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Friday, May 20, 2011

The Pool


So on Wednesday, the sun was out and the heat was on, so the Ami boys decided to head to Schenkenseebad, the local pool. The pool that we had been to was the indoor area. However, on Sunday the outside pool had opened for the summer, and we had to hit it up! The place is really cool. It had two pools, some platforms to jump off of, diving boards, waterslides, etc. The weather was great so that made for a great day!



Speed slide was pretty tight

10m is higher than I thought! We jump off the 5m to start out haha





Layin' in the sun!

Boys will be boys

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Munich Cowboys... Speaking of cowboys... Red Ox anyone?

Get it!

We showed up at the field several hours before our game against the Munich Cowboys, and it seemed like it was going to be a nice sunny afternoon. The usual pre-game rituals ensued, and as we neared the start of the weather started to change, much to my chagrin. (never actually knew how to spell that word...). Anyways the clouds rolled in and the weather turned a little sour as it began to drizzle. A little rain wouldn't hurt us though, especially me and Nish, we are from the NW... it's an everyday occurrence!



The game began on defense for the Unicorns, who held fast on their first opportunity. The offense had a few hiccups on our first drive but we showed the resilience we've had all year. After another defensive stop, we drove down, scored, and four more touchdowns later it was half time! Unicorns 38-7. We had two very good drives right before the half was over, scoring twice with less than 2 minutes left. The scores sandwiched a defensive turnover that really gave the momentum to the home team.

One thing that I was very pleased to see was the coming out party of one roommate: Justice Joslin. The Tennessee boy finally had is break out game and ended up with four touchdown receptions on the afternoon. Of course that was to go along with a bunch of catches and yards. (I don't know what they are exactly it seems to take a while to put them up for the GFL... If you want to check out stats go HERE).  Also it was fun to play with our new, but experienced, addition to the squad, Dusty Thornhill. Dusty is the returning Non-European player of the year in the GFL and has returned again to do some work in The Hall.

After having a week off it felt great to finally be back on the field. Some people were actually worried a bit about this game for the fact that three German National Team Unicorns, the Brenner brothers, were absent for the game on saturday. They had to attend a very important wedding of sorts and could not get out of it. (Yes I know some American readers are saying: Whhhattt??). But luckily everyone stepped up as a team and filled those holes. I was very proud of the way some of the backups played in the brother's absence and it just goes to show how deep this team is! For the game recap from the Unicorns go HERE.

Yup, Red Ox


On another note I would like to give a shout out to all of my Theta Chi brothers who were fortunate enough to attend Red Ox this year, which happened to be on Saturday as well. Of course I am crazy jealous and wish I could have attended! The Unicorns celebrated the win in true Theta Chi style so I can't be to disappointed about that!
The Wearhouse at Red Ox in 09'

Monday, May 9, 2011

Frühlingsfest!!

We were speeding down the Autobahn at over 120 miles per hour... No looking back... I was at the wheel nervously thinking about who was coming up behind me... Polezei flying past us!........This was how our weekend ended as we escaped from Stuttgart, alive, returning from our trip to Frülingsfest. Why don't we Tarantino this Ish and figure out how we ended up here.

We headed out, slightly tarde, from The Hall on Saturday with our bags packed and pockets somewhat full. We were traveling to Stuttgart, via the somewhat back road you could call "highway" 14.
Justice was our chauffer for the duration of the trip

Sweet tunnels
Below average picture of Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Outside of Stuttgart
We arrived at our friend and teammate Gabi's house as quickly as we could. He lives in a nice little apartment in a suburb of Stuttgart. We went in his appt. for just a little bit and than we hit the trail, towards the festival! We took a train which, at first, was very empty. As we came closer and closer to the festival that crowd got huge, and the train was packed wall to wall with eager passengers.

Leaving the train, heading to the festival
We finally came out of the tunnel and we saw the massive carnival right in front of us! I would describe
the festival as the biggest fair I've ever been too with a very large emphasis on alcohol, especially beer haha. The massive Ferris Wheel was quite a sight as we walked in!

As we walked in
Got some grub! hehe 
We knew that we were too late to get into a tent at that time of day but we had to see for ourselves what the fuss was all about. We came to the first tent and the line was ginormous! Probably a three hour wait time at the minimum to get in, and that means no drinking beer in line if you finish yours already! haha So we decided instead to just walk around, maybe find a spot to sit and drink and enjoy the gorgeous weather! (it was 75 or hotter!). Here is the first tent:
Beeeerrrr Teennnttt!!
Different view
First beer of the day

Huge Ferris Wheel

Weird rotating bar thingy that people were crammed onto haha
We finally found our seat after roaming most of the festival, which took quite a bit! We found several seats at a round table with an umbrella for shade, with some older ladies who look like they knew what they were doing! We had a great time chillin, drinking of course, chatting with our new friends, and fending off other people that were looking for seating!

Our friends!

The boys

The crew

A round of Jager shots

Some leftovers!
We downed quite a few beers before we had our fill and the day light went away and gave us some night life! Since the tents are almost full at around noon, they actually end up emptying a bit in the later hours of the night. They close at 10 and start having room for anyone around 830 or 9, once the absolutely hammered folks make their way home. Justice and I and our eye on one ride pretty much the whole time we were there. One of those giant swings. So we decided to go on that on the way. After that we went to the tent!!


Great view of the festival at night while we were on the swing

Went pretty fast!


Finally here outside the tent, still packed!

So when a lot of us think of a beer festival and these large tents that us Americans have always heard of, we often times think of a place where beer is consumed in large quantities, from large mugs, by people wearing tradition German garb, yelling and singing and having a great time. Well it was exactly that. Absolutely amazing to see so many people standing on benches and singing together and just drinking and having a great time!

Straight awesomeness

I hopped up on the first spot I could find for a photo op. Some traditional gear.

There was a stage 

Getting after it


Homies

The brew

Yes thats what I like to call a Mosque!


Ladys where still having fun! Probably could out drink us!


Live band on stage

Ordinary tables we were standing on.





Overall a great time! We made our way back on the train and were headed back home the next day! Oh yeah about that speeding.... Ok so maybe we weren't being chased by the police but here is a fact: On the way back I got to drive on the Autobahn, and I drove 195 kph which for those metrically impaired is around 120 mph! It was awesome! And we did get passed by a police car once.

For those thinking about it here is a clip you might enjoy...

Monday, May 2, 2011

Plattling



This past Sunday the Unicorns traveled several hours away from The Hall to Plattling, located in the depths on eastern Bavaria. The nice three to four hour bus ride gave us plenty of time to gather ourselves for the battle (and get a little snooze in). We left around 8:30 in the morning, had a pit stop for some grub on the way, and would arrive somewhere around 12:30 if I remember correctly.

We arrived at the stadium and began our usual pre-game routines at the rather small stadium. Plattling is a smaller team than most as they recently have lost a lot of money I have heard. The Blackhawks suited up somewhere around 25 players for the game!

Stadium, there were about 200 people at the game!

The rest of the field


The game started off on a somewhat positive note for the Unicorns, as we took our first drive down for  a score. A few miscues, but we got it done when it needed to be done! The defense got unlucky on their first drive. On fourth down the Blackhawks lined up to punt and their punter decided to fake it by himself and ended up getting the first down. They would eventually score. (I can hear everyone's boooooos). However, the Unicorns came right back with another nice drive resulting in another....

TOUCHDOWN..... UNICORNS.... BRING IT HOME!!


This is the infamous song that the Unicorns play after every touchdown during home games! It is quite entertaining, and of course I love hearing it because that means we've scored! They came up with the song last year for the team, and we've played it since. I figured it was about time to unveil this song to the Uh-Merican Masses since the game wasn't all that entertaining!

Back to the game! We scored three more times in the second quarter and the game was comfortably in the Unicorn's hands, with a 35-7 lead. Also my day was done! 10-16 2 tds through the air and 73 yds rushing with 2 tds was a nice half! Not much action in the third quarter but the Unicorns would add a field goal and a touchdown in the fourth to cap things off!

Our next game has been rescheduled for later on in the season so our next game will be in two weeks against Munich at home!

UPDATE: A little info about us guarding the Maibaum tree. The tree actually ended up getting cut down the next night!!! We of course could not guard the tree for a second night because of our game the next day so no one else did! Yikes!! hahahahaa