Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Living the Football Fever in Germany

Football fever everywhere in Germany. Each day fans, both locals and guests, turn out to take part in city parties, parades, festivels and head to the viewing arenas to watch their favorite games. My city Kaiserslautern has posted two giant tv screens at two different locations. Both grounds have stalls selling drinks and edibles. The main road between the two arenas and the area around them is also decorated with stalls and joy-rides for children. There are groups of famous street performers performing in them. We went to one of the arenas to watch the first game of the worldcup between Germany and Costa Rica in Munich last Friday. Naturally there were lots of German fans flooding the tv arenas. We got there after the game started, so couldn't get in. There were many people outside the arenas as well watching the match as much as they could see. Germans got very happy when their team won 4:2.

This Monday Kaiserslautern got its first game of the WM (german name of world cup - Weltmeisterschaft = world-championship). The game was between Australia and Japan which was won by Australia 3:1. Swarms of fans flooded the city that day literally blocking the pedestrian pathways of city center. People had to jump over benches to get through. Yesterday i watched a sensational game between Brasil and Croatia. Though Croatia lost 0:1, they played surprisingly a very beautiful game against the WM favorites. Obviously there were more fans of Brasil in the arena, but they started cheering Croatia in the second half for their fearless play. They made more attacks than Brasil and their goal-keeper ended up saving less direct shoots than the Brasilian goal-keeper. Everyday three matches are played in Germany (3/4 pm, 6 pm and 9 pm), which are telecasted live on giant tv screens in major cities. See the football fever in my city Kaiserslautern at: Kaiserslautern Football Fotos.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

aoa,please tell some thing about your course work ? How is it. Classes are in German language or English? Level of teaching etc.

take care,
suleman. shall be thankful if reply on email!

Yasir Niaz Khan said...

There is no coursework in PhD in Germany. However, your advisor or the graduate advisory committee may ask you to attend a couple of courses if you don't have necessary background in your current research area.
Medium of instruction is different in different universities. My university (actually my department) has only recently consented to teaching in English so they are trying to convert all of their graduate courses in English. Look like it will take a long time. Teachers usually ask for the language at the start of each course, and if there are not more than a couple of them, they teach in German. Its easy for them and for German students.