Day 10

Dinsdag, 16 Augustus, 2011
 (Thanks to whoever said that the number goes before the month - I forgot us Americans are silly and not everyone does month/day/year)

Read that Jim Thome hit his 600th career home run last night against the Tigers.  GO THOME!  Read that right after breakfast (woke up around 10), so I spent some time online reading baseball news.  This article in particular amazed me - Marquis of the Diamondbacks threw thirteen pitches with a fractured leg, until he threw the pitch that would complete the break in his leg (which lead me to the Dave Dravecky story).  Wow.  Spent some time reading some NYT's articles as well; nice morning.

Had lunch, read another article or two on the interwebs, then Truut drove Marcela, Robyne and I to Turnhout.  Robyne bought a TON of gifts for her host families.  I, in celebration of Thome's 600th, bought a book called "Ballet in the Dirt:  The Golden Age of Baseball".  It's in English, Dutch, and French!  But it's mainly pictures, so it's really awesome.  And only 10 euros!

Walked around, saw the school I'll be going to (apparently it's a converted monastery, so it's got a creepy, old church feel).  Had a cherry beer when we were walking around, because there was a cool restaurant sort of thing that had a fun house feel to it, and Truut wanted to show it to us.  Did some more shopping, and by then the sun started to make my headache pretty bad (yes, I had the headache before I had the beer).  Thankfully, we left for home around then.

Slept for a little under an hour, took some Advil, had dinner, and left for my first music rehearsal.  Robyne biked with me, because I completely forgot how to get there.  I was pretty nervous at first, seeing as how my chops are terrible because of my wisdom teeth removal, plus the fact that I was no good at the music.

But, it was totally amazing.  Everyone in the group is super nice, and they helped me translate what the director was saying, and helped me find where I was in the music when I got lost.  I obviously couldn't play it that well, but considering it was my first time with the group, I think I did decent enough.  Honestly, sitting in the room tonight was the most at home I've felt this entire exchange.  Not to say that my family isn't amazing, but I've spent so much time in music rehearsals that I felt completely comfortable, even if everything was in Dutch.

Had a drink with the "younger" crowd after (I think they were all in their 20's), and they kept speaking English to me seeing as how I couldn't understand Dutch.  Very nice of them.  I can't wait until I can talk to them in their native tongue.  Biked home (almost by myself; I went with two of the people until our paths split), talked to Truut and Patrick about how much I loved the music group, and went online to talk.  Had a good talk with the padre, though it did make me miss my Reg and my Meg (she is going to be inundated with snuggle struggles when I return).

Well, it's past midnight again, so I suppose I should be getting to sleep and not reading things on reddit.  Slaapwel!