The only time PHD students leave lab is for Soccer

Today was the FMF cup. What FMF stands for? I do not know. Even though everyone here is super helpful and tries to help me learn German, it really is for naught. Each time they teach me a word, it ends up them saying it, me repeating it after them, them pausing and saying it again to correct my pronunciation, me saying it again in the same way as before, them saying it, then me saying it wrong (repeat indefinitely)...until either I say it correctly or they give up. Unfortunately...even when I do say it correctly, it poops out of my head the next minute.

Anyway.

Today 10 different research groups sent out a band of troops comprised of their very best to compete for glory and honor...the title of the FMF cup. Actually, this so-called "band of troops" was really anyone they could scrape together. Or maybe that was just our lab group? In any case, whatever my lab group's overall mission was, I think the real winning strategy was to put out a decent showing, but poor enough so that we play only the minimum amount of games, failing to make it to the semi-finals/finals, but hitting the BBQ buffet line first.

It's all about having priorities straight.

For someone who has never played soccer before, this actually wasn't that hard for me to accomplish. With other research groups having professional soccer players as PHD students made it even easier.

At least the BBQ was totally ROCKIN. yay sausage!