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It's been a long week and a half... It's been raining off and on since last Tuesday! Going back to last weekend, we lost both games of our doubleheader, but I was in the hitting lineup. I know what you all might be thinking, but not to toot my own horn, I'm quite impressed with myself. Last Sunday night, my roommate Chris and I went out in town for Den Bosch Zingt, which was just an annual music festival in town where everyone sings along to popular songs. There was a stage set up with everyone crowded around wearing orange hats (orange is the national color). It reminded me of the concerts in the park.
They even had some American classics such as "You Can't Hurry Love" by Phil Collins, "All You Need is Love" by The Beattles, "I Will Survive" by Hermes House Band and a personal favorite the Grease megamix!!
So I finally got a new computer!!!! I feel really high tech with all the new gizmos and gadgets that are built in (i.e. web cam and microphone, so I don't have to wear my super cool headset anymore). The parentals came through in the clutch!! On Wednesday, I took the train all by myself to meet up with my mom in Den Haag (also where the computer swap took place). We had a really fun day! We took the tram around town being the ultimate tourists. First stop of the day... The beach!!!
After hanging out at the beach with the no sun and trying to find shelter from the rain, we decided to head back into town... When we arrived there was an outdoor market open, and since the Dutch are known for their cheese my mom got really excited when they had this special kind with cumin in it. She also got really excited by the cute paper they used to wrap up their cheese...
From the market, we headed to the the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, the museum where they had the painting of the Girl with a Pearl Earring on display, but by the time we got there it was closed! :( Disappointed, then headed to the Binnenhof, which when translated means the "inner court." Binnenhof and the Knights' Hall, the political center of the Netherlands, are where the queen holds her annual speech at Prinsjesdag. Basically, she just sets out the main features of government policy for the coming parliamentary session.
With all the weather issues and missing the museum, what else could go wrong? We decided to head over to the Peace Palace! The Peace Palace is often called the seat of international law because it houses the International Court of Justice. The Palace is filled with many gifts from the different nations who attended the Second Hague Conference as a sign of their support, and it also features a number of statues and portraits of prominent peace campaigners from around the world such as Andrew Carnegie, Nelson Mandela, and Gandhi! As our luck would have it, the Palace was closed for renovations!!!
With all the sight seeing we eventually became starved, and what better place to go than to an all you can eat rib joint... This place was amazing!!! You ordered full racks of ribs with up to their flavor options (pepper, cranberry, ginger, peanut, sweet and spicy). We had to try them all; between my mom and me we had three full racks (Matt and Tyler would be so proud)!!! Unfortunately, we don't know the name. The flight crews just know how to get there and recognize it by the painted window... It's been dubbed the three rabbits place!
Most recently, I've been trying to stay dry. We did get our games in last Saturday, but we dropped two again! I pitched the first game that went nine innings with a 5-3 loss, and the second was not that close. Looking on the brightside, we'll be back at home again this Saturday!!! I'm also anxiously awaiting for the movie The Hangover to be in theaters here! I heard it was hilarious!!! Anyways, later this week I'm planning of heading up to Amsterdam to check out the Anne Frank House, Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmusuem, so I'll keep you all posted!!!
