Stardate 070821.8

Captain's Log:

I have been away longer than I intended. It is time to get back to the Holland story.

Day Six - 24 July 07

Well, this was our first game day. Practice was over, and now my team got to play...finally. However, our games were in the afternoon, so we had the whole morning to tour the Ajax stadium. Ajax is the professional team of Amsterdam. Here is a shot of the stadium...

The fan shop at the stadium had the most outrageous prices, so I told my players to wait for a couple of days. We were going back to tour the inner city of Amsterdam, and they could buy the same thing for 20 Euro less at one of the small shops in the city. After we were done with the tour and we had eaten lunch, we traveled to the fields. We were to play on the same fields where we practiced. We had two games on this day. The first game was against a Dutch team called the Deadly Eleven. They killed us in the first half; 4-0. After a few changes, and some shifting of players, we held them to 1-0 in the second. My players were getting so frustrated, because we could not get a shot off. You must understand though that four of the players on the other team also played for the U-15 Netherlands national team. The rest of the players were nearly as good. I do not fault my players for losing, because the odds were very against them. On the contrary, I was quite happy with the way they never gave up. That was awesome. The second game of the day was against a USA team and we beat the 3-0. Three different players on my team scored. We went home moderately happy that night. We had dinner at the hotel that night, which was quite good.

***

I have ridden my bike some in this past week, and I think that since I have some daylight left tonight, I might ride down to Nate's and see him. I will be back some time. Until then,

Lorimer

Stardate 070812.9

Captain's Log:

Well, while I was away (5 days) I purchased a bicycle. It is a Schwinn 26" Cruiser. Here is a photo...

I love it. It is an awesome bike. I rode it to my parents house this afternoon, which was only six or seven miles.

I know that everyone is waiting for day five and has been waiting for five days now. I guess it is time to return to the Chronicles of Holland.

Day Five - 23 July 07

On the morning of the 23rd, we visited Gastheer van Volendam for touring and lunch. Afterwards, we jumped back on the bus and traveled to Jacobshoeve to visit a wooden shoe factory and a cheese factory. The wooden shoe tour was neat. The wooden shoes are all made by machine now, but there was a man there who was making one by hand when we came through the shop. He said it takes a whole day just to make one wooden shoe. That is without a special design and without paint. The gift shop at the factory was filled with wooden shoes of all different designs. Here is a picture of one wall...


After that tour we walked about thirty meters to the cheese factory, and learned how to make cheese. In the cheese shop, there were all kinds of samples...all of which I tried...multiple times. The cheese was very good.

From the cheese factory, we left on bikes and took a 10 mile bike tour to and around another small city--the name of which escapes me. That was a lot of fun. Everyone in Holland owns at least one bicycle and uses it daily to travel around the city. The main reason for this is the cost of gas. In Holland it is 1.45 Euro a Liter. This equates to about $7 per gallon. So you can see why they would prefer to travel by bike.

After our tour it was time for practice. We practiced for a good three hours and then the coaches had to go to the Friendship Village for a meeting. Once the meeting had ended, we (the coaches, all eight of us) stood in the rain for half an hour waiting for our bus to come and retrieve us. That was loads of fun.

Finally, after a thorough soaking, we arrived safely to our respective rooms and I finally got some sleep.

***

Maybe there will be less of a break between this post and the next than there was last time...we will have to wait and see. It is growing late and I must go to work in the morning. I also have to drive all of the way to Haines City tomorrow for the AD meeting. That should be great...

Anyway, I will be back soon.

Lorimer

Stardate 070807.7

Captain's Log:

I am going to skip straight to the good stuff today.

Day Four - 22 July 07

After another awesome breakfast, our bus (Bus 15) pulled up, sucked us all inside, and then drove us to the beach in the small town on the west side of Holland. It was cold these first three mornings in Holland, so a trip to the beach was not the most ideal thing that we could have done with our time. In fact, a few of my players came to me later and informed me of just how cold the water was. I am glad I decided to avoid stepping foot on the beach at all, much less dragging myself into the abysmally cold pit known as the North Sea. I toured the small town for about 3 hours instead. After lunch in the town, we loaded up and went to the pitches where we were to have our second practice. I led this practice, and because I had so many good players, it worked out very well. We got a lot accomplished. For dinner, we went to the Friendship Village. Now, as this is the second time that I have mentioned the Friendship Village (FV) it is going to need further explaining.

The FV was a nightmare...plain and simple. It was the most unorganized place that I visited on the trip. It was a place for all of the athletes to come and eat dinner, hang out with each other, play soccer together, and just relax. For the coaches it was a horrid place that hid your players from sight, and did not allow you to find them until well past the time when they were supposed to have met up with the group to go home. In the center of the main square there was a giant stage with giant speakers that blared music the entire time we were there. These speakers nearly deafened me and left me bereft of hearing. This first night was not bad. There was only soccer athletes there, and the line to get into dinner was short. After we finally rounded everyone up, we went back to the hotel for some sleep.

***

Not much to say today. I want to make sure I keep posting almost daily, so that I do not stop in the middle of my Holland story and never finish. This is only day 4 of 11. I will be back soon.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 070806.8

Captain's Log:

It was actually a semi-busy day at work today. I had a few trouble tickets come through, and I organized some more of the intranet. Tomorrow looks promising as well.

Not much has happened since my return from Holland. I finally got completely unpacked, but have yet to finish all of the laundry. I did come home to a marvelous surprise. Before my trip, I finished the second bedroom (as far as insulation, drywall, and fan/light) and I moved my desk, computer, and bed in to live there until I could finish my room. Well, when I got back, I checked my room and found that all of the wallpaper and chair rail had been removed and the walls had been painted my desired color of white. I just stared at the walls for a while (it was past midnight, and I had been flying all day and I was not quite as comprehending as usual). Eventually, when I discovered who had done it and taken in the full effect of what had happened, I was rather pleased. It seems that Christy found out that she had some extra time on her hands, I suppose. For my birthday gift, she flew down here while I was out of the country, and painted the whole room. It looks awesome; however, it has not had a chance to air out, so it still smells strongly of Behr Interior. All the same, fantastic gift.

Back to my description of the journey over the Atlantic:

Day Three - 21 July 07

I got to breakfast at the hotel this morning, and the breakfasts there were awesome. Bacon, eggs, sausage, pancakes, toast, loads of bread, chocolate milk, English breakfast tea, and coffee. This is only what I ate and drank; the selection was much larger. I ate the same thing every morning, so this will be the last time I mention what it is that I ate at breakfast. Once we were through, we rode our bus (which would be our own for the entire trip) to the fields for our first practice session. Today we would be training with Dutch coaches. I learned a lot from these first three hours, for these coaches were quite knowledgeable. After practice, we ate in Haarlem and toured a small part of the city for a couple of hours. That afternoon we learned to play Korfball, which is a rather interesting game. The court is about the size of our basketball courts, but the baskets have no backboards. Here is a picture of a basket and a korfball...

Here is a link to a site that will describe (with pictures too!) the rules and intricacies of Korfball. That was loads of fun, and the coaches team won the one game that we played. Very exciting stuff. That night we had dinner at the hotel, which was great, and then bed.

***

Tonight, I am going to see the Bourne Ultimatum, so I will have to critic that movie when I post again. For now, that is all.

Later,

Lorimer

Stardate 070805.6

Captain's Log:

I have returned. I got back from Holland one week ago today, and now that I have some time, I will write about my exploits in that foreign land. This may take several posts, and for those of you who were reading last year's posts about the Germany trip, I will attempt to make it all of the way through this trip when describing my time overseas. This time I actually kept a log book of what happened when it was happening, so I will not forget much when relating it to you.

I left on a Thursday morning, so all night Wednesday, I was up packing. I did not sleep at all that night, because I wanted to conquer the jet lag before I got over there. My father drove me to the airport Thursday morning, threw me from his truck, and left me standing in front of the JetBlue Counter for check-ins--and that is where my story begins.

Day One - 19 July 07

Shortly after I arrived at the airport, I met the eleven athletes and two coaches who would be traveling overseas with me. We would travel JetBlue from Orlando to NY (JFK) and then Delta from NY to Amsterdam. The flight to NY left at 1020 and it was only a 2.5 hour flight, so that was easy enough, but when we got to JFK things got crazy. First of all, that airport is way too big. It took thirty minute, after we picked up our luggage, to make our way from one terminal to the security access point in another terminal. After another half hour waiting for the check-ins and security checks, we made our way to our next gate. There we would wait for another couple of hours for our flight due to leave at 1725. I got quite a bit of reading done this trip. The flight to Holland was seven hours, and when we got to Amsterdam it was 0720 local time (0120 EST). I got about six hours of sleep on the flight, and that would be sufficient enough to last me for almost the whole of the next day.

Day Two - 20 July 07

At the Amsterdam airport, we separated into different groups with athletes and coaches that had arrived from other parts of the US. Once our group was complete, we were bused to the Friendship Village. Now, the Friendship Village (FV) is the central hub for the entire tournament. The Opening Ceremonies are held there, as well as the big dinner ending the tournament, and it is where all of the athletes can gather at night for dinner throughout the week. It was a dreadful place to be when full. I was so sick of the FV by the time the end of the week rolled around, that that alone would have chased me out of Holland. Once at the FV, I ate breakfast and lunch, and then met up with the people traveling to my hotel. Upon arriving at the hotel, I checked into my room, which I had to myself all week. Orientation was at 1800 in the conference room of the hotel. I made my way down at 1755 to meet everyone for dinner, and I came in contact with the Athletic Director for our hotel first. He told me to wait another 20 minutes in my room, because they were sorting out something or other and I needn't be down yet. So I went back upstairs and laid down for a moment. Two hours later I wake up and look at my clock. I quickly make my way downstairs for the meeting, which by now is well over--as is dinner. I find out where my team is so that I can introduce myself and get to know everyone. The AD was not too pleased with me that night. Once I found my team, I got the introductions over with and I proceeded to cover the rules of the hotel and the tournament with my players. After our short meeting, I went upstairs, ran bed checks (to make sure all of the players were in their correct rooms), and then went to bed. Not a great start for me on this trip, but after meeting my team and learning that I had responsible young people, I knew that the week would turn out all right in the end.

***

That is all for today. That second day took quite a bit of telling. The next time I post, it will be days three and four.

In other news, I finished Harry Potter 7 shortly after its release (that is the official story; for more information about the date of completion, email me).

Also, my birthday occurred since the last time I wrote, and it was awesome. 22 years old.

Later,

Lorimer