Jane's Journal

I don't have all the pictures sorted out yet, but I did cast a critical eye over mine and tried to sort them by interest. I think I've got a few of the best lined up to show you a bit of the atmosphere of Athens, Ohio.



This is me! Hey, lookit, I'm working on the grass. This was shot in the first week and is one of the few pictures I'm actually in. I got myself a nice cup of Perks coffee, dragged my laptop to the park, and sat in the sun to do some work. It worked fine of course.

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Comments appreciated.

I had set my alarm to nine, since Tjerk (pr: Tj-eric) had said we'd drive towards the game around half past nine. I woke up slightly early though, and took a well-deserved shower, giving my teeth a better shrubbing than the night previous.

Mark ran down to Perks to get some breakfast and brought me (at my request) a lemon and poppyseed muffin. It was still warm...yum! But we would be going with the coaches, and they were nowhere to be seen. Furthermore, of the original six people that would be visiting the game, only the four of us (Tjerk, Mark, Arjan L., and me) were waiting outside, and Arjan only because Mark remembered he wanted to come along.
So Arjan and I ran to Perks to pick up some coffee. I picked up an espresso for Mark as a thanks for my muffin and then when we returned the coaches arrived as well.

We took a different route than the day previous. The coaches had a Dodge pickup of American proportions, and a TomTom system to boot, so we took the 50 to Jeffersonville. That particular road snakes in between the hills, a very scenic route indeed. We got to Jeffersonville maybe an hour and a half, cutting down the travel time compared to yesterday by quite a bit. Besides, the sights were more enjoyable.
There are even signs next to the road quoting Jesus, repeating the ten commandments, or saying (and this is my favorite): "HELL is real".

The ballgame we would visit was a Baseball match between the Cincinatti Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates. We would be supporting the Reds, it was a home game for them.
I hated the city as soon as our wheels touched the concrete. Huge office buildings, tons and tons of asphalt, and droves of people going the the Great American Ballpark next to the river. We bought our tickets with a credit card at an automated machine, and entered the ballpark.

We had $21,- tickets on the upper right corner of the field, giving us a great view on the overall game. I don't think I've ever seen so complete a view of a baseball game. The game had just started, and we were sitting in the blistering sun.
I praised my foresight; I'd bought suntan oil at Wal*mart this Wednesday. Though it was only SPF 15, it worked like a charm. I'm only burnt on the bits of my shoulder I didn't quite get. (it doesn't hurt much either)

The Reds hit four homeruns, but still they lost with 10-14. The game was done in three hours, and 27.000 people watched it. The commercial breaks in between innings are the worst, but what really took the cake was right at the beginning of the seventh innning, when everybody had to get up, take off their hats, and sing along with God Bless America. All in the spirit of Memorial Day. I got that on camera, too.

We drove back to Athens and had dinner with the coaches at Applebee. The diner was quite cosy because of two amazing factors: we could not watch TV from our table (all American restaurants have TV's. It's a miracle Perks does not have one), and there was not a blue wall of smoke because smoking indoors is prohibited.
The waitresses screwed up a few times, so the manager (what we call the maitre d') said the first three beers (yes, for the coaches) were on him, and afterwards we got free dessert! I had the ceasar salad with a small plate of riblets, and finished it all without feeling too full.

I wish I had some more time because the pictures are piling up. I also have a few movies now to share, but just too few time to upload and plug everything.