Scheveningen & 2 Wins

This past Saturday Wauter and Henk invited me to go to Scheveningen (i cannot even begin to try and say this word) which is a town right on the beach. We didnt go until around 8 or 9pm but with how late is stays light here that really wasnt an issue. We parked in a parking garage and walked towards the water. It is like a boardwalk with tons of bars and places to dance, and more of the same lounging areas on the beach as Hoek van Holland. They asked if I wanted to go down on the beach and of course my reply was yes. As soon as we got to the bottom of the stairs and where the cement met sand they stood there in their tennis shoes while I kept going in my flip flops. They asked if I was seriously going to walk on the beach and I said yes now lets go, so of course I won and they had to walk in the sand with their tennis shoes, but I told them it was their fault for wearing tennis shoes to the beach. We walked down to the water and I took more pictures of the water, and the pier that we were by.  They kept making fun of me for being a tourist and kept telling me to "take picture" in an asian accent. Very funny. Then I saw a lighthouse down by the harbor where the boats came in and I made them walk all the way down so I could take a picture of it. By then it was dark and they turned the light on in the lighthouse but I couldnt get a good picture of it :[  The only sad thing about the beach is that it was absoloutely covered in trash. They dont pick up after themselves and there arent trash cans down near the water so they all just leave their garbage. Pretty sad. We then started walking back to the pier where we had walked down at and decided to go up and sit down and have a drink.  We walked by tons of different restaurants/clubs and you could see them all start to transform into night clubs as it got later in the night. We walked past a place called Sea Life and I really want to go there before I leave and see the animals in there.  We finally left around 1:30am and got home around 2 I think. I immediately passed out because I was so tired and we had games the next day.

Sunday we had 2 away games against the Gryphons. It was about an hour drive away and boy was it hot yesterday. It has been consistently hot the past week but no one is complaining! We wore shorts yesterday in our games because a lot of the girls want to wear shorts and the only people who dont are the two of us that play in college and are used to pants.  We won both of our games. I pitched the first game, we won 3-0.  I had 8 strikeouts and 2 hits. No walks. This was the best hitting team so far...and by that I mean they stuck their bat out and swung with their eyes closed pretty well. The umpire was pretty horrible with calling balls and strikes and he called about 4 of our girls out at first when they were very safe, but oh well because we won anyway! I did not hit this game.  We won our second game in 5 innings with a score of 12-1.  Anja pitched this game and I played right field and hit. I didnt get any balls in right besides foul balls but I was just glad to be playing.  My first at bat I battled for a pretty long time before doing what I usually do and swinging at a ball for the 3rd stike. I was really mad at myself.  My second at bat I was determined to get a hit, so I worked on being more patient and sung the ABC's in my head while I waited for the pitcher to finally throw the ball and then try and let it come in. I hit a linedrive in almost the same spot as my double a few weeks ago..right over the shortstops glove for a single and an RBI.  I came around to score that inning as well. Thari got pictures of me on base. My third at bat I battled again and then popped up an outside pitch, which I keep doing and its really frustrating. It was a very high pop fly to right field and it hit the right fielders glove and then she dropped it so I got lucky and was safe. We were very excited about the wins, getting close and closer to that second place spot!! Later at home last night we were talking in the garden and Frans said if we get in the top 2 we move up to the very top level next year and that I would have to come back. Margreet said I dont have to do anything I dont want to do, I just laughed and told them I didnt think I was ready to be done playing softball so we would see. It would be fun to grow with the team and see another level. I think these girls could handle it, we have a pretty great hitting and fielding team. I feel lucky to be here. Anyway, Ill post some pics of the game yesterday. Margreet wasnt at the game to take pics so I only got some of the 2nd game. No plans today besides watching Hollands game at 4pm here. Tomorrow night the 2nd softball team that I am helping coach has a game so I will be going to the club early to give a pitching lesson before we warm up then I  will coach first base again. Ill let you know how the girls do! Hope everyone is doing well. Hugs and Kisses!! xoxo

-Olivia

<--haha i love this pic bec of how awesome my face is. such a beauty.

Small World

Sooooo Wednesday we watched the U.S. soccer team play...that was a looong game. We were sitting down to eat dinner when they went into the additional time and finally scored a goal. When they did Margreet got so excited she hit me in the arm and it scared me! hahaha. Lotte and I are both cheering for U.S. and Holland. After dinner I went over to the fields and gave lessons to 3 different girls and then the 2nd girls team had practice. It was my turn to run the practice and I didnt plan anything so I just made it up as I went. Didn't seem to be a problem though. It went pretty well, I just need to work on my hitting to the outfield..I almost killed an infielder like 4 times. haha. After that I was supposed to get a ride home from Frans but he had a meeting at the club that hadn't even started yet so I decided that it would be a good time for me to run home from the fields. I wanted to run earlier in the day but it has been so warm this week there was no way I was doing it during the day. Even at 9:15pm it was warm. I could've called Margreet for a ride home but I needed to do some physical activity.

Yesterday it was so warm that I put on my bathing suit and went and sat out in the garden and read the book I got from the library on wednesday. We had practice earlier last night so that we could finish and all go into the cantine at the fields and watch Holland's game. There were only 6 of us there but it was fun. I am now a shortstop..hahaha. My arm starts aching all the time when I throw overhand though..idk whats wrong with it. I feel like its tendinitis since thats what I have on basically every part of my right side already. It gets so bad that I cant lift my arm or put it into a fist. I finally stopped myself and put some ice on my elbow but it was already too late, I pushed it a little too hard. We did some hitting and then we were done and went up to watch the game with everyone. It was packed with people who come just to watch it.  Everyone was in Orange but me, I was in all pink! hahaha. I had some beers with Frans and everytime Holland scores they send around a shot of some orange stuff that tastes like orange soda but with some liquor. No idea what it is but it tastes pretty good. I stood in the back by the door to get some air because it was so stuffy inside and a girl from our team named Jennifer was smoking cigs standing there so we started up a convo for about 45 minutes. Welll....we finally got around to talking about her mom and how her mom is American and they live here and her mom goes back every year to visit family and what not. I asked her where her mom was from and she said "I dont know if you will know it. Most people dont. Roseville, California" ...I didnt even let her get through saying California before I freaked out and was like THATS WHERE IM FROM!!!!!!!!! Im still in shock that all the way in Holland I met someone who is from the area I grew up. It completely blew my mind. haha. I told her I was from Colfax and she said she'd ask her mom about it but she knew where Auburn was..I said that was close enough. Seriously so funny though..as soon as she said Roseville I attacked her. hahaha. So im going to have to go meet her mom, which will be nice because her mom speaks english and I guess shes not so good at dutch haha. They live near us in Delft where I visited my first week here.

Anyway, she left at half time and then I took pics of everyone around who was outside. I'll post some of the pics. After the game was over (Holland won 2-1) Frans, Lotte and I went home.  We were all sitting in the living room when Frans got texts from Henk and Wouter asking if they could come over and have a beer with me. So they came over with Reineer and Frans and Lotte went to bed. Me, Wouter, Henk, Reineer, Niels, and Elmo stayed up until a little after 2am talking and drinking a bit..well mostly they drank and I sat here trying not to fall asleep because that was way past my bedtime.

I have already started recruiting people to celebrate 4th of July with me and Amanda when she gets here on the 4th. I told them all they have to wear red white and blue and they say thats no problem bec thats the colors of their flag. We also planned a trip to Amsterdam on the 6th because we assume we will be too hungover on the 5th to be traveling. I am very excited for Amanda to get here!!! Today I am just doing some laundry and hanging out. I might go on an adventure on my bike..we'll see. Tonight we will go watch Niels and Elmos softball game at the club and then tonight we are going out and this time Elmo and Niels are coming for once so it should be pretty fun. Hopefully I dont fall asleep before since this time we arent going to Rotterdam until 12:30...ugh.

Hoek van Holland

<--(look you can go to NY if you want! hahaha)

On Monday I went over to the Orioles where Lotte's school was holding a sports day, playing softball and soccer.  They invited me over to throw for the kids to see. So I went over there and threw to Lotte while Frans talked about me in dutch.  Afterwards when it ended all the kids met together and the teacher in charge gave me a bag of candy for helping and then made me talk in front of everyone..sooooo awkward. I always feel awkward when everyone over here is ALWAYS asking me if this is the same level of play that I played at.  I always say no, which is very very true but I feel bad. Anyway, I also got 20 euros from Frans for doing that but then I immediately went and spent it on putting minutes on my phone they gave me over here because it was almost out of euros and I have to be able to text my friends here!! hahaha.

Later on Frans took Lotte and I to stay the night at our coach's house.  She lives in Hoek van Holland (which they say Hook of Holland).  It is right by the ocean so I was very excited!!  On the way there Frans showed me where tons of semi's were coming out because they had all arrived on ships.  Most shipping for Europe comes in through Rotterdams harbor. Pretty cool.  We also saw tons of signs for England because it is so close.  It's about a 6 1/2 hour ferry ride Gyselle said.  Gyselle and her husband Ian are foster parents so they have a pretty large house and 4 foster children at the moment as well as 2 of their own kids.  We had spaghetti for dinner and OH MY GOSH it was the best meal i've had so far. It tasted like something i've actually had before. Im pretty sure it was homemade sauce and it was so delicious...tasted like something Paul Greco would make :] haha. We just hungout that night and the next morning we walked to the beach.  Gyselle, Jamie (her step son from Ian), Lotte, Me, and their yellow lab dog named Roxy walked the 20 min trail to the beach.  We went through a beautiful little forrest on the way and then we stopped to see the old bunkers that are still there from World War II. I took some pictures..pretty cool. She said you can walk through them but there are tons of needles in them.

Next we finally got to the beach and I almost cried I was so excited. The sand felt so good and familiar and I have to admit I loved having the company of Roxy..she is such a lab! She is 1 1/2 years old and so precious. I creeped on her with lots of pictures.  I immediately walked down to the water and put my feet in.  It wasnt much colder then the beach in California during the fall so I wasnt too shocked by the cold.  I took a shell home from the beach as a souvenir.

After playing in the water for a while with Roxy we walked down the beach a bit further and walked up to one of the many places to eat/drink/lay out. It was so cool, it felt like a mini resort on the beach open to all. We got something to drink there and sat in the sun for a while before finally walking a shorter way back to Gyselle's.

On the way back we passed more bunkers that had been turned into a museum, but it was closed or closed down..not sure which. Took some pics of that too...

We hungout at Gyselles after that and her 5 year old daughter Ashley came home from school so we went in their small pool and sat there while Ashley and her friend proceeded to splash us the entire time..YAY.  Frans came and picked us up around 4..I had fun but was relieved to see him. It was nice to be home again.  We had dinner then went off to practice and pitching lessons. I was told at the very last minute..or rather I asked and then was told..that I was giving lessons last night which I was not aware of. I had 5 pitchers at one time. Way too much. I was a little frustrated but oh well..it worked out. We had a fun practice just the 5 of us who went (tuesdays are optional) and then we sat around with the 2nd mens softball team and had some drinks (adult ones :] ) I took some pictures of us sitting around hanging out.  I tried my first "pink" beer..which is a mixture of pink wine and beer. It was pretty good..rather sweet.  I had some good quality time with one of the older ladies Barbara who had me drink the pink beer and she also knows how to give massages so she is going to be massaging my arm for me after practice and games. My arm will be very thankful for that!!  In one of the pictures you will see a boy with tons of bottles by him..they are all empty from everyone but we decided to frame him and took a picture that made him look like he a drinking problem..it was hilarious!  Probably the most fun i've had after practice in a very long time.

Today I am going to back to the library with Lotte where last wednesday I checked out a book The Associate by John Grisham and proceeded to finish it by saturday. It was a good book with a dumb ending. Read it.  Then tonight I have a few more pitching lessons, then im helping coach the 2nd softball (womens) practice. The coach asked me to run practice tonight so that will be fun. Then thursday I have another lesson to give before we practice.  We are practicing an hour earlier so that we can finish and all go watch Hollands game in the cantine. Should be fun.  Our coach will be gone for the next 2 weeks in holiday in France.  They are finally allowed to go to the beach but no one is allowed to swim because of the possibility of dead bodies from the flooding. We have our first away games this sunday so it will be interesting to see how the umpires call my pitches. Anyway, this is a lot for one day..soak it all in people!!! Talk to you sooner next time.

-Olivia xoxo

On a Roll...

This past weekend we went on Saturday and watched Holland's game in the World Cup at the cantine at the Orioles. I can't remember who they even played but we won!! Its funny because I honestly could care less about soccer but when I'm watching it I found myself totally getting in to it. Lotte and I are both cheering for the U.S and Holland. I cant just pick one..I feel its ok for me to just cheer for both! haha. So on Sunday we had 2 games against the top team in our league. They had not lost a game yet, just tied a few. We went into the weekend in 4th place and this team in 1st. I cannot even say their name but they are Zwijndrecht.  Anja pitched the first game and we tied 4-4. We really should've won but we left a lot of runners on base. I was in relief for that game but I never had to go in so I just sat there freezing my ass off.  It was windy, sprinkling and it felt like it might snow. I had my earwarmers on, 2 coats and my handwarmers.  Apparantly they dont use handwarmers over here because they were all very curious about what they were and when I let them feel how warm they were they all wanted some. Over here you only play 6 innings no matter what so if you tie, then you tie. You go off of points, so if you win you get 2 points..if you tie each team gets 1 point. We won the second game 1-0. I threw a one hitter, no walks..not sure how many strikeouts  but there were quite a few.  I didnt hit this game because my hamstring was tight from pulling it earlier in the week and since it was so cold my coach didnt want me to push it and seriously injur myself.  Either way it was nice to give this team their first loss. We moved to 3rd place now and the team in front of us is Sparta/Feynord who we swept my first weekend here. Because of our slow start before I was here there is no way for us to get 1st place because we cannot catch up in points but we do have a chance at 2nd place and if we place in the top 2 then we get to move up to the top level next year.  Afterwards we watched the baseball team for a bit before going home.  The family went to Margreets parents house for her 80th birthday dinner and I stayed home and watched Gladiator with Elmo and Sinan.  Here are the pictures that Margreet took at the games..

---they got the saying on the banner from pictures I took of our locker room at Redlands. I thought it was cute.

First of Many..

Sooo its been a while since I've updated so I am going to break them up into a few posts so I can include some pictures and what not. Anyway...last friday, June 18th I went to the "ghetto" of Rotterdam with Margreet. She wanted to take me there to show me the very first windmill.  On the way she told me about how it got the name Rotterdam, the river that goes through it was named the Rotter and people used to travel just by water (since we are below sea level that is why there is water everywhere) and after they started to build they named it Rotterdam.  We drove through a not so nice part of Rotterdam where asians, arabs and blacks mostly live and she showed me the apartment she used to live in.  She told me about how she used to sleep with a gun under her pillow because the apartments behind hers were empty which meant that the "bad guys" (as she calls them) would move in there and do all their buisness.  She lived on the top floor and one night she heard them walking on the roof and after telling her dad about it he immediately moved her out of there.  Her dad is a very successful man who was a doctor and is still playing tennis to this day.  Her mother just turned 80 on monday.  Her mom was held in a Japanese camp during the war so she has seen a lot in her lifetime.

As we went closer to the windmill there was a draw bridge and right before we were going to leave later a ship came through so we got to see it go up and the huge barge go by us. I took pictures!!

After we parked and started walking down to the windmill we passed by where many old boats were on the water and people live on them still and can take them out.

When we got down to the windmill Margreet was sad because it wasnt turning that day..there were guys there doing maintenance on it. But it really is so huge...when you see it from far away you don't realize it until you are right below it. We got to walk inside and look up and it just keeps going and going and going.  We walked all the way around it and Margreet was telling me how the dutch people would trick the Germans by having someone up at the top and when they saw Germans coming they would turn the windmill to a certain angle so that those hiding Jews would know and could safely hide them until the Germans left.  After the Germans left they would turn the windmill back to the original angle and they would know that they were gone. Very clever if you ask me.

***remember that you can see any picture better by clicking on it!!