the mario blog

I have to say, being in contact again with my childhood friend Christian has been pretty fun. He just graduated from college and now seems to be spending his time talking about jobs, visiting family and doing a new video every Thursday. Believe it or not, he’s heading to Mallorca to film his next video. The more I watch these videos, the more I feel the need to do something dangerous and document it for the world. The mario blog gone dangerous. Check out the trailer for Christian’s upcoming Mallorca trip.

The other day I wrote a blog entry about only remembering my german high school sweetheart’s phone number when I was stuck at the airport in Frankfurt. Anyways the girl’s name is Ina and she was a total surprise guest at the party we had at my house last night. I told Ina my story, which apparently she had read on my blog and she confirmed that I remembered the right number. With that being said, the number is not current anymore so I would have been out of luck.

  ina 

My time in Germany is nearing the end. It has been a lot of fun with some bizarre moments, most notably the Sauna club experience with my dad and his cop friend. Anyways, I spent another day with my sisters Laura and Linda. It’s scary to think that Laura is almost 16 and Linda is starting to be concerned about her jeans tightening. But I guess since I can’t fight the fact that they’re growing up, I am happy to see they’re becoming beautiful young women.

  Schwestern 
   

A group of seven rich doctors, bankers  and politicians got together in my hometown to open a bar that’s exclusive of the general public. One has to apply to become a member and then pay a 150 Euros annual membership fee, which then qualifies you to be called a "Plettenberger."
I guess this concept is no different than a golf club, but for the past week this new bar has been all that Plettenberg has been talking about. Personally, I think it’s stupid and offensive, and I hope it fails. In a true blue collar worker’s town with rising unemployment, this sends the wrong message to the people. Especially since these blue collar workers are funding those owner’s businesses. All this tells me that these graying frat boys are anything but true "Plettenberger."

I continue to support the non-exclusive bar scene as you can see in the picture below.

About 15 years ago, a group of local boys started their own hobby soccer team. The goal was to play in weekend hobby tournaments and have a lot of fun while at it. Hence the name - Bierpulle Holthausen. Bierpulle = Beerbottle. What stood Bierpulle apart from its competition was that all of our players were much younger than the usual recreational soccer crowd as  we actually played soccer competitively. We won many tournaments and always made fun priority. Every Monday night Bierpulle practices on a small field right next to my house. Last night I joined my former team in their evening practice, which was a humbling experience. I only started scoring towards the end of the practice, as everybody else was tiring from all the beer and cigarettes consumed during what were meant to be water breaks. It feels great to be back in town.

  Stern Magazin 

Media is a bit different here in Germany, especially in regards to nudity and sexuality. Check out the latest issue of our most popular weekly news magazine. The featured story is about the trap of gaining back weight after dieting, which you surely must have recognized by the fitting visual.

I just got back from a weekend of soccer, with more pictures and videos to follow. A few friends of mine and myself were among the 20,000 Schalke fans who traveled to our team’s away game against Hannover. The game ended 1:1, which was a bit disappointing but nevertheless ended in a night of partying in the German university town of G�ngen. Below is a little video clip that I recorded right after we scored the 1:0. Keep in mind that this was an away game for Schalke.

After three days of airline travel, I finally landed in Frankfurt. As usual, these overseas flights always come with all sorts of hiccups for me. For once, I had to stand in line for about an hour when checking in for my flight. Lufthansa must have been running some sort of program where they brought back retired airline employees who had never seen a computer and then had them check people in for their flights to Frankfurt. Once on the plane, things went pretty smoothly. The guy next to me must have accidentally signed up to be served a fruit platter as every meal, which he quickly got sick of. Too bad it was a full flight, so they didn’t have any real food for him. My guess is that his wife is behind this.
In Frankfurt my luggage was of course delayed in getting in. Curiously enough, two passengers had the exact same bag that I have. It’s a green bag that my aunt got me for Christmas a few years who, which apparently must have been a popular present in Germany.

I am now sitting at the Frankfurt airport, surrounded by a bunch of smoking Germans. My cousin is supposed to pick me up but he’s a no show so far. Too bad my phone isn’t working and the only phone number I remember is from my German high school sweetheart. If Frank doesn’t show up (in Frankfurt….Frank in Frankfurt …get it) within the next hour, I am either going to call my ex girlfriend or just take the train back to my hometown.

It’s weird to think that I’ll be the surprise guest at my little sister’s birthday party tonight, and that I am seriously contemplating calling my ex girlfriend.

…just released their new team photo. We’ve all been waiting for this day. Now 2007 can finally get started. Auf gehts Schalke.

And I mean that. While soccer is unarguably the most popular and best sport in the world, the atmosphere at soccer games is unarguably the best in the world as well. While this certainly doesn’t hold true in the US, it’s a proven fact across the rest of our planet. Schalke 04 is maybe not the best soccer team in the world, but it has the best fans and best atmosphere, which the clip below is going to prove. Here’s a little bit of background. Schalke has been playing really bad, so the fans decided to do something about it. At the home game against Bayern Munich, they decided to not cheer or chant for the first 19:04 minutes of the game. Such is the club’s founding year and should show the team that it was time to step it up and play like men. 18:04 minutes into the game, 60,000 Schalke fans started clapping as a countdown to the breaking of their silence. In the video, you’ll hear loud cheers at the 19:04 mark. Only eight seconds later, Schalke scored a goal which turned the stadium into a stage of wild craziness. Hearing 60,000 Schalke fans cheer is louder than standing next to a plane at takeoff. Again, a proven fact.

If you’ve never been to a Schalke game, then you simply haven’t lived yet. This is where many of my most memorable childhood moments were created. And this is where I’ll eventually return to.