Thankful for Experiences To Date, In Future

Not lost during my time overseas is how thankful I am for these opportunities.

As everyone back home knows, a week from Thursday brings the Thanksgiving holiday. So now is as good a time as ever to reflect on how fortunate I've been to come over to Europe and have the opportunity to experience what I have in such a short time.

In addition the the several relationships I have forged with Hungarians and Americans and the site seeing I've been able to do here in Budapest, I have had the opportunity to travel to such historical cities as Barcelona, Venice, Rome and Zagreb. I've been able to visit Debrecen, Hungary's second-largest city near the Romanian border on the eastern side of the country, a number of times to help with their baseball club there. I've taken a team to a tournament in Nettuno, Italy, where United States troops first introduced the Italians to baseball during World War II.

In the next couple months, I'll be taking trips to Prague for a baseball meeting, hopefully to Munich to link up with my Uncle Bill who will be on business overseas, and then to Vienna and Bratislava when my mother and step father visit for the holidays. I'll be off from work the last few weeks in January, and am planning to take a trip to cover some American basketball players who are playing ball over in Europe in Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Italy and Germany. That would be a dynamite experience in itself.

Who knows what next year may bring? The possibility exists for me to coach in the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany and Holland, and I hope to make a decision in the next couple of weeks where I will land for 2012. At some point while I'm here, I'd like to visit western Europe and check out Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, and hope to get up to Berlin at some point as well. The Olympics are in London in late July and August, and I'd love to get out there to watch the American athletes represent our country if my coaching schedule allows. Past that? The opportunity exists to go work for the Australian winter baseball league, which is now affiliated with Major League Baseball, from November to March 2013. How cool would that be?

I may come home broke a year or 18 months from now, but I'll be rich with memories and experience. I can't thank everyone I have met to this point over here enough for their support, and for the support of my family and friends back home. A trip like this isn't possible without a fantastic support group, and I've got as good as one could ask for.

Now, who's mailing me the stuffed turkey and cranberry gelatin for turkey day?

(For a video on my experiences to date, click the link here.)