We are staying with a nice family in Dresden. We have rented the attic apartment, the grandparents live in the middle floor and the family lives on the lower floors. They are a mom, dad, and sons 8 and 11. They are super nice and patient with us since we don't speak any German.
One evening the boys and one of their cousins came up with their grandma to ask if we wanted to play soccer with them. I was anticipating playing soccer on grass. They took us to play futsal which is soccer on a basketball court. It. Was. AWESOME. There were fences all the way around and about 20 feet high. The court surface was squishy rubber surface like a running track. The goals were just a sturdy aluminum frame box. We played for about 2 hours and had a blast. We mixed up the teams every 20 or 30 minutes and the language barrier wasn't a problem.
A funny thing happened while we were playing. A dog no taller than a soccer ball got onto the court. All of the kids ran away from the dog. He immediately ran to the ball and tried to bite it. His head was pretty big and it looked like he could damage the ball. At this point I noted that the dog looked a little dirty and I just thought he was an outdoor dog. I went to where he was playing with the ball and took it from him. By this time the owner had come through the gate to retrieve the dog. So I tried to make friends with the dog and grab his collar. All of the sudden all of the German children started yelling swear words at me. It really confused me. I couldn't understand what they were afraid of. I asked, "Does he bite?" The oldest German boy pointed to the dog, said the English swear word for "poo", and repeated it over and over until I understood that the dog had rolled in poo. By this time I had touched the dog and had dog poo on my hands. The children thought this was absolutely hilarious. I scored two goals because they wouldn't guard me when I put my hand out. Reminded me of "the cheese touch" from the Wimpy Kid books.
Anyhow, for me one highlight of Germany was futsal.
One evening the boys and one of their cousins came up with their grandma to ask if we wanted to play soccer with them. I was anticipating playing soccer on grass. They took us to play futsal which is soccer on a basketball court. It. Was. AWESOME. There were fences all the way around and about 20 feet high. The court surface was squishy rubber surface like a running track. The goals were just a sturdy aluminum frame box. We played for about 2 hours and had a blast. We mixed up the teams every 20 or 30 minutes and the language barrier wasn't a problem.
A funny thing happened while we were playing. A dog no taller than a soccer ball got onto the court. All of the kids ran away from the dog. He immediately ran to the ball and tried to bite it. His head was pretty big and it looked like he could damage the ball. At this point I noted that the dog looked a little dirty and I just thought he was an outdoor dog. I went to where he was playing with the ball and took it from him. By this time the owner had come through the gate to retrieve the dog. So I tried to make friends with the dog and grab his collar. All of the sudden all of the German children started yelling swear words at me. It really confused me. I couldn't understand what they were afraid of. I asked, "Does he bite?" The oldest German boy pointed to the dog, said the English swear word for "poo", and repeated it over and over until I understood that the dog had rolled in poo. By this time I had touched the dog and had dog poo on my hands. The children thought this was absolutely hilarious. I scored two goals because they wouldn't guard me when I put my hand out. Reminded me of "the cheese touch" from the Wimpy Kid books.
Anyhow, for me one highlight of Germany was futsal.
Elaine, Dresden is part of the Germany Berlin Mission -- the mission to which my oldest son just got called to! I know it's still over two years away, but we are already planning a trip to pick him up, so I'll have to get your input from your experiences there. :)
ReplyDeleteI like that you are sporting the BYU shirt.
ReplyDeleteGo Cougs!
I also wore my BYU shirt the day of the 10k in Prague hoping that we'd run into someone. Sure enough just before I changed into my race shirt I heard someone yell, "GO COUGARS!" We talked for a bit and saw them at Church the next day. Small world.
ReplyDeleteI was laughing out loud when I read about the poo dog. Thanks for the laugh. I especially love how you got those two extra points.
ReplyDeleteJulia Woolf