Saints

Today was my last day helping out with the little girls from the Saints..which is another club nearby where Dorien coaches the younger team. I've been working with the pitchers over there for the past 3 weeks on Monday nights and although I don't always love every second of the frustration that may come with trying to teach pitching, I was very sad when the practice was over and I had to say goodbye to the girls. They presented me with a signed ball after the practice that they had all autographed for me and it was so special and also fun because the ball they use is so small that I forgot I once played with that size at one point. Thats another thing that makes it so special for me because I forget what I was like at that age and how my coordination must have been and what I was able to do and the size of the equipment I wore or used and it feels like it almost never happened sometimes because I haven't been around it that much. I am thankful that while being here I have had the opportunity to work with pitchers of all ages from 10-42 and I think it will make me a better coach someday...as well as the fact that my dad pointed out to me today that it is really good for my patience and if I made it out without strangling anyone then it was really helping me more in the long run :]

Rain Out

Well today we were supposed to play the top team in our league, Zwijndrecht at their field but it didn't end up happening. It has been storming here since thursday night with thunder and lightning and hard rain so everything is soaked. We had to wake up at 7:30 this morning to get ready for the game we didn't even know if we were going to play until Frans called the people and they said yes we were still playing. We reluctantly loaded up the cars and drove there wondering how the field would look since the fields at the Orioles had standing water on all of them. We pulled up to the field and it was all soaked with standing water and about 5 guys out there trying to "fix" it which was going nowhere. We stood there for about 10 minutes watching them until it started raining hard again and they just gave up and said nevermind. So the whole team went into the cantina and got some tea/coffee and talked for about an hour or so until we all left. It was Denise, our catchers, last day here in Holland since she has to fly back for her senior year of college in Georgia tomorrow.  We rescheduled the games for Oct 3rd so I guess its a good thing my flight doesnt leave until the 11th of October so that I wont miss any games, especially since these ones are HUGE for us and our placement in league.

While we were sitting drinking our tea, some of us were asking what we would do with our day now since we were awake and had no games to play and Lotte, Thari, Dorien and I decided to go see a movie together. We had quite an adventure driving around dropping off cars, changing and then getting lunch before ending up at the IMAX theater in Rotterdam but it was a day full of laughing and fun. We went and saw Step Up 3D and it was an ok movie. Not that great but I dont really know what I was expecting from it. Afterwards we all went to our own homes and it started storming and hasnt stopped as of now and its almost 9:30pm here. Im hoping the weather starts getting better so I can bike to the gym and Berkel tomorrow.  Here are pics from the theater today..

ME/DORIEN

Thari, Lotte, Me, Dorien

(yes I am purposely making this ridiculous face in this picture..I was delirious..it was a long day)

Anyway, I am very tired from today so I am going to try and get some sleep if the thunder/wind/loud rain will allow it. Hope you are all enjoying the WARMER weather in California. Doei!

-Olivia

Women's Fastpitch EuropeanCup

Today I went with Margreet and Lotte to Haarlem to watch the Women's Fastpitch EuropeanCup. It is with all the top teams from different countries and its about 2 weeks long. Tomorrow is the championship day. There were teams from Netherlands, Russia, Austria, Italy, Germany, Czech, Croatia, England, Sweden, Belgium, Spain and a few others. Today we watched games all day and the first game was between the Fiorini Forli from Italy versus Moskovia Marino from Russia. We sat on the first base side so that we could have the sun on our backs since it was finally a beautiful day. As we were sitting there and watching them warmup and get ready for the game to start I thought one of the girls on the Italian team looked familiar and I was right. It was Stacy Nelson, the pitcher from Florida. Her hair is what really gave her away. She didnt pitch this game but Italy beat Russia very easily.

Next we watched the Viladecans of Spain play the London Angels from Great Britain.  It was a pretty close game until the end when Spain beat London by I think 3 runs or so. We then left and got some food while we waited to watch another game at 6pm. We walked around the park a bit when we got back because we were so full and had time to kill. There were 2 different fields at this complex and they were both very nice. We walked over to the baseball field where all the teams warmup and we saw Stacy warming up pitching so we went and stood behind the fence and got to watch her warmup her pitches. It was pretty cool. Then you heard her ask her catcher "Was that pitch faster than the others? Oh and are my shorts awkwardly high?" haha it was pretty funny. We then stayed over by the 2nd field and watched the beginning of Stacy's game where Italy played Russia again. They easily beat them 4-0 and she was pretty much untouchable. It was really cool to watch her throw in person since I saw so much of her on tv during the college world series. I took some pictures of her.

After watching that game for a while we walked over towards the first field to watch that game which was between 2 of the teams from the Netherlands that are in the tournament. While we were walking over I thought I saw a man who looked like Wolfi, who is the guy that sets this whole thing up for Americans to come over and who is also engaged to one of my former coaches at Redlands. I walked closer and when I was sure it was him I touched him on the shoulder and re-introduced myself and we talked for about 15 minutes. It was really random once again but also very cool. After finishing talking to Wolfi I met back up with Margreet and Lotte to finish watching the 2 teams from Netherlands play and then we came home. Here are a few more pictures of the complex (the first/main field)

On the way home from Haarlem we passed the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and I took a few pics from the car..

Tomorrow I am going to be watching more softball since Lotte has a game with the Juniors team at the Orioles and then we are going to watch a game of 2 teams in our league. Until then..Doei!

-Olivia

Candid Camera

Well boys and girls...I have new pictures!! Ian put all the pics he took on a cd for me and Gyselle gave it to me at practice tonight so now I have pictures that he took at the clinic we did, at Volendam, and at our games vs Sparta/Feynoord last saturday. So i'm going to post most of them. Other then that..this week has been pretty calm. A lot of rain and cold and clouds :[ Hope the weather is better back on the west coast!!

xoxo Olivia


CLINIC DAY

**this is towards the end of the clinic when it was pouring so I am trying to find shelter under my jersey.

VOLENDAM

GAME DAY @ SPARTA/FEYNOORD

**they are all looking/laughing at my superstitious routine I do every inning

Oh and I almost forgot..here are some updated pics of my very injured body from my bike trying to kill me last week..you can see how the bruises are changing colors and taking over my leg

2nd Place

Yesterday we played Sparta/Feynoord at their field. I was nervous because i've heard so many stories about how bad the umpires and fans are but luckily we got a pretty fair umpire, although when I say he was fair I dont mean to at all imply that he knew what he was doing and that he knew a ball from a strike. But oh well, its over with!

We won the first game 2-0. It was 0-0 going into the top of the 6th inning and we finally scored 2 runs and then I struck out the side to end the game. I didnt hit at all but thats fine with me because I was exhausted before we were even halfway through the first game. It was extremely hott and there was no wind, and to make matters worse it felt like I was throwing more pitches then I normally had to. After a while they stopped swinging so I had to work harder to place the ball down the middle which is hard for me to do on purpose but i'm really good at doing it on accident haha. Then the umpire wouldnt really give me the outside pitch which sucked because my curve was hitting that corner really well yesterday. He also didnt really like the inside or if a pitch was too fat down the middle. It was a lot of work but i'm so glad we won and didnt end with a tie of 0-0 because that would have sucked.

We won the second game 11-1. I was the relief pitcher but Anja didnt need me and we pretty much killed them in 5 innings so that was nice. With these two wins we are solidly in 2nd place now. We have next weekend off and then when we come back we play Zwijndrecht who is the team in first place and the only loss they have is from the game I threw against them. We also tied with them last time but we should've beaten them. Since they only have one loss and my team started off slow before I arrived here I dont think its possible for us to come into first place unless by some miracle the other teams start beating them. Either way we will be able to move up next season if we stay in this spot.

After the games I went home with my coach and her family and stayed the night there last night. We went to a concert on the beach called "100% NL". Its an all dutch music concert and it was fun to people watch because everyone was hammered. Gyselle and the girls went home early because Ashley wanted to go to bed, so Jamie and I went over to a bar called "waterski" something or other (i have no idea) and had some drinks and watched people get even more trashed than before and dance. It was pretty funny. Then we rode our bikes home and he brought me back this afternoon where the fam and I went to the Orioles and watched the first baseball teams game. They won! It was their 3rd win of the season so it was pretty exciting and they played really well.

Tomorrow I am going with Lotte to get my hair fixed, then we might be going to Haarlem to watch the softball tournament there and later I am going to a different team club called the Saints to work with some pitchers on a team that Dorien (a girl on my team) is coaching over there.

My bruises on my legs have grown and my left knee is still swollen, I have pictures but I havent uploaded them yet so when I do I will post them as well. Margreet decided that the fall happened because it was Friday the 13th and since I am one of the most superstitious people ever I have decided that I agree with her. Hopefully I get some pictures of the last week from Ian soon so that I can upload new ones! Doei!!

-Olivia

First Fall

Well everyone, here is a quick update: my bike tried to kill me today. twice.

I woke up this morning and the weather looked good so I got my stuff ready to go to the gym and just as I was opening the gate to leave the garden on my bike I heard thunder in the distance and sure enough it started raining on me. Luckily it was only sprinkling on my way to the gym so I wasnt too soaked when I got there. During my workout I looked outside and it was absoloutely down pouring and you could hear it on the roof. By the time I ended my workout and was going to ride back home it had eased up a little but it was still a steady pour. I didnt really mind since I had to go home and shower anyway.

As I was trying my hardest to bike up the steep hill from the gym to the main road I had just thought in my head how good I was doing since last time I couldnt make it up the whole hill on my bike, when all of a sudden my right handlebar grip came off my bike, causing my wheel to turn right and my bike to slide out since it was so wet from the rain. Luckily I cought myself and my bike with my leg before I could go down but it scared me really bad, so I just walked my bike up the rest of the way.

Once I was on the flat road I cruised home (at a pretty good speed since it was raining and I didnt want to be in it long), making sure I kept my hand tight on my grip so it would stay on the handlebar. I was literally 2 houses down from my house when out of nowhere the grip came off again, this time I was next to a curb and the front wheel turned into the curb and before I knew it I was on the sidewalk. If I wouldnt have cought myself with my hands my face would've for sure eaten pavement. I then picked myself up off the pavement, hoping no one was outside or around to see me eat shit and then walked my bike the rest of the way (2 houses) down to the garden. I came inside and showed Elmo, Lotte and Margreet my battle wounds and told them what happened. After Margreet cleaned up my knee for me she went outside and superglued my handlebar grip back on and said that it wont be going anywhere for the next century. Here are pictures of my wounds..I scraped up my right knee, I had an instant bruise on my left thigh from going over my handlebars, my left knee is swollen on the inside and I have bruises along both knees and my left shins. Not Cool.

Well, I really thought I was going to make it the whole time without falling but of course..I didn't. But this accident clearly was not my fault and I couldn't have prevented it since I didnt see it coming before I was friends with the sidewalk.

Hope everyone is having a great friday.

xoxo Olivia

Volendam

Today we went to Voldendam and also took the ferry to Marken.  It was Lotte, Me, my coach Gyselle, her husband Ian, their daughter Ashley, and their 4 foster girls. So all 9 of us packed into their van and headed to Volendam. Volendam is a town in North Holland, just on the other side of Amsterdam.

Originally, Volendam was the location of the harbor of the nearby Edam. Farmers and local fishermen settled there, forming the new community of Volendam, which literally meant something like 'Filled dam'. In the early part of the 20th century it became something of an artists' retreat, with both Picasso and Renoir spending time here. The majority of the population belongs to the Roman Catholic Church, which is deeply connected to the village culture. Historically, many missionaries and bishops grew up in Volendam.

Volendam is essentially a fishing town now and it is right on the water which used to be open ocean but because of the location (holland being below sea level) when there were storms or problems in the sea it would cause flooding problems and etc so they built a dam to close it off and now it is basically a huge lake.  Many famous people were born in Voldendam and still live there, signers especially.

Volendam is a popular tourist attraction in the Netherlands, well-known for its old fishing boats and the traditional clothing still worn by some residents. The women's costume of Volendam, with its high, pointed bonnet, is one of the most recognizable of the Dutch traditional costumes, and is often featured on tourist postcards and posters (although there are believed to be fewer than 50 women now wearing the costume as part of their daily lives, most of them elderly). There is a regular ferry connection to Marken, a peninsula close by. Visitors can have their pictures taken in traditional Dutch costumes.

We all took a picture in the 'traditional Dutch costumes' and Gyselle and Ian bought a few copies and gave me one..I tried to take a picture of the picture for you so here it is..my sweet hat kept hitting the net above me and I felt like I was posing for a Captain Morgan's ad because I had my right foot propped up on a wood pole with my heavy wooden shoes on.

Gyselle and Ian also bought me this keychain which they say is 'typical dutch' because of what they're wearing, and then they wanted to buy me a pair of wooden shoe slippers (they arent wooden) to remember them by so i got to pick which ones I wanted and I chose the delft blue with a windmill. very cute I must say, although they are a little too big..I got the wrong size!

We walked around Volendam for a bit, its not that big and it was super crowded. I took some pictures there and then we sat down and had something to drink while we waited for our picture to be ready.

After getting our pictures we rode the ferry over to Marken which is basically an island with houses that tons of tourists walk around the streets at taking pictures. Not somewhere I would want to live if I wanted privacy. But it was beautiful. Here are some pics from that..

that is an adorable cat that was walking along the street with us that I really considered bringing home with me. I actually saw a lot of cats in and out of houses here..thought that was interesting. anyway here are more pics from Marken..

After we got back from the ferry ride to Marken we went and ate at McDonalds (yummmm..kidding) and then they brought Lotte and I home before we had practice tonight. Ian took pics today and at the clinic on tuesday so he is going to put all of them on a CD hopefully soon. He is coming to our games saturday evening to take pictures, especially because Wolfi emailed my coach asking for a picture of me in my uniform playing for his website. I am going to have to remember to tell him to let me pick the picture since usually people pick gross action pictures of me that I do not like! ha. Anyway, hopefully I get them soon and can post them on here. Nothing planned for tomorrow just relaxing until our games on Saturday.

Doei!!

-Olivia

OH and here are 2 pics I took before practice today with Lotte and Anja while we waited for our other catcher (Denise) to get there.