Bloed, zweet, en tranen, maar ook pepernoten

This is going to be a very long story. I wrote half of it about a week ago but didn’t finish it. I completely forgot it.

A few weeks back I have received another package from the Netherlands! YumYum, pepernoten, plak koek and dropjes! Furthermore, Tante Emy found beschuit in a Chinese store and Annieck found stroopwafels! Aaaaaand it’s gone.

We had a birthday barbecue on the third of October for Marianna. Again; YUMYUMYUM. We’ve been having great sunny weather for the last... I don’t know how many weeks. But, the one day we’re planning a barbecue it rains. So, Marcello’s nice car had to get out of the garage to make space for the barbecue. It was incredibly delicious, especially for a college student like me.

I eat on campus a lot because I have three night classes. Every single time I have the same girl behind the counter, so she recognizes me now and knows what I usually order (beef burrito, black beans, mild sauce). The days that I could cook I’m too lazy or every pot and pan is disgusting because my roommates don’t always clean their dishes right away. Usually Thursday is ‘dish-wash-day’ because we can’t find the sink, but it has been getting better. There’s also so much stuff on my roommate’s bed that she usually sleeps on the couch. I think that is a good thing, because then I have my room to myself.

I’ve had a really important game against UCLA (October 14). Two of my coaches have gone to school and played softball there, so they were able to arrange this great opportunity. We were training very hard for this game (and still are for Spring season). We’ve had a couple of pretty rough (definition: pretty bad) trainings behind us. Technically our practices end at 11:30, but we have been going on until 12:30 (at the most). For the ones back home; we’d have to sprint from home to first TWENTY TIMES. Could you image how good eight ‘steiger runs’ feels like? We all had to stand on a line; sprint and jog back. No breaks. And because some didn’t sprint all the way we had to do five more.

The experience at UCLA was amazing. Their softball team (division 1) has the record of the most National Championship wins. I was the only pitcher on our team that pitched against them. The pitching mount of the UCLA field is like the Mecca of softball, and I pitched on it. Awesome to add to my list; I have also pitched on the same mount as Yukiko
Ueno (my favorite player) right after the World Championships in Haarlem. We first had a practice together. First UCLA would practice, so we could look at them, and then we would switch and us Pirates could take some grounders. Unfortunately, during the practice I was warming up to pitch, so I didn’t really meet anybody or see much. Good thing we were doing a modified scrimmage (girls were intendedly put on bases to practice situations), because none of us hit of of their pitcher.

A few weeks back I bought some shoes online, and that can always go wrong. Well, it did go wrong. I ordered the American size 10, but I received 5.5! Can you imagine my feet being twice as big as the shoe? Luckily Annieck fits them, so I gave them to her as an early birthday present. To be honest I’m quite envious when I see her walking in them, they are so nice!

The other day my teammate left her keys in the trunk of her car. She had to call campus security. I thought it was really interesting to see them break into her car. It took them about half an hour, because she said you have to ‘pull’ the lock, but they actually had to push it (or the other way around). When they finally got in the alarm went of, but the trunk wouldn’t open so she had to climb into it from the inside. She was really stressed out the whole time, so I said: “You’ve learned your lesson. Now you’ll never do it again.” Then she told me it has happened before...

On Thursday (October 22nd) I picked up Annieck from the Santa Ana train station after my practice. We went to my apartment, stole the pillows from the couch and made her bed, in case one of my roommates would put the pillows back. Annieck hadn’t seen Huntington Beach yet, one of my favorites, so we went there to hang out and to get dinner. We did some shopping, which seems to become a tradition when I’m with Annieck. One reason we went to the beach is because there have been beautiful sunsets and sunrises (which I see before my 7:00 practice). Unfortunately, this day it was disappointing as a cloud was blocking our view. As soon as the sun went down, the wind came and made it pretty chilly. We were really cold (especially Annieck). I should’ve known this as August was the same. Therefore we went to a restaurant quickly. When we were walking back to the car, someone interrupted us to ask what language we were speaking. “Dutch!” we both said. “Ah, sprechen Sie Deutsch?” he said. “No, Dutch!” Stupid idiot we both thought, but the woman he was with spoke Afrikaans and recognized a few words. Luckily we stole the pillows from the couch, because some people were staying over again (as usual). They usually sleep on the floor anyways.

The next day we went to Disneyland!! We had an amazing time. Disney was completely decorated in Halloween theme, incredible. Actually, they were already hanging up Christmas lights. We went to the Haunted Mansion first, as we thought it would be the busiest ride as it was almost Halloween. Well, we were lucky, because the approximate wait-time was 25 minutes. The whole mansion was decorated beautifully. A lot of work and a lot of money was spend on this attraction. Even the ride itself was completely different then usual, I could hardly recognize it from a few years back. When we walked out, the line still said 25 minutes but the line was way longer then that, it went on outside the gates! Afterwards we went to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, but it was temporarily closed, so we went to Indiana Jones first (favorite!). Then we walked back to Pirates and lucky us! It just opened! We had a seat within five minutes and when we got out the waiting line was already 45 minutes. We got very lucky with waiting for lines in general. The only ‘bad’ wait was for Space Mountain, a little over a hour. It was worth it! This ride was also edited for halloween! This ride is completely in the dark with shining stars as the only lights, but now it had the theme ‘Ghost Galaxy’. There was a creepy ghost made of fire, trying to grab your cart and following you with a creepy eye. In the picture of our ride, Annieck and I have a big smile on our faces. One other guy looks completely bored an uninterested and all the others have their eyes closed as if they passed out!

Because we were so lucky with the waiting lines, we decided to do Indiana Jones again, both of our favorite. The guy that assigned our seats told Annieck: “No pressure, but you’re driving.” Then after the ride the guys behind us commented that whoever gave her her drivers license had to be fired. Annieck bought a headband with a Minnie Mouse bow and I bought a Monsters University hat. Because of ‘Mickeys Halloween Party’ the park closed early for those who bought tickets for this event. It was fun to see that later in the day everyone was dressed up. I honestly it was stupid of a few people to dress up like minions for example, as they are not a Disney character.

After our long day, we went to a sushi-restaurant, our tradition in Amsterdam. The first thing the waitress said to as was: “Are you sisters or friends?” Apparently she could see the resemblance, funny!

The next day I had a game (win against Pasadena City!) and I finally had the change to hit in the last inning. I did not hit ever before during a game, so I wanted to show them how the weight room helped me! Unfortunately, I did not get this chance as I got ‘hit by pitch’… After this game we went straight to San Diego, we a got a nice message from the jets in the Jacuzzi at night. The next day we had a ‘halloweeny brunch’ at Quirine's. She gave us homemade kroketten and doughnuts with fake vampire teeth as dessert. Annieck made ‘rice crispies with a chocolate cover’, which we decorated with cotton ghosts and tombstones. It was a very sugar-filled lunch so I needed a big nap after that. We swam some more and played some games. I loved being able to speak Dutch for four days, I miss it sometimes.

When we leave Emy and Marcello after one night, my car always seems to be completely full. Three girls, one night. Of course there’s my softball bag, my laundry, my this, my that. Furthermore, Annieck and I did groceries so my car was packed (hence I had to walk to Anniecks apartment twice).

Because I didn’t realize I had to drop off Annieck, we got on the road later that we were supposed to. We got stuck in a massive traffic jam. I drove from 18:00 to 21:30. Three and a half hours! Two hours longer than a good day! It was incredibly boring and tiring.

Today (Tuesday October 27th) was a very sporty day. At weights we had to grab the biggest weights possible. I did the reversed lap-pulldown and the seated row with 85 pounds. I was pretty proud of myself (most teammates were doing this weight, but I’m the skinny one), until I skyped with my Dad and found out its only 39kg. Disappointing! So, an incredibly heavy workout. Then I had to pitch for an hour before practice. Right before practice we had to do 25 base-line sprints (before the UCLA game 20 as punishment was already crazy). Why? Because one of the teammates had a hickey during our last game. It’s irresponsible as we are representing Orange Coast College. I my tired butt from deadlifts had to work some more. Then, at the end of practice, a had to pitch to my teammates. They all had one chance to put a bunt down. Six of them missed our fouled, so we were given an option. Six foul poles or the six girls had one other try, but if only one of them missed we had to run twelve. Well, the very first fouled, so we had to run. Again. I’m going to be so sore tomorrow.

So, the complicate roommate situation. I wanted to move in with Cayla (my teammate) and Pietra (a Brazilian girl I met at the International Orientation who plays tennis). Our fourth roommate would have been another girl from my team, but she decided not to join us. We had found a cheap place which would’ve been available on October first. On that day we went to the office and the room magically disappeared. Maybe it was a scam, because then they offered us a room which was way more expensive. Furthermore, Cayla’s roommates were taking her departure not very well, they did not want to sign her off the lease. We decided to wait a while longer.

Now our plan is completely cancelled because:
(1)One day Cayla said her roommates signed her off and that we had to find a new place for us to live on November first. The thing was she gave me a week notice. A week I had a lot of important tests, so I didn’t have time to look and do research. She didn’t do any either.
(2)Because our other teammate decided she could not stay with us, we were looking for a fourth roommate. I said that wouldn’t be holding us back, because I’d like to have my own room, at least for a little while.
(3)Because Pietra and I are international students, we do not have a social security number. Therefore Cayla had to be head of the lease, even though this would not have been the case at the apartment complex where I am staying now, where we would all be ‘the head’. Because of her financial situation she did not want to be responsible for any debts, she didn’t trust I could pay for my own room longterm. So she planned that her (male) friend could room with us. I was not really ok with a guy living with us and my parents didn’t allow it.
(4)Primarily we wanted to rent until May, because Pietra and I would move back to our country in the Summer. Cayla and her friend Daniel later decided that they wanted to rent an extra three months (for Summer classes) and wanted us to continue to pay or find another roommate. I did not want to pay rent for a room I’m not staying in and I thought the risk of finding two people who wanted to rent a room for only three months was too big.

At 7:00 before weights, Cayla said what I was expecting: “I’m just preparing for the fact that his isn’t going to work out”. I felt like this was going to happen.

Completely coincidentally, on the same day I found out that my (bed-)roommate is moving back home. It was on the same day I picked Annieck up from the train station. I quickly grabbed my drivers license from my room and picked up Annieck. When we got back about a hour later, all of my roommates stuff was gone. All of her clothes, shoes, etc. I was completely amazed and texted her. She had a family situation. When Annieck and I got back from Huntington my other roommates told me that their coach told them she wouldn’t be living with us anymore. I am sorry for her, but this means I will get my own room like I wanted.