A Lot to talk about

Paul, you bring up a very good point in your comment on the last post. I have been lacking in sharing information on the female Germans i have come across, and I appologize. and this as good a time as any to fill you in.

the women of Germany are not some strange breed of people, they have 2 eyes, 2 ears, a nose, and a mouth. hair is on top of their head and they have 2 arms and 2 legs. you really wouldnt be able to pick them out in a crowd like you would say Indian or Chinese girls. but for some reason it seems to be a rule that every school must have a hot blonde working there. it muse be some kind of quota they have to fill or something, i dont know what the deal is, but i like it. It makes the day a lot more interesting thats for sure.

It has been awhile since i last wrote and there has been a lot that has happened. so i'll start at the beginning. Last thursday i went to a school in Tostedt. walking up to the school it was a bit different than the other schools. there werent colored pictures in the windows, no small bikes on the racks. but there was something very familiar, there was a group of kids sitting together at one table all dressed in black, a group of jocks at another table, a few lonely kids sitting alone, yearning to be part of any group...I was back in Highschool. yep, all the stereotypes from America apply here in Germany too.

we went into the teachers lounge, where i met Ina and Annelise, Annelise is the english teacher there at the school and is from Houston, TX. we chatted for a bit about Houston and and living in Germany and she gave me her number if i ever want to go to hamburg or if i just want to hang out with another American. I think i'll probably ask her if she wants to take me and Tony to Hamburg and show us around a bit. for some reason Antje thought we had set up a date or something but i assured her that Annelise was not my type and i dont think her husband would appreciate that either.

Ina was the teacher i was to be working with on this day so we gathered up the equipment and her class of 5th graders and headed to the gym. after an hour and a half of working with the kids, we had to choose 15 of them (at elast 5 girls had to be on the team) to play in the tournament next thursday at the school. In an effort to get a few kids to come play for our organization, The Wild Farmers are coordinating a tournament between the 5th and 6th grade classes at the school. I am to be in charge of this whole shindig and am looking forward to what is sure to be a grand time. Beefy, Daniel, and Skippy will be helping me out too.

Friday i was back to Wistedt but only for one class. It was the 5th graders, the only class that i had not worked with before. this didnt seem to matter though, because they still all knew my name. I had practice after i got back from school and after that it was back to the house to relax before the games on Saturday.

Saturday the Berlin Challengers came to town with stats that begged respect. their two pitchers had good numbers and a few of the hitters where ranked high in the league. I had also heard a lot about their manager, Willy Reyes, a former catcher for the german national team...that was 20 years ago. Willy is still quite a force, devouring my hand when we shook at the line-up exchange, and he took out at least 2 during BP before the game. Thies again threw a gem, shutting them out for 5 innings. the only reason i took him out of the game was because Laser wasnt there for the 2nd game and Thies would have to come back to close out the 2nd game. I came in after that to throw the last two innings.

Percy, their starting pitcher, was a hard throwing righty but he didnt have any off speed that i ever saw. we had hit him around pretty good throughout the game. I had a base hit off the end of the bat and hit a liner up the middle that had been caught by the Shortstop. the outfield was shifted way around to left field when i was at bat so i was thinking about hitting one to right center the whole time. In my 3rd at bat the first pitch was on the inner half about waist high and i threw the bat through the zone and connected. it was the 1st time i've ever hit a ball and just started jogging; a complete no doubter down the line and over the left field fence. in my other 7 lifetime HRs, i've always been thinking double out of the box, I've never just hit one and knew right away that it was gone. after touching home, it was shared with me that i was now the Gay from America. just as i expected, i'll never shake the nickname.

after winning the 1st game, we were all in high spirits and came out guns blazing in the nightcap. I started the game and jan came in in the 4th and threw 2 innings before being replaced but game 1 winner Thies. we were up 6-1 at this point. a couple walks and errors later, the score was 7-6 for the bad guys and we couldnt overcome the deficit and had to settle with a split. it was hard to find the words to calm everyone down after the game, but i think everyone knew the truth. we gave them one that they didnt deserve and we all knew that we are the superior squad.

Saturday night was a party at our place in celebration on Jan's 20 years of existence. we decided to celebrate with a beer pong tourny that lasted all night. Me and Thies were kicking ass and taking names...that is until he threw up all over the garden...reminiscent of me at Johst's birthday. at that point i played with Beefy and one game with Henrik. playing beer pong with german beer is tough (nothing like Natty light) but playing beer pong with Cola and Korn or with Southern Comfort is just dumb. I dont recommend it.

Sunday I went with Martin, Sven and Anna to Hamburg to the Harbor Birthday Party. On May 10, 2009 the Hamburg Harbor turned 821 years young. thats right, 600 years older than America. North America was nothing but sticks back when Hamburg was Europe's newest harbor town. thousands of people turn out for the celebration. there are food stands and beer stands lining the streets of the harbor and vendors are selling homemade pottery and religious trinkets and what not. we were on our way back to the car when the hum of the crowd was broken by the sound of jets. The Swedish Air Force sent 6 of their planes to put on an air show over the harbor, much like the Blue Angels in America. but this show lasted a good 20 minutes with loops and figure 8s and a handful of different flight patterns. this was one of the cooler things i've seen in a long time. I was glad i got to see it along with all the old ships that were occupying the harbor all weekend. there were a bunch of old sailing ships and even a huge cruise ship that had docked so the passengers could enjoy the Harbor Party as well. Getting back to Dohren, we went out to dinner at a local Greek restuarant to celebrate Jan's birthday and also Mother's Day.

early this morning, 9:30, i woke up and went to Henrik's to paint. I was the only one there and i had no idea what any of the buckets said so i picked the one that was the closest to the color i needed (a logical thought) and began slapping paint on the outside of the house. at noon, henrik came and asked me where i found the paint...this is when i started to get a bit worried. I told him that i found it in the room off of the bathroom upstairs and he just started to laugh. "that's the paint for inside, it's an interior paint." so all the work i thought i was doin was all for not, I have to go back next time and paint it with the right stuff...oops!

bed time,

A-Ron

P.S. Tony, the other American, gets here in exactly 1 week.