Early Basketball, Country Music and a Mall
“Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see, your just a poor boy but you’re with LIE”
Today opening ones eyes was hard. Really hard. Yesterday we were invited to a party which naturally causes dark rings under your eyes and an inexplicable distaste of getting up early. However today at 11oo PM there was a basketball game planned. Male team this time. So get up and over your hangover, lets play ball (or lets watch others play ball while sitting in a comphy chair drinking soda). Again the spirit of the crowd was amazing. We were able to leave our reserved seats in the back and move to the front as there was a convenient empty part directly in front of one of the baskets. So close to the field our mind would not dare to try close our eyes to carry us to sleep. Still, we found the game really long. Especially because we were only through two of the four quarters yet. But suddenly: Everyone cheered and gave standing ovations. What?
Turns out: College Basketball is played in halves not in quarters.
After the game we split up for having lunch. I went with a small group of three other Germans and one buddy. By the way Mike, thanks for the ride. And no, he was not named after “Mike the Tiger”. At least that’s what he told us.
He took us to an amazing place (which I forgot the name, maybe I’ll add it later): The food was delicious, the weather was amazing and there was live country music. Mike asked us what our favorite moment was so far and we agreed that it was that particular moment. It all felt almost surreal, the drive from campus to here, accompanied with country music and supreme weather, the food and the live country music and supreme weather, the whole trip to the USA and us being here. Easily a moment one could only enjoy.
After lunch we went to an outlet store. Everyone called it a “mall”, but in my head a mall is a huge building that houses many stores. This was more like a giant u-shaped building, only one floor, a huge parking lot in the middle. And a lot -I mean A LOT- of branded stores.
After two hours of shopping, swiping our credit cards and enjoying the free time we went back to the Lod Cook.
Before going to bed we decided to take over the hotel lobby to play some games, mostly involving secret animal to person associations. I went to bed quite early (must have been 10:30 PM or so) to maybe get a whole good nights sleep for the days to come.
Now available at your favorite country clothing store: “Go Tigers” leather-boots, buy one, get the second one free!
