Vielleicht hat sie der eine oder andere bereits auf dem Platz oder im Clubhaus angetroffen. Seit einigen Wochen sind die beiden aus Argentinien stammenden Vicky und Seba Gäste in unserem THC und bereichern uns nicht nur sportlich, sondern auch in der Gemeinschaft. In den nächsten Wochen werden sie immer mal wieder von ihren Eindrücken aus Deutschland und dem Clubleben im THC berichten.

All countries must load, with greater or lesser ease, the stereotypes that the rest impose on them. “Bratwurst and bread eaters”, “beer drinkers”, “techno fanatics”, “cold-hearted and calculating-minded”, “Oktoberfest lovers”, among others; were some of the preconceptions we might find in the “How German people are” catalog that our friends and family would give us just before the trip. Now we’ve been in Hanau for almost two months, and we would like to give you our personal impression on these German conventions.

To begin with, we should introduce ourselves to the people in the 1. THC Hanauer family who hadn’t met us yet. We are Casini Sebastian, 25 years old, journalism student, hockey player; and Conejero Victoria, 23 years old, lawyer student. We were both born in Quilmes, nearby the Capital Federal in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The idea of this journey began a few months ago when we were both studying and “office” working, finally got tired and decided to make a change in our lives. We always wanted to travel, exploring new places, cultures and learning new languages and this time seemed just the right one, so we started planning. Here is where hockey takes part in this story because it is one of the things that led us here. Seba came to EU to play hockey in Spain for a whole year in 2016 and he had the most amazing experience so that was pretty much what we wanted. Knowing hockey people, get in touch with their culture and keep on practicing this sport. On the other hand, Vicky used to be a goalie but she ceased playing one and a half years ago. She wouldn’t play but was really keen on taking part in this experience. We started our research for clubs, contracts, jobs offers but it was the middle of the season so it got a little complicated. You can call it destiny or whatever but, during the job research, Vicky got in contact with this family somewhere in Hanau, Germany (not a clue of where it was). Wiebke, the mother, presented themselves as a “hockey lovers family” and they had experience with foreign hockey players. So we seized this opportunity and finally, Seba would be AuPair for them and would also play at the local club while Vicky could be working also as an AuPair, babysitting, teaching Spanish/English and improving her German. So we set it all up, we would arrive in March and start this adventure.

Two months later, we can say that we are very glad that we decided to come here. It was not so far from our arrival that we realized that we should disclaim the “cold-hearted” people issue. The family gave us (and still does, every day) the warmest Wilkommen into their house and lives. In the very first week of training, Seba was already invited over to watch some footballl and most of the team members would try to make Seba part of their conversations and moments by speaking in English.

In the second topic, we would place the “beer drinkers”. There’s not much I can say about it, we just know by now that if we want to make the team happy, just buy beers to the kabine. The first week of training, bring beers. The first score, bring beers. It’s your birthday, definitely bring beers. Seba really thinks Schlappeseppel should be one of the team’s sponsor. And to conclude, we could also state the fact that perhaps Germans are “calculating-mind” people. And that they have rules and norms which they abide them. The bus actually leaves the station at “10:08”, not one minute before or after. The punctuality and the discipline (we hope we don’t have to pay a lot of money for the “being late to trainings” fines at the end of the season) are the pillars of the efficiency that characterize this country among our native country (and many others) eyes. This being said, we would like to bring out that we also heard that the lack of flexibility, sometimes is in fact quite disturbing. Here is where we would like to trade some of the German “discipline”, for the Argentinian “flexibility” to try to match things.

Summarizing this first article, we would like to remark that we actually love Argentina and was harsh for us to leave our friends and family. But how things are happening for us now and the way we are feeling integrated and being part of this great 1. THC Hanauer family makes us miss less our country and all that we’ve left there. We will always be thankful for that.