SOFTBALL!

I never thought that I would be excited for softball, but I am learning that everything has a beautiful new spin when you are here in Austria.  Today was my first day of practice with the team that I will be playing with.  I'm pretty sure that we're called the PeeWees, but I'm not too sure about that one.  I was invited to the team by my Ballspiele (Ballgames) coach, Sabine Platte, from the Stift (my school).  She plays for the team and her mother is the manager.  (She also played for the Olympic team last year too.)  Anyways, the team is pretty good here in Austria (not sure how that compares to what I am used to) and last year they won second in the country.  That qualified them to play for the European Cup next summer.  The tournament is in Holland with all of the best teams from all over Europe.  Unfortunately it is in the middle of August and I will be leaving in July.  Otherwise I would be able to travel and play with them, which would be amazing.  Anyways, practice went well.  We practice every Friday until February, when we practice on Tuesdays and Fridays.  Until February we are only conditioning and lifting weights, which is totally fine by me.  The names of the girls that were there are:  Sabine, Katrin, Lisa, Putzi, Sabine (another one), Caro, Kristina, Lili, Karin, and Petra.  The ages range from 16-38... at least that's what I was told.  There were about 3 girls that couldn't make it tonight but they should be there next week.

And last weekend was great fun too.  Jackie came to stay the weekend with me.  She got into Melk at 10:00 on Friday night because she had to go to dance class first, so we just chilled at my house that night.  The next morning we got up fairly late, had a nice relaxed breakfast, got dressed, and walked to the Stift so we could take a tour.  That was the first time I had ever toured the monastery, and OMG..... I would have loved to see that place back when the empress actually stayed there.  It was amazing!  And Jackie was totally jealous.  Afterwards we walked to Spar (grocery store) in order to buy the ingredients to make pancakes for my host family the next morning!  It took us a while to figure out the difference between baking soda and baking powder in German.  We finally gave up and only bought baking soda, I think.  By the time we got back home it was 5:00 or so.  I called the Amis (the 4 other American exchange guys at my school that are here on a private exchange between their school in Minnesota and the Stift) and we made plans to meet at Alt Melk in town at 7:30.  We all just sat around and talked for about an hour and a half until a group of English guys came in.  About half of them were drunk and they were pretty loud, but they couldn't speak any German so they were having a hard time ordering.  When they found out that we spoke English they all came to sit with us... it was pretty crazy, but still a lot of fun.  Sunday morning Jackie and I woke up early to start making the pancakes.  Austria has a dish called Palaschinken that is similar to pancakes, but it is really more of a dessert. It is super sweet and they are more like crepes, not fluffy at all.  So we made our pancakes from scratch and this syrup sauce that Jackie's family makes all the time in Canada.  The sauce was way too sweet for me, so I just stuck the plain maple syrup, but it was still a lot of fun and great to have some good ol' pancakes for breakfast.  The only things that were missing were bacon, scrambled eggs, and COLD orange juice.