Sports Viewing Abroad

Despite the sub-par year Mizzou football has had, they play Kansas today at Arrowhead, and a beatdown of the Jayhawks is always a joy to watch, no matter where you are watching.

I was worried how living in Germany, with a seven-hour time difference, would adversely affect my sports viewing experience. It hasn't really. Yeah, I had to stay up 'til 4-5am to watch the Cardinals' epic postseason run, but it was well worth it. These upcoming months are really going to test my loyalty though, especially with my teams playing so well. Mizzou basketball, SLU basketball, and Blues hockey are all keeping me up 'til 4am, but like they say, you can sleep when you are dead. Actually, if death is anything like sleeping, where do I sign up?

Anyway, here's to a Mizzou blowout today in KC, Mizzou basketball making a Final Four run, the Blues winning a playoff series, and SLU making their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2000. It is a good time to be a St Louis sports fan, even in Germany.

MIZ

Paris. Eh.

I lied. I said I wasn’t going to go into detail about any of my recent trips, but I couldn’t go on much longer without venting about Paris. I am sure you are thinking, “Paris? Really? Why Paris? I thought it was supposed to be the most beautiful, romantic place in the world?” Well, I hate to break it to you, but it isn’t.  I just got back to Germany from the so-called city of love and I have to admit, I didn’t love it. Yes, the Eiffel Tower is amazing, but after looking at it for an hour or so, you pretty much get the gist of it. I don’t know why everyone always raves so much about Paris. I guess they haven’t been there. The entire city is one big tourist trap. Wanna know why?

The People – The rumors are true. The Parisians are just about as rude as can be. They are always in a hurry, in your personal space, completely unwilling to help, and apparently physically unable to smile. If you want any service at a restaurant, you may want to pack a blow horn or fire up a flare, otherwise you will not be able to get anyone’s attention.  Example: Our hotel receptionist refused to call us a cab so we could catch our train to the airport. He claimed there was a taxi stand “just down the street.” There wasn’t. We missed our train, which in turn, led to us missing our flight. Brilliant customer service, sir.

Tourists – Yes, just by visiting you are only compounding the problem. If you have travelled much at all, you realize that Asians love them some travelling. It is not their fault, Asian countries get more vacation time than just about any other place in the world. If it weren’t for the tall triangular, iron pyramid soaring above you, you would think you were in South Korea. Combine that with the thousands of Americans in jean shorts and fanny packs wandering around aimlessly, and it impossible to get the “Paris Experience.”

Dirty/Unsafe – Not only is the city not gorgeous, breathtaking, or beautiful, I actually found it to be polluted and unsafe. If you enjoy getting pick-pocketed, scammed, or if you are a girl, felt up, then congrats! - Paris is the city for you. You cannot walk 50 feet without someone trying to give you a “complimentary” rose (which they request a 5 Euro donation for after your girlfriend takes it) or another dude badgering you to buy their cheap souvenirs off the street.

"The trains arent running? Lets start shit on fire."

Strikes - The only thing the French love more than smoking cigarettes is going on strike. Just a week before our trip to Paris, Air France went on strike, resulting in cancelled flights and delays. Strikes and public protest are an important part of the Parisian way of life.  Historically, it is the most strike-happy country in Europe, losing on average 132 days per 1,000 workers due to strikes between 2005 and 2009. The strike du-jour during our trip was that of the SNCF, the French Railway. Because of this, we got stuck in Normandy, resulting in missing our trip to Versailles and visiting the Louvre. Not only that, but the next day the strike caused us to miss our flight back to Germany because the amount of trains running to the airport was depleted.

My advice: Don’t spend more than two days in Paris, then head out to the countryside. Normandy is beautiful and you FEEL like you are in France, unlike the feeling you get in Paris.

Au revoir, bitches.

The World's Greatest Blog

Fine work, Brad. This blog has turned into a real life-changer for you, huh? Idiot. Well, it has been eight months since my last (second) post. Clearly, if this was to be a travel blog, I have failed miserably. It crosses my mind on a weekly basis to post something on my blog. I sure as hell have had enough free time and material to write about. It reminds me of my outlook on working out. Every few days I say to myself, “tomorrow is the day I start working out.” If you have seen my body, you know how well that has been going for me. I think I am on day 286 of the “tomorrow is the day I start working out” routine.

As far as my travels go, I have been near and far. Since my last entry in February, I have been to:

Valencia, Spain

Stockholm and Nykoping, Sweden

London, England

Cinque Terre, Milan, and Genova, Italy

Vienna, Austria

Budapest, Hungary

Oahu, Hawaii

Paris and Normandy, France

Munich for Oktoberfest

The Greek Islands of Santorini, Ios, and Naxos

It would be impossible to give a recap of each of these travels, so I wont even bother. Luckily, though, as of last week, I have had my contract extended, meaning that I will be staying in beautiful Garmisch-Partinkirchen, Germany for awhile longer. Why did I stay you ask? There is not one definitive reason, but here are a few:

1.       I have a job. If I moved back to the States, it would be likely that I would be unemployed temporarily. Obtaining some sort of income on a bi-weekly basis is a good thing, therefore I’d like to keep it that way.

2.       Healthcare. Being that I live my life like a moron and treat my body like an amusement park, it eases my mind knowing that I have health care. Of course, if I quit and moved home, I am sure within the first week I would get dared into doing something asinine by my friends and end up in the ER with a $30,000 tab. No thanks.

3.       Traveling the world > living in parents’ basement. Do I really need to expound on this?

Yes, moving home would probably be wise for many reasons as well, mostly in regards to the whole "starting a career" thing. My response to that: see my first post. It isn’t that difficult to find. Scroll down about 9 inches.

On that note, I am out. I hope to post again soon. Or again in eight months. Whatever.

Banned From the Internet

The bum, Jeff Suppan

Well, this is kind of awkward. A second blog post. I don’t really know what angle to take here.  There is so much pressure to follow up my previous effort with another absolutely perfect post. Johnny Vander Meer was the only pitcher in Major League Baseball history to hurl two consecutive no-hitters back in '38 with the Reds. I feel like I am right there with you, John. This is my next trip to the mound. Problem is, my arm feels like Jello. To be honest, the only reason I am writing this post is because I am banned from the internet at work due to the fact that I was reprimanded and written up by my boss. Apparently, the government frowns upon employees abusing facebook and ESPN.com for four hours a day on their computers. Never would have guessed that. Live and learn I suppose. I needed something to occupy my time other than staring at the wall, so I opened a Word document and will be pasting this gem into my blog later. My attempt at a second no-hitter is shaping up to be a lot more comparable to an outing by Jeff Suppan than Johnny Vander Meer. More than likely, this will be the 2 2/3 Innings, 6 runs, 9 hits, and 5 walks of blog posts. I expect to be mercilessly booed as I walk off the mound.*

Probably taking the kid to school.

It’s 8am here at work. 1am for you Midwesterners out there. I have worked the last seven days and have one day off in the next four. From what I gathered from my facebook news feed this morning, many of you (haha, why would I say many? There are probably two people reading this) are probably off work due to snow today. There are no such things as Snow Days here in Garmisch. They laugh at the very idea that Americans get days off school and work due to snow. The kids seriously ride their toboggans and sleds to school here. Parents drag their infants around town in sleds, rather than pushing them in strollers. It’s bizarre for sure.

Let’s get to the ranting, shall we? As many of you are well-aware, my roommate has snoring issues. It’s been well-documented (Video of Ruel Snoring). After getting home from work last night at around midnight, I was kept up by the snoring until about 4:15am. I stood over him, first quietly saying, “Ruel. Ruel. Hey, Ruel,” to no avail. I decided to push his leg while saying his name a bit louder. No success. I’ve played this game before. I should have known there was no waking this grizzly bear in hibernation.  All I wanted was him to roll on his side, which usually brings the volume down a tolerable level.  After mumbling a few obscenities towards his direction, I retreated to my bed and eventually fell asleep around 4:30, only to be awaken 45 minutes later by my damn alarm.  Fantastic.

At this point, you have probably stopped reading and/or caring about my complaining. I’m sure your problems far exceed mine, but this is my blog and the bitching will continue. Deal with it. So anyway, I head down to the shuttle to work at 5:20 to find out that my colleague called in sick this morning, leaving me with all the work today. Fantastic.

Why would anyone still be reading this? Don’t you have better things to do? You have a tv, right? Moving onward…we have nine new employees coming through the office later to pick up their ID badges and access cards. Usually, this is an exciting moment in my life; meeting new people and judging them based solely on talking to them for 15 seconds. It is one of my favorite things to do. Unfortunately for me, I already had the pleasure in meeting them all yesterday, basically naked, walking out of the showers singing. Of course as I am exiting the shower, there they are on their welcome tour, staring at me and laughing as I scamper down the hall through the middle of them with my head down in shame. The first thing they see as they enter their new home for the next 13 months: the chiseled body of Brad Bernsen. Fantastic.

This all leaves me wondering...Is it almost time for pitchers and catchers to report to Spring Training? Now that would be fantastic.

Feel free to start booing now.

Update: It is now 6:45pm, and I am still at work. I have to work a double until 11pm. Also, I do not have an off day anymore. I may sneak into the kitchen and pocket a bottle of Makers Mark to get me through the night. What’s the worst that could happen…another write-up? It’d be worth it.

*Apologies to my Mom and other female readers who have no clue what these baseball metaphors mean.

Here Goes Nothin'

What’s the Point?
Well, I caved. From the beginning I have been “anti-blog,“ for no good reason really. I was the same way about Twitter for a long time. Didn’t understand the point. Not sure I still do, to be honest. I am not sure what changed. It seems like if you are young and travel, the thing to do is to blog about it; to document your travels for your friends back home. I am not sure if most people blog because they enjoy expressing their thoughts and emotions or if they just want to rub their friends’ faces in the dirt of their travels.  I am in the middle somewhere.

I am still unsure what my motivation is, or what I want to get out of this, but this is it. My first blog post. I guess the first item of business to take care of would be to explain how I got here. How did a kid from the suburbs of St. Louis, in the heart of the Midwest, end up starting a blog as a 27-year-old, living in a dorm room in Garmisch-Partinkirchen, Germany? It’s funny you ask…

Random is Life
I am not here in Germany for a reason. I can not pinpoint a specific event that lead me here. Life isn’t that simple…thankfully. Maybe it was my bad decisions that lead me to this beautiful city in the German Alps, traveling the world like I‘ve always dreamed. And, bad decisions, there have been aplenty. Was it me quitting two colleges that set the wheels in motion?  Maybe it was messing up a relationship or two with a girl, not taking high school seriously, or losing focus on my career and quitting jobs that lead me here. Or, was it my good decisions in life that lead me to writing this blog while sitting in a bed smaller than I had as a child, in a former Nazi mental hospital, with $100 in my checking account and $7000 in school loan debt? Life is just a series of random events. All I know is I am here.

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
People have trouble understanding why I am here. They don’t get it. I am 27. I am supposed to have a full-time job with benefits. A house. A dog running around the backyard of that house, shitting everywhere. A kid running around the living room of that house, shitting everywhere. A 401k and IRA. Problem is, society has bludgeoned into our impressionable heads that this is supposed to be how you live your life. If not, you are a failure…an outcast.  J.R.R. Tolkien said it best, and it is one of my favorite quotes. “Not all those who wander are lost.” To me, the journey IS my destination. I am content, no I take that back, I am completely happy moving around city to city, making new friends, seeing new places, living paycheck to paycheck. Who says what you are supposed to be doing at each age? It is bullshit, frankly. In my first week here I overheard a guy, no older than 22, say, “When I am 28, I better have a fucking mortgage and a house.” That is just a sad way to go through life. I don’t blame him though. Society, TV, Hollywood… everyone tells us we are a failure if we don’t make money…and lots of it. Look who Americans look up to. Their idols are the rich and famous, not the aspirational or inspiring.  It is a sad, pathetic reality.

But, fear not, family and friends. I am not lost. I don’t need redirection. I admit, I have no clue what road I am going down, no clue where it is going to take me. There will be bumps in this road of life, no doubt. Hell, probably some nasty potholes and a few fender-benders mixed in too. I am willing and able to navigate those frustrations, hit the repair shop, and head out on the road again, because I know the wide open roads of life, where I can put the windows down, slam on the gas pedal, and blast my favorite Killers song, will make it all worth the while. No idea what direction this road is going, but I am sure as hell going to enjoy the scenery along the way.

Going Forward
I have no idea what is to come of this blog. Maybe this will be my last post. I wouldn’t be shocked, to be honest. It’s not like I have a pristine track record of following through with things. Do I chronicle my travels? Use this to vent? Keep in touch with family and friends? Or just ramble incoherent, irrelevant thoughts about sports and politics? I’m guessing it’ll be a confusing combination of many things. Strap yourself in, because this road I am traveling down is winding, slippery, dangerous, and exhilarating. Should be interesting.

For now,

BB