What a great start!

First, Argentina won.

Fans in Argentina (the Roqueiro Family)

Fans in the U.S.A. (my nephew)

Fans in Germany

Then, Germany won.

We went to an outdoor viewing party of the Germany vs. Portugal game.

Here is a video after the fourth goal.

Then, the U.S. won.

Okay, so I don't have any pictures from the celebrations of the U.S. winning because it was 2:00am local time and I was tired from the third night in a row staying up to watch the late games. But, I was in shock and super excited for the victory against Ghana.

Go U.S.A.!!!!!!!!!!!

Some more "World Cup Fever" evidence in Germany...

There is an entire newspaper devoted to the World Cup:

The "brackets" section.

What Germany thinks the final will look like.
Obama and Klinsmann (the U.S. coach who is
German) are in there. 

These are the German team cards we have collected from the grocery store. We're only missing 4!

The plants are even painted German colors!

Venice

Last week, Germany had a public holiday so Damián and I took advantage of the time and hopped on a cheap flight to Venice. We wanted to make one last vacation before the little one arrives, a "baby moon." We spent a few days on Venice and then went to Lido, a beach resort island 10 minutes from Venice.

Upon arrival in Venice, we took a water bus down The Grand Canal...

We then went off exploring all the picturesque canals and bridges.

Our first Italian meal, paying tribute to
my grammar school alma mater, St. Barnabas

Doge's (Duke's) Palace

Damián and The Clock Tower in St. Mark's Square. 

A Venetian "bus" stop

On our second day in Venice, we took one of the "waterbuses" to neighboring islands of Murano and Burano.

Murano is known for their glass factories.
While there, we saw some men at work.

He is making pieces for a glass chandelier.

He is making a glass horse.

Within minutes he finished the horse.

A Venetian hearse. This boat is carrying the coffin during a funeral procession

Me and a glass sculpture

Damián and a glass sculpture

Burano is known for their linen and colorfully painted homes. It reminded us of La Boca in Buenos Aires.

Check out the leaning tower.
Many of the buildings on the islands,
including Venice, were leaning..

We were lucky to get tickets to an opera, Madame Butterfly, at Teatro La Fenice.

On our third day, all of the waterbuses were on strike so we explored Venice on foot, getting lost in the small streets, canals, and bridges.

The Rialto Bridge

Damián is preparing to become a gondolier.

Because there are only so many days that I could take of walking, we went to Lido to spend two days on the beach.

What is more shocking in this picture, my belly or my blindingly white legs?

Contemplating a plunge in the cold water...
I didn't make it then, but I did on the second day.

Damián's shell creation

We had a fabulous trip! Now it's time to focus on the baby (and the World Cup)!

World Cup Fever

With less than a two weeks to go, World Cup fever has taken over Germany.
From the grocery stores that give away free German player collector cards (that you can store in the 19.99 euro album), to the bookstore stands and window displays devoted to everything soccer, to the propaganda on Coke bottles and M&Ms, the World Cup can't be avoided.

In every free space of the grocery stores, there are World Cup specific marketing stands.

Discover Brazil albums, kids activity books, etc.
I don't understand the panda bears.

Haribo candy stand

Kinder chocolate stand

My Babybel cheese comes with a soccer shoe, stickers, and instructions on how to play finger soccer. I can pick which country I will represent too. Unfortunately, the U.S. is not an option so I had to go with Argentina.

M&Ms in German colors

Even the library!

I received an email a few weeks ago from the administrators at my school. They rescheduled one of our Spring music concerts because it happened to be the night of the opening game. Mind you, the opening game is a match between Brazil and Croatia (not Germany) and it doesn't occur until 10pm local time. It apparently takes several hours for people to prepare for the opening game.

With the U.S.'s meager chances of making it out of the group stage, the little I could do is support them from Germany (For those not following soccer, the U.S. and Germany are in the same group this year! They play each other on Thursday, June 23.) Unfortunately, my U.S.A. women's soccer jersey doesn't fit very well these days. It will get worse as June 23 approaches, unless the little one decides to come early. However, Damian is "coaching" the little one, trying to convince it to arrive 10 days after the due date (July 14th) so his World Cup viewing is uninterrupted. :)

Wearing my U.S. women's soccer jersey.
Note how I'm bigger than the official World Cup size 5 soccer ball.

I'm sure there will be future World Cup posts...
Go U.S.A. (and Argentina and Germany)!

I voted...

On Sunday, Germany held their local elections and European Union elections.  As a European citizen, I was able to vote (poor Damian was excluded)!

Fortunately, the Germans send you ballots via mail. With the assistance of Google Translate's ability to translate text from photographs, I was able to understand the lengthy instructions with little pain. However, researching the hundreds of candidates was another story.

At my polling place (behind our apartment)

The magic...

Surprisingly hard to find...

Over the past 7 months, I have come to realize that there are some foods that are really surprisingly hard to find. Here is a list of the ones that come to mind:

Chocolate chips. Yes, the ones used to make chocolate chip cookies! At a large grocery store that carries some "Ausländer Spezialitäten" (foreigner specialties), I was able to find a box of chocolate chunks. They aren't semisweet chocolate pieces, but more like chunks of a milk chocolate bar.

Tortilla chips. They label Dorito-like chips as tortilla chips.

Salsa. This is more like ketchup than salsa

Bagels.  With their hundreds of varieties of breads, a girl can't find a bagel! I did find packaged bagels at the store mentioned above, however they were stale and tasteless.

Gatorade. Because it contains (or used to contain, apparently last year they stated they were removing the ingredient) BVO, brominated vegetable oil. (For more on BVO, click here.) You also can't find the other drinks with BVO like Mountain Dew, Squirt, Fresca, etc.

Cheddar cheese. 

Some chemicals in the foods.  There are lots of banned chemicals besides the BVO from gatorade. Here are two articles about the chemicals that Europe bans.
Article #1, click here.
Article #2, click here.

This information is not convincing Damian that we should return to the States anytime soon!

Strasbourg, France

Tübingen is just a two-hour drive to Strasbourg, France, a gorgeous town with a blend of French culture, cuisine, art and German architecture. It is a great French romantic getaway.

I don't have many pictures from the city, unfortunately, but I found some great pictures from Wikipedia to give you an idea of the city...

Source: Wikipedia

Source: Wikipedia

Source: Wikipedia