Reflection: German Football

Since I am living in Germany for 4 months, I figured I might as well receive the full experience and attend a soccer game. Don’t get me wrong, I have been to quite a few sports games during my time in the U.S., but none that have amounted to anything like this experience.

To start off, I (my friend) conducted rigorous research and discovered that it’s best to purchase tickets either at the box office, or from a scalper. So, is this post legal? Probably not. I don’t know. I really don’t. But you’re going to read all about my experience anyway, and I don’t think this is illegal. So, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Because one of my friends had to desperately use the bathroom, I was in the woods, when I suddenly emerged (sounds like something from a horror movie honestly) to find that my friends had struck up a conversation with not just one, but two scalpers. Well, one of them turned out to be one of the nicest human beings I have met in my entire life. And I understand that people literally say that all the time, but you don’t even know. Okay. You just don’t know.

So our new scalper friend ended up only having one extra ticket, and because there was four of us, you could see how this placed us in quite the pickle. Nevertheless, our friend helped us out and haggled us into some decently priced tickets, and we were all on our way. But this wasn’t enough for our scalper friend. He wasn’t satisfied. He walked us through the entrance, helped us scan our tickets, found our seats for us, led us to our seats, and snuck in a couple of extra people for good measure, before turning away and leaving us forever.

I wish we could’ve bought him some beer. I wish we could’ve sent him a fruit basket. I wish I could properly spell his name for this post. But, I guess some things in life will always just have to be what they are. Anyway, to our bewilderment, we were sitting third row into the bleachers, dragging our jaws on the ground all the while. To have gotten this good of a deal was just unheard of in my mind. I. Was. Shocked.

As the game picked up, more and more fans shuffled in, amplifying the excitement brewing within me. I couldn’t tell if it was my heart or the drums in the die-hard fan section were beating louder. Flashes of colors danced across the sidelines as flags drew circles all around me. The crowd roared with pleasure and dismay throughout the game, amplifying the energy consistently pulsing throughout every inch of my skin. Buzzing with the sheer thrill of being an arms grasp away from players who would be attending the 2018 world cup, I realized two things that day:

1. Some of these players were 18 years old and accomplishing more than I ever would in my entire lifetime.

2. Buying things off of the black market isn’t always such a bad thing.

#Germany #Reflection