I grabbed my bag at the baggage carousel and headed out of baggage claim not knowing who would be picking me up. I walked through the small crowd looking for a sign with my name on it or even for someone who looked like they were looking for me. I got past the crowd and then realized no one claimed me yet. So I stopped with my bags and waited. Eventually a man came up to me and said, “Mercedes?” Yay! I have a ride and I am not stranded at the airport. The man is my head coach Tim and he was accompanied by Martin, Nina and Nina’s 5 month old baby girl Jella (pronounced Yella). Nina is an ex-player for Terrasvogels and she is the one who first contacted me about playing for the team. I rode with her and the baby to my apartment in Haarlem. Martin and Tim met us there. I got settled in my flat with Martin and Tim showing me all the rooms and telling me how certain things worked etc. Martin left to go work on the current project at the field to expand the home team dugout. Then it was Tim and I and we walked down the street to the local grocery store so that I could have food to eat. Once we returned with a bagful of food in my hand and more in Tim’s arms the two of us got to talking. Tim is in his first year as head coach of the team and he seems young and enthusiastic. We talked about the team and the expectations they had of me and then just about each other. Eventually the catcher from the team stopped by to meet me and the briefly chat. Flor and I discussed practicing the next day (Tuesday morning) since she did not have school or work.
Flor picked me up and she drove us to the field. It is not far away and she told me that there is a short cut if I go by bike. I did a pitching workout with her and I had forgotten how nice it is to pitch to a catcher. Halfway through our workout we had an unexpected guest. An eighty year old man named Bram an der Weg (something like that) walked out on to the field towards me while speaking Dutch to my catcher. She seemed to know who he was and he obviously felt comfortable walking out onto the field and interrupting our workout. I introduced myself and so did he but I had no idea what he said since his name seemed like a sentence. He then pointed to a the scorekeeper box and said that his name was on the building. He went on to explain that the Terrasvogels softball team has been around for 50 years and that his wife was the first pitcher for the team. Of course back then they did slingshot pitching. Then he explained in not so clear English that he learned in a two week softball camp that some Americans were having is when he first heard about “windmill” pitching. He is a pitching and catching coach now and has been for years and apparently he is at the field all the time. I was wondering how he knew that we were practicing this morning until he pointed to his flat. He literally lives 60 feet from the field and he has a big window that has an unobstructed view of the field. After this little chat we finished with pitching and then went to hitting.
On Wednesday, Solange texted me in the morning and asked if I wanted to hang out while she went to do some errands at school. We ended up hanging out until around 10pm. It was a great day. She picked me up and we went to her school in Amsterdam. She is studying to be a physical education teacher and had to print out a stack full of paper for her internship at a local primary school. We then headed back to Dana’s apartment and hung out and chatted about the team and each other. I stayed for dinner and then hung out for a bit afterwards. Dana cooked and her sister Leanna rounded out the four at the table.
In the picture is Leanna, Solange, me and then Dana. After we ate the pasta and salad Dana and Sol washed the dishes and I dried them. This was followed by tea, waffles and a sewing party in the apartment upstairs.
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