Ah my heart is a little bit broken. Why you ask?

Well, because last night was the World Cup Soccer match between Germany and Spain. Germany lost 0-1. It was a good game, but not good enough. So, despite all of the preparations and my getting together with friends, Germany just didn’t have enough to take the match home.

On Saturday, we’ll play for Third. Here’s hoping we can make 3rd place. To quote Germans here – Better to win for Third (you go out on a win) than play for First and wind up Second (to leave on a loss). I suppose that’s one way of looking at it.

Personally, I had a great time last night. I got together with several friends from my intensive German classes – Katlyn, Yanli, Jaer, Kai, Mohammad, Julian and Heiko. I provided the face paint (in German colors) and a couple noise makers, and they provided the group energy (as well as a couple beers) – and we all wound up near the school in a bar district, sitting at an outdoor cafe in the square – surrounded by 5 other cafes/ restaurants.

That’s when the magic that is a national sport finale happened. For a moment, the world seemed to stop – and everyone was watching the game, holding their breath. I can’t describe the feeling – but it was intense – every cafe, bar, and restaurant in the area were packed – with tv’s both inside and outside – and standing room only. The speakers from all of these were providing stereo sound that boomed around the square and off of the apartments around us. As the game went on – you could tell how it was going by the ooohs, ouches, doh’s, and cheers coming from the crowd. There were also plenty of whistles, vuvuzelas, and horns to make noise too.

Below are some of the pictures of the night (or you can click here) – including my brief pop over to the fan mile that Fifa sponsored here (I went over there after class to snap a few photos).