I was immediately pronounced "Captain." Yes, that thingie on my right arm says "Spielfuehrer"; I think I am going to ask the folks back at Duke to start calling me "Der Lehrerfuehrer." It has a certain ring to it. (oh, and yes, I realize they were mocking me, by making me Spielfuehrer, but they were mocking me in a friendly way. No, I'm sure of it. All the people trying to hide their laughter, they were just jealous. You know how people are.)
I did get a picture of some of the students from my class. F and A, on the right side, both seemed to find all of this rather more amusing than I had hoped. 
Here is the "after the match" photo. Darned kids. They kicked our butts, 6-2. I contributed two assists, I should note. Both for the other team. (Look, the guy I kicked it to was wide open, and in front of the net. Sure, he was on the THEIR team, not mine, but he WAS OPEN. My teammates were not very impressed. "You are supposed to STOP them from scoring!) 
If you click on the photo, you will see IDs for Der Geist, Martin, Hajo the intrepid, and of course me (still wearing the Spielfuehrer armband). After the game, Der Geist went around complaining that he had forgotten to bring any underwear. This act played to mixed reviews, at best.But it was a terrific evening. Very fun, a real sense of fellowship. I was proud to be a member of the department, if only temporarily.
6 comments:
How old are the students in your class? The girls look kind of young -- almost high school rather than college age.
Mockery? There is an easy explanation why we made you Spielfuehrer: You were the highest ranked on our team.
To be correct, our department chair, Prof. Sturm, did play. (Of course, he played his natural position on offense, i.e. "im Sturm" in German) However, he did not want to be captain. So Mungowitz was next in line. And he was a fine captain. His first duty was to chose a color before the ref could flip a coin, and he simply replied: "I don't speak German."
Oh, and by the way, two hours after the game our captain tried to munger (i.e. suddenly leaving w/o telling anyone, sometimes not even yourself) again. But this time, I saw him and made him waive good-bye. Part of the German education program?
Thanks for the pics!
Martin, you have unintentionally defined the verb "to munger" perfectly:
to munger: to waive goodbye. In other words, to leave without saying anything.
Furthermore, I believe you mean to say that I was the "rankest" player on the team, not the highest ranked.
Great post and comments. A couple of things though. Mungo, as you well know, the behavior described by Martin in the comments is pulling a "Jess", not a "Munger".
I can think of a couple definitions of the verb "Munger"
1. Aggressively keeping other people away from food at a group meal.
2. Repeatedly insisting that one has mastered an athletic skill set that one has in fact *NOT* mastered.
WTF...! was Luc Perkins on the Professor's team??
Like he'll ever get a PhD...
Martin's a damn good goalie, though. Tough to beat that.
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