Euro Cup, etc.

Such excitement! We watched the neck-and-neck game last night again with a crowd of university students, this time at least two of them (two very vocal, visible, and courageous fans) from Turkey. As his coveted trip souvenir, Daniel has secured an official Deutsch fuβball jersey, along with probably one of every five boys his age--and a number of boys twice his age or more--around here. On to the finals!

We'll work to get more photos on the blog--everything takes time. Our learning curve here is steep, and we check, double-check, triple-check (and more) bus and train routes and maps before going anywhere. Nothing is simple; should we risk taking a train with only 4 minutes between connections in a foreign train station, with a change in platforms? Just as Rick Steves (travel writer, if you haven't had the pleasure of reading his books or watching his PBS shows) warned us, the German bus drivers don't have a lot of patience for someone who doesn't know the system. On my first bus trip, laden with groceries, I asked one bus driver, in German, if he spoke English; he ignored my question and impatiently asked me another one (which I couldn't understand) in German. A kindly older woman finally helped interpret. We are developing a deeper empathy for foreigners!

We notice some interesting practices here. Money is almost never exchanged between hands but via ubiquitous money trays set on the counter (or in a bus) between cashiers and customers. Maybe it is intended to help prevent the spread of germs? (Never mind that the germs are probably still on the money itself....) People also don't seem to use plastic money often; they like their cash, but I find it nerve-racking to try to calculate how much the groceries will ring up to as we anxiously clutch our remaining Euros.

Lately we keep hearing about people getting unusual rashes and welts (we have a few small bumps ourselves). The big fear here, at least among American military folks, is a toxic caterpillar called the oak processionary caterpillar. It has been spreading northwards from the Mediterranean, possibly because of global warming. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Processionary)