Not quite normal service resumed

I've been fortunate enough to catch several Arsenal matches in recent weeks, though it's been a bit unnerving as two of those matches were losses. There's almost nothing worse than getting fired up to watch your team play, then see them crash out in the most ridiculous ways. I mean come on, if you take a zillion shots in a match, hit the woodwork about 14 times, how can you possibly lose 1-0 off of a corner kick?

Ah well, welcome to Arsenal football.

I watched the Arsenal-Tottenham match Saturday afternoon at Finnegan's along with two new found English Arsenal fans. The three of us chucked it up over pints for the duration of the game, and then for the rest of the afternoon, which turned into quite the stretch. Fortunately, Arsenal won convincingly 3-0, which made me feel a whole lot better.

While the afternoon was fun, I couldn't help thinking of the same fixture earlier in the year that Chris and I went to. I certainly would have preferred to be at emirates stadium with him saying fun things to the Tottenham fans. Same old Tottenham, always cheating. (At this point, I'll skip over the dubious penalty that was awarded Arsenal in the first half)

It was nice spending my final afternoon in Valencia in Finnegans watching a bit of football. It's not that I won't be back there soon, but when I return, I won't actually be a resident. Trying to gear up for the Sunday move to Germany was not all that easy.

But, it's now a done deal. I'm in Weiterstadt, sitting at my desk, typing on my laptop, suffering from a cold.

Welcome to Germany.

Updates about the move, the new culture, and how pretty the girls are will come later. Right now, I've got to get myself settled into an apartment, decipher the transportation schedules, and get acquainted with the German keyboard. This keyboard thing is kind of interesting, because it's very very different from both the English and the Spanish keyboard. Since I've been a typist for many years, I rarely pay attention to the keys, save for my experiences in Spain toggling between the different layouts. However, unlike the German keyboard, the Spanish keyboard merely has a few extra symbols and accents.

Welcome to Germany.

The German keyboard actually moves the alphabet around, and while this wouldn't necessarily be that big of a deal, the Y character is where the Z character is in German keyboards. Those of you that remember the spelling of my name probably better understand my predicament.

At any rate, the chapter is starting, and I've already been to my first biergarten to watch a champs league match, ironically, Barcelona and Werder Bremen.

It's a good way to begin the experience.

prost
brZan

One last thing. C'mon Arsenal. Beat Porto tonight.