Sports MANIA!!!

So, I've decided to dedicate an entire post to sports and the excitement that has been taking over my brain.

First thing's first.  THE GIANTS ARE IN THE WORLD SERIES!! I've been slowly piecing my life back together since that awful year of the Angels and that damn rally monkey.  If they really do it, I'm going to go bazzzzerk.

It really has been so exciting, with all those one run games the Giants like to play.  Crazy as it is, I have stayed up and watched almost all of their post-season games so far.  I think last night's game takes the cake though, it was a pretty long game and ended at about 5:45AM here.  I was sitting on my bed in the dark, computer on lap, fist pumping the air and trying hard not to run around the house yelling.  I think that's as awake as I've ever been at the time in the morning.

So I'll definitely be watching games 1 and 2 here this week, but on Saturday I leave for Spain and Portugal over my fall break.  I wasn't going to bring my computer backpacking around, but now I have no choice.  Luckily all our hostels have wi-fi.  I was really loving the day games they had 'cause they started at a reasonable hour for me, but of course they all have to start at prime time in the WS.  I guess 2AM will be my time to head in from the Spanish night life... hopefully they don't all go 3 hrs and 45 min.  Either way, I may be needing some serious siesta time.

Ok, second thing's second.  There are only 6 people (including me/nick and jim/dad, so 4 others) left out of 45 in my suicide NFL football pool with all my dad's pilot friends.  Winner take all... all being $4,500.  It is soooo hard not to think (everyday) about what I could do with that kind of money, but I know it's still a long shot.  I can not stop thinking about it... It's starting to get more difficult now, hopefully I can get a little lucky.  This and a Giants WS win would make for quite a fall 2010.

It can be sort of frustrating being here while my Giants are in the fall classic.  It's not so much that the games aren't on TV or that they start at 2AM, as it is that everybody could care less about baseball here (if they know what it is).  Of course it is always nice to get excited and watch the games with some fellow fans.  It is just hard to be so excited and have nobody really understand why!  So here I am blogging about it... This will work.  It is really awesome to see all the bay area friends and family going crazy about it on facebook by the way.  I even have most of Caitlin's family rooting for the ole Giants.  Seeing some status updates that reflect how I feel makes me feel a bit more sane. HA!

Don't the Giants owe me something? Like #1 fan award or something? Season tickets would be sufficient...
Anywhoo, go Giants!

Visitors!

Sorry it has been awhile, I've been so busy around here with visiting parents and grandpa, little trips and late night Giants games... So much to talk about!

So since my last post I have been to Amsterdam again, for about 24 hours to meet some friends from SLC that were traveling around Europe.  It was a good little trip because I actually got to go to the Van Gogh museum, which was really amazing.  If they would have let me take photos, I would have dozens... My favorite one there was probably the Almond Blossom one with all the turquoise.  Great as it was though, it sure did make me miss Caitlin; Van Gogh being one of her very favorites.

I also had a short visit from my Dad and Teri, which was very nice.  It was pretty fun to play tour guide and show them around town.  It was also good to do a couple touristy things that I otherwise may not have done.  We went for a bike tour around Brussels that was really fun and went to the Museum of fine arts.  They had a bunch of Breugel's (sp?) and even a Dali painting:

 with PLENTY in between.  After a solid run of crucifix paintings, I had to stop and take a picture of this one:

I think I even said to my dad: "finally some action!"  By far my favorite part was the sculptures that were  everywhere, done by a contemporary Mexican artist.  These sculptures are all around town (for the time being), as well as in the museum.

The 11th of Oct. was my roommate Katie's 21st birthday.  It must sort of suck having the big 2-1 over  here where it doesn't mean anything legally, but we still had a good time.  Mechthild cooked and we had some friends over to eat before heading out to dance on some tables.  Oh yeah, there is this bar that is normal until about midnight, when the lights dim, the dancing music comes on, and dancing on top of all the tables is then allowed.  It's a pretty good time... Lots of champagne was involved that night.

Aaaaand today, my mom hopped on a plane back home, a day after Pa (my grandpa) did.  It was so great having them here.  I got to play tour guide again and didn't spend a euro-dime!  They stayed at a hotel in the same town that I live in, so they really got to spend a lot of time here at the house which was nice.  Lots of good food and wine!
After seeing most of the sights here, we trotted (a verb I've picked up from Mechthild) off to Bruges for two nights.  I was so great! All the canals and old gothic buildings!  It was very fun to walk around, look at the buildings, climb the tower, drink beer and eat waffles.  BTW, Pa was walking around everyday like he was 50!  I'm sure he won't even need a rest now that he's home... back to tennis! It was great...

One of the nights we had a very nice dinner with Guy and Christiane (sp?) Webo, who were friends with my grandparents back when they lived there in 1969.  Having been business partners, them seeing each other again after 40 years was very exciting.  They were very friendly, engaging people...  It was a pretty fun thing to be apart of.
The next day we took the train over to Knokke, which is the town on the beach where the family lived back in '69.  Quite the place as well!  Apparently it wasn't always this way, but it is quite the ritzy place! There was even a fancy car show going on...

It was so much fun to have them here.  I even scored a new wool coat thanks to my mom, which will be very much needed.

Mid-Terms went well (I even got the high score on one, which was an exciting first for me), and the roomies, Mechthild and I are all off to Croatia tomorrow!  I am soooo excited!  More to come when I'm back.

Love, Christian