Coupla 2s

Sunday night, after being swept by Hamburg, me and Tony were in no mood to stay sober. so after polishing off a case of beer that Laser bought for the team, and a pint of whiskey at Christoph's, we rode to the bar in Tostedt. Hasi was already there eating and having a beer so we pulled up chairs and sat with him for awhile just talking about the day and baseball and whatnot. He left since he had work on Monday and that just left me and Tony with the bar to ourselves. we drank until the waiter came with our checks because it was closing time. the bill came out to 27.00 Euro. I dug around in my pockets and wallet and all i could come up with was 21 and change. I asked if they took credit cards but he quickly told me they didnt. Well shit, now what do i do? wheres the kitchen ill start washing dishes i guess. So i was expecting the worse when i told him that all i had was 21 euros. but to my surprise, he smiled and said, "dont worry about it. If you dont have it, you dont have it." I thanked him and began for the door. but as we were walking out the door, the owners of the bar stopped us and invited us for another drink. The husband poured us a couple of Jim Beam and cokes, and we sat and talked to them about baseball and our journey's to Dohren. they also had their dog there, a white sheppard of some sort named Tiko. while it was a bit leary at first, i eventually gained its trust and ended up talking to the dog more than to the people. just a little before 1 we thanked them and assured them we would return again...they were worried that we wouldnt come back for some reason, so i dont know if they are going to tack on those drinks we had the next time we are there or what. but nonetheless, we assured them that we would be back soon, and we were out the door.

the clouds had opened up and it was absolutely pouring outside but we had no other choice than to ride our bikes home. I didnt want to wake anyone up to come and get me, plus i didnt want to leave my bike because i needed it the next morning at 9 am for our field day at the baseball field that i will get into in a minute. so we set off for home, succombed to the fact that we were going to get drenched. at 1:00 AM here in dohren, the street lights go off...i mean what normal person in their right mind would be up walking around at 1 in the morning right. and when the lights go out here, they really go out. you might as well have your eyes shut and ride by memory. and neither of our headlights on our bike work; the wires have been cut on mine. so even in my drunken state, i had the presence of mind to pull out my cell phone and use that as my head light. it doesnt give a very bright, clear view down the road, but at least i can see 5 feet in front of me at all times. Johst later told me that he heard us going by his house that night, oops, sorry man.

I finally made it home and pulled off the wet clothes and crawled into bed. 8:30 came way too soon and i was up and on my way to the field. it was a tough one. so at 9:00, 350 7 yr olds came walking down the street toward the sport house. Monday was on of the Tostedt school's "American Sports Day." there were stations set up all over the soccer fields and our fields to simulate American Sports. there was obviously a baseball station, basketball, hockey, and football. but there were also stock-car driving, a dancing station, cheerleading, freeclimbing, and my personal favorite, the gymnastic Vault.

Tony and i were on the baseball field doing the running station. it was a 20 meter stretch and we had a sheet that gave us a breakdown of how many points each kid got for a specific time. if they got under 3.2 it was 10 points, between 3.2 and 3.5 was 8 points and so on down to over 4.0 was 2 points. Each kid got to run 3 times. they were broken into groups of about 7 and sicne there werent that many teachers, many groups were just free to roam aimlessly from station to station. Since we are the americans, a bunch of groups wanted to come to our station first so we got bogged down pretty quickly, and there were kids jumping groups and running with the wrong crowd...no pun intended. it was a mess trying to keep them separated and in some kind of order. we started off running 2 kids at a time, but were unable to explain to them that they were not supposed to run down and back, but just straight through, like a sprint. so the kids were slowing down before the 20 meters, trying to set themselves up for a good, quick turn around the cone. this skewed the times a bit and after 3 or 4 groups, instead of telling me the times and letting me see what point scale it corresponded to, Tony was just saying, "Coupla 2s." a few times he forgot to hit the button to start the clock, or to stop the clock...we always gave them a Coupla 2s too. as i sit here and write this, and am reading back over it, i realize that anyone that wasnt there might not find this as funny and blog worthy as i do. i guess it was a combination of still being a bit drunk, the cold, the rain, both of us just wanting to go back to sleep, but at the time it was hilarious and became our quote of the day.

around 11 or so, Dick called and informed me that he had finally made it to Dohren with the 3 of his buddies. So i left the AMerican Sports day early and went to meet them. Dick and the 3 English blokes have been driving across Europe for a week now, sleeping in Hostels or tents. They were at the Rock AM Ring festival in Frankfurt for the last 4 days and stopped here in Dohren before heading to Amsterdam and then back home. There was Ben and Laura, both of whom were in the same program Dick was in, teaching english to high schoolers in Spain. and then there was Rich. Rich was a character. he was 6'6", maybe 160 pound soaking wet, long black hair pulled back in a pony tail, leather jacket, looked a bit middle eastern, and my first thought when i saw him get out of the car was, "Holy shit, what a sketchy looking dude. I'm going to have to keep my eye on this one." But i brought them in the house and took them to my room where they laid their stuff down and asked if there was any way they could shower. I took them up and showed them the bathrooms, then came back down to check my email and whatever on the computer. My plan was to show Dick around here, show him the field and the town and what not, eat some food, then take off for Hamburg where we were meeting Laser for the night.

After a shower and getting 5 days of the Rock Am Ring stench and filth off of themselves, the 4 of them just wanted to sit down and have a nap. we threw in Dawn of the Dead and watched for a bit until Antje yelled down that food was ready. We had Lasagna, one of her specialties. this home cooked meal was a welcomed upgrade from the hotdogs and canned food they had been eating in Frankfurt. stomachs full and tired, everyone passed out for 2 hours or so while me and Dick stayed up and watched the rest of the movie.

the train left at 6:10 so we got there and bought our ticket and got on the train. a nice old lady gave us her ticket so that was one expense that we didnt have to worry about spliting up. and as we sat on the train, the ticket lady came around checking tickets. I've never been checked for a ticket before so this was new to me. but we showed her our tickets and she asked where we were heading. we told her the main station in Hamburg. she then informed us that we had bought a ticket that would only get us to Harburg, 3 stops before the main station. we would have to get off there or it would cost us 40 euros per person if we stayed on the train. but she told us that we could take the subway right to the main station from Harburg. so we got off and headed underground and hopped on the subway. it wasnt the best or fastest way to get there but we finally made it and Laser was waiting. we explained what happened and he laughed. apparently when he lived in Dohren and would come to Hamburg to party, he would mess the train ride home all the time. sometimes he would get off at the wrong stop, or fall asleep on the train and end up in Bremen. or one time he got kicked off the train because he was too drunk, so he just waited another half hour and got on the next train back to dohren.

we decided to go get some food first, since it was only 7, and the Keets dont get fun until at least midnight. so we found a nice place that Laser told us is always packed on the weekend. apparently its a different story on a monday night because there was no one in the place except us and one other table of guys. we sat and ordered beers and food and bullshitted about baseball and the keets and Ben told us his hooker story. it was a good start to the night and at around 10 we hailed a coupla taxis heading for the keets.

The keets is the redlight district of Hamburg, full of strip clubs, a few normal bars, and there is one street that is blocked off at both ends. this strip is where most of the prostitues are at. now i have been hearing about this street since i've been here and was expecting big things. No girls are allowed to go on this street because the hookers in the windows of the... shops i'll call them, will throw things at them and spit on them and things like that. so we left Laura with Laser at the end of the street and the 5 of us guys entered. I've never actually seen a hooker up close, only in movies and on tv and stuff and they always look just flat nasty. or ive heard the horror stories of them turning out to be dudes or trannies or whatever. but as i stepped into the red lights of the street and began walking, i noticed that these girls were hot...well except the one in the 3rd window on the left, she had to have weighed every bit of 300 lbs, and the funny thing is she wanted more money than every other girl on the street. but i guess some guys are into that kind of thing. but the farther i walked down the strip, the girls got more and more attractive. we were the only guys on the street...it was after all a monday. (apparently its just wall to wall guys on this street during the weekend.) and all the girls yelled at us from the windows as we walked by, "hey come here, i just want to talk. lets just talk." i guess they could hear us talking to eachother and thats how they knew to speak english, but they all spoke it pretty well...maybe thats part of the hooker training for the Keets, English 101.

one trip down and back was enough to satisfy my curiosity, and we met back with Laser and Laura at the front of the street. This is not the only place you have to worry about hookers in the Keets though, they are running about on the streets outside the bars and clubs too. so you can never be too carefull with your money and who you give attention to. so we began walking down the street until we found a little hole in the wall sports bar with live music. The Singer Songwriters were playing a little set of german music, they play this club every monday night according to the posters on the wall. so we sat down at a table and had a few beers and talked about baseball with the Rich and Ben. Rich especially was captivated by our stories and ramblings about it being the best sport in the world. he vowed that he would try it once he got back home.

after the live music bar, we headed down the street a little farther, Laser wanted to show us the biggest strip club in Germany, Suzy's. when we go to the door, the bouncer told us that it was a 10 euro cover to get in and we decided that that 10 euros would be better spent on a beer. so we found another bar down the way and had another beer there before setting off for Laser's place. it was nearly 3 in the morning at that point but that didnt stop the party. Laser fired up the Tom Jones and danced and drank beer until almost 6 in the morning. One of the neighbors knocked on the door and complained that their kid was trying to sleep because he had school the next day, so we turned the music down for maybe 20 minutes. Laser said that he was moving at the end of the week anyway so what could that guy really do? complain? get him kicked out? so we just kept partying. noon rolled around and we finally decided that it was probably time to leave since Dick and the English were heading to Amsterdam that day. so Laser write down direction and off we went. we stood at the train station for a good 30 minutes trying to figure out which direction we needed to take bus 21 to get to the subway. but finally we founf someone that spoke english to tell us that the 4 bus would take us right to the main train station - our ultimate destination. so we got on bus 4 and rode for about 40 minutes and i was worried that we were on the wrong bus and that we were heading the wrong way. but we finally made it to the train station and got on the train and was back in Dohren by 4:30. Those guys took off around 5:30 or so and i had softball practice at 7. I really wanted to take a nap but it would just be a tease to sleep for an hour, so i stayed up.

Luckily i didnt have school or anything today so i got to sleep in and try to make up for lost beauty sleep. i dont think its working though, because im starting to get sick. i am congested and my throat hurts a bit, but i wont let it get me down. I have practices and school all this week, games on Saturday, a big party saturday night (caribbean night), and then 2 more games on Sunday. I dont have time to be sick.

A-Ron