To the Field, Mach Scnell!!

I wake up from a weird night of sleep. Couldn't really sleep, but I was exhausted. What time is it. My body is still on New Mexico time, but it is morning here. I think I am screwed up because it is like 1 AM in New Mexico. No dogs to walk or Lisa to talk to. This may be the beginning of being homesick. If there wasn't so many new things, I think I would be.

At 2 PM, Tina was going to come pick me up to register me for everything I could possibly imagine. Tina is on the club board and helps run the women's softball team. She is Croatian and has the Eastern block look about her. After about 30 seconds of small talk, she says "so, let's go" and we were off to who knows where. We hop in her Audi 100. That model was like 15 years old, but the car is in tip top shape, so no worries (note foreshadowing).

She starts telling me about all the stuff we are about to do and I'm just nodding along like my Mike Piazza Bobble Head. First stop, I thought was the bank. We had to take a little number and wait. Our number lights up and we go through a door to a long counter. The lady helping us speaks no English and she and Tina start yacking on about something. I don't see any money changing hands at any of the other counters. I don't think this is a bank. Tina hands me a form and says "Fill this out". Crap, everything is in German. They lady asks us to step outside as we fill out the forms.

My first German lesson. Tina walks me through the form, but tries to lead me in getting the answers so I actually learn what the words mean. Very thoughtful. Address! Shoot, I don't know where I live. The description "Above the theatre with the big head on it" just won't do. We try calling Ralf, but no answer. She grabs a phone book from the counter and looks up the theater company. Genius! We're in business.

We go back into the lady who is processing something and after about 10 minutes of conversation between the two of them, she asks me for my place of birth. That's it. I know you guys said more than that. I couldn't help but think of the movie "Lost in Translation" with Bill Murray and Scarlet Johannsen (schwing!). "New York" I responded. Another 10 minutes of back and forth and Tina said, "that will be fine". What? What was all the other stuff! So this ended up being my registration with the city or state or country (I'm still not sure). Evidently this is very important.

Next stop, the bank! This was how I was going to get paid, so this was pretty important. The club does direct deposit for my salary, so I was eager to get this done. We get to the teller. No bullet proof glass or high counters. She was sitting in a chair below us. Tina starts in with the teller. About 10 minutes of back and forth. Evidently we need an appointment to open a bank account. There must be more than that. I gotta be missing something. She hands me a slip and my appointment is 10 days from now! Geeze, I guess bank accounts are in high demand in Germany! So we leave there and we try to find something to eat.

We are in the Time Square of Stuttgart, so there is everything you can imagine. She says "Do you like Sushi?" "Of course" I reply. We go over to a very German looking sushi place, but it's not open. "How about Chinese?" Where is all this Bratwurst and meat I heard about? It's buffet style and I must say was really good. They don't use MSG here, so it was good stuff.

Off to the field to meet the team. I was really excited. Meeting a new team for the first time is always exciting. Sizing the other guys up, seeing if they are as manly as you. Mental jousting. We hop into Tina's Audi. It's raining pretty hard and I asked her "will they still be practicing?" "Oh yeah" she replied. "You would be amazed at the rain we play in". In New Mexico, if it might rain, we cancel games.

Sitting in traffic, Tina starts cursing in German. "What's wrong?" I ask. "My stupid car is having trouble". No sooner than 2 minutes later, a sputter, a cough and the car dies! We are in the middle of downtown Stuttgart, it's pouring rain and we're sitting in the middle of traffic. She gets it going enough to get it over to the side. "Get out!" she says. "In Germany, you can't sit in a car on the side of the road".

There we are standing next to her Audi in the pouring rain. "What are we waiting for" I say with a bit of sarcasm. "The car club will come fix the car". Wow, that should be great. 45 minutes go by and we have talked about everything from health care, to kids to how her boss hit on here on their last business trip. Finaly, here comes a yellow van with "ACAD". The driver pops out and he talks to Tina a big and grabs his tool box. The hood is popped and he's in there working. Pulls out something that has to do with the alternator, adjusts it and charges the battery and sure enough, the Audi comes to life! Are you kidding me. I guess they are all engineers here.

It's pretty late at this point and I'm wondering if the guys will still be there. We get there and it's dark at the field and we make our way to the dugout and I shake a bunch of hands and Tina says "let's go". Don't know where, but I will follow.

We end up at a traditional small German restaurant and there were a handful of players there that I got to meet. Beer is flowing and here comes my first Bratwurst. I guess I've arrived.