Gebrane Blutwurst, which I belatedly realized meant panfried bloodsausage, looked and tasted just like black pudding, so I was at home there.Right after leaving the place, we had one of our genuine world-cup moments and I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture. We were on a narrow street with a couple of little pubs that had set up several big TVs outside, and so walking up the street we stopped to watch Japan vs Brazil. As you may know, Japan scored the first goal, a nice one too, and all of a sudden this one Japanese man jumped out of a pub screaming his head off to the surprise and amusement of all the germans around him. He was so excited. We moved on to watch the second half at the public large screen so I didnt see his disappointment as Brazil replied with 4 goals. Nevertheless, a good moment.

Friday we headed to Berlin. As Erika mentioned, it seemed all we did that day was run against the clock. But we made it! It was indeed a crap game, one penalty and little other excitment, but it was great to finally be part of the world cup experience. I took a little video with our diggie camera but I've still to figure out how to post that. There was a huge variety of fans, 71,000 in all, and they were the best part of the game, with the mexican waves, spontaneous chanting and flag-waving. But after that day, I didn't even stay up to watch France drag its sorry ass into the next round, we were knackered.

Saturday was the most information intensive day to date, let me recap in pictures:

Treptow park soviet memorial, the pictures don't do it justice, the entire place was a Stalinist devotion to the fallen Russian soldiers.

Pergamon museum, with the Altar of Pergamon and Ishtar gate, neither shown here, but both worth paying to see alone.


Various sights, such as the New Guardhouse, which is the collective tomb for the remains of an unknown soldier, an unknown concentration camp prisoner, and a resistance fighter. We also spend a good deal of time at the Checkpoint Charlie museum and ogling remains of the Berlin wall outside and nearby The place is stacked with stories of everyone who tried to escape, even the border guards themselves. It was a living museum, so as soon as someone escaped, they had their pictures taken and were interviewed, and went to see their own exhibit at the museum.

We then tried walking to the Brandenburg gate, where they were going to show the Germany game. So we were walking directly there from the south, past Tiergarten, and it would have taken us like 5 minutes. But no, silly us, its a football game, involving Germany being shown in the heart of the city. We, (and the hundreds of fans who grew in number steadily as we got closer) were diverted around Tiergarten (the equvialent of central park, NY or Hyde park, London) I joke not it was almost as if a new berlin wall had been built around the park, so we kept walking. We missed the first 30 minutes and two goals of the game, but we could tell what was happening from the screams and cheering from everyone around us. Even the police were actually huddled in their vans watching the game from their laptop or whatever small tv they had. Finally we got there but we couldn't even see the gate. We had to pass another three big screens before we even got to the gate. Unfortunately, there were no more goals in the game, so we missed most of the uproaring that the crowd could have done. Anyway, we got to the gate and got our picture about an hour later than we intended:


Our last stop was the Reichstag to see the wonderfully football dominated view. Adidas had this large football park right outside, even the TV tower had been converted to represent a pink football. We headed to the hauptbanhof and joined the thousands of fans streaming over the river into the station, as the game had finished and everyone was going home. At one stop when we had to change trains, they were running all over the street and rocking vans and busting eardrums with their whistles, it was crazy. Last thing we did was to head to a pub near our hostel to watch Argentina vs Mexico. Three mexicans had set up shop there and everyone was buying them drinks and toasting them. We were all disappointed for the Mexicans when Adam 'touch-me-I'll-dive' Sandler scored that wonder goal but they then got up and serenaded us with what sounded like an operatic funeral dirge, mourning their country's loss. They took it well, probably because it was Argentina.


So, we woke up late, somehow caugh the train to Hamburg. Spent five minutes trying to find our hostel in what seemed like a red-light district with all the sex shops, but it was a nice hostel after all. We haven't seen the city at all, just went to the public viewings of the England game (crap game, can you believe that the tv feed cut out just as Beckham kicked his goal?!? The only piece of excitement in the game and we didn't even see it!!) But there were a ton of portugese fans for the later game and that made it all the more exciting. The public viewing had all these tents where every country in the world cup were plying their cuisine, it was interesting to walk around and see all the different styles.

Its now monday morning and we're about to fly to Dublin. More later.

posted by SamErika @ 8:33 AM 0 comments

Hello Everyone,

So it is our fourth day in Germany and we have finally found an internet cafe and the time to write. We were lucky to fly into frankfurt and have my Aunt's foreign exchange students family pick us up and open their home to us!! It was so nice to have a house to go to and relax and get to know the Duffy family. It was also nice becuase as a selfish american they spoke english so it was not an instant culture shock. At first i was bummed that so many peope spoke english because you don't feel like you are in a different country, but now we are in Munster Germany and few people speak english and I feel like a dumb american!

Unfortunately the second day here I hit a low and had a really sore throat but we were still with Nicola and her family and they took care of getting me some throat stuff and I think it is getting better!! We slept about 12 hours today!! How nice. We plan on going on a bike ride through munster seeing that EVERYONE rides bikes, you can't walk in certain places becuase they are only for bikes, nice but scary when they start honking at you becuase you are in the bike path!

We are running out of battery power so I am going to let Sam type sume stuff because he is gagging to. I will hopefully be able to write more sometime soon but things have been fun and nice to be away as a couple again. Here's sam!

Hey, so ya, it was a blessing to have the Duffy family take us in and speak English to us, thank you Duffys! They showed us Wiesbaden, which, being a conservative spa town, is a twin city of Tunbridge Wells! However, their spring waters, though salty, are definitlely less disgusting than what you can taste in TW. The father of the family, David, is an irishman who grew up in england before moving to Germany, he lived here before the Berlin Wall fell, and so it was fascinating to hear some of his stories of that time from him and his wife Moi. They were saying how this is the first time they'd seen the German flag displayed so prominently. It'd always been seen as too nationalist to display the flag and people just wouldn't fly it. yet this summer, for the World Cup, for perhaps the first time since WWII, germans everywhere were flying their flag. We watched Germany vs Ecuador with them in a li'l cafe on one of Wiesbaden hillsand afterwards there were cars honking and people leaning out of windows letting the flags stream as they raced down streets. Talking to Nichola later, she too was saying that Germans typically could not display any pride in their country but are finally letting it show for the football.

The following night, our last one in Wiesbaden, we went to a local park fo a public viewing, they had a large screen set up, and a number of swedes and english people were there watching. it made it a great atmosphere, though i was gutted that the second swedish goal even went in, what a crap goal! David and his youngest son, Konrad came along with another english friend of theirs and his daughter Linda.


So after Wiesbaden, we met up with Nichola in Cologne, and saw a bit of the Cathredral (i think its bigger than Durham, which is saying something, but its close) climbed the hunderds of steps up to the tower, we walked along the Rhine, visited her university, drank some cheap german lager and watched yet more football. They had this ultra cool set-up for the luggage at the train station where you filled this box with your bags, paid 4 euros, and the machine would give you this ticket and automatically whisk your bags away into the bowels of the building. We were nervous about getting it back as they was no human interaction whatsoever. It did, but it was impressive that it did at all.

Yesterday we arrived in Munster, and Erika wasn't joking about the bikes, its especially freaky for a deaf man because the high tinny noise the bells make are undetectable by my hearing aids, and I keep forgetting that the red sections of the side walks are for bikes only so I keep jumping out of my shoes everytime a bike screams past me. Its Erika's ears that save me, as she keeps pulling me out of the way time and time again.

So, as she said, she wasn't feeling good :-( altogether now, aaawww, but we had some great rest today, and we're about to go join the biking crowd before watching the US vs Ghana.

One last thing, here's the breakfast page of the menu of the cafe I am typing in right now, can you see what's on offer for the items entitled: "Humprhey Bogart" and "The Day After"...pretty cool :-) Anyone think of other good menu items to put in there?

posted by SamErika @ 7:22 AM 3 comments

You would not believe how hyper I am right now, the Ghana vs Czech Republic game finished just seconds ago and I'm just bouncing around. It's not because I'm rooting for the US, sorry yanks, it's just that the group is turning out to be exactly what it was hyped to be, a group of death, and I sure hope that the USA beats Italy, because it will put all four teams on 3 points and make the last two games such mouth-watering matchups. Woohoooo!!! It's a shame that they play the games at the same time, which I understand (if they weren't, then the very last game could be boring as the result may not count for anything) .

But also, I'm excited for Africa, I predicted that African teams are sleeper teams, everyone knows that they have a lot of talent, and the Ivory Coast were unlucky to have to play Argentina and Holland. As it happens, the Ivory Coast nearly drew, and could have beaten, either team. So finally, Ghana, after outshooting Italy, gets the goals, beat the Czechs and they deserve to go a long way. (I'm sure Pat is happy too!)

Some may contend the red card given to the Czech defender, but contact was made. It's true that the Ghanians made a meal of every contact, including this one, but contact was there, and being the last defender, it was an automatic red card. Credit to the referee, he double-checked and took a little time to make that decision.

Ghane 2 - Czech Republic 0.

Earlier, I was watching the Iran - Portugal game. I was rooting for the Iranian because I bought them in the fantasy auction I had with friends, and up until the first goal, I truly believed the Iranians had control, they got better and better throughout the second half in holding possession and attacking, they even had a great chance after the first goal. But it was all in vain. You should check out the first portugese goal, man, Beauuuutiful.

Portugal 2 - Iran 0

posted by SamErika @ 12:55 PM 4 comments

Finally, after all that waiting and working, trying not to be distracted by the world cup, I passed my qualifier!! So that's the end of the beginning, woo! Now, I can relax the next couple of years just doing the rest of my PhD....relax, yea right.

Since monday, most of my life has revolved around working late, putting together my presentation, rehearsing it and editing the figures. There was a welcome break on wednesday night when Erika and I went to see Julie and Ope up in Round Lake. Their son is now 3 weeks old. Forgot camera so no pics. We had take out pizza and, as Julie's sister and nephews were there, we played 'Scene it!' the Harry Potter version. It'd been a while since we read the books so Erika and I didnt do so well. The nephews were understandably more adept at it, while Ope was the surprise of the night, jumping in there and getting most of the questions right. Methinks we have a Potter Nerd here, but for his age, really, tsk tsk....:-)

Erika and I drove over to her parents in MI last night, and Im blobbing in front of the tube while everyone is out. Finally starting to get worked up for the travelling now that the big exam has been and gone. Its nice too to have an off day before actually starting to travel. We have a wedding to attend tomorrow here in the east lansing area, but we wont be celebrating too heavily as we have to drive 4 hours to OHare early sunday morning. The wedding date, as much as I love our friends, as long been a bit of an anethma for me. I told her, over a year ago before the date was set. "Do Not Schedule Your Wedding in June". Couldn't have made it clear enough, there was no way I'd tolerate such a joyous celebration if it occured at the same time as the World Cup. And what did the lovely bride go and do? Scheduled it smack bang in the middle of the Cup. Dammit!! Didn't I make myself clear enough!!! :-)

Seriously, it'll be fun, and the scheduling for our travels, though pushed back a week, are hardly disrupted. No offence taken Tiffany.

So we're all packed. Took us a little while, erika kept coming out of the bedroom with a few more clothes every hour or so. We still have odd bits in the car that we haven't really packed yet, dont know what im going to do with them but we'll see. We even got out the bathroom scales to weigh our luggage to check it would be allowed onboard by some of the budget airlines. Maximum 20kg allowed, last time I checked we were at the 15kg mark, but we packed more....

Footie:

I hardly got to watch any of the games since monday, I saw Korea vs Togo on tuesday morning, I was bummed for Togo, they had good chances, made a good goal, made Korea look uncomfortable. But when their guy got sent off for what seemed like a tiny foul, it just didn't work for them. The second Korean goal was a good one. Korea 2 - Togo 1

Spain 4 - Ukraine 0. I watched this game, Spain only really scored one good goal. The penalty should have been saved, i dont know why the goalkeeper didn't try harder. Another red card, this time, the foul was so inconspicious, i was like what?

Germany 1 Poland 0. After hearing about this result, maybe Ecuador will beat Germany. Feel bad for the Polish, they dropped their concetration right at the death, and there you have it. No concentration? go home. heart breaking for them Im sure.

Ecuador 3 Costa Rica 0. Impressive, we'll probably meet Ecuador in the next round as long as they dont shock Germany. They've now scored 5 goals and conceded none, wonder how Rooney, Gerrard et al. might do against them.

Went to the pub to watch the England game, just the first half, with erika. boring first half, I was celebrating back in the lab when I heard that the first goal went in. They are making me nervous they should be finishing off their opponents. Rooney played and didnt seem to suffer. theres hope yet.

Sweden 1 Paraguay 0 I was bummed when i heard about this result, if sweden had tied this game, which they probably should have, we would have won the group anyway. As it happened, the swedes pulled an escape, like we did, and we have to make sure they dont beat us next week. Well, we'll still go through, so its not a priority right now.

posted by SamErika @ 1:05 PM 4 comments

Raise your hand if you hate shopping for jeans! I saw the inside of so many different dressing rooms today and managed to walk away with one pair of jeans that I think I will take back. I seem to be ageing since I have no clue why they make jeans only in low rise of ultra low rise!!

Got up early sunday, picked up by Adam to go to Fernandos. Had a weird moment when a black guy pulled up in his black maxima, asked me something that sounded like 'do you want a cap?' and when I said 'no thanks', did a complete U-turn. Almost as if he saw me waiting, turned round to ask me if i'd like to toke up for the day, and then went on his way...?!?

Im going to put my footie reports and insights at the end of the blog for those who'd really like to read them. So for now, I'll skip the football parts at Fernandos. Well...um...what did we do apart from football...dearie me there has to be something...hmm...beer! We went shopping for food and liquor after the first game, but turned out that Jewel wouldn't sell liqour before 11am. Well d'uh?!? Its only Mexico playing at 11am, who's gonna go and pick up beer in the south side while Mexico is playing!!

Fernando has one fat baby. The dude is only 2.5 months old and is already like 15 pounds. I took a picture with my cell phone. Hola Alejandro!

The Mexicans at the party were pretty quiet, I thought, for their team. They only erupted once the third goal went in. Must have been nervous. I would've seeing how their goalkeeper flapped at the ball prior to the Iranian goal . tsk. tsk.

Good to see Jaime again, feel like I never see enough of him, but he's busy trying to become a doctor. Good luck mate.

Played our last game of settlers last night with the Wugs. Did I mention that I babysat for Calli last week. Was so nervous about it, and she was too, clearly. But somehow I got her fed and in bed. I think it payed off because it was cool seeing how she smiled last night when I said 'Hi Calli'. Methinks I'm getting used to the idea of babies. Jenny thrashed us as usual. She has some kind of weird 'Settlers' mojo, never fails her.

Erika and I woke up at midnight last night in a passport frenzy. Somehow we'd remembered that we needed to find our passports, and in one short moment realized we didn't have a clue where they were! After about 15 minutes of frantically ransacking our files, we found them in a pile of papers somewhere. My bad, started organizing our files a few weeks ago and never really finished. We slept well, needless to say.

Just started packing tonight, we'd gotten ourselves this cool double-compartment rolling suitcase-cum-large holdall. It even comes with shoe pockets! After years of my large it-doesnt-roll backpack, i'm looking forward to pulling this baby across airports and train stations. I can feel the crowd melting away from us as we speak.


Football reports:
Got to Fernando's in time to see Robben's goal. Nice break of the offiside trap, but I was disappointed at how he kept trying to shoot rather than pass at times. He may be one of their better players, but its a team sport! S & M never really had a chance, Kezman didn't seem to know what to do. Holland 1 - Serbia & Montenegro 0.

It was a busier atmosphere for the Mexico goal, and it was a quiet room until the third goal went in. Mexican goalkeeper made a terrible flap of the Iranian goal, but some good passing at the other end saved him. The third goal was a beauty, the scorer had just passed to the outside, and was unmarked on his run into the box to head the cross in. A long 1-2 if you like. Mexico 3 - Iran 1.

Portugal next, Cristiano Ronaldo really tried hard, and the kid had some good chances. It was funny how he looked everytime he was saved or hit the crossbar, just like a kid. Stupid of him to get carded too. Still, he was the bright spark I thought, and was probably taken off because he was getting into the game too much. Figo ran (as in running, not necessarily control) the whole game, and I was surprised he started. But he proved his worth despite his age. Angola never really threatened. Portugal 1 - Angola 0.

Woke up this morning to Japan vs Australia, a little too late to miss the first goal. Sure looked like a foul on the 'keeper, though he did look as if he got the angle of the cross wrong. I was getting a little upset with Japan, they kept hitting the deck everytime an aussie touched them, looked like they were dominoes. It was a slow game as a result. But God bless Tim Cahill, what a start for his first world cup, what a comeback for the Aussies. I gave a loud shout when their second goal went in. Australia 3 - Japan 1

In Nevins again for the Czech-USA game. Didnt catch the first goal, but all three goals were rockets!! People kept talking about how the USA didn't show up and the Czechs did. Give them credit, I felt like the americans ran hard but the Czechs simply ran harder. Nedved and Rosicky just tore up that turf. It gives me twinges everytime I see Rosicky's first goal, the way it just suddenly dipped a tiny fraction to the right at the end of its trajectory, and past Keller's desperate hand. Wow! Check it out on the free video highlights of the game. Czech Republic 3 - USA 0.

I only 'watched' a little of Italy and Ghana online. It sounds like the USA might have a hard time finishing 3rd in their group let alone 4th. We'll see. Italy 2 - Ghana 0.

posted by SamErika @ 9:05 PM 3 comments

Erika speaking:

Hey everyone....I am trying to learn how to do all the popular blogging so I can inform all of you of a women's side of the traveling through the World Cup!! I am sure it is going to be a little different!

So today we had the first ALL day world cup event at our place. It started at 8:00AM and finished around 4pm. It was exciting to have all the energy for the game of soccer in one place. Luckily England won so my husband is still happy!

This is my first entry so I will keep it short but I look forward to writing about all our travels and hearing from all of you! Hope you are all well and I will talk with you soon.

Sam speaking:

Y'all didn't think I was going to do all the talking right? Nothing like a little feminine perspective on all the beer and football, right?!? Well, well, its only saturday night, I've been a glutton I have, you should see the smile on my face!

I'd hardly been able to concentrate on work, I had a rehearsal for the presentation of my PhD proposal yesterday afternoon and I seriously couldn't get my mind on the task until my first fix! I didnt even sleep thursday night! So, come 11am yesterday, Erin, Luis and Luis's 5 3/4 (his words) yrs old son, Jordi, found ourselves in Nevins. The place was empty at 11am though people did start trickling in, leaving us with a good choice of seats. Typically for a country that hardly worships football, the build-up had much to be desired. I mean, for the opening ceremony, ESPN showed *NONE* of it. Fine, perhaps they'll use the 5 minutes before 11 to talk about starting line-ups, history of the opening game etc. Did they? no. Adverts. They did show a clip of Bono singing and some faces of stars, and I could feel the emotion building up. But then, more adverts. They cut to the game at the moment the kick-off started. Man...

Anyway, great opening game, 6 goals, Wanchope truly left the German backline in his dust, twice, well taken goals, but the Germans had their say with two fantastic long-range strikes that the 'keeper just couldn't reach. Germany 4, Costa Rica 2. Oh, and I recommend the lamb burger with cucumber and cilantor relish...mmm...

Ecuador beat Poland 2-0, people are talking about how this is a shock, I dont know why, perhaps because Poland is ranked higher or they are a European team. Still, if you play your qualifiers in your home continent, there's no reason you can make expectations about such a match-up between teams from different continents. It seems, latin flair won the day. But I didn't see the game, and from the reports, Poland controlled the game and should have scored. Poland 0, Ecuador 2.

So, this morning we had out little party, rearranging furniture so that everyone can see the tv, we were anticipating various people coming in and out throughout the day and got up at 7am to get the bacon and pancakes cooking. It was a good time, everybody seemed to enjoy themselves though the coffee (and later the beer) seemed to go fast. We found that a new local pizza place (no website) delivered good cheap pizza, so if you live in Rogers Park, call up Frankos.



First up was England. What a sorry affair, when the first goal went in, I thought this was going to be a walk in the park, maybe we'd get four goals like the Germans did. You know, we had Paraguay in our hands, it almost seemed at times that if they had the ball, England was just waiting for them to lose posession. But as the game went on, it was obvious that we had no way to attack, there was hardly a shot on goal and the manager took Owen off at half time! England 1, Paraguay 0.

Anyway, we got our three points, and the next game, Sweden vs Trinidad & Tobago was far more exciting. The soca warriors held the Swedes ("they look like Ikea workers" said Rich) at bay despite losing a man and Shaka was the hero blocking Ibrahimovic, Allback, Larsson et al. It's good news for England as it means that if they do beat T & T next week, which they should, says the optimist in me, we'll go through to the next round despite the result against Sweden. But then again, the Swedes attacked T&T better than what we could muster against Paraguay, so we'll wait and see. Sweden 0, T&T 0.

The last game of the day I enjoyed the most, being a football purist. Now this was football. Both teams for once had many chances, and I was surprised at how comfortable the africans were on the ball. The scoreline makes Argentina sound like the better team but they were evenly matched I must say and outclassed at times too. Argentina 2, Ivory Coast 1.

After all that, man, I just collapsed. Had a major nap with plenty of weird dreams. I was even playing croquet in one, (housegroup would know why), but not even football....hmmm, maybe I need some more REM sleep for that to sink into my long-term memories. Im sure, come August, my dreams would be even weirder.

On another note, as per Emily's request, I allowed comments by unregistered users, so fire away y'all.

posted by SamErika @ 10:16 PM 1 comments

So, its currently 11 hours, 40 minutes, 20 seconds and counting. I emailed my professor earlier this week, and I wrote that I'd be struck down by a mysterious illness at 11am on Friday 9th and will need to recuperate in Nevins (great local pub) for a few hours, and do you know what he said? "Me too!"

:-D

Did I mention that he's European? So in a few short, but ever so long hours (apart from those spent sleeping) I'll be walking down to the Nevins with Luis and a couple other lab members in time for the first whistle.

I was reading the news today: Djibril Cisse broke his leg. Man, I feel for the guy, that must be the most heart-breaking thing ever. To be ready to appear in the first major tournament of your life, and THE biggest sports tournament in the world (the viewing for the final puts the Super Bowl to shame), and in the last warm-up friendly game before it starts, a leg breaks. I dont know whether he was screaming from the pain, or screaming for his loss. It probably was the former. He's not the only one, here and there, players are having to drop out of their respective squads because of serious injuries and it must be unbelievably sad to not go after all.

Football after all, is the beautiful game, and in a way, its beautiful because it shared by many, and transcends much. Kids in the streets of cities like Mexico City, Sao Paulo, London, Rome, Yokohoma and countless others just dream of moments like this, and some of these kids do indeed get so close to such moments. It's all the more cruel to be denied.

But while I wax lyrical about dreams, as I do have my own, I must admit there's a little demon inside me that thinks "oooh, the more injuries in the best teams, the more chance England has!" which is pure evil if you think about it. It doesn't have to be a career-ending injury, just a little back spasm in a team's star player as they are about to take on my cherished eleven. At the end of the day, as much as I love football, and enjoy the beauties of the game, I really, really, really want England to win. Oooh boy.

On a happier note, other than writing about my obsession with this sport (did I mention that I spent hours fiddling with my world cup fantasy team? Ballack had to be left out now that he's missing the first game, but who to replace him with?!?), I had a fantastic time tonight hanging out with a little gang of friends from church. We're blessed to have a local that serves $4 margaritas on thursday night. Ask Nadia what she learned in sign language, that is, if she hasn't signed them to you yet! Whatever you do, don't ask Andrew what he just learned! :-)

posted by SamErika @ 12:27 AM 1 comments

Its Tuesday June 6th 2006 and the only thing I care about right now is that the world cup starts in two days. I'm dribbling from the corner of my mouth as we speak! Will Wanchope leave the German backline in his dust?! Will Ballack run rings around the Ticos midfield?!? 'n' that's just the first game, oh joy!!!

But, more than the world cup (gasp, could that be possible?!?) this blog is about our travels this summer. And yes, I mean 'our', as I'm travelling with my ever so beautiful wife, Erika, as we venture out into world-cup mad Germany, emerald-green Ireland, cheap-beer Czech Republic and the dear ol' sceptered isle that some corner of my heart still calls home....England.

We were initially drawn into making this trip by a fellow football-crazy friend nearly two years ago, who convinced me to go. Despite the fact that Rich begged me to make sure I didn't get Erika preggers and thus prevent us from going, he got his wife, Jenny, preggers and now they aren't going.....slackers. But seriously, they recently gave birth to another beautiful daugther. Welcome to our world, Mariella.

Several other friends did pledge themselves to the trip, and pulled out on grounds of finances, or because they never got a ticket to a game. Oh we tried, we had it planned out, there were three or four seperate applications including subgroups of us at different games, but nope, we never got drawn in the lottery. I persisted, and finally, I was randomnly assigned, through the conditional tickets program, two tickets!!! To the game of Ukraine vs Tunisia, ranked 45th and 21st in the world respectively, in Berlin on June 23rd! Yeeehaaaw!

Our initial trip was meant to be for 2-3 weeks, but then a different kind of discussion had us extending our trip. Last October, a visiting professor from Oxford University came to give a talk on his work at Northwestern. To sum up, he mathematically and computationally models the collective behaviour of different animals, ranging from locusts to fish. I ended up having a decent discussion with him about my own work, and other research topics such as the evolution of cooperation, the end product of which he invited me to Oxford to do some collaborative research with him. Man, did I take him up on that! First I really wasn't sure, money, time etc. etc. but somehow, it made sense, and when we bought our transatlantic tickets, they were for a 7 week roundtrip journey, instead of 3.

So, that's the background, a little soccer, a little beer, and a little research. On top of that Erika is going to make some side trips across England and Europe while I work in Oxford, so she'll have her experiences to write too. We fly out in less than two weeks, but to get me started on the blogging, I'll be writing on my own experiences of the World Cup as the games unfold this week.

And how they will unfold.....hmmmm.

Let The Games Begin!

posted by SamErika @ 9:23 PM 3 comments