WANDERN AND WEEKEND FRISBEE
Morning Greetings
Coming into work in an office in the mornings, naturally people greet each other to start the day. That's normal, and I have no problem with saying good morning to people as I walk by them on my way to my desk or interact with them for the first time in the day. It's a good way to start the day on a good note.
But a good number of people in my office take it a few notches more than they should by going around and shaking hands with every single person in the office. I get that it's a nice gesture, but to me it's a waste of time and motion.
When these colleagues start making their rounds, I know it's coming, so I lose focus on what I'm doing. Not wanting to be a total dick and just ignore them when they come around, I anticipate having to turn away from what I'm doing and shake their hand. It lasts for less than a second, and it appears to be notably forced and sometimes fake. And sometimes the people are holding a consistent conversation with someone else in the room and not even paying attention to me although they're dragging me away from my work and taking my time.
In all seriousness, although it seems like such a small thing to go around and shake hands with your colleagues at the start of a day, it gets on my nerves. Stick to a nice hello just like everyone else, you can't go wrong with it.
Upcoming Travels
As is somewhat clear, I've been making my way around the world quite a lot in the last 16 months. A whole helluva lot. But there are a few things coming up, some of them still quite a ways off, but I'm getting slowly really excited for them.
First off, already coming up next month, I'm flying to Chicago to see my family! My awesome older sister is graduating with her Masters in Music Education, so all of us are converging on the Windy City to celebrate. It'll be my first time back in the US since January, my first time back in Chicago in a notable while, and most importantly, the first time we'll all be back together again (this time plus my brother-in-law) since that whirlwind of a weekend in August between California and Japan! I can't wait to see everyone! It's gonna be another whirlwind coming in Thursday night and leaving back for Germany on Sunday afternoon, but it'll definitely be awesome to see the whole family again!!!
After that, I'll have another month in Germany before my project here comes to an end (sad face…). Almost immediately after I land in Portland in mid July, I'll be packing up Marvin, driving through Seattle to see some friends, then heading up to Vancouver, BC for work for a week. To make this even more fun, I'm debating taking a week off after that to go backpacking somewhere in the Canadian Wilderness, or maybe even renting a bike at Whistler and going riding for a few days.
Sidenote: if anyone would like to join in those kinds of fun, hit me up!
Then in August, as if a quiet life were ever possible for me, I'm headed off to Wisconsin with the family for my cousin's wedding in August! Another good week of family fun time in a state we all know and dearly love. Tentative plans are to fly into Chicago to meet up with Ali, Aaron, and Peewee, then drive up together to Northern Wisconsin for the family fun time. Then on the backside of the weekend, drive back to Chicago with everyone through Green Bay and take a tour of Lambeau. BOOYAHKASHA.
Last but definitely not least, I'll be flying back to Chicago sometime in December. Why, you ask? Because I'm going to be an uncle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All in all, I'm super pumped to finally get my family back involved with my life!!! It's long overdue, but always a welcome change!
Schnapsbrunnen - the Right Way to Wander
As Germany is wont to do every now and then, everything shut down last Thursday for a holiday, namely German Father's day. Thankfully it turned out to be a beautiful day, so I took the opportunity to go on a hike with a few of my frisbee friends here in Karlsruhe. Hiking is one thing, but what we did really made it a special experience.
So here's how I see a normal hike: you drive to a parking lot at some beautiful nature place, hike in a loop on a beautiful trail or hike up a peak to a beautiful view, take some breaks along the way, and have an altogether Neature-ful time.
Here's how a Schnappsbrunnen hike works: you drive to a parking lot, crack a beer, hike a ways to a little stop, take some shots, hike a ways to the next little stop, take some shots, rinse and repeat until you somehow get back to the parking lot. Needless to say, I REALLY wish this kind of hiking was present in the US!
Here it is in more detail. Me and a bunch of frisbee friends (shoutout to Foxi, Sinje, Glö, Antje, Bello, Guzzer, und Django) filled two cars and drove down to Sasbach in the Schwarzwald. Foxi already had a trail selected, so we parked and hit a trail, not necessarily the right trail, but who cares, we already had some beers open so we just started hiking.
Eventually we came to the first Schnappsbrunnen, aka Liquor Fountain (direct translation). What the hell is a Schnappsbrunnen, you ask? It's just a little hut, but a little hut filled with Schnapps. In this rural area and others like it, farmers/people that live there make their own Schnapps. Rather than just having some of it sit around, they put it out there for hikers and passersby to enjoy. You put 50 cents or a euro into a pot, then serve yourself a homemade shot of whatever's on the table.
That was the plan for the whole hike. Hike a little bit, then stop and take a break to try the next variety of Schnapps. I gotta say, it was awesome. We had an awesome time along the way enjoying the beautiful scenery of the northern Schwarzwald (really an absolutely gorgeous area), talking about a whole slew of topics and random bullshittery, watched Bello fall into a hole between boulders, and had some really quite decent Schnapps to boot.
At around the fourth or fifth one, there was a nice little crowd hanging out, so we took a longer break than usual and just laid around in the sunlight for a bit. They had a nice basin of Schnapps options, so that kept the fun going too. I'd have to say my favorite sample was the Walnut Schnapps at our last stop. At the outset, it smelt exactly like vanilla extract (which I had to explain to my German friends, because vanilla extract doesn't exist in Germany, rather they use vanilla salt). It went down pretty smooth, then about 4 seconds after it's all the way down, this sudden smack in the mouth of a walnut flavor hits you. It was quite delicious.
As I said, I really wish something like this was possible in the US. The potential to go on a leisurely hike in a beautiful area (doable, no doubt), take a break and enjoy some liquor cabinets just sitting around at people's houses (no way), on the honor system (HAH, fat chance), and do it all responsibly while having a helluva time (that's 50/50). It'd be such a hoot being able to do something similar on the Paradise trail at Mount Rainier, or through the Hocking Hills in Ohio, or along some other beautiful place in the US. But alas, it appears that this awesome tradition and free time activity will be something I'll just have to keep coming back to Germany to enjoy.
Lastly, shoutout to this inquisitive Llama.
Frisbee Weekend in Kaiserslautern
I worked from home that following day, then towards the end of it, once I couldn't stand sitting inside on such a beautiful day, I packed up the car, picked up a few frisbee friends, then drove to Kaiserslautern for a fun tournament weekend - Hechten 2016.
It was a bit of a different tournament than I was used to, but ended up being a good mixture. There were two fields of 5 on 5, then one sand field for 4 on 4, which every team got a good mix of both to spread the love. Friday night we hung around a good bit, then Saturday the games started. Saturday, all of our games were pretty much cake walks. The level of play was a bit lower than I was used to, but we had a helluva good time playing in the beautiful weather.
Despite the kinda lame DJ at the party Saturday night, we got our groove on enough to be ready to go for some tight games on Sunday. We started off against Disconnection from Freiburg in the sand, and we came out to an early lead. They kept it tight and put on a good fight at the end, but we pulled out the win 15-13.
Next up came Mierda Wehrda. They were a very well-stocked team and put out a helluva game. We got a break to start the game (aka we started on Defense but we scored the first point), but then traded from then on out. Then right when the time cap hit, we got two breaks to seal the win, 12-10.
That all set the stage for a rematch in the finals against Disconnection. As we saw earlier, they are a really good team, and extremely well spirited aka a fun and grueling team to play against. We jumped out to another early lead. They kept it hella close. There were a few really long and well fought points, and we were definitely nervous towards the end. But all in all, we came out with the win, turning up as Hechten 2016 Champs.
On the topic of Disconnection, I think they were one of the best overall teams I've played against. To start, their players were really friggin good. They knew how to play, had the throws, could move really well on the field, and showed they knew what was up. But what really sets them apart is how chill they were. All their players were super laid back and extremely well spirited. This is what really distinguishes a fun opponent. After pretty much every point, high fives were shared across team lines and the sportsmanship was extremely high, for both of our games against them. It was a helluva day playing them, they made us fight for every point and each game could have easily gone the other way, but they definitely were an awesome highlight of the weekend.
As a tournament prize, we got a bottle of champagne covered in Ferrero Rocher, which was enjoyed oh so lovingly at practice the following day.
Fucking Hamstrings (hinterer Oberschenkelmuskel - rear upper thigh muscle)
Speaking of practice the following day, I got there late because of work but overall had a normal warmup and workout with the team. Then, when we were getting into the scrimmage at the end of practice, my right leg decided to be a little bitch.
I was running down on a pull to set up on D, and about halfway down the field I felt a sting in my right hamstring. I knew immediately I had no chance of finishing practice. I limped off the field and started to try and roll it out and stretch it. After a while I tried it out and no-go.
Fuck I hate being injured. I'm not sure how serious this one is, but I've been RICE-ing it as much as I can at home and have had an Ace Bandage on it at work. But fucking not being able to play sucks. The shitty thing is this wasn't from a certain move, it just literally came out of nowhere. I'm not sure if I didn't warm it up enough, or if it was a culmination from the tournament during the weekend, or if it's just weak, or if it's compensating for other weak muscles, or what it could be. It sucks.
I'm hoping I'm going to be good enough to go for this weekend. I'm gonna try it out, and maybe since it's a beach tournament I'll have a little bit better chance at making it work, but either way, being injured blows. I need new hamstrings, so if anyone's got a hookup with some new ones, let me know.
Sports Update
As many of you know, I lost a dear companion of mine during my trip to the Philippines. But last week I went and found a replacement. I had to ask around, but found out that the outdoors store here in Karlsruhe does actually sell Nalgenes, so I went and got myself a new one. I was hoping for a better selection of colors, but ended up going with another red with black cap. The start of a new era begins…
But on that note, I've also got new eras starting with some other things in my sports life. I got some new compression shorts, and am looking forward to that new start. After the tournament I tried to reset my mouthguard, but boiled it to hell, so I've got a new mouthguard on the way that I'll be starting a new journey with. And I’m debating going to a store in the next two days to get some new boardshorts to replace the ones I've been wearing since early high school. Yay for new starts!!!
Up Next
This weekend I'm off to another tournament, another beach tournament. A night drive through France will be taking me to just outside of Nantes to Yes but Nau. I'll be playing with some Karlsruhe friends and a few new people (new to me) from around Germany as Quam. Don't ask me what it means, just that that's who I'll be playing with.
Another night-ish drive coming back on Monday, then on Tuesday I'll presenting a work project to my boss back in Portland, and seeing what kind of Global buy-in we can accomplish. We'll see how it goes, but hopefully it takes off!
After that, I'll have to figure out something to do on Wednesday, it's supposedly going to be an important day. But then after that, I don't have any big plans coming up for the next little while until the Mixed Qualification Tournament a few weeks from now. Here's hoping I'll be set and ready to play in it!!!
Original Publish Date: May 10th, 2016