Go Broncos, Baby!

Are you a football fan? I have to admit that football is one of the sports played in the US that I don't quite understand. We don't have that in Germany. I grew up watching and playing soccer. It took me years to learn the rules of Baseball. I only learned  the rules how Baseball works because my son started playing it when he was 9. Man, it is complicated! I learned so many new words. They don't teach you sports-related vocabulary teaching foreign languages in Germany. It took me years and reading many books. I love that sport now. So maybe there is hope for football?

But despite my lack of knowledge when it comes to football, it is hard not to get excited about the local team's (Broncos') success this year making it to the Superbowl. It's so much fun going to the grocery store seeing all the workers dressed up in orange and blue.

So in honor of the team and all the fans, I made a miniature doll in the Broncos' colors to give away on my Facebook Fanpage. If you want to enter you must go to my page and share the photo. That is the only way you will get entered in the drawing on Superbowl Sunday. Please note the Giveaway is not for the jersey. Just the sweet babe.

 I am sure any young aspiring fan will enjoy this little pocket doll in the team colors very much. No matter if they win or lose the game. Even if you are not a fan you may still want to enter, just because you love those colors. Just remember to be a good sport, always!

Of course, I'd love to see the home team win. I will be cheering them on at a friend's house this weekend. Go Broncos, Baby!

Key-ing - An American Sport? Schluesseln - eine Amerikanische Sportart?

The word keying had not been part of my vocabulary at all. I guess my high school English teachers didn't know about it, it never came up in any of the novels I read in college, and when living in England I never heard this term either. It must be a new kind of "sport". Let me explain this to those of you who are complete innocents like me or those of you who are foreign to these parts:
Keying is when somebody takes a key and makes a big fat scratch on the paint of your car.

Das Wort "keying" oder schluesseln in direkter Uebersetzung war mir nicht bekannt bis vor Kurzem. Keying oder "schluesseln" bedeutet, wenn jemand einen Schluessel nimmt und damit einen riesigen Kratzer auf Deinem Auto hinterlaesst...Seufz.


Why am I talking about this? Well, a couple of days ago my son's 7th grade basketball team had a game against another school in a little town about 1 hour's drive from our town. Emotions had been hot, since our team won the last game against this team in a close game during overtime. I guess I did not realize how hot people were, until we visited their gym two weeks later, thisTuesday night. From the get go everything seemed rigged against us. There were strange calls. Refs calling fouls on our kids and a few discussion ensued about the running of the clock. Despite everything our team managed to win.

Warum erzaehle ich davon? Vor zwei Tagen hatte unsere Basketballmannschaft ein Spiel in einer kleinen Stadt ca. eine Stunde Autofahrt entfernt von hier. Die Woche davor hatte unsere Mannschaft diese Mannschaft besiegt, und die Emotionen waren ziemlich hochgefahren. Mir war nicht bewusst, wie hoch, bis zu diesem Revanchespiel am Dienstag. Von Anfang an schien das Spiel zu unseren Ungunsten zu laufen. Da gab es ein paar Fehlentscheidungen der Schiedsrichter und merkwuerdigeUnstimmigkeiten mit der Stoppuhr...Trotzdem gewann unsere Mannschaft das Spiel.

It often boggles the German mind how people get so worked up about youth sports in the US. Not that I don't enjoy cheering for my kids and watching their games. But when I see how out of control parents get here, I fondly remember the days of my youth when I was on a table tennis team in Germany. My parents never went to the matches and could have cared less about the results. They were happy I had some safe place to be and get some exercise. I think my coach was the only person who ever got worked up over our team's losses.

Ich finde es wirklich befremdlich als hier lebende Deutsche, wie sehr sich manche Leute ueber die Spiele von Jugendlichen aufregen. Natuerlich seh' ich gerne zu wenn meine Kinder spielen und gewinnen, aber ich verstehe nicht, wenn Leute so vollkommen ausser Kontrolle geraten. Da bekomme ich direkt nostalgische Erinnerungen an die Zeiten in meinem Tischtennisverein in meiner Jugend. Meine Eltern kamen nie zu den Spielen und interessierten sich kaum dafuer. Die waren nur froh, dass ich ueberhaupt Sport machte und Bewegung hatte. Hier hofft jeder auf die grosse Karriere im Sport und Millionenvertraege, und viele Eltern scheinen ihr Leben durch ihre Kinder zu leben...


I am often taken aback when I see how out of control some parents get when watching their kids play sports. I have seen people yell at their kids, coaches, and taunt other fans and their players. I have seen a mother going after a child after a baseball match giving him "a-talking-to" because he supposedly injured her child. I missed a fistfight in our area that actually made it onto National TV last year...But what took the cake the other night, was that one of the mom's from our team found that her car was vandalized after Tuesday's game. How nuts is that? What kind of person would wonder up to stranger's car and put a big fat scratch all around the vehicle? I am still floored by the ugliness of this particular American past time of random violence against a perfect stranger. I guess one shouldn't put a sticker of one's team on the car because you never know what people might do if they happen to be the losers of a game...

Ich habe schone viele komische Situationen erlebt bei solchen Spielen hier. Da sieht man Eltern ihre Kinder, die Trainer, oder andere Fans anschreien. Ich sah eine Mutter, die so weit ging und hat ein Kind nach einem Baseballspiel verfolgte und auf uebelste Weise anfuhr, weil es angeblich ihr Kind verletzt haette..Aber meine neueste schlimme Erfahrung war diese Schluesselaktion vom Dienstag. Eine Mutter von unserer Mannschaft fand am naechsten Tag einen riesigen Kratzer im Lack rund um ihr ganzes Auto herum. Da fragt man sich ob diese Leute noch alle Tassen im Schrank haben...Eine komische amerikanische Sportart...