An interview:
Q: Hey Rob, how are things?
A: Eh... I am doing alright, except that I rolled my ankle Saturday night stepping off of a curb... Feel pretty lame about that.
Q: Oh, bummer.
A: Yeah, we went to a Greek party with our Club President. We had fun, but I am guessing that that was the last Greek party that I will attend for some time. I have a feeling that I am going to get stared at like I have antlers protruding from my skull the next time I see any local Greeks. Although I did win a 25 euro gift certificate to a restaurant in Offenburg (30km south of Buhl)!
Q: So not all was lost?
A: Well, we lost our match against a group of young kids (Freidrichafen Young Volleystars - avg. Age 18, junior national team players) 3-0. The scores were 23-25, 23-25, 26-28 and we had two starters who didn't play due to illness and a wrist injury, respectively. So it wasn't the greatest weekend ever.
Q: Well... At least you have got your health.
A: Yep... The ankle isn't great, but it should heal up soon. Yep... At least I've got my health.
Q: So any plans for Halloween?
A: Actually, a few bands from Buhl will be playing at a local venue on Tuesday night. I have been invited to play a song or two at the show. The only problem is that all of the bands that are playing are either Hard Rock or Punk. I am not sure if Rob's alt. rock/cheezy love songs about girls is gonna be the most perfect fit... But hey, why not? For some reason I keep envisioning that scene of "Animal House" when the guy is singing Kumbayah and Bluto (John Belushi) comes up, snatches the guitar, smashes it from wall to wall until it is destroyed and then hands it back to him.
Q: Although that would be a pretty kick-ass thing to occur at a local concert.
A: Yeah, that would definitely be a Rock 'n Roll moment. I would probably cry if my Taylor died, but its all about entertaining the audience. But, first I gotta land the gig... Then we can worry about guitar smashing and the pyrotechnics show.

Quick Volley Update, Round Two

Hey fans,

TV Buhl is now officially on a winning streak!

I have no pertinent photos from the match... so instead I will show you a picture of our Russian outside hitter Eduard. He played for the German Junior National Team for three years and in the first division for two years before he came to Buhl last season. He is working on his business degree, likes hip hop music, and stated that his top 3 hobbies are: girls, girls, and girls. Ladies, If you happen to be looking for a single, 23 year old skinny guy with a huge jump serve and an arm like a cannon... this is your man!

We won a very hard faught match this past Saturday against a club called Sonnenberg. They had 3 players over two meters (6'6") tall, including a 7' Opposite. This team was huge and talented and we managed to squeak out a gritty 5 set victory at home in front of 350-400 fans. It was awesome. After grabbing an early lead in the first set, we allowed them back in the game by missing 7 serves in the next 10 rotations, and 9 in the set, total. The final score was 20-25 and we were pretty frustrated going into the second set. To start the second set, we continued handing away points, but then we began to side out consistently. Vladimir was having some trouble passing, and we were having difficulty scoring transition points, but all of a sudden when we were down 15-20, our block became disciplined and I started to get some digs. I managed to get a dig on 3 consective plays that we converted for points, and we got two more blocks to tie the game at twenty. After that, we exchanged side outs until 23-23, when we managed to get two more block points to win the set. We were back in the match and the crowd was pumped.

The third set was marred by inconsistent play. We were siding out consistently, but once again got trapped in one serve receive rotation. Every match we have lost at least one set because we have been stuck in one rotation for4-6 points... it is becoming a problem. So, after that emotional second set, we basically gave away the third set 18-25. The forth set also began slowly and again we had to come from behind. We were down 12-17 and we were kind of moping around until all of a sudden we started to get hot and block again. After scoring two ugly points in a row on a block and a blown call by the ref, Sonnengerger took a time out. I proceeded to give a speech to the team about how we would be able to win this match only by willing it. We weren't doing anything well, but if we were willing to scrap for points, play defense and just stay disciplined, we could manufacture enough points, we could catch up to them. We did exactly that and managed to tie the match at 20-20 on a HUGE block by Mr. Sean Kendel. In fact the block was so huge that he decided to wipe the sweat mark off of the ground where the ball landed, one foot past the net on their side. Perhaps it was when he began to act like he was signing the spot that the ref took offense and gave him a yellow card. Unfortunately, this gave Sonnenberg the serve and a point. Fortunately, the crowd, which was slowly getting back into the match began whistling, booing, and screaming and was yelling so loudly that when the other team served and Hannes set Kendel, the ball that Sean hit almost a foot out of bounds was called in. Admittedly, it was one of the hardest and sharpest hit balls that I have seen in a match. He went over the middleblocker and inside the 10 footline crosscourt. But, when we were given that call, we knew that the set was ours, and we managed to block our way to a 25:23 victory.

the final set was close, but we grabbed control at 8-7, were first to score 10 points, and put the match away, 15-12.


---------------

In other news, we managed to win a Regional Championship in the Pokal Tournament this weekend. We beat our local rivals Dumersheim 3-1 in the Regional finals. This is the first time Buhl has defeated Dumersheim in an official match in something like 5 years. Georgios, the club president as agreed to take all us foreign boys out to dinner at his favorite Greek Resturaunt in the next week or so.

Literally, I will be eating the greatest Calamari in the world very soon... no big deal!

Tales from Wiesbaden

Last weekend, we traveled to the Hessian Capital, Wiesbaden to play against their highly respected men’s team. We managed to play very consistently and beat them 3-1 in an exciting away match. The core of the TV Bühl fans, which totaled 30 in number supported us loudly and made our away match feel like a home match, once again!

What made this victory extra special was that Dante, our new Opposite, had unsuccessfully tried out for the team two weeks ago. He had been sent directly from them to us and managed to get nine kills, get 3 blocks and serve 2 aces after being subbed into the match. Also, after the match we were able to go out with the setter from their team, Alex. Alex went on the Bring It USA tour that Dante played on (the same tour I went on two years ago). Joining Dante and me were Matty and Lucas (Matty’s friend visiting us from British Colombia).

This photo is of us (from left) Dante, Lucas's hat, me, and Matty at a small resturaunt, where we ate after the match. That night we went to the “American Sports Bar” in downtown Wiesbaden. We were able to watch American football. This was the first football I have watched in two years. Alex Smith is getting better! Perhaps this year the 49ers can win 1/3 as many games as they lose! And although Randy Moss has no idea “What the hell $10,000” is, the Raiders really suck… oh well.

So, we were at this sports bar, and we realized that the crowd was incredibly diverse. In fact, it was the first time that I have ever gone into a place in Germany where white people were in the minority. The bar was packed and the music was good and we were all having a great time and I struck up a conversation with a young guy that was sitting at the adjacent table. He told me that he was originally from Cameroon, but he had been a student in Germany in Mainz for the last few years. I asked him what brought him out to Wiesbaden. He looked me in the eye and said, “well, to be honest, none of the clubs in Mainz allow black people in so we have to come here or one other place in Wiesbaden”. I was shocked and gaped at him speechless for a long 10 seconds. “How far away is Mainz?” "15 or 20 kilometers”, he answered. We continued our conversation about being a student living abroad for a few minutes before he decided to go hit up the dance floor. He was very frank about the issue and seemed amused by my flabbergasted response.

I guess what really hit me about the situation was that most of the native German people I have met have been SUPER politically correct. They really tiptoe around issues of race, typically avoiding the topic entirely (especially when it comes to questions about Nazism and military history). There are a individuals that I have met who do harbor some issues, but these days frustration is primarily focused on the immigrant Turkish population who are blamed for not fully ingratiating into German culture. This is perhaps replacement of the Black African or Jewish minorities with a fresh scapegoat, but I guess in my rather banal village life here, we are protected from the big city issues. Furthermore, none of the establishments in our area to my knowledge are so well off that they would refuse service to anyone – let alone systematically exclude patrons. But again, I am pretty ignorant on this topic.

Interestingly, Dante took this photograph in a music store while he was hanging out in Wiesbaden. I doubt that this is much more then a coincidence, but I am pretty sure that this section would not fly in the US and especially not in the Bay Area.

Volleyball Update 1

Greetings volleyball fans!

Well, things are starting to look up here in Bühl! Our record is now 2-2 and our last match was very successful!

Last weekend, we played a four set match against Freiburg at home. I was fighting a pretty nasty cold and had a fever on Wednesday and Thursday night, but felt okay at training on Friday. However, on Saturday, I took some cold medicine and the first set was easily the worst set of volleyball that I have ever played. We were playing reasonably well and the match was tied at 12-12, and then they went on a serving run. Pretty much the scenario was, serve a jump floater at me or Edu, we would pass a ball low and off the net, Hannes would set a ball outside, we would hit it out of bounds. I was actually removed from serve receive for two points. This was the first time in my volleyball career that I have ever been pulled from passing. We lost the first set very badly 25-16. But, I noticed that I was doing some things technically poorly and decided to be patient, keep my confidence and slowly fix my technical issues as I played myself into the match. I was passing jump serves perfectly, but for some reason, I was having problems moving my feet to get behind the ball and pass float serves.

By the second set, Freiburg changedtheirr serving strategy so only one guy was spin serving. I was able to move further back so I could receive the ball and improve in the second set, and by the 3rd set I was nails. Fortunately for us, after an awfull first set, my teammates began to fight back and we caught fire in the second set. We won sets 2, 3, and 4 convincingly (25-20, 25-18, 25-22). Sean Kendal put on a hitting clinic in set two (7 kills on 8 attempts), we welcomed my roommate Matty Bajkov to the starting line-up, and our newest addition Dante Di Ponio ably subbed in and played well. We are .500!

After the match we had a bunch of friends come to our apartment. There were fifteen people jammed in our common room and on the balcony. I brought out the guitar and started singing a song that I recently wrote about how my roommate Matty has no game and how all the ladies just want to hold his hand and share "Best Friends Forever" necklaces with him. It was decided shortly after that we should leave our apartment and go to our friend Bernard's place. He has a large apartment with two great features: 1. a full bar 2. no enraged neighbors.

I sat in Bernard's living room and hung back playing requests as the others attacked his in-room minibar. Later that night, Mattydisappearedd. We decided to go back to the apartment in hopes that he was there. He wasn't. Just as we were about to send out a search party, he showed up at the front door with no shoes, covered in mud from sock to knee. He walked in and I asked, "Matty, where are your shoes?" He replied... "I don't know...Butt for some reason I have a bunch of dirt in my pockets!" To be perfectly honest, we may never find out were his shoes were left. We will never know exactly what Family Circus-esqu route he took to come back to the apartment. But we will always have the video footage that I took when I was interviewing him about his adventure that night. Thank God for Camcorders!

Canadian Thanksgiving

So October 9th, for all of you who didn't know, was Thanksgiving in Canada!

Our newest teammate and the most recent "guy on couch" at our apartment (aka. the Youth Hostel -- 8 euro/night for sleepover, 12 with breakfast) Dante, decided to make an epic meal to celebrate it. He is an Italian/Canadian dual citizen and has been teaching high school English for the past two years, for the people counting at home. Fortunately for him, he was the guy on the couch for only a few days and now lives in a hotel room above Johannesplatz (the main central plaza of Buhl).

So yeah, he arrived at 10:45am. He was the second person to ring the buzzer, which chronically woke me up Monday morning. The first was our neighbor. He buzzed us so I could go downstairs and pick up my roommate Matty's boxes of items purchased from my new favorite website "www.steepandcheap.com". [he got a cool pair of sunglasses and acidentally ordered 2 Jansport 5200 cubic cm internal frame backpacks - long story]

Anyhoo, I answer the door and in he walks with three MASSIVE bags of groceries from our neighborhood grocery store, the Handelshaf (which we affectionately call the Hasselhoff). He had thought that he had purchased the largest duck that they sold. It turns out, however that our 5.8 kilo "hans" was actually a goose. You see, turkeys are hard to come by in this region so we improvised. Now it is important to mention that none of us have ever cooked any large bird before, especially since most of us are the family jocks who often initiated the family football game (or frizbee game in the case of the California Reaughs), and none of us had prepared any meal on this scale before. Dante created a tomato and vinegar-based sauce from scratch, which he poured over egg pasta, made a huge green salad, garlic mashed potatoes, secured several loaves of French bread and purchased 2, count em 2, apfel struedels for us to eat for desert. To top it off he bought a bottle of his favorite Italian wine Rustico. IT WAS DEEEEERISCIOUS!!!!

The meal was almost a total success, with one exception. The gravy.

I will now give you some gravy facts:
1. My Mom makes the best Gravy I have ever tasted, hands down. In fact, scholars believe that my Mother's gravy provides an even stronger bond then the one made by friends who drop Jelly Bellies during Peer Gynt and plays a key role in our continued invitations to spend Thanksgiving with the Cornets.
2. For those of you who don't know, Gravy is hard to make if you lack a few key tools including:
a sieve
a whisk
a good saucepan
foresight.
3. If you fail to make the lumps become gooey fatty goodness, they can end up looking like either "brains in a bowl" or like something else you would have to eat on "Fear Factor".
4. Ten euros is not enough money to convince our German Roommate Korwin to eat "brains in a bowl".

I hope that all of my friends who live north of the contiguous 48 had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day and had better success with their gravy then we did!

The Cannstatter Vasen

The Cannstatter Vasen is the second largest Beer festival in the world. It is hosted in Stuttgart and is much smaller and local then Oktoberfest, which is held in Munich. The Canstatter Vasen also has a much lower lederhosen per capita rating since the festival is held in the German region of Baden-Wurttemberg, rather than in Bavaria.

In spite of the lack of leather shorts Matt, Sean and I had an awesome time at the Vasen. The festival has a huge parade, the 2nd largest farris wheel in the world, and a slew of beer tents. This year we went with a couple girls (Jenny and Nathalie) from the TV Bühl women's volleyball team on Sunday, September 24th (the day after our first home match against Gotha).

On the way over, Matty and I conducted an experiment that involved locking Sean into a train station locker... aka. the worst 4 euros we have ever spent:
Since we went on a Sunday, the festival was not very crowded and we were able to find seats in the Furstenburg beer tent. We sat and ate schnitzel, a variety of wurst, and proceeded to consume a few one-liter beers. Several hours and rounds of singing the "Prost" (cheers) song later we decided to walk around the Vasen at night.

While out, we made sure to stop by one of the craziest carney booths that I have ever seen:
The booth has no title on it, but it has a large man with an impessive mustache standing in front saying essentially, "who will challenge these men? Who will win 50, 100, or 200 euros today?" Basically, the extended booth actually holds a boxing rink. Behind the mustachioed narrator stand four boxers of different wieghtclasse--bantam, welterweight, middleweight and heavyweight. Guys from the crowd walk up, get compared to the boxers by weight class and every hour or so, there is a series of one-round boxing matches. If the challenger manages to knock out the "profi" (trained professional fighter), they get a cash prize based on the weight class. The rink makes money for charging admission to watch the hourly bouts. As we walked up a , but well built, Turkish guy was parading around with his 100 euros. All I could think about was the unlikelihood of ever seeing something like this in the US, and if it did exist, what in the heck would that waiver say?

After returning to the beer tent for a final round, Matty and the girls went for a farris wheel ride and Sean and I hung out and sang along with the überkäse (super cheesey- my own new german word!!!) band. Once we decided that it was time to go around 11pm, we found our way back to the train station and proceeded to get on an ICE (the really really fast) train. Unforunately, and unbeknownst to the North Americans, we were using an inexpensive train pass that did not allow for us to travel on the fast train. Later a guard pointed this out to Jenny, who proceeded not to tell us and when I asked her if we needed to get off the train at the next stop, she smiled, said "no... don't worry about it" and passed out. 20 minutes later, 5 female ticket people came to us and they were ANGRY!!! Fortunately, one of them spoke English, so I was able to do the talking and I was able to calm them down and negotiate a 20 euro fee for all five of us. She was being very reasonable and could have written us each tickets for 40 euros or more.

Bullet succesfully dodged!

So, we finally returned to Bühl at roughly 1:30am and dragged ourselves home after a very long, but exciting weekend. Our string of beer festival weekends finished there, but the memories we compiled and the songs we learned will haunt our minds like mustard on my favorite pair of jeans.