Dawgs Abroad: Germany and Saudi Arabia

ArmyJeff gives us his stories about keeping up with the Dawgs abroad. He's currently stationed in Germany, and he also talks about tuning in from Saudi Arabia.

My name is Jeff and I'm a UGA grad, class of '99. I'm in the army and right now stationed in Germany. I don't know of any other Dawg fans stationed here where I am.

Germany
We get the Armed Forces Network (AFN) over here they broadcast American programming for us, sports included. They're really good about showing most of the Georgia games. At least the major ones on CBS or ESPN. It's rare to get one that was on JP Sports.

[image: Not exactly SEC country]

I don't know of any places out in the town that would show the games, or have a gathering of alumni/fans. I don't think Germany has an alumni group. Last time I checked the nearest Bulldog club is in Denmark, and that's pretty far away from me.

Saudi Arabia
During 2002, my unit was deployed to Saudi Arabia. The Tennessee game was delayed until the following afternoon. All day I had avoided all news and sports coverage like the plague.


The Saudis are more of a hoops people than a football people.

All my friends were teasing me and telling different scores and such. I knew I had the afternoon off so I could watch the game, and I didn't want any surprises. Well, I was in this woman's office that morning signing some paperwork. She had the radio on and it began to announce college scores from the day before. So I started fake coughing and making noise so I couldn't hear it. She looked at me like I was a freak, so I had to explain myself.

She said she understood because she was the same way about American Idol.

Later during the season. I was watching the Auburn game shown live. I had gone to bed and set my alarm for probably 2:30 in the morning or so. All of us there had our own rooms which had TVs in them. So I get up and I'm watching the game.


Image: Si.com
Of course it was a tense match-up throughout the game. Then comes Michael Johnson's 4th down TD grab to win the game and play for the SEC Championship. I went crazy, jumping up and down, yelling my tail off. I thought the walls to our building were pretty thick and that no one could hear, but apparently the guy in the next room heard me and thought he had overslept and someone was coming to chew his ass.

Man, it was great. -- ArmyJeff

Thanks Jeff! PWD


Note 1: If you know of Bulldog Clubs/Gatherings in Germany shoot me an email, and I'll relay that info to Jeff. I'm at decaturdawg [at) hotmail [dot) com.)

Note 2: Neither Jeff nor the US military is responsible for these photos or captions.

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