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