Ann Arbor

We were lucky enough to arrive just in time for American football season. Nancy told us there would be a game on Saturday and invited us to her hospital group's tailgating party.
We also asked Ember, one of Birte's good friends from her time in Ann Arbor, and she was right on board. Somehow she even managed to get us free tickets! Thank you, Ember!
The city goes crazy on game days. Imagine 109,000 people in a stadium in a city with a population of only 120,000 🤯.
Near the stadium, there are tailgating parties in many yards, in all the public parks, and even on the golf course. Many homeowners are renting out their driveways and front yards as parking lots. You can smell the barbecue on every corner and see people throwing footballs across parking lots and streets. Some people bring their own TVs and put them in the back of their cars to watch the live broadcast before the game starts.
After three hours of tailgating and playing cornhole, we walked into the stadium. It was pretty impressive to walk into. Since we waited almost until the game started, the stadium was already pretty full. Coming out of the tunnel it got loud and bright. Blue and yellow everywhere. The marching band, dance groups, and cheerleaders were firing up the crowd, t-shirts were being thrown in the front rows, and in the background you could see the large number of football players entering the stadium to the roar of the fans and a collective chant of "Go Blue!
The strange thing about an American football game is that there is simply no break for the senses. The game keeps stopping all the time, but as soon as the referee blows his whistle, the cheerleaders, dancers, a Frisbee-catching dog, and the huuuuge stadium screens take over to continue the constant entertainment. More than once we missed individual plays in a round because there was just so much other stuff going on 😵‍💫🙃.
It was an intense and really fun experience.

On our way home from the stadium, we stopped for ice cream to cool off. The sun had been shining mercilessly all day, except in the morning when it looked like it was going to start raining any minute, causing us to forget to put on sunscreen. A mistake we would see and feel for days to come...Okumaya devam et