Life: Idiotropic

For those of you that don’t know… Germany is hosting the World Cup Soccer competition this year. A couple months ago decorations started going up on homes all over the area. On the German side decorations consist of a German flag hanging from the house and may be a little banner in the window, but the Dutch side is fully decked out with orange streamers and flags all over the place. Dutch flags are common, but the team color is orange, so along with the Dutch flag of red, white, and blue, houses have orange ballons and banners saying “Hup Holland” and little triangular flags hanging from strings running from tree to tree and from house to lawn just as we’d hang tree lights at Christmas time. In the square in Sittard, the restaurant “Suikerpot” has skillfully changed it’s name with a large orange banner saying “Soccerpot.” The Dutch are sadly out of the tournament now, but they definitely have spirit.

There is no American football, baseball, or basketball, so imagine all the enthusiasm and fan base that we have for those sports in the US culminating here into one sport – and that is soccer. So, the World Cup is like the Superbowl and the World Series combined. It’s HUGE – all over the world. So, being here in Germany while they host the games is kind of fun. Soccer memorabilia has been huge in stores. All storefronts from opthamologists to shoe stores to bookstores all have soccer balls in their display windows and now, during the games, people are displaying their enthusiasm.

Yesterday Germany played Argentina. I didn’t think much of it because we don’t have tv here, but later I’d realized that during that 3 hour period of time there was almost no one at the grocery store and the traffic going by our house was almost none. Then, the game ended… and the traffic started, and so did the honking, singing, and flag waving. Our quiet house was all of the sudden filled with noise – from the outside until well after 11pm. Car after car passed by honking all through the town. Kirk ran up to check the internet and saw that the game had just ended and Germany beat Argentina in a very close game. We watched out the open windows to see cars clad with multiple German flags passing by, fans inside with painted faces, soccer ball hats, and soccer shirts yelling and waving. A boy rode back and forth through the village on his bicycle waving a large flag and pedestrians did the same, proud of those flags and their team. I hope that Germany continues to do well. It’s fun to see the people celebrate.

It’s especially nice to see that people support all of the teams. During the Olmpics, the television coverage was of all the games and all the teams – not just those of Germany. And now, likewise, the enthusiasm and coverage is for all the teams – for the sport itself more than nationalistic pride. Not that they aren’t happy to win. The honking proves that – but it is a different slant than we typically have in the states. We’ve seen flags from other top soccer teams flying here and jerseys from other teams sold in German stores. We won’t get to any games (though I regret now not getting tickets), but they are played in eight cities here, so there are games reasonably close to anyone in Germany.

The odd thing is that the borders are being watched on the Dutch side. Apparently there were some problems with Dutch “fans” the last time Germany hosted the World Cup, so the German and Dutch governments agreed to work together to guard those borders. For the first time in 12 years, people can be stopped crossing the border and have their passports checked. I had to look for mine. We never use them here, but now, to be safe from high fines, we carry them along. Thankfully, not every border crossing is patrolled at all times, so I have been able to take alternate routes home from Tiara’s ballet class the couple times I’d forgotten my passport.