You Know You Live in Germany When . . . #10

You know you live in Germany when the World Cup is a bigger deal than the Super Bowl!

The craze started when the stores began using soccer balls as advertisements for EVERYTHING. They also supplied willing fans with all kinds of useful cheering materials… Most paraphernalia targeted supporters of Germany’s team, but fans of Italy, Switzerland, and Turkey would not go to World Cup parties unadorned, either!

TVs can be sold with soccer. Look at the great deals you can get during World Cup season!

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This flag came in the weekly newspaper (some assembly required)

This tally sheet also came from the newspaper. It gives me a place to keep track of all the match results!

People started putting flags on their cars to show their support of their countries' teams at the World Cup.

Rachel and I discovered this giant container of paprika-flavored chips at Lidl. If you're having a World Cup party, no one will go hungry!

Rachel bought a German flag cape. How cool is that?!

Rachel let me borrow her Fan-cape. I had fun spinning in it and charging down the hallway!

The day of Germany’s first World Cup match was Sunday, June 13. This also happened to be the day Kandern was celebrating Städtlitag, the city’s 200th birthday.

Hundreds of people filled the streets to celebrate Kandern's 200th anniversary of Stadt status.

Most of the booths at the Städtlitag celebration had some kind of World Cup theme.

I watched the first Germany match at church after the evening service.

As I walked into church for the evening service, this scary mannequin greeted me.

The whole church was decked out with flags. Even the music stands were draped with these German flags!

After the evening service, we all stayed and watched the Germany vs. Australia game. Germany won 4-0! Yay!

Though Germans are normally quiet and reserved, they go all out with noise and obnoxious decorations when the World Cup comes! Since South African soccer fans have a tradition of blowing horns throughout the whole match, a bunch of stores have sold these obnoxious trumpets (in the colors of the German flag, of course). There were at least 3 at church that evening, and as I walked home that night (after 10pm, mind you!), I heard many more crazed soccer fans blowing those horns!

It is quite an exciting time to be living in Germany. I only hope that they can win their 3rd game (against Ghana) after suffering a defeat against Serbia yesterday.