Finally An Update

Yes, I know I have been slacking. SOOO let's start with last Monday...
Monday June 20th:
    I went to one of the most famous castles in the world, Schloss Neuschwanstein, which Walt Disney used to model the famous Disney castle after.  I took this lovely trip with Sonja, her friend Mark, and the daughter and mom of his host family from when he lived in Australia (didn't quite catch their names, oops!). We got up early in order to go because Sonja and I had to be back for the second team practice at 6pm. The drive took about two hours and thankfully most of it was not on the Autobahn. Within ten or fifteen minutes before arriving  you could see the castle on the mountain/hill that it is located on (pictured right).
    Once we parked we got our tickets for the tour. Sonja reserved the tickets so we didn't have to wait in the ridiculously long line (my dad would be proud!). Once we got our tickets we headed up the hill  to King Ludwig II's castle. The trek took about 30-40 minutes. It was a gorgeous walk and it didn't seem like it took that long. We finally reached the castle with plenty of time to spare for our tour. Naturally this down time was used for a photo-shoot. Finally, the tour started. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take pictures inside the castle so sorry I cannot personally show you all how amazing it was. I was in awe the whole time, everything was incredible. For example, fourteen carvers worked for over four years just on the King's bed canopy!!
 Here are some pictures of the interior from google (http://www.google.com/search)

       The castle was built to look medieval, even though it was built in the late 19th century. At the same time it had all the latest technology such as a flush toilet, a telephone, etc.
   The tour was very short, it only lasted about 15-20 minutes but it was definitely worth it. After the tour we went to the bride (pictured  left). From the bridge was the most spectacular view (pictured right)!! Again, I was in awe. We did some exploring under the bridge, saw a waterfall or two and then made our way to where we started to grab some food. We ate at this little restaurant and Sonja made me try a typical Bavarian dish (Bavaria is the Munich area). The dish I had was called Schweinbraten. It was meat and this potatoes ball thing. Delicious! We had a little more time to kill before heading back to Munich so we decided to explore the town that was close by. It was a cute little town with old buildings (which are all shops now) along a winding street. We took a look inside this huge church which turned out to be quite impressive. It had beautiful architecture and gorgeous paintings on the ceiling. After walking around for a bit we headed back to the car. From there we drove the two hours to Haar and made it just in time for practice. It was a great day !!

The rest of the week did not compare to Monday so I will not try to explain the events in detail. Although the English Gardens, a party for one of the family's friends, no German class, and softball all contributed to the weeks events.

   

What a Week !!!!

First of all... These people are nuts. Why do I say this? Well, on Saturday the second team (the team I coach) played. This does not sound like anything out of the ordinary, but for me it was. The weather was bad.  It rained the entire day. It was not just a light rain ,but a nice, steady, even at some points pouring rain. It was absurd. If it was America the games would have been cancelled before I even got out of bed. I also got hit in the rib from an overthrown ball. So as you can see this was not my favorite day of the trip...On a lighter note, Lisa made me steak and mashed potatoes when I got home. Food cures everything.

On Sunday, we were finally suppose to play after a week off. I really enjoy playing here and I was super excited to get on the field again. We got to the field early in order to fix the dirt up from the rainy hell on Saturday. Kid you not, as soon as we were finished preparing the field it started to rain. It rained hard, very hard and even threw in some hail. Just for me I guess. After awhile it stopped raining so we fixed the field again. Then it rained...again. The rain stopped and finally there was blue skies so we started to warm up. Ten minutes into the warm up it started to rain again! Of course no decision was made until 20 minutes after game time. These people are nuts! I went back home, soaked to the bone once again. I took a shower and went into the sauna that is in my bathroom with Mascha. We had a typical Russian evening. Sauna, Russian music, and food. It made my day better.....

Sorry for the confusion but I am going to back track to Wednesday the 15th. 

On Wednesday, I went to the mountains with Mascha, Franky, Julia (a girl on the second team and a family friend of the Stoeckels), her parents Hazi and Gitty, and another friend, Ron. Franky referred to these mountains as the pre-Alps but I cant remember the exact name. Anyway, we started our day by taking the 8:20 train from Gronsdorf to Central Station. From here, we took the train to the mountains at 9:00. Hazi, who is the spitting image of Robert Plant, told me that the trip would be exactly 1 hour and 3 minutes. All of their friends love to joke around so it is quite a fun atmosphere to be a part of.  When we got to the little mountain town we stopped for ice cream :-) before our journey.  Then, it began. For two hours we went on a path that was basically straight up hill. We stopped after the two hours to eat and drink. After that we continued. It was so beautiful :-) words cannot describe it so I posted some pictures here. 

   After another forty minutes we stopped at this beautiful restaurant in the mountains. I had Liver Cheese. Don't worry it was not liver that was just the translation. Everyone got a kick out of that. We continued on to our final destination, the lake. It was amazing!!!!  We caught the ferry over to the other side and jumped on the train back to Munich. 

After we got back to the house we quickly showered and went to Hazi and Bitty's house (a short bike ride away). We had some really good food. Hazi also showed me a video of him and his band. Apparently they were very popular in Germany! After dinner we went to the park to see the red moon that North America could not see :-) haha. 

What a week. 

Kids Are Crazyy Monsters

      Saturday marked the start of the 3 day baseball camp that I had to work from 8-5 everyday. It was definitely an unique experience to see how a camp, something I am very familiar with, was run in a different country. There were a lot of things done differently, both better and worse than in the U.S. For starters, the name of the camp, Uncle Tom's, is probably not something that would go over too well in America. But hey, the words politically incorrect have no meaning here.
      The camp was unique compared to ones in the U.S. because some of kids stayed overnight for two nights. Here, baseball is not nearly as popular as it is in the States and I can see how some parents used this camp to get rid of their kids for a couple of days.
     The kids, mostly boys because it was a baseball camp, ranged from 5-14. Personally, I think 5-7 is a little young for baseball. Even the simplest form of the game is still to complex for this age group.  Also, another thing that was different from  America was the fact that safety was not top priority. If kids got hurt, it was really not a big deal they just patched them up and sent them back out for more. It's not something I enjoyed watching especially because it was hard for me to do anything about it due to the language barriers.
        The typical day started off with breakfast at 8 am. I had bread with nutella (which they love here), some meat, and coffee. Then we started with stations (20 minutes x 6 groups). The first day I taught fielding, the second day I taught bunting, and the third day I ran the fielding competition. After the stations we had a two hour break for lunch. Not going to lie, they had some pretty good German food! After lunch was the start of the games. The 6 groups had enough players to fill 2 teams so the kids got to play actual games. This is something that I had never seen before but I thought it was great. They played three one hour games. My job was to ump  for the little little ones. This group was the 5-7 year olds so the coaches softtossed to them. It was really fun to watch but after awhile a little boring too! After, the games they had the player of the day awards followed by dinner. I loved all this food!
       It was a long three days but overall not bad at all. One of the most difficult things was the communication. I felt bad for the little ones because they would come up to me and ask me questions and I had no clue what they were saying. Also, whenever I explained how to do something it had to be translated and sometimes I don't think the translators could understand exactly what I wanted. On a lighter note, I worked the camp with Mandy, Maike (a girl on my team), Nils, and Ryan (the American on the baseball team). We all got along well  and I had a good time getting to know them better.

I'm going to the mountains tomorrow for some hiking :-)  Gut Nacht!
   

Friday Friday

I have decided that I will spare you all the mundane details of my life and just post every few days. Or maybe I'm just too lazy to post everyday!

Nothing too exciting happened on Wednesday and Thursday except for:
- In my German class there are people from all over the world: America :-), Africa, China,  Cuba, Taiwan, Poland, Romania, etc. Most of them speak English but a few of them do not. The miscommunications that occur during the three hour sessions each day are hilarious. For example, my teacher, who is about 8 months pregnant, was talking about her doctors appointment (or at least I think because this was all in German) to the lady from Taiwan, Jeanette, who happens to speak perfect English because she lived in the states for over 10 years. So, our teacher was telling her how much the baby weighs as of now but Jeanette got confused with the pound and kilo difference and thought that our teacher said something along the lines of 10 pounds. It was very confusing for everyone but also very funny.
-On Thursday we were suppose to have practice but we decided to have a team dinner instead due to the rain. However, it was only lightly sprinkling, definitely not enough to cause any problems. This is not D1. Ha!

Fridayyyy:
Today was great! I went to my last German class before the holiday (I get two weeks off). After class, I rode the train to Haar to meet with everyone for our club's annual BBQ. I met up with Mandy and Nils (my new friend on the baseball team) and watched the U16 team take on a mix of older and younger boys. It was interesting. We were all starving so before the game finished we headed over to the tent where they were making food. I got a steak!!, potato salad, noodles, 2 egg rolls, bread, dessert, and a beer for only 5 euro. What a deal! Everything was delicious but I was so full :-) After we ate, we watched the Alumni Slowpitch game. Some of the older guys looked like they were straight out of the 80s and they played with the intensity of major leaguers. Very entertaining! haha  Towards the end of the BBQ my host family came and met some of the people in my club. I'm turning them into softball nuts !

I also learned a very important phrase today: Ich liebe Schokolade which means I love chocolate :-)

I have to work a camp for the next three days from 8-5 each day. 130 kids. On that note, Gute Nacht!

Tuesdayyyy the 7th

Today was a great day!  I met up with Sonja (she is 19 and plays on the team that I coach) on the S-bahn at 10 am for a little sightseeing before my class. We took the train into downtown Munich and then switched to the U-bahn train in order to get to Olympic park. This process took about 40 minutes.

 Munich hosted the Olympics in '72 and built this fantastic park. The buildings surrounding the park are amazing as well. In fact, it is the only 20th century architectural monument in Munich!

   After we toured Olympic park, we headed over to the BMW headquarters. Inside, were the newest models of the famous BMW brand. They also had a lot of simulators and interaction type things. I even sat on two motorcycles! 

  After all of this I was starving so Sonja took me to this restaurant in downtown Munich. She told me her dad said they have the best sausage in town. The very small restaurant we walked into was called Wolfheed or something Wolf. I can't remember! Anyway, I had sausage (of course) with some type of sauce and french fries. It was good!!  I also may or may not have been late to class but it was worth it :-)

We got out of class five minutes early so I decided to catch the 5:20 train which means I had to sprint from class to the train station (its prob around or just under a mile). I luckily got to the platform 4 minutes before the train arrived. I was out of breath. I took the train to Gronsdorf, picked up my softball bag and headed to Haar for practice.

At practice we hit first , followed by defense. The practice is more laid back then what I'm use to but it is organized well. 

I arrived at home at about 9pm. Mascha told me she got more peanut butter for me along with bananas so I could make a peanut butter and banana sandwich! We just had sandwiches for dinner :-)  Franky and Mascha love PBJs now !  Mascha also correctly said and used the word napkin at dinner. She was proud.

Overall, it was a very busy but great day! 

Manic Monday

Today I slept in till 11 or so. I got up and made myself a meat and cheese sandwich. I believe it was some form of Salami or Pepperoni or both but I'm not sure. After I ate, I cleaned up my room and packed my things for  German class. I took the S-4 train to Central Station, grabbed a Pretzel, and walked to class. Class was long and difficult. But, hopefully by the end of this week I'll be able to follow along. Also, during class, a huge thunderstorm struck! Which was not good because I was suppose to coach right after class. Luckily, it cleared up by the time I got there.

Today there was only 5 or 6 girls so I had to modify the practice I had planned (during class haha). After watching their games this past weekend, I realized that we needed to focus on hitting and throwing. The first part of practice was dedicated to hitting. We did four stations: High tee, top and bottom hand, bunting, and front toss. We did two rounds of this, with each station being four minutes long. It was nice to individually go around and help some of the girls. I hope they got something out of it! Anyway, after hitting we played a diving game because the ground was wet and I had promised we would play a game last practice. After the game,  I had them do a throwing drill followed by a couple of rounds of ground balls. They seem to be improving everyday so hopefully it translates into games.

I took the train back and arrived at my house at a little past 8. The family was waiting for me and we had pasta, russian salad ( it was like coleslaw), and ice cream. The ice cream was soooo good! During dinner I taught Mashca the work napkin and she taught it to me in Russian. All night she kept saying napkin. It was entertaining. Also, Mascha (who was just introduced to softball last weekend) explained to her sister, in Russian, how the game of softball works. She even acted out the pitcher and catcher haha.   After that we watched Harry Potter :-)

Game Day!

Today I woke up tired, with no intention of getting out of bed. As it is with all athletes, it didn't matter how sore or tired I was it was game day. I got ready for the day, and then ate breakfast with Mascha, Franky, Lisa, and Anton's Mom and Dad. My pregame meal consisted of eggs, fruit salad and orange juice (my mom would be proud ha).  I had to leave in the middle of breakfast in order to catch the 10:20 train to be at the field at 10:25ish. I am so lucky that the field is one stop away, Mandy has to travel an hour! Anyway, it is a long process of setting everything up and our warm up is an hour and a half. You can imagine how much I love that (insert sarcastic font). Finally, we started at 1pm...(below is a picture of the field)

The first game I played second base which is always a nice and cozy spot for me. I got a few balls hit to me and even almost turned a double play (our first basemen dropped the ball). Hitting wise I felt much better. After getting hit by the pitch in my first at bat,  I continued on by hitting 2-3 or 3-3. My mechanics and mentality are just so much better than the first two doubleheaders. I'm  starting to feel more comfortable here. Finally. We wound up run ruling the team after 5 innings. :-)

In the second game I caught which is not a nice and cozy spot for me, but I'm starting to like it more and more. I feel like the game goes by faster when I am catching. Hitting wise I did  pretty good as well. I started off with a double to the fence. It was not so much the double that was nice but the swing and aggressive mentality that made me feel better. We wound up run ruling them again but this time only after 4 innings. :-)

After the games, Ingo took us all out for ice cream because he ''owed'' it to us. I am not exactly sure for what but I did not complain. Whenever we go some place I have one of the girls order for me aka I am five again. After the ice cream social, I took the train back home, ate, and talked to  Sheila and my lovely family :-)

It will be nice to sleep in tomorrow! Although, I have to get up for my class at 2!

Gute Nacht !

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I have not posted in a few days so I'm just going to give some highlights of the last couple of days:

First off, I would like to make some corrections from previous blogs...In the first post, I said a man from the Disciples club named Frank met me. I believe his name is actually Tony. Secondly, my new favorite drink is called apfelschorle, not what I put before...

Anyway, over the past couple of days I have:

* Been used as a show and tell at Lisa's school: I went with Lisa to her english class that met at the cinema to watch the King's Speech (in english). Her friends were shy around me because they were nervous to speak English. By watching the movie with Lisa's classmates, I could tell that they do not understand english as well as I thought they did. It may be due to the fact that this was British English but they did not laugh at any of the jokes nor really paid attention. Lisa even had to ask me what was going on a lot of the time. I also noticed that a lot of kids in her class (ages 16-18) smoked. I found this interesting and very different from the U.S. 

* Went sightseeing with Mandy around Munich: It was a lot of fun! We only traveled in the city but I was still able to see a castle and some amazing buildings. The picture below is me at Marienplatz (platz means square). I believe the building behind me is the city hall. 

* I caught for the first time in about 7 years: The first game I played right field and I hit a homerun. The next game I caught. I actually did pretty well and even threw out a runner. Mandy also threw a three hit game so my calling wasn't bad either...On the other hand, my hitting really suffered..4 strikeouts?? Yup, it was bad.  

*Met Anton's parents: They are from Russia! Veryyy interesting people!

*Coached the second team:   It was a long day. From 9:30 to 8:00 I was away with the second team. We went to a town called Deggendoff which was about an hour and half away from Munich. It was a very pretty drive. The team did not do too great, two losses. The second game lasted 3 hours...Like I said, it was a longggg day! 

 

*Drove on the Autobahn:  I'm glad I travel mostly by train because it was a scary experience. People drive way to fast! We had to drive on the freeway (Autobahn) in order to get to Deggendoff.

*Went to a Burger Bar:  After class on wednesday, I went with Sarah (a girl on my team) to Starbucks. We then met up with her friends, American baseball players playing in Italy, that were visiting for a couple of days. The one kid, Josh, went to Marist! The other guy, Mike, was from NYC. It was interesting to hear about their experience playing in Italy. I'm glad I chose Germany because the Italians are only about business and do not take as good of care of their players as the Germans do. Anyway, after we met up with them we went to this Burger Bar in downtown Munich. It was delicious. 

Can't think of anything else at the moment, I'm exhausted once again! Gute Nacht everyone!!