Matches of the Century...

No, I haven't disappeared, I just haven't felt like writing anything up in the past week... maybe its depression over the football loss, who knows... but I do have updates and what not now... In case you haven't noticed I've added a map up above the posts and I'll be marking off my routes and things as I head through Europe. I've also finally got around to picking up a bike and made the 6 mile trek home on the hottest day Hamburg has had since i've been here (this is inevitable for me, I always bike on the hottest of days)... and I only got mildly lost, so by this time next week i should be a biking fiend and actually know how to get back and forth from home... This weekend I'm meeting up with Chansonette (one of my GSPIA friends) in Strasbourg, France, followed by Luxembourg... So thats what you get to look forward to next week... and now onto last weekend...
Last Saturday
Besides the football match, one of the main reasons i opted to stay in Hamburg this weekend was for the Jazz festival... 2 days of jazz music accompanied by bier and wurst stands in the middle of the botanical gardens (actually its called Plant und Blumen)... Upon waking up Saturday ready to go... rain... rain... more rain... and a touch of rain... even my plan for exploring before the show was offset by the weather... so 5 hours after i originally intended on getting out of the apartment, I finally went down the concert, and the first band was well... awful... it would be what would happen if i were to pick up a sax... except maybe i'd at least be able to hammer out mary had a little lamb... this was just random toots... I proceeded to find a place where i didn't have to listen to the "music", but close enough to tell when the band changed.
After a while I found a nice seat in the back, made friends with some locals, who proceeded to ask me about my interest in Terry Pratchett (I was reading in between sets)... and then finally met up with my people around 8ish... Tomoko came out along with Lucio (portugal 2-- Riu, portugal 1 has sadly gone back to portugal, along with Javier-- columbia-- who went home for 2 months... i have to make new friends... again)... but that isn't hard as Lucio brought a bunch of people he had met in a lecture... There was an Argentinian, who kept making fun of my Americanness and lack of geographical knowledge (though i still say i know more than most people... i just don't do latin american cities very well), a couple of swedes, a girl from portugal, and a guy mike, from NOVA... (northern virginia for those that don't know... and he even went to UVA...) The rest of the night was spent listening to soft jazz... mostly soft jazz covers of disco music, and a rather corney and off key

Germany v. Spain
So, Sunday was the big game... what we've all been waiting for, the big match-up between Spain and Germany. Excitement filled the air, I even headed down to the Fischmarkt again to pick up a Deutchland scarf... Then headed off to a little Spanish restaurant in the Portuguese district... To my frustration, I was the only person in our group routing for Germany... which in some ways made the great loss even more disappointing, but in other ways meant that i got pictures of all my people being happy... which is better than a lot of sulking football fans...



Robin v. Washer machine
So no matter what i do, i don't seem to be able to get my washer machine to fill up with water... Now i've been here for 3 weeks, clearly i've washed my clothes during this time... by hand.... I can get the machine to spin... and drain the non existant water... I can get it to lock and refuse to open for multiple hours at a time.... But I've begun to outsmart the machine... I hand wash things, then spin them to get rid of any extra water. My land lady is just as baffled as I am about the whole thing and just keeps turning dials... And then she finally offered to wash some of my clothes... Now despite my overwhelming dislike of other people touching my laundry, this was too good an opportunity to give up (i mean, one reason i picked the place was for the washer... and no, there are no laundry mats in my area)... and so this is one battle i've won... though the war rages on

*UPDATE* I wrote that bit up there a couple of days ago... last night the war came to a fabulous conclusion. My land lady called up the last tenant to see if she knew how to work the washer... turns out, she had turned off the water when she left... and so... I'm washing clothes like a mad women and enjoying (using the term loosely here) every minute of it.