Soccer Saturdays

Hey everyone! Not much has happened since my last post besides Soccer Saturday, which is what I'm going to start calling the two hours where I chat with Morman girls while trying to avoid the soccer ball. We mostly talk about weird things that Germans do (especially how often we have to shake hands here). It was pretty fun though - I kicked the ball a few times and mostly let the other people have fun with that. Once the ball came by me and I ducked to avoid it. I blame getting hit in the head with a basketball when I was in Kindergarten for this reaction.

One of my students was at the soccer game. It was awkward because he asked if I remembered him and I didn't, of course. (I assumed he was mistaking me for a Mormon girl who had already left.) But then he told me which class he was in (and I still didn't remember him), so I told him that I saw about 350 kids in the past two weeks. That makes me feel like a bad ETA, but I've only seen his class once! And the people who stuck with me are: Felix, Gina, the kid who started the 6th grade fight, and about a quarter of the 11th grade. But I know I'll learn all the kids' names eventually!

There was graffiti near the Kaffeetrichter stop that said "memento mori." I wish I had taken a picture because graffiti is everywhere here and it was nice to see something philosophical instead of English swear words.

I saw a dog carrying a bag for its owner while I was waiting for the tram. It wasn't a service dog or anything, so it was pretty cute. (And we all know I'm not a dog person.) There was something about the almost cartoon-like aspect of a dog carrying a plastic bag in its mouth that was very endearing.

Today is the first day of the Erfurter Oktoberfest. I think it's mostly just a carnival with a beer tent, but I haven't been yet so I can't definitively say!