Life Outside of School and Wintermarkets

Sometimes life in Wolfsburg can be pretty interesting.  The last month before the winter holidays was actually a pretty exciting time with all of the wintermarkets, going to the Van Heen concert, and cooking lots of good food.  Early in December we were invited to a basketball game by Mike's mentor, Mattias.  He lives in Braunschweig and is a big basketball fan, so he got us all tickets to the Braunschweig New Yorker Phantoms game against some team from southern Germany. 

Braunschweig Phantoms are in yellow.  The team, currently sponsored by the teen clothing store New Yorker, is the only basketball team in the area, so Wolfsburg and VW also have a stake in the team.

The entire evening was full of surprises and quite the adventure given that we had never tried getting to Braunschweig on our own before.  It was a long bus ride and a little interesting trying to figure out the street trolley system, but we did manage to find our way to the arena. 

The game itself was actually extremely entertaining and enjoyable -- definitely surprising for me since I never was all that interested in how the Timberwolves did or basketball in general.  A lot of European pro-basketball players are American players that did not get into the NBA.  There was a ridiculous amount of fouling and the Phantoms actually managed to blow a huge lead and lose the game in overtime.  So it goes. 

I was extremely amused by their mascot who, half way through the game, trading his stalking around the court to scootering across the court.

 

The other amusing part was the dancers.  Compare these kids to the cheerleaders at the Target Center...

Just before the game started we decided to grab a bite to eat since we hopped on the bus immediately after school.  Hilariously, we ran into another Waldorf teacher colleague who was also there to cheer on the Phantoms.  This was fortunate because he happened to also live in Wolfsburg and we then had a ride back to Wolfsburg!

Of course the basketball game was an exception to our usual outings.  More typically, we take the bus out to the city center in Wolfsburg and walk around the shops or catch a bite to eat.  One weekend we met in a more "historic" part of Wolfsburg for coffee with the other new teachers at our school.  It was in a quieter part of the city where the buildings were more quaint.  Our drinks came in bowls and they had delicious cake. 

Afterward, we went to a nearby Italian restaurant that someone recommended. 

We split a very yummy pizza and salad.

 

Strangely, we've probably had more Italian food in Germany than any other kind of food.  But it is good...