Deutsch kebab

Nothing could have been more ironic than my dining experience earlier. There I was, clumsily eating my gefluegel (translation: anything that flies?) kebab, smearing my face with the joghurt sauce and meat that occasionally drips and drops to the plate I strategically placed below my falafel, while trying to understand the primetime news beaming from a flatscreen TV. Nothing special, probably most would say. It is today.

An hour away from Freiburg stands a football stadium in Basel, where two nations will battle it out for a slot in the finals of the Euro 2008. The game between Germany and Turkey will be like a sports civil war that starts in less than an hour from now.

Turks are one of the major immigrants in Germany, and to whom do you think they are giving their support? The question may even be more difficult to answer for those who are of German-Turkish descent.

The news I was watching highlighted the irony of my dining experience. The reporter was in a public area and asking Germans whom they will be supporting in tonight's game. I shifted my sight from the TV, and saw some Germans ordering their doener from the Turkish waiters behind the counter. The reporter was poking at the wrong place. He should have taken a break and grabbed a doener from a nearby Kebab place.

10:45 pm update: Germany won against Turkey with a final score of 3-2!