it has snowed non-stop for three days

Again, more pictures below…

The excitement never ends around here. On Friday, I had to take two players over to a studio for a photo shoot. The marketing department makes game posters for each home game and wanted actual players for some of them rather than just models.

So it’s on me to tell these football players they have to come pose with no shirt for a poster that’s going to be plastered all over town. That’s the part of my job that I just love. Right.

This photo shoot was hilarious because of the cast of characters working. There’s the rail-thin makeup artist, and she’s wearing all the latest fashion. Our marketing guy was trying to pick her up. You’ve got the photographer with the creative facial hair. The guy in the blazer and blue jeans with the perfectly messed up hair was leaning over the photographer’s shoulder the whole time telling him poses for the guys to do. I’m still not sure what his actual job was. And then the poor photographer’s assistant was obviously a student and was running around all frazzled. I think she was the only one doing any real work.

I never would have imagined that working in sports PR would take me to a modeling studio in Berlin. I just sat there the whole time thinking, “How the heck did I get here?”

On Saturday and Sunday, we had a couple fan activities. Saturday, fans came out to watch practice and meet players, get autographs, etc. Sunday, there was a 5K called Run4Fun downtown and the team was there making an appearance to kick off the race.

As luck would have it, it was cold, windy and snowy both days. After about 90 minutes out in it on Saturday, I could barely feel my hands. Our punter gave me his hand-warmer pouch since my fingers were starting to turn different colors. It’s a good thing that kickers don’t do anything during practice.

After the festivities ended on Sunday, I was able to make it to the Potsdamer Platz area of town. It’s kind of like the Magnificent Mile in Chicago or Piccadilly Circus in London—lots of stores, restaurants, theaters, and such. One of my co-workers from Cleveland (hey B!) has a college friend who is an au pair over here, so we met up for dinner. She’s been over here about five months, so she told me about some cool stuff around town.

We walked over to the Holocaust Memorial just south of the Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate. Interestingly, there is little to no conspicuous explanations, just the concrete slabs. I didn’t have my camera, but will return and post pictures sometime. It was very thought-provoking. Since I’ve been here, I have wondered a lot about how the Germans have come to grips with their history and how similar it is or isn’t to Americans still dealing with the repercussions of slavery. Discussion of such matters is a very sensitive issue, though, so I don’t know whether I’ll have the chance to hear a native’s take on it.

Well, that’s about it for tonight. Saturday is our first game, and it’s at Amsterdam. I can’t wait to get the season underway. I’ll also have to be especially sure to hang out with the non-trouble-making/finding group of the team while I’m there…

By the way, Goda, our offensive lineman who’s pictured below, is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. He barely understands a word I say and hardly speaks any English, but he’s the most cheerful, respectful guy on the whole team. Whenever he’s in the play, you can always hear him yelling “YOO-sah!” when the ball is snapped. After almost every play, he’s like “Good catch, Lance!” or “Good pass, BJ!” or some other encouragement. What a guy.