The Trip to the Netherlands

After falling asleep at 3:00am I had to wake up at 5:45am. You're probably wondering, why would I go to sleep that late when I have to be up so early. It's simple, I have this theory if I don't get sufficient sleep the night before I have to board an overseas flight, I will feel terrible once I get on the plane and sleep most of the journey. So far, my theory hasn't failed me.

I had a 9:50am flight to China first up, and like most flights I have to take internationally, it was delayed, but only for 30 minutes, so it was no big deal. That delay just meant I would spend less time in Guangzhou Airport which didn't bother me at all.

Once we boarded the flight I noticed two babies were ijnmy vicinity. I thought this was going to be a problem when I heard one of them crying, but the parents were able to control their child, so I started to relax a bit. When the plane took off I got my iPad out and started to watch the South Park episodes I had recently bought off iTunes. I got through four episodes before I decided to sleep, and a good sleep it was. I slept for about five hours straight which was more than half of the entire journey. That's a win in my book. After waking up I started to watch th Fresh Prince of Bel Air season that I bought and it got quite awkward as I was laughing out loud many times. People must have thought I was crazy, but I have a bad habit of laughing in public. Once again I was getting a little tired, so I tried to sleep again, and did quit successfully as I woke up about 45 minutes before landing. Pretty epic win if you ask me.

I got off the plane and even though we didn't have to walk on the tarmac I was met by this overwhelming heat and humidity. Something I haven't experienced since Extended Spring Training last year. Needless to say, my jacket came off pretty quickly. I made my way through immigration quite quickly and walked to the international transfers gates. I was stuck in this airport for a couple of hours so I was hoping there would be restaurants or at least a fast food joint to get some food from, but nothing. There was a cafe but I was too scared to go see what they had, seeing as the menu was written in Chinese. So I found a duty free shop and bought a chocolate bar and a bottle of water. Quite an athletes diet if you ask me. After I purchased my big meal I made my way to my gate which was quit empty. I made myself at home and layed on the ground, set up my iPad and started watching some more Fresh Prince episodes. Seeing as there was no one around me, I could laugh out loud as much as I wanted.

It finally became time to board my last flight and I only watched one episode of Fresh Prince before I fell asleep. I didn't wake up for nearly 10 hours, which is quite amazing. After I woke up I just watched Moneyball on my iPad and that was it. The flight was over. Apart from the boring delay in Guangzhou it was quite an easy trip to Amsterdam.

I got my bags and met up with someone from the team who took me to my apartment in Haarlem which is 20 minutes out of Amsterdam. I'm living with one American who's had professional experience with the Cubs, so I'll talk about him a little later. So far all I have done on my first day in the Netherlands is go to the supermarket and sleep. Soon I'll be heading out to check out the town before settling in and relaxing for the night before my first game tomorrow afternoon