The Great American Game.

Ah yes, October baseball season has arrived. By "arrived" I mean "almost over" because I usually don't follow baseball. Minnesota is a hockey state. The Twins haven't been good since the early nineties and I was too young to remember most of it. My single memory from our glory days is when Kirby Puckett hit a home run - I waved to the TV screen, and he chose that same moment to look up into the camera and wave as he was rounding the bases. For five years I was convinced that he saw me and was waving back. My parents didn't have the heart to tell me the truth. But this October, I have been given a rare treat - the Phillies are in the World Series.

The great thing about going to college in a different state is that you get your pick of sports teams. If the Twins don't make the playoffs it doesn't really matter... I guess I'm a Phillies fan this year then. Tonight, my substitute team was -- -- this close to winning the title. Literally. They are leading the series 3-1 and the potential final game is delayed because of the rain.

In general, Americans prefer football and baseball. Slow sports. You can go get a hot dog and beer during the game and not really miss much. You could, for instance, sort-of watch the game and sort-of do your Psychology reading and you would still understand what was going on. They're multitasking sports. Baseball even has a "stretch" in the 7th inning - only Americans would enjoy physical activitiy that not only has pauses between every three outs, but a designated extra rest period. The experience of going to the game is rarely to actually watch the game - the experience is the tailgating, drinking, and bad (yet wonderful) stadium food.

Europeans, on the other hand, like the fast sports: soccer, hockey, etc. If you don't watch the game you're going to miss something. And your 90 minutes of attention is rewarded by witnessing the one, two, or three goals that happen. It's a waiting game, yet an intense one. Western Europeans are more into soccer - cheer, drink, but pay attention. Russians are cold, stoic, disciplined, and fast. Hockey dominates their sporting arenas. The Chinese don't play sports. They study. One isn't necessarily better than another, but it does provide another interesting lens through which a culture can be examined.

I was watching the game with one of my Australian friends who asked, "why is it that when Americans win at something in their country, they think they're the greatest in the world?" Aside from the fact that it's titled the World Series, I have no clue. She attributed it to our all-around arrogance. I might have to agree.

And now, I will end my multitasking to see if the game has resumed. GO PHILS!


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Good night, sleep tight.

I hate sleeping. It is 3:01am on a Saturday night (well... technically Sunday morning) and I am awake. I didn't go out with friends, I got minimal work done... there's no reason for me to be awake. When I was little my parents often had their adult friends over for dinner parties. Us three kids, after saying a charming "hello" and flashing our childish smiles (or waving tentatively and hiding behind our parents, like I did), were sent upstairs to go to bed. Bed? Not me. I had a plan. After I heard everyone get settled in the dining area I would take my pillow and Blankie, tip-toe out into the hallway, and curl up on the landing above the stairs to listen to the grown-ups talk. If I was feeling adventurous, I would carefully go down the stairs and listen from the living room or admire our guests' shoes. But most of the time I drifted off to sleep laying on my stomach in the hallawy, curled up with my pillow and blanket. I would wake up when the adults were gathering to say goodbye and sneak back into my room. Mission accomplished.

I didn't really like my parents' friends - I was too young to have an opinion about them. I got distracted by Paul's wild safari shirts or Bill's strong cologne, and Grandma always gave us wet, sloppy kisses that I tried my best to avoid. I just felt that if I went to sleep, I would miss something. I liked hearing the sound of wine glasses clinking and people laughing as I fell asleep - it made me feel like I was a part of the fun instead of getting ready for bed. Small side note: it's amazing how creative kids can be with naming things. The yellow knit blanket (with snuggly silk edging) that I dragged out with me in the hallway was appropriately named "Blankie." I carried Blankie with me everywhere for about five years and cried every time it ripped or when the silk started to wear through. My other partner-in-crime was a white, stuffed cat imaginatively named "Kitty." I clearly thought outside the box.

Every night it's the same old fight - my will versus my biological need to sleep.Our Psychology professor asked us one day to think about how much more we could do in one day if we didn't have to sleep. If our bodies didn't have to sleep, would we want to? Half of the class would still want to sleep and half wouldn't. Just think of all the amazing adventures you could add to your life if you had an additional 8 hours a day. It's fascinating.

Unfortunately, sleep is winning this fight tonight. Sleep well...


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21 year old body with a 5 year old heart.

It is a beautiful fall rainy day in Minnesota. Currently, I'm reading Harry Potter and eating Barnum's Animal Crackers, also known as "childhood in a box." When I was little, my sister and I only got to eat these crackers on very special occasions: most often when my mom dragged us to the furniture store and wanted us to be quiet and behave. Back then, my lion crackers chased her giraffe crackers across expensive sofas and leather chairs (and naturally I always won.) My sister is currently in Atlanta so here I sit, making my lion cracker chase my giraffe cracker across the top of my book. Soon after they both met an untimely death... in my mouth. Yum.

Have I mentioned that I'm 20?

In a few short weeks I will turn 21, the magical age in American society where you celebrate your "adult" status by getting rip-roaringly drunk and making a few profoundly stupid decisions. Technically I became an adult when I turned 18 but recently I've started to wonder, "Where did my childhood go?" When you're little, all you want is to grow up and act like an adult. Now that I am one, all I want to do is play with my animal crackers and not get weird looks from my parents.

Sometimes, I look at little kids playing with their parents and I start to wonder - what kind of adult will they turn out to be? Will they be shy? Kind? Rude? Will they get into drugs, alcohol, and crime? Will they be an excellent student? I saw the movie "The Parent Trap" the other day and I had trouble enjoying it for two reasons: first, it's not a very good movie, and second because Lindsay Lohan was such an adorable little girl who has turned into such a train-wreck of an adult. What happened?

There are some perks to being an adult - one of them being a drivers license. Instead of jumping through the huge puddles created by all this rain, I'm going to drive through them. Besides, high-speed puddle driving is better than wet, dirty clothes any day. I'm off to go make some trouble.

I guess I'm still a kid after all.


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My love-hate relationship with politics and vodka.

Whoops readers, my bad... I accidentally entered the website of my German blog incorrectly in the last post. It is: http://das-leben-auf-deutsch.blogspot.com.

Nothing really new or interesting to report - I have a lot of midterms next week so this weekend is going to be zero fun. No fun at all. Good thing I crammed all of my fun into tonight! My friends decided to turn the Vice Presidential Debates into a drinking game. So American, I know. Every time Sarah Palin said "energy" or "Alaska" we took a drink. I stopped about 15 minutes in because I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up, but all of them kept going.. and now they're all wasted. Even though I stopped early but I'm still kind of tipsy - I hiked my shoes into my closet football-style and I'm thinking it might be time to go to bed. Now.

I don't watch the debates because I'm interested in politics, I watch them in spite of my non-interest in the topic. Unfortunately, this political exposure is challenging my resolution to not vote. Palin is an idiot who thinks she can relate to people because she's a hockey mom. Coming from Minnesota I should be one of the people most sympathetic to her claim, and I think she comes off as an inexperienced politician who doesn't know her head from her ass when it comes to major political issues. McCain isn't much better - mostly because he's about two breaths away from dying and will probably go senile at some point. Obama definitely has his faults, inexperience being one of them. As someone who wants to move abroad, worldwide opinion and confidence in America is important to me. At this point, I think Obama would be best suited to achieve this goal.

I still don't want to vote out of principle. Whoever has the gold makes the rules, and whichever candidate gets elected will be responsible in the end to their political donors and not to the people. Both our financial and political systems are broken and I don't think either of the candidates is up to the task of fixing them.

p.s. I miss Munich.
p.p.s. I need to go to sleep now-ish before I start writing things I shouldn't. Ah yes, the old "I want to say something but I won't, and if you want to know just ask." Irritating, I know. Deal with it.

Happy Thursday to all, and to all a good night.


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