World Cup 2010 - Rock the German brewhouse!

Another match for the German team was on schedule and of course we had to support them! We all knew of the existence of a German 'Brauhaus' in Philly, even though not many of us have ever been there. But for us this an option to check it out while watching the soccer game. During the week, we heard that a lot of Germans who live in and around Philly are going to be there for the game. So I got up at 6 in the morning that Sunday, as I was in Chestertown again and the game started about 9.30 in the morning our time. We met the other interns about 1 hour before the brewhouse opened and we were not even the first in line! There were already a lot of people who had the same idea.

Even though we were about 20 people we got a great table in front of a huge TV screen and some interns started the day with a white sausage breakfast. I have to admit that somehow even the beer tasted very well that morning. I was in heaven when I found out that they even served Kölsch, the beer from my area!!!

While the German team was continuing their successful performance and scored 4 times, a real party got started and with each additional goal, the atmosphere turned more and more into hysteria. I think the images tell more than 1000 words!

Be part of our soccer party and watch the images here:

http://gerryg.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album51

Summer activities...

This weekend was a weekend at home which doesn't mean that I stayed in the house all day. One of my co-workers just got married 4 weeks ago in Italy. As she only had her closest family with her in Italy, they decided to have a garden party at home with all co-workers and friends here in the US. Mona and I offered our help that she could really enjoy the party and didn't need to worry about all the little things that happen when you are the host. It was a sunny summer day and we all had a wonderful time.

Since a long time, I wanted to take a bike and riding the Schuylkill River trail. My landlords Betty and Bill had offered me to use the bikes several times before. As we had this beautiful weather going on, my roomie Svenja and I decided to take action and try it out. Unfortunately, to reach the trail, we had to drive on the street first which is really frightening with the Americans driving in their cars. They are not used to have cyclists around, so this was quite an experience, I can tell you. To finally reach the trail, we had to cross the Schuylkill river on a very narrow bridge.

Svenja and I were scared to death when we crossed it as the ground of the bridge was made of wooden blankets which didn’t look very promising…but we made it. Once we reached the trail were riding our bikes, it felt so good! The trail has a lot of green surroundings and sometimes it looked so familiar to home that we thought we are back in Germany.

The trail is going all the way to Philadelphia but we turned around after a while as it was too late to go all the way to Philly and back.

Mona and Tim live on our way back home, so we stopped by and stayed for BBQ. There is no better ending for a weekend like this as sitting together with some really great friends and enjoy your BBQ!

Here are more pictures from our adventure:

http://gerryg.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album48

Soccer World Cup 2010: Bring it on!

The last weekends, I spent my days in Washington with Tyra hanging out with her at her pool and went to a Mexican Party with Ryan. The other weekend was also beachtime but this time in Chestertown, MD. But the most important event was the soccer game of the German national team on Sunday. We played our first game against Australia. Believe me, if we wouldn’t have so many Germans around and having our bets going on, we would have probably missed it. There are almost no commercials about it, they don’t play the soccer songs in the radio, not even the official song. In addition, the entire excitement and atmosphere about it is missing, as this just not so popular here. But among the interns, we were enough people who wanted to watch the games and get a little bit of that feeling. We were able to rent a clubhouse for that afternoon and could watch it on the projector. Everyone tried to show up with a German jersey or at least a German flag or some threads in our colors. So at least we got a taste of the great soccer world cup feeling. And having the German team winning made it even better!