POW!

I own a bike!!  I bought it at the flea market today all by myself.  It is lime green and small enough so I don't fall off.  Now I don't have to spend dolla bills on all these insufferable subway tickets!

Yesterday I went with Lothar and some of his friends to the St. Pauli game.  But I should probably explain some stuff.  The two biggest soccer (Fußball

) leagues in Germany are the 1. (erste, first) Bundesliga and the 2. (zweite, second) Bundesliga.  Hamburg has two major teams: HSV (1. Bundesliga) and St. Pauli (2. Bundesliga).  A lot of people, however, dislike HSV because the fans tend to be right-wing and aggressive, and the team sometimes plays dirty Fußball.  So St. Pauli is very beloved by many Hamburgers because the games are peaceful and positive and the team is, well, just a nice team.    Also, many people who dislike HSV support Werder Bremen, HSV's rival and my favorite team.  This is probably really biased, so hopefully no HSV-lovers are reading this entry or I might have to carry a taser or something.  SOOOO I get to go to St. Pauli games and STILL love my beloved Werder without being harassed about it!  Can it get better?

Yes.  Yes, it can.  Check out St. Pauli's badass logo:

Who wants to mess with that?  Yeah, I thought so.

Anyway, the game was a lot of fun.  The fans have like a million songs they sing, but my personal favorite moments were when they sang "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again," substituting most of the lyrics with "la" and "St. Pauli." Or, their rendition of "Hey Jude," again substituting words with "la" and and a syllabicly awkward "St. Pauli." And when St. Pauli scores, everyone rocks out to Blur's "Song 2," composed predominately of loud guitar and "WOO-HOO"s.  And take note: St. Pauli is pronounced "sahnkt POW-lee," with "POW" rhyming with plow.

To make things even more interesting, many St. Pauli fans have, historically, been pretty left-wing.  So amongst the big flags that fans waved were flags bearing the St. Pauli colors and an assortment of symbols:  Che Guevara's face, the hammer and sickle, a marijuana plant, and the Jamaican flag.  I was pretty entertained just looking around.

Anyway, St. Pauli won the game, 1-0.  Booya.

Add another beer to the list:  Holsten, a beer brewed in Hamburg and one that actually comes in a can.  It was okay.  I didn't actually feel like having a beer, but everyone laughed at me when I said I wanted banana juice.  You might laugh too...but I LOVE banana juice.  Hmph.