Waiting For The Playoffs

I would like to start off with an apology to all of my loyal readers for I know you have been anxiously anticipating the next segment of my blog. Without further ado here it is.

Since I’ve last talked to you so much has gone on, none of which included baseball. I went to Germany a couple times. The first time, I went to Cologne which was a fun time. We walked the streets and had some lunch. The waiters bring you beer without asking and just continue to refill your glass throughout the meal which was pretty cool.

We visited one of the world’s tallest cathedrals and climbed the 533 step spiral staircase to the top. Making matters worse was the girl who seemed to be afraid of heights that was stuck in front of us near the top. She was literally balling her eyes out and while I did feel bad I don’t think this was the place for her to conquer her fear.

I also visited Amsterdam during my time off. Amsterdam is like nothing else I have ever seen. It’s such a nice city with the canals and everything but it’s very strange at the same time with the coffee shops and the red light district. We tried to go to the Anne Frank House but the line was about 2 hours long. In an attempt to keep the description PG-13 the rest of the trip was rather uneventful.

We also took a team trip to an indoor water park. Unlike water parks in the US it was completely lawless. As the team we would all pile down the slides together at the same time and land on each other when we got to the bottom. It was a blast but I couldn’t really move the next day and had some battle scars to show. Not to mention, we had to wear Speedos because regular bathing suits aren’t acceptable for some strange reason.

Everything else has been pretty relaxing as I await the playoffs, which will start Saturday. I was involved in a very minor fender bender the other night but don’t worry; we came out of it unscathed. My French has progressed roughly 0% since we last chatted and I have not found a way to solve the bug problem. I still go to sleep at night with the mosquitoes but I’m getting used to it. To make sleeping worse the city has a miniature big dig construction project going on right outside my window. And by right outside my window I mean if I were to jump out of it I would land on a drill. They also feel the need to start delivering equipment and banging things around as loud as possible at 4AM which is no exaggeration. My roommate and I have continued our quest to try every Belgian beer. Keep in mind these are always consumed in moderation, unlike you college kids.

I hope all of my readers are doing well and I look forward to seeing you when I get back to the United States. Until my next addition of Bridging the World Belgium Style, take it easy and enjoy the rest of the summer.

- Brian Hurld

Baseball's Brian Hurld in Belgium

Bonjour from Namur, Belgium. Yes, they speak French in Belgium and no, I didn’t know that either. Well, a little less than half the country speaks French while the other half speaks mostly Flemish, which is Dutch. I’ve been here for a little over three weeks now and it has been a blast so far. We practice on Tuesday and Thursday and coach younger kids on Wednesday and Friday. We have games on Saturday and Sunday which leaves Monday as our day off.

On the field everything is similar to baseball in the US except that they bunt a lot more. I am enjoying some initial success, winning my first two games on the mound and even hitting again which I haven’t done since sophomore year because of a flaw in my swing. Our team is currently in second place in what they call the 1st round or regular season. The top four teams advance to the 2nd round and play twelve more games. The two teams with the best records from those four play in the championship. We have already secured a spot in the next round as one of the top four teams with two games remaining in the regular season.

Off the field has definitely been a learning experience for me. The guys on the team are great and really make me and my roommate, Todd Emr (Johns Hopkins), feel very welcome. Most of them speak at least a little bit of English with a good amount being fluent. Strangely enough my teammates appear to be the only ones in the city who do speak English. If Todd and I go out alone we have develop a technique of kind of attempting French and then just pointing at what we want at a bar or restaurant. If only I had taken French in high school instead of Spanish (which I failed a couple times anyway). Todd and I have gotten along well so far, he was an applied math major at Hopkins so we really have something in common…baseball! It has been an easy adjustment living with him after spending three years with a roommate like Kevin Simpson, (which is not a shot against you Kevin because like I said, you made the adjustment easy for me). The biggest adjustment besides the language has to be the fact that they do not have window screens here. No joke. It has been a little bit hot so when we open the window, in come the bugs and they are determined to keep me up all night which they do successfully. That’s all I have for now but I will be bridging the world again at some point soon. Until then, au revoir (had to look up the spelling on freetranslations.com).

- Brian Hurld