Let the Media Know Why YOU LOVE City FC: A Helpful Guide to the Media's Twitter, Facebook, and Email

The awesomeness that ensued after the last media blast was epic, DCFC videos saw over 25,000 views in a weekend.  Mostly thanks to the efforts of Detroit City FC itself, Northern Guard, and fans from around the Motor City (and beyond!) who unashamedly displayed their love for Le Rouge on Twitter, Facebook, and emails.  

As you should know, City is heading to the playoffs.  And the playoffs are being hosted by City.  This means that July 13 and 14 should be the loudest, proudest, and insanest weekend at Cass Tech.  You know that.  I know that.  But does the rest of Detroit know?  I don't think so!

I spent the last few hours utilizing my expensive public relations degree by putting together a fairly comprehensive media list for local tourism organization, news aggregators, local news, sports journalists, soccer fans, and national media.  Please make my procrastination worthwhile and use it.  

Ideally, you'll take a few minutes to think of why you love City so much, what it means to Detroit, and why a journalist should care.  If not, I've provided a few ready made Tweets and Facebook posts for ease of media inundation (with the help of fellow hooligans Amanda and Ryan).

If you don't have Twitter, there are no excuses...I've provided Facebook pages AND email addresses.  Bringing your friends to the game?  Peer pressure them to send at LEAST one Tweet.  Do your parents enjoy LeRouge?  I'm sure they have an email account.  Sending out one tweet a day means you'd contact each organization twice.  

Commence Tweeting, Facebooking and emailing!  (P.S. Don't just copy past the Tweets...make sure you direct them to one of the MANY Twitter handles supplied below!)

Twitter Ideas

• Detroit City, we adore you.  Detroit City, for you we sing!  UNDEFEATED @DetroitCityFC hosts playoffs July 13-14. Don't miss out!

• @DetroitCityFC is undefeated AND hosting playoffs July 13-14.  GREAT place to see what's happening in the D!

• There's a movement rumbling in Detroit, it's called @DetroitCityFC best fans in the NPSL, undefeated, AND hosting playoffs!

• Fire in Detroit?  Just @NorthernGuard riled up for @DetroitCityFC playoffs July 13-14! http://tinyurl.com/q5f4cnb

• No more Lions, Wings, or Pistons...the Tigers don't play 'til late...what's a Detroiter to do?  Check out @DetroitCityFC!

• Sing and dance your heart out with supporters for UNDEFEATED @DetroitCityFC in the playoffs July 13-14!

Facebook/Email Ideas

• Why're so many Detroiters singing?  Detroit City Football Club is undefeated and hosting playoffs at their homefield.  With arguably the best fans in the league, we invite you to join us July 13-14 to see what the fuss is all about!   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7fS2xjQkd8

• One of the best stories about Detroit this year, Detroit City FC undefeated and hosting playoffs.  Smoke bombs, chants, flags, and more...you don't want to miss it.  Come on down to Cass Tech July 13-14! http://tinyurl.com/q9ko7se

• Tickets to World Cup, airfare to Brazil, hotel in Rio=$$$$$$$$$.  Why travel when you can have a real soccer experience in your backyard? $15 gets you a weekend pass to great soccer!  The rowdiest fans in Detroit are gonna bring down the house July 13-14 because Detroit City FC is hosting the playoffs!  Check out the undefeated Le Rouge and their growing number of supporters! http://tinyurl.com/p7tknk4

• Love Detroit?  So do we!  Grab a pregame beer with us at Harry's and find out what makes Detroit City so special! Then, join us on the field, against the backdrop of downtown to cheer on our beloved Le Rouge...undefeated and hosting the playoffs!  July 13-14 at Cass Tech!  Hope to see you there.  http://tinyurl.com/oomwy9g

• Sad to be out of hockey, bastketball, AND football season?  Don't know what to do when the Tigers play late?  Check out the action at Cass Tech where the undefeated (9-0-0) Detroit City Football Club will be hosting playoffs July 13-14.  It's an afternoon that will NOT disappoint.  www.detcityfc.com%2Fgreat-lakes-txts%2F%3F___store%3Ddefault&h=aAQG1TFT4

• There aren't many places where you can sing, dance, watch sports, and support local Detroit businesses.  Detroit City FC games have all of that.  Yelling, singing, dancing, and above all the Detroit spirit are welcomed with open arms in the supporter section.  Don't believe me?  Check out the video!  League playoffs will be in town July 13-14...check us out!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7fS2xjQkd8

Best Chances (I.E. If you're only going to send ONE tweet, send here!)

@HammerFox2  Jennifer Hammond's Twitter---already covered DCFC once, invite her back!---Channel2

@JKatzenstein Sports Columnist---wrote article about DCFC already Email him!---DetNews

@HuffPostDetroit ---Mentioned us briefly, invite 'em back!

@RobParkerLocal4 Sports journalist---Channel4

@LarryLage  AP Reporter who covers Detroit sports

jeremya@wdiv.com Sports editor Channel---Channel4

@TerryFoster971 Sports Columnist AND soccer fan---Radio 971

@tvnewzguy Multimedia journalist and self-proclaimed sports fan---Dave LewAllen Channel7

@BradGalli Local Sports reporter Email him! ---Channel7

@MitchAlbom Majorly awesome columnist ---Freep

@DrewSharp Sports columnist---Freep

Sports@freepress.com Straight to the sport's editor's desk

@FoxSportsDet ---could get some soccer coverage here or here @FOXSoccer

Local Organizations

@VisitDetroit

@PositiveDetroit

@DetroitUnspun

@DetroitChamber

@DigDowntown

@DetroitNewsNow

@Hour_Detroit

@MLive
@TheD_Zone

Channel 2

Fox's Facebook

@Fox2news
@HammerFox2  Jennifer Hammond's Twitter---already covered DCFC once, invite her back!

dan.miller@foxtv.com  Director of Sports

Channel 4
Click On Detroit's Facebook
@clickondetroit
@local4news
@berniesmilovitz Sports journalist
@RobParkerLocal4 Sports journalist
@ClickonHalston Channel 4 News editor
@ClickonDave Channel 4 News editor
jeremya@wdiv.com Sports editor

Channel 7
WXYZ's Facebook
@wxyzdetroit
@GLewisWXYZ local news reporter
@TomLeyden Sports director
@tvnewzguy Multimedia journalist and self-proclaimed sports fan
@BradGalli Local Sports reporter
@DavidSolanoWXYZ Sports journalist
bgalli@wxyz.com Local Sports reporter
tleyden@wxyz.com  Sports director

CBS Detroit
CBS's Facebook
@CBSDetroit
@WWJ950
@DanaJacobson Host of CBS Sports

PublicAffairs@wwjtv.com Community events notification

Detroit News
Detroit News' Facebook
@DetroitNews
@DetroitSports
@BobWojnowski  Sports Columnist
@TerryFoster971 Sports Columnist AND soccer fan
@JKatzenstein Sports Columnist---wrote article about DCFC already
katzenstein@detroitnews.com  Sports columnist who wrote aforementioned article
sherm@detroitnews.com Pam Shermeyer is multimedia director
placiura@detroitnews.com Phil Placiura is sports editor

Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press's Facebook
@freep
@freepsports
@Freepmitch Mitch Albom's columns
@MitchAlbom Majorly awesome columnist
@DrewSharp Sports columnist
Sports@freepress.com Straight to the editor's desk

Local Radio
@TerryFoster971
@971theticketxyt
#TheOfficial89X
@Cagno
@101wrif
@MeltdownWRIF
@DaveandChuck
@Checkthefreak
@Lisawaay
@crainsdetroit

WADL
WADL's Facebook
@WADLDetroit

National Media

@Stareagle Dave Hogg, AP reporter and City fan
@Ash_Detroit Editor of Huffington Post Detroit

@HuffPostDetroit

@FoxSportsDet

@FSDetroit_Girls

@LarryLage  AP Reporter who covers Detroit sports

@ESPNFC_Soccer

@BestSoccerShow

@NBCSportsSoccer

@BobbySoccerRep ESPN reporter
@AlexiLalas Soccer commentator

Great Expectations: Traveling with Friends and Family

Over the my year in Poland, I've been blessed with the opportunity to travel extensively around the continent (and 5 days in Morocco!).  These trips have been with new friends, long-time friends, family, and solo.  Traveling solo seems to strike the fear of God into many people, however I've found that traveling with friends and family can be significantly more difficult!

The upside of traveling with friends is always having someone to snap a picture, delight over an unexpected foreign treat, and never eating alone.  I went with a group of Fulbrighters to Morocco and it so much fun to watch the sunset on Marrakesh as we listened to the Islamic call to prayer on a rooftop terrace with other Americans who enjoy the unknown as much as I do.  My sister and I explored the mountains of Zakopane, Poland together...a six hour hike that would have been pretty boring in the rain on my own.

The downside?  Everyone has different expectations for traveling...various budgets, sleeping habits, food preferences, and sightseeing priorities.  My sister can go a whole day on one meal, whereas I want to eat three decent meals.  She was happy with one or two sights a day, I usually explore for a solid twelve hours.  In Morocco, some of us wanted to eat in nice restaurants while others preferred to eat in the market square.

One of my last trips before returning home was to Alesund, Norway with two American and two Polish girls.  The friend that organized the trip suggested everyone meet up beforehand to discuss our expectations.  This was an INCREDIBLE idea!  It allowed all of us to discuss what vacations and sightseeing mean to us.

If you're going to be traveling with a lot of people, I highly recommend you discussing some of the following items:

1. Overal expectation for the trip
2. Time for leaving the hotel/hostel in the morning
3. Specific sights everyone wants to see
4. Eating habits
5. Comfortability with divide and conquer

I consider myself a pretty low key planner so this seemed like overkill at first.  But, I promise it was worth it in the end because we had a basic understanding of where everyone was coming from! And because we talked about these things beforehand, it was easy to call for an expectations check when we were trying to make a decision.  While Norway wasn't completely free of someone being frustrated with decisions, it significantly alleviated many of our potential problems.  

Reintegration: The Reality of Reverse Culture Shock

Three years ago, I was hacking away at life through the haze of reverse culture shock, sometimes teetering on the brink of depression.  Someone mentioned reverse culture shock briefly at the study abroad orientation, but I laughed it off.  After I lived in a foreign country for 5 months, I was going to be HAPPY to be home.

False.

I got off the plane in May, and maybe around Halloween, I finally looked at life and felt like I could be completely happy.  It took almost as long as I had been abroad to finally fully reintegrate into my native culture.  Part of the problem is I had little awareness of the potential issues and no way to successfully work through it.  Also, I just really love Poland and I knew my heart would always be yearning to return.

After one year abroad, the idea of flying home and going through those feelings again is terrifying.  Adapting to Poland was super easy in 2010 and moderately difficult this time, but going home wasn't fun or exciting.  It felt difficult, predictable, and sometimes dull.  

A very good friend gave me one of the best analogies for understanding culture acquisition. Your native culture is blue and the foreign culture is yellow. When you first get to the foreign culture, you stick out a lot. As time progresses, you adapt a little bit and add in your new home's behaviors, gradually becoming more yellow. However, your foundation is blue, so instead of becoming yellow you turn green. When you go back to your native country, everyone expects you to be blue still, and they don't understand green.

After spending a year and a half of my adult life in Poland (30%!), it's safe to say I've turned a bit green.  Perhaps even greener than I suspect in some ways.  I've adapted to Polish customer service, Polish restaurant timing, Polish menus, Polish trains, and the Babcia Stare.  I have no problem paying a few zloty for a public restroom, think nothing of men in speedos, and prefer butter on my sandwiches.  

So I offer a few tips to battle slash avoid the post-abroad blues.  These are from my experience in 2010, and what I anticipate facing in the next two months of my own life.  

1. Be ready to give succinct, short answers.   Yes, your highschool/college/coworker friends missed you, but they're not interested in a half hour long spiel about the way a camel almost drooled on your half exposed calf as you road into a Saharan sunset.  
2. Things are going to be different.  Maybe you dealt with the death of a family member, or serious medical problems in your family from abroad.  Perhaps your parents sold your childhood home, or your best friend moved away.  In real life, these things kind of gradually dawn on us.  When it happens and you're on the other side of the world, the reality doesn't hit until you're home and sometimes the rush of emotions is overwhelming.  Take the time to sort them out.  
3. It's okay to move on.  Did your friend turn into someone you don't recognize while you were gone?  That realization can sting, but moving on from a friendship isn't the end of the world.  Throughout life friends come and go, whether or not you go abroad.
4. Find people who appreciate traveling.  Mom and dad or grandma or your best friend might appreciate looking through your photos, but chances are they haven't experienced the same lengthy cultural immersion.  Find someone who has traveled for long periods of time and talk to them, go to coffee.  Some of my most cathartic conversations were reminiscing with other study abroad returnees about our host countries.
5. Do not fall into the "I hate America" trap.  It's easy after being abroad (especially from my friends who went to 3rd world countries) to start hating on everything American.  Don't forget, you started 100% blue and it's only through a fantastic opportunity that you learned how another part of the world lives.  It doesn't mean everything in the U.S. is right or wrong, sometimes things are just different.
6.  BREATHE!  If your university experience was like mine, you raced nonstop from meetings to class to group meetings, and back to club meetings.  Returned home at 11 pm to start on your homework for the next day.  Sleep five or six hours and repeat.  Studying abroad, I learned to relax, enjoy quite time, and just love being alive!  Our class schedules were lighter than American universities, plus there weren't clubs offered.  So when I returned back to my university, everyone expected me to be energizer bunny and I couldn't keep up...which led to an epic meltdown midsemester.

I'm hoping that my awareness of the difficult transition will help me work though it much faster this time around.  The dangers of reverse culture shock are incredibly real.  It sucks sometimes, almost like morning the loss of a dear friend.  As time goes on, you miss your host country less frequently, but there is a part of you that is perpetually altered for having been immersed in something different for so long.