FIFA World Cup Begins- Party time

With the start of the World Cup on Friday, Hofheim has been transformed. Every little cafe and restaurant has a flat screen showing the current game. In addition, some of them have even changed their hours to accommodate the game times to ensure patrons will come and/ or stay at their place. The Germans have suddenly become very patriotic as well, as everyone suddenly has a flag outside their balcony, on their car  or bike, and even on their baby strollers.

Saturday morning we spent preparing for the spontaneous USA soccer party we were going to  host. We put an invitation up at the front door of the house for our neighbors to stop by during the USA vs England game in the evening.  By preparing, this meant, Adeline and I went to the market to do our grocery shopping, while Emmie and Eric picked up his bike and then went to the drink market. Eric managed to get the drinks all in one load. Sounded like he did some excellent package engineering to get all of the beer, wine, and waters home. I was not able to see it, but heard about how he managed to get it all in the bike trailer with Emmie, plus some on top with the make shift box, and then strap the empty crate to the rear of it. Adeline picked out a few red and white flowers at the market to add to the patriotic theme we have planted on our terrace.

Since it was still early in the afternoon, Thorston took Eric to the mall to get my handy (cell phone) as he now has his 3 year visa to officially work here. He figured it would be a short trip since he already knew exactly what he wanted from the previous trip when they initially denied him one due to lack of long term visa. Us girls stayed home and straightened up the apartment for the evening festivities. After 1 hour, Eric returns home with no phone and comments they want to see more paperwork (paperwork that had to be provided to get his 3 year visa), so Eric fetches it and then returns to the store. Throughout the afternoon, neighbors informed me they would come over for a beer or 2 or after their little ones were in bed. This is exciting as we are going to have company for our party. The girls are getting excited about getting the apartment ready for the soccer party, although Emmie keeps naming every other sport besides soccer. It is now 6pm, dinnertime, and no Eric.   Eric texted me stating not to wait for him, to have dinner, and get ready as the game was at 8:30pm.

While dinner is cooking, the refrigerator and I have an intense conversation about how he is going to make room available for beverages for the party. After a few minutes, he gave in and I was able to stock the fridge with a few in the freezer to initially start the party. Finally, after 3 hours at the store, Eric appears with my new handy! Hurray, I now have a phone! In 1 hour,  I will be hosting a party for a bunch of strangers, so Eric quickly tells me how everything had to be done manually and even the customer service lady was getting mad at the main department for the nonsense they were asking for in order to issue him a phone. The guys did have some funny conversations throughout the afternoon and did find a Starbucks to manage the pain of the long wait.

With the atmosphere set with star shaped candles, little American flag on the snack table with Munchies, Oreos, chocolate chip cookies, and a other goodies, we were ready for our USA party. One couple so kindly dropped off 2 quarts of fresh strawberries to us, and said they were sorry they could not make our party as they had other plans. Then slowly our neighbors started arriving. We ended up having 3 of the 5 other families over for the game.

The girls enjoyed getting to know Atisha. She is 12 and lives across the hall from us. We had her try some A&W Rootbeer. Her dad was initially concerned because he thought it contained alcohol. She and her mom liked it, but the others thought it was too sweet and some did not even try it because they could not get over the smell of it.  On the top level lives a couple with a 3 year named Zoe and she enjoyed playing with the kitchen set with Emmie when she warmed up to the group. What was supposed to be half hour or a beer or 2 as they informed me earlier in the day, ended up being a fun gathering. I learned some good points of interest in the area, too. Bonus part is it was a good soccer game that ended up in a tie.

As we are cleaning up, Eric comments how many beers we went through. He did not realize either that he had bought Becks in 0.5 L. He just bought a case at the drink market like before as he did not realize Becks was available in the larger beer bottles till he pulled one out to restock the fridge. Needless to say, we went through more beer than we thought we would, but then again, we did host a party in Germany!