Wednesday, June 18, 2014

This won’t fit in the status update box...

My 6 month internship is coming to an end in July and the next part of my first year in Munich is about to get a spin. For those who follow me on BeerFeed you’re aware of my mini trips to Bamberg and most recently Köln. We have a long weekend in Amsterdam just before we head home to Canada for a few weeks. The good thing about working in Germany is definitely the amount of holidays you get.

Morale is up and I don’t really feel homesick, I miss the casual hangouts with good friends and I used to miss hoppy beers but I recently found some niche stores that have more hops than I can dream of. I’m slowly getting used to the daily life and it’s not so different than the life in Canada. I got to meet some really nice people from around the world (mostly Europe), my geography is getting slightly better and so is my Deutsch.

I’m signing up for some intensive Deutsch courses over the months of September and October. After several comments about how difficult it is to work full-time and then go to class for 3 hours in the evening to learn a new language, I decided it was in my best interest to take morning classes and focus on learning Deutsch without any other distractions for two months.



So far, I was offered to be on a television show, I've made some friends from the four corners of the planet, I've traveled to 2 countries I've never been before and I learned a whole lot about beer. Until my next status update I welcome your questions and comments.


Ambassador Mat 

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

The History of the World Cup: Canadian Edition

In the coming days eBay and Amazon will see their profits rise from the purchase of football jerseys all over the world. Employers will see more and more employees with saggy eyes reeking of booze from last night's victory. For a Canadian living in Munich I'm being asked the same question over and over "Who are you going to cheer for?" Clearly not Canada is my answer. This pushed me to learn a bit more about the Canadian's place in the history of the prestigious, world unifying tournament.

The year was 1986, Mexico

Canada made their way to Group C with the Soviet Union, France and Hungary. This was the only year Canada ever participated in the World Cup. Although they didn't manage to score a single goal, they held the French until the end and Mike Sweeney got a red card, one can only assume he apologized for this.


Sweeney was sent off in the second game against Hungary,[4] making him the only Canadian player ever to be dismissed at a World Cup Finals tournament.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_FIFA_World_Cup

Special mentions

Diego Maradona from Argentina got himself 5 goals and the Golden Ball that year, Argentina won.

Also Sons of Andrew and band out of Edmonton, Alberta made a song dedicated to the unique Canadian squad.




There's a documentary on Canadian Journey to the World cup on Youtube called:
The Journey - 1986 Canada Soccer Documentary (pretty interesting, TSN)

If you're a collector, these are the ones you're looking for: