German tabloid papers

The tabloids are a big part of life in Germany. They colorfully decorate sidewalk corners with big screaming headlines. "PRICE SHOCK! ICE CREAM NOW 2 EUROS!" (yes that was real). They are kind of fun to read though. Lots of bold text, and schadenfreude.

Another "curious" aspect of these papers is that they always have a nude girl at the bottom of the front page. Usually one or two more inside (okay, yes, I looked!). Apologies to sensitive viewers for the nudity, but I had to share one of these for the SHOCK! value:



The text that goes along with the picture is creepier than the picture itself. For this one:

Valerie's dream became true!

For a long time temp worker Valerie (20) from Freiburg wanted to pose for erotic photos. Now her dream has become true - in a fairy tale scene at a historical park, between colorful flowers and trees. Valerie (who is 1.70 meters tall) said: "My boyfriend Torston thought the photos were cool!" Today, Valerie has to go back to work in order to pay the 400 euro a month rent for her 40 square meter apartment.

Valerie (Hobby: swimming) lives alone in her 40 square meter apartment.

Why so much about her apartment? Weird...

A couple other boys and trains

Our kids love trains. So this story by an illustrator for the New York Times really hit home. His pre-school boys are really obsessed by trains. It's funny and sweet, check it out.

Munich half-marathon

With some folks from work, I ran in the half-marathon Sunday. Dreading the occasion a little bit, because I've slacked off on any running for the last month or so. The combination of hot weather and visit from Kris's parents gave me a lot of excuses! So I knew it would hurt a bit.

There were 17,000 runners. I was hoping to come in somewhere around 2 hours total time. It was definitely interesting running in a huge crowd. We headed north from the start at Marienplatz into the English Garden. The bulk of the run took place there, going up and down along different trails. I drank water a few times at way-stations. I also gave myself 3 one minute walk breaks. Somewhere after the half-way mark, my legs were running out of gas. Oh well, just have to crank through! I looked at my watch and got excited to maybe beat 2 hours, and that kept my pace up until the end. In the last minute I "sprinted" though my legs were so slow you probably couldn't tell the difference!

It paid off though...I came in with a time of 1:59. One minute under 2 hours!

Afterwards there was free, cold, alcohol-free beer. Only in Munich, eh?

Thanks to Assaf at work for organizing our participation!