Rome

So I just got back from Rome last night.  Rome was an absolutely amazing city.  Even walking around the outskirts and more residential areas was awesome.  It was exactly what I had always pictured Italy to be like.  That being said, the more exciting areas, views and sights were out of this world.

I was lucky, the first two days Emily and Brad were down in Florence and a few friends from Hamilton happened to be studying abroad in Rome!  They gave me two days of tours around the lesser known sights so that by the end of my time there I was able to see a lot of stuff!  I also happened to run into two friends from Holderness who I had not seen since I graduated!  It's a really small world.  Or the night life for Americans is just in a very small area haha.

After the first two days Emily and Brad met me and we saw the more impressive sights such as the Colosseum, the Forum, the Vatican, St. Peter's and more!  There is such an amazing amount of history to the city that even after five days of sightseeing I really hadn't seen enough.  I had an absolutely amazing time though and I hope that I am able to go back someday!

Here are some pictures!
St. Peter's

The gang!

Lions, and Tigers, and Italy!

So, still getting used to being in Germany and missing home.  Practice went well this week though and we won our scrimmage today which was nice!  I also went to the Hannover Zoo yesterday which was pretty cool!  They had a Canadian section which made me feel a little bit at home!  I am adding some pictures and videos from my little expedition!

Meerkat Manor!

Grrrrrr.

And now I'm just hanging out and packing for Italy now!  I will be flying into Rome tomorrow morning and meeting some friends that are studying in Hamilton!  Then on Wednesday Brad and Emily will be joining me in Rome!  I'm very excited and can't wait to get there!

First Scrimmage and More...

So we had our first scrimmage on Sunday.  We were missing a good number of players and were playing a team in the league above us but still did okay.  We went up early with some good swings and hustle but unfortunately made a few errors in the middle of the game that we were not able to come back from.  The final score was 5-3 with Braunschweig taking home the win.  I also learned that coaching while playing is very difficult to do.  Keeping your mind on everything is next to impossible between knowing what every position needs to do for every situation as well as who needs to go in where and what pitchers need to be warming up.  I got caught meeting with the pitcher twice in one inning without changing pitchers.  Something I could do as a player but since I am now a coach I can't do!  Luckily it was just a friendly scrimmage, so they let it slide.

After the scrimmage I hopped on the bahn and headed over to Bielefeld to meet Emily!  She lives with some great roommates in a town much improved over her previous town of Blomberg.  I got to see a lot of the town and learn some of it's history as well as take a stroll through the university.  It's smaller than Hannover but has much more charm!

From there I came back to Hannover for practice today.  We will have practices through Friday and then scrimmages on Saturday and Sunday.  Then on Monday I am flying to Italy with Emily and Brad!  Should be an exciting couple of weeks!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday Kimmy!!!  Have a good one!

Practices

So I had practice with the softball team on Wednesday.  There were only six girls, but practice went well despite my lack of knowledge of softball.  It seems like a nice team though and I look forward to practicing with them and learning myself as I teach them what I know!

I also went to a gym with a team member on Wednesday.  I was impressed especially as I was told that the gym we went to was the cheapest gym around.  There was a lot of space there with a ton of machines, racks, benches, and cardio equipment.  The only problem I found was that all of the weights were only in kilograms.  That may be one of the few things we Americans do that we Americans do that is fairly worldly.  We put the weights in pounds and kilograms!  I am not entirely sure how much weight I was lifting but next time I'm going to make a chart so I can make sure I am lifting what I want to lift!

In addition to my lift and the practices I had, I don't think I ever fully recovered from my jet lag either.  I fell asleep around 11:00 Wednesday night and slept in until 11:00 AM the next day.  Boy did it feel good to catch up some much needed sleep.  After making a nice lunch and hanging out I planned out practice for the Jungen (11-15 year olds) and the Herren 1.  The practice went well for the Jungen, there were a few boys missing but a few new faces as well.  Hopefully I can make practices fun enough so that we will always have all of them there.  This was also the first time I have had just the first men's team at practice.  Unfortunately there were not a ton of guys there so I had to improvise some of practice to make sure that we had enough to do since we got through everything a little quicker.  All in all I think practice went well though.  We have a game for the second team on Saturday and a game for the first team on Sunday so it will be good to see how everyone does in the game!  These are only scrimmages, but it will be good to get out on the field in a game situation.

First Day

Well I finished my first full day today.  Yesterday was pretty full of introductions to people and places.  I met a few of the players and the groundskeeper.  I was given a tour of the club's complex and then taken to dinner for a nice traditional German dinner that involved sausage, some kind of curry sauce, french fries, and mayonnaise.  It was delicious!  We also had a couple beers followed by watching some of the Orioles/Tigers game on MLB.TV.

Today was fairly busy also.  I went to try to get my visa worked out, only to find that they don't want me to try it until June when my current stay will soon expire.  I got a nice tour of downtown Hannover though which was nice as well as a taste of the famous doner which is a Turkish food sold all over Germany.  Very delicious, although, like all of the other food here, it is pretty heavy.  Then I had practice with the Jungens (about 13-15 year olds) with Nils helping me out.  They are a good group of boys and while some are pretty good ball players already there are a few that can use a little work!  They are a great group of kids though and seem ready to work hard.
Next was practice with the three men's teams.  This group had some newcomers as well as some more experienced players who really know what they're doing.  It is also a good group of guys who seem eager and willing to learn and work hard which is great to see.

After practice I went over to a player's flat to watch the Shanke vs. Inter football game.  Not being a big football fan I was only going to get to know some of the guys better but was pleased to see an exciting game where Shanke won 5-2!  Inter was also the team that just beat Bayern Munich which is supposed to be the best team in Germany so that made it even more exciting!

Now I am off to bed with the softball team's practice tomorrow!

Leaving...

So I'm just starting my journey.  I had my last game with the Bates Bobcats in a tough loss to Tufts and had a nice weekend with some friends in Boston including Cory who flew in from Germany two days before my flight to Germany!  While he was coming back as I am going he will be joining me overseas again shortly.  Germany won't know what happened when we reunite over there!

It was sad saying goodbye to everyone, but exciting knowing what lies ahead for me.  Only about 12 hours and I'll be in Germany!