Writing in English class
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Montana
30 September 2015 | Verenigde Staten, Costa Mesa
Fact: If I want to wash my hair, I do not fit in the shower.
The weekend prior to this story my roommates had friends over four nights in a row. Then the day after they still didn’t catch up on sleep and stayed up the entire night (yes seriously, on a school day too). So, this Thursday, they said they were going to have a party again that night. Why? Because it was someones birthday. (...So why does it have to be celebrated here? ... No parents.) I had an appointment with a physical therapist and practise on the early Friday morning. In addition, 18.00 felt like midnight to me. I’m still not sleeping very well. I knew I wasn’t going to survive, so I desperately texted my teammates in the group chat, asking if I could sleep over somewhere. Almost immediately Christina called me. She is such a sweetheart. Her home was quite far away due to traffic, but I managed not to nap behind the wheel. We met up with her dad to eat the cheapest sushi ever, but it was delicious! ‘Sushi-fast-food’ her dad called it. Afterwards I had my first ‘Frostbites’, a mixture between ‘softijs’ and slushie. That was brain-freeze material, but delicious.
My first game was against Rio. It was a home game, so it was a five-minutes walk. However, I still took the car. That being because:
1) My bag was heavy because of all the water, I was lazy.
2) After the game we would go to ‘Chick-fil-A’, because I have never been there.
3) Right after ‘Chick-fil-A’ I wanted to go straight to San Diego.
It was a really really hot day. Damn. Things are different here. We just wanted to start running for our warm-up and our coach called us back. The dug-out was apparently to messy. Well, there goes the days of everyone tripping over bags in Almere. Every item had to be on the same level. Bags on the hooks, shoes on the top shelves, helmets & batting-gloves in their compartments, bats in their special place and drinks on the bottom shelves. Wow, it was so tidy. Which was a good thing! No one was panicky yelling: “Where is my glove?”
There were about eight stations for hitting in the warm-up round. So everyone was hitting in the cages, compared to three people with all the others collecting the balls in the field. So, because of the heat and the intensity (standing in the field was usually ‘break-time’) I was completely exhausted before I even warmed-up pitching. I was up first. So the warm-up already tired me. As I was throwing, I repeatedly told my catcher: “Five more... Okay two more... One more...” Despite this, I continued pitching because my coach kept saying: “Now give me a change-up!... Now give me a rise-ball!” It wouldn't end! This was EXHAUSTING to me, and it made me grumpy. How could he expect me to pitch three innings if I just did six? I became really grumpy and tired, and the fact that everyone kept asking how I was feeling didn’t help. “GRRR. LEAVE ME ALONE” I was thinking, but I knew I was just cranky and that they all meant well, so my answer was ‘more nervous but exited’. Well, that grumpy feeling went away quick after the first inning. I practically made all the outs: 1 strike-out and then, in a 1-3 situation, I field the ball, fake to third base, throw to one and that lead to a tag on home-plate. YAY! This definitely lightened my mood.
In the entire first inning I would only get lefty hitters. There were so many! Even both of their pitchers were lefties! Was that their coaches strange strategy? Anyhow, I’ve been doing a lot of live-pitching for our leftie slappers so I wasn’t too nervous. The slappers in my team keep thanking me for throwing but I should’ve been thanking them.
I had one hit, a line-drive between first and second base. The first-baseman couldn’t catch it, but she changed the balls direction; straight to the second-baseman. So I was out on first, but it was still a pretty good hit for day one.
When a pitcher on our team throws base-on-balls, she has to run foul-poles. When a hitter on our team misses a signal, she has to run foul-poles. It's super strict. I had 1 strike-out, no base-on-balls and no points against me, so thank god I could stay in the shade. The other pitcher had 4 strike-outs, which made me pretty jealous, but she also had (about) 3 base-on-balls and one point against her. So... Well... Mmm... The coaches were easy on us and no one had to run extra. We won our first game 6-1 so it was a good day! They weren’t really good competition but a win boosts a teams self-esteem, no matter what (remember Ramstein?).
So I had a burger at ‘Chick-fil-A’ after. It was delicious. I’ve never been to a chicken restaurant with the best bacon in the world before. Afterwards I drove straight to the I-405 to pick up Marianna. When we arrived at our beautiful ‘vacation-home’, I had to get out of the car, obviously. But when you sport for a few hours and then sit down doing nothing for a few hours immediately after, you will be EXTREMELY STIFF. I seriously had trouble getting out of the car. One leg out, stretch, second leg out, stretch, prepare for lift-off.
On Sunday we went to the Cabrillo festival, but it ended 10 minutes after we got there. It was on the Naval Base so everything was very secure. We had to park a few blocks away, but because Emy and Marcello are getting older, Marcello asked if he could drop Emy off. Then another officer said he could park in the side parking, so he assumed he could park. But, like I thought, he couldn’t park there, it was just for dropping off. The officers were pretty intimidating. When we passed the gate there was a guy with a extremely big machine gun. Straight after, we went to Point Loma, where many veterans were buried and where there was a beautiful view. It was a short weekend, but I really enjoyed it. I love San Diego.
As I’m writing this I’m in my English class. I seriously finished this entire blog in this class. This is usually a two-day class but I have it on one day, from 17:30 to 21:45. Everyone loses interest. No one wants to read and write on this hour. At the moment, the teacher is talking about the essays that were due last week so everyone is bored. The average grade is a D and no one has an A. Pretty bad, it made my very nervous, but fortunately I have 85 points! That's a B!
PS: I went to my first American football game! That sport is more confusing than I thought. Our school won 38-8 so that's pretty good! I also saw cheerleaders live for the first time. As it was their first game all the athletes had to walk across the field during the break. So it was the first time I saw a football field and I immediately had to walk across it with cheerleaders around me showing off how flexible they are.
The weekend prior to this story my roommates had friends over four nights in a row. Then the day after they still didn’t catch up on sleep and stayed up the entire night (yes seriously, on a school day too). So, this Thursday, they said they were going to have a party again that night. Why? Because it was someones birthday. (...So why does it have to be celebrated here? ... No parents.) I had an appointment with a physical therapist and practise on the early Friday morning. In addition, 18.00 felt like midnight to me. I’m still not sleeping very well. I knew I wasn’t going to survive, so I desperately texted my teammates in the group chat, asking if I could sleep over somewhere. Almost immediately Christina called me. She is such a sweetheart. Her home was quite far away due to traffic, but I managed not to nap behind the wheel. We met up with her dad to eat the cheapest sushi ever, but it was delicious! ‘Sushi-fast-food’ her dad called it. Afterwards I had my first ‘Frostbites’, a mixture between ‘softijs’ and slushie. That was brain-freeze material, but delicious.
My first game was against Rio. It was a home game, so it was a five-minutes walk. However, I still took the car. That being because:
1) My bag was heavy because of all the water, I was lazy.
2) After the game we would go to ‘Chick-fil-A’, because I have never been there.
3) Right after ‘Chick-fil-A’ I wanted to go straight to San Diego.
It was a really really hot day. Damn. Things are different here. We just wanted to start running for our warm-up and our coach called us back. The dug-out was apparently to messy. Well, there goes the days of everyone tripping over bags in Almere. Every item had to be on the same level. Bags on the hooks, shoes on the top shelves, helmets & batting-gloves in their compartments, bats in their special place and drinks on the bottom shelves. Wow, it was so tidy. Which was a good thing! No one was panicky yelling: “Where is my glove?”
There were about eight stations for hitting in the warm-up round. So everyone was hitting in the cages, compared to three people with all the others collecting the balls in the field. So, because of the heat and the intensity (standing in the field was usually ‘break-time’) I was completely exhausted before I even warmed-up pitching. I was up first. So the warm-up already tired me. As I was throwing, I repeatedly told my catcher: “Five more... Okay two more... One more...” Despite this, I continued pitching because my coach kept saying: “Now give me a change-up!... Now give me a rise-ball!” It wouldn't end! This was EXHAUSTING to me, and it made me grumpy. How could he expect me to pitch three innings if I just did six? I became really grumpy and tired, and the fact that everyone kept asking how I was feeling didn’t help. “GRRR. LEAVE ME ALONE” I was thinking, but I knew I was just cranky and that they all meant well, so my answer was ‘more nervous but exited’. Well, that grumpy feeling went away quick after the first inning. I practically made all the outs: 1 strike-out and then, in a 1-3 situation, I field the ball, fake to third base, throw to one and that lead to a tag on home-plate. YAY! This definitely lightened my mood.
In the entire first inning I would only get lefty hitters. There were so many! Even both of their pitchers were lefties! Was that their coaches strange strategy? Anyhow, I’ve been doing a lot of live-pitching for our leftie slappers so I wasn’t too nervous. The slappers in my team keep thanking me for throwing but I should’ve been thanking them.
I had one hit, a line-drive between first and second base. The first-baseman couldn’t catch it, but she changed the balls direction; straight to the second-baseman. So I was out on first, but it was still a pretty good hit for day one.
When a pitcher on our team throws base-on-balls, she has to run foul-poles. When a hitter on our team misses a signal, she has to run foul-poles. It's super strict. I had 1 strike-out, no base-on-balls and no points against me, so thank god I could stay in the shade. The other pitcher had 4 strike-outs, which made me pretty jealous, but she also had (about) 3 base-on-balls and one point against her. So... Well... Mmm... The coaches were easy on us and no one had to run extra. We won our first game 6-1 so it was a good day! They weren’t really good competition but a win boosts a teams self-esteem, no matter what (remember Ramstein?).
So I had a burger at ‘Chick-fil-A’ after. It was delicious. I’ve never been to a chicken restaurant with the best bacon in the world before. Afterwards I drove straight to the I-405 to pick up Marianna. When we arrived at our beautiful ‘vacation-home’, I had to get out of the car, obviously. But when you sport for a few hours and then sit down doing nothing for a few hours immediately after, you will be EXTREMELY STIFF. I seriously had trouble getting out of the car. One leg out, stretch, second leg out, stretch, prepare for lift-off.
On Sunday we went to the Cabrillo festival, but it ended 10 minutes after we got there. It was on the Naval Base so everything was very secure. We had to park a few blocks away, but because Emy and Marcello are getting older, Marcello asked if he could drop Emy off. Then another officer said he could park in the side parking, so he assumed he could park. But, like I thought, he couldn’t park there, it was just for dropping off. The officers were pretty intimidating. When we passed the gate there was a guy with a extremely big machine gun. Straight after, we went to Point Loma, where many veterans were buried and where there was a beautiful view. It was a short weekend, but I really enjoyed it. I love San Diego.
As I’m writing this I’m in my English class. I seriously finished this entire blog in this class. This is usually a two-day class but I have it on one day, from 17:30 to 21:45. Everyone loses interest. No one wants to read and write on this hour. At the moment, the teacher is talking about the essays that were due last week so everyone is bored. The average grade is a D and no one has an A. Pretty bad, it made my very nervous, but fortunately I have 85 points! That's a B!
PS: I went to my first American football game! That sport is more confusing than I thought. Our school won 38-8 so that's pretty good! I also saw cheerleaders live for the first time. As it was their first game all the athletes had to walk across the field during the break. So it was the first time I saw a football field and I immediately had to walk across it with cheerleaders around me showing off how flexible they are.
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30 September 2015 - 07:57
Mama:
Aw man! I was sure you would get an A! -
30 September 2015 - 10:12
Bob:
Je hebt het maar druk in Ca. Altijd weer geweldig om je avonturen te lezen. Ga zo door. Liefs. -
30 September 2015 - 13:45
Je Tante:
Wat schrijf je toch lollig!! Een B is TOP hoor. Heb ik nooit gehaald xxx -
30 September 2015 - 17:41
Oma Anneke:
Van opa en mij kreeg je een dikke A, maar goed als je a zegt , zeg je ook b, dus geweldig .Wij vonden het bovendien heel leerzaam.
Wat een programma werk je af en ik ben bijna niet meer jaloers op al het mooie weer bij jullie.
Blijf goed voor jezelf zorgen. liefs
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30 September 2015 - 17:58
Tante Emy:
Leuk verslag. Nu weet ik ook iets meer over baseball.
Ikhoop dat je gauw een nieuwe kamer vindt met gezellige kamergenoten. Heb je wel verdiend na al die slapeloze nachten. -
30 September 2015 - 21:21
Leeanne:
Ah you should have got an A for sure! Great story Montana. -
11 Oktober 2015 - 13:42
Tante Carla:
Ondanks al die slapeloze nachten een knappe prestatie hoor!
Ik kijk uit naar je volgende verslag en belevenissen...
Liefsss -
14 Oktober 2015 - 05:01
Nanny Kiwi:
Kia ora Montana
I read your story it was good. Waiting for more news now. Big loves Nanny Kiwi
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