Monday April 16th - my boy dave, my best friend from college, had a day to do nothing before he was due to meet his girl in the south of France, so on a whim, he says to me Sunday night, let's take a train to Brugge (in Belgium) it's supposed to be the Venice of the North.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruges
In early afternoon we headed down to the central station in Antwerp and ended up making the 2:53 train by seconds - it was about an hour and 15 or so minutes and when we arrived we took a bus to the center square which was one of the most beautiful sites i've seen. The city literally looks like it's been stuck in the 13th century and hasn't changed a bit...3 stunning cathedrals loomed from each direction in the city. we walked around for a while and ate, noticing that every other store was a sit-down restaurant but as the evening approached, and every restaurant was open, not only were none of them filled, almost all of them were empty. we figured that the proportion of restaurants to people in the town that evening was 3:1.
we went searching for a hostel (the first time for me but dave has been doing this throughout his european excursion the past month) and the first one we came upon was only 15 euros for the night but upon entry to our room, there about 10 bunkbeds in there and already a really strange looking and smelly smelling man laying down, so we exited quickly and told the man we would be back later we weren't sure if we were going to stay the night. we came upon one that was pretty good. private room only 22 euros, included breakfast (which i stuck around for in the morning - included bread and butter and orange juice - luckily dave missed it with his 530 am train to france).
that evening as we went out, there wasn't much to do...although we saw some beautiful sites and ate amazing chocolate as we noticed the tourist season really hadn't kicked off yet on this chilly april night. we ventured into a restaurant where i attempted to use my belgianeese on the waitress (ik frogh hut an - meaning "i want you") it's a famous belgian song on the radio right now but apparently she didn't understand me (they never do) and i had to settle for the "mach ik twe pintjes astublief"(can i have two beers please) upon hearing this attempt of mine at flemish, the waitress blurted out that i should just stick to saying pintjes because i say it very adorable. i told her that's the only thing i know how to order so far so it wouldnt be a problem.
the night turned into an adventure of escalating dares for dave and i - who could take the worst looking pictures (which he still needs to send me, of course) who could make the biggest fool of himself in one of three bars that were open, who would be the person to start up conversations with random girls (i like dave's opening line to a group clearly speaking some european language - "my buddy and i have have a bet, are you guys from australia or belgium, i think u guys are from australia?" - they were from holland, close dave, so close.) he also supplimented the - do you ladies know what baseball is? my friend over here pitched a no-hitter yesterday (he really needs some new material like mine) at the local watering hole i asked a girl if she came here often, she said "actually i live next door" and it concluded with who could drink the heaviest beer - with me winning, i guess you could call it winning, although i definitely didnt feel anything after drinking this - 11% http://www.beersofeurope.co.uk/acatalog/Beers_of_Europe__Kasteel_65.html
Tues April 17 - i survived my first experience at a hostel, but on the train ride back i cant say i was so lucky. i entered the train (without a shower, there was no way i was showering at the hostel, it looked like a toliet stall and probably was used as a toilet stall and for everyone that knows me, i cant function in the morning without a shower - sort of like coffee sans the caffiine) and sat down in a seat that looked very familiar to a seat i sat on the way to brugge. about 50 min into an hour and 15 min train ride, as i was gazing beyond the pastures of greeness consuming my window view, i hand waving in front of my face sort of startled my trance-like state (i think the 11% was still kickin in my system) and a man wearing the most ridiculous hat, i almost felt bad for him (something to this effect - http://www.vvvmaastricht.nl/cms/images/stories/groepsgewijs/P39_1.jpg )
starts yelling at me in that other language, yeah...the one i DONT know. i tried to tell him that i couldnt understand him. at least 3 times, he repeated what he said. so finally i said in english i can only understand english (apparently he thought i was making this up) he points at the carpet and says can't you see you are in first class and you only have a coach ticket you have to leave now!!!! ok man, first off - on the way here, i was in "coach"i guess, i didnt realize on these trains they had first class? and it had carpeted floors, so if that's the only way you can identify first class, how am i supposed to know that? well you to need to leave now and you should know that carpet is first class. so of course not wanting to get arrested after exactly one month in the country i said, truthfully it's my first time how are you supposed to know that carpet = first class. in my country, usually marble floors = first class, and speaking of first class i dont think you should be allowed in here with that hat.
so for the last 15 min i sat in coach. next to a girl that smelled, of course.
that was brugge.
lifted after a week of nothing due to the sickness and then practice...standard tuesday. gotta love having nothing to do all day but practice baseball, write in the blog, and work on my belgianeese.
wed april 18 - back from my sickness hiatus i was able to help coach the juniors which was a blast. the kids are from 14-18, and they are pretty solid...some of these guys have potential and all they need is some good coaching, a little insightfulness, and direction and hopefully over the next 6 months i can provide that and make a difference in their games and attitudes (most take a very non-shalont approach) although i think everyday i work with them it gets a little better.
thurs april 19 - see tuesday
because i was pitching the home game on sunday, and most people go out friday and saturday nights, and because i'm pretty serious about my baseball game and don't like to indulge in any sort of drinking, debauchery, or tomfoolery to close to game-time, and because in d.c. we always partied on thursday night i thought i would test my luck with the 8.7 friends i have thus far and see if someone wanted to go out with me.
alain - work the next day
nick - listening to music i gave him last week
sofie - school the next day
sammy - had a date, dinner, or both
wendy - work the next day
erwin - out of town
dennis - with his gf
sven - had to work
dennis ribbens - had to work the next day
so i made plans with clio, but she apparently fell asleep and then was too tired to go out (and had to work the next morning) luckily i found out that joena doesn't have to work on friday and convinced her to help me explore the city which started at a new spot she took me to, that apparently is a favorite stomping grounds of her and her friends on monday nights, but apparently thursday night is the night for hardcore techno fans as we couldnt even hear ourselves think in the bar. so we ventured back to the tofleje rond (my favorite place) for a few drinks before heading to the river with a friend of hers we met up with there (tom) whose english was great because he is always visiting his cousin in the states, as we compared notes about the differences. with tom we went to a club on a boat that is on the river, it was sweet, except for the fact when you went to the bathroom the floor was uneven. more bathroom experiences to come.... we got up to VIP where i have to say it wasn't that much different from the u.s. other than all the guys looked the same, hair slicked back, unless they didnt have any it was completely shaved, and button down shirts with the first 3 buttons undone so the chest hair was in full effect, some guys had the sunglass thing on and some had them hanging on the shirt or on the top of their head, because it was pretty bright in there (not). big difference here is how they dance - joena claims that you just move your knees in belgium. in the u.s. we like to incorporate the feet and also the shoulders into the mix, so i did my thing but practiced theres a little bit (too easy) while also noticing that guys don't dance too much in belgium and guys and girls definitely don't dance together (i thought they were supposed to be more forward here?) and by no means are you supposed to make eye contact, so everyone pretty much bends there knees, looks up at the ceiling, and it's a lot of techno, house, and trance. luckily, this place played a glimpse of hip-hop for me, otherwise it was a pretty typical belgium club night. now the bathroom experience - as i walk out of the bathroom, the uneven one due to the water, a girl grabs me by the arm and yells at me in the other language (yep, that one again) and so i stare at her blankly (she probably thought i was drunk - i wasn't, sorry ladý it's called americanitis, it means i act and look drunk bc i can't understand anything including that sign in that other language you are pointing at) so in english she says to me it costs 50 eurocents to use the bathroom. that's a first. paying to use a bathroom in a club. actually not a bad idea though ... i might take it back to the states with me. upon my return visit, i had the 50 eurocents waiting for her and was like "see i got it right this time" she didnt smile back. apparently i was making no new friends that evening. moral of the story - dont drink 4 liters of water in the afternoon before you go out to a club that charges to use the bathrooms.
after the club as joena and i discussed the differences in cultures, customs, languages, oh and cars, she thought it would be a great idea for me to learn how to drive stick-shift, right then and there, on the cobblestone road leading from antwerp to hoboken at 430 am, with people driving behind me! after about 16 stall outs, 1 wrong turn, 3 niet panikerans! (dont panic in flemish) i made it back to the house only that i didnt know how to park and upon my excitement that i actually made it i decided without permission to take it on one last cruise - two problems - didnt know where i was going and the place i started to go turned into a number of dead ends that took me further and further away from where i wanted to go, so after a solid 10 min i was starting to get the hang of things, got back to the house, and then proceeded to figure out the parking thing, except while using the clutch this time to stop, as i didnt last time, couldnt do that and use the brake at the same time, and almost parked the car in the front hall of the erwin palace, which would have been a great surprise gift for him upon his return from the earthquake he experienced in mexico city. luckily i had a great coach and she wasnt agitated or worried a bit. apparently she has a lot of faith, good because she's the only one.
fri april 20 -
ive become great friends with ÿo/jo as he prefers me to call him at the bakery/butcher. and because of erwin's abscence i have basically run out of food supplies and had been going every morning to get a pastry or in belgianeese (a coffee-cuk? - forgive my spelling) unfortunately yo/jo was closed at 1245 pm, so my travels took me into the heart of hoboken the "kioskplaats" where i knew of 4 other bakery places that existed, and could not find one that was open only the one i went to thursday morning was, and bad experiences from that one (a oridinary looking coffee-cuk turned into a conglomerate of yellow pudding filled ooze that consumed the entire pastry, and seeing that they had no more of the rolls with the rainsins left that i love, i had to take one for the team and skip breakfast. luckily, joena, who apparently isnt sick of me yet, came by to take me grocery shopping which i had an interesting experience doing.
1. the milk sits on the shelf, in the warm, until you open it
2. ditto for the eggs
3. weigh all the fruit by fruit section yourself and not at the register, they even have these cool stickers with the price that you can put on it yourself
4. big fish section - bigger than the u.s. i dont like fish
5. very affordable prices
6. no aquarias (like gatorade only better) in the plastic bottles? so odd
7. they dont have marinade for chicken...interesting
8. if i think of some other interesting things - and i'm sure i will, i'll be sure to throw them in at the next post, just remember if there is a number next to oddities that have to do with grocery shopping then it stems from this post.
aside from going to get her car fixed (no it wasn't from me on thursday night) and driving around the city and enjoying the beautiful, and not typical belgium weather of 24 degrees (celcius, of course) it was a pretty relaxing day off.
i also began testing out an arm band lent to me from dennis ribbens, called phiten.
http://www.phitenusa.com/accessories06.htm
it supposedly contains titanium in the sleeve and compresses your arm (elbow for a pitcher) and because of the iron in your blood, it alledgedly causes your blood to circulate faster, thus healing your arm better. although, my father, jay prinstein, is not a believer in it, i have to say it did make the arm feel a lot better after some intesne long tossing on thursday so i threw my bullpen friday evening at 8 pm with sammy (again) and it felt great.
because i didnt have to pitch until sunday i went out with clio, sharon, jill, joena, nick, joeron (pronounced yur-roon), and met up with alain and helga later on at this place called jamesons which was a blast. a bar, with club atmosphere and club music, only more relaxed on the dress and the pretentiousness...so it was a good spot, we stayed out pretty late but had a blast, practicing my belgium dance moves and brought back some old school moves from first grade to the techno music that i'm so learning how to dance to...like the hokey pokey (which the apparently also do differently here... they do this whole thing called... in/out in/out...real fast at the chorus part. it's a learning process. of course, i was a soot/suit, just drinking water and paying 50 eurocents to use the bathroom for the water but got to hang out with a lot of people and got to see some nightlife...unfortunately, too many people in the car on the way back meant that was i wasnt allowed to drive.
saturday april 21 game 3.
ride to brussels with the group - sammy, nick and dennis ribbens. last time we all drove to holland it was flemish the whole way, but this time they did some english and i got to participate. this point can not be understated. these guys make such big adjustments to include me and make me feel welcome, they alter their conversations and how they talk just so i can participate and understand. truly amazing. imagine if you spoke good spanish and you and your friends only speak spanish in american when an exchange student from spain came to visit. pretty much what they do for me. unbelievable.
we faced a pretty solid american pitcher who was an all american at amherst college in massachusetts last year but he left balls up in the zone all day and we pounded out 3 HR. steven our cf, phil the leftfielder, and our 17 year old phenom thomas in right field who hit his ball out after he confused the bunt sign with hit and run (so he swang at a ball above his hands and still hit it out). kenny pitched a real good game once he got some food in him (he eats between every inning i've never seen anything like it) and we walked over them 13-3. so we are 3-0 on the young season and with my taking the ball tomorrow i think there is a lot of pressure on me to replicate my performance of no hit ball last week, but with a tougher team who showed they could hit the ball pretty well on saturday if you are't sharp and hit your spots.
just relaxed with my phiten arm sleeve the rest of the day and watched mlb on tv.
go pistons. go wings.
erwin gets back to the continent tomorrow which means no more parties at his house....crap.
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