I was going to post about my day at Ikea on Saturday and furniture building on Sunday morning, but I thought I’d post something a little more interesting.

What a #spiritsunday for Germany! You could feel the excitement in the air over the weekend as Sunday night and the big game drew closer. Flags were hung, people were decked out, cars were zipping around with their side view mirrors and antennae decorated in the ubiquitous red, gold and black.

I was invited by a new friend to her friend’s house to watch the game. When we got to his house, I told him how nice it was to meet him, then asked if I could use his WiFi to call home. Nothing like meeting someone and then hanging out in their foyer talking to your parents on Skype. It was nice to get a call in…it had been weeks since I talked to my parents, although their questions were usually answered with, “didn’t you read the blog?”

This was also my first get together where I was able to bring a dish. I hate going to someone’s house empty-handed, and since I haven’t really been settled, I wasn’t able to bring homemade food to the other parties I went to. I feel like the almond flour cookies I brought were symbolic of life heading in the direction of normalcy. The cookies were a big milestone for me (and no one knew this but me).

After “we” won the game, there was no way I was going to sleep. The streets were full of people, honking horns, vuvuzuelas, fireworks, singing, chanting. I even asked random people to take a picture with me so I could send it to friends back home!

Monday morning rolled around very quickly after, and I was picked up at 7:30 by someone hired to take me to get my license. We listened to Judas Priest all the way to the DMV. We were in and out in under 30 minutes, and I couldn’t believe how smooth the process was. Which leads me to wonder why some things (Internet) are so complicated, while other things that should be complicated aren’t.

A fan reads the Monday recap of the game. DMV lines–they’re universal!

Meanwhile, the street and office were noticeably more sparse than usual and red, black, and gold confetti littered the streets. But knowing how Germans celebrate, I’m sure they’re not done yet.