 |
| A couple blokes enjoying the Prague night life. |
I thanked him at our team party last night, but figured at thank you was also blog-worthy for a guy who in addition to being one of our top players this past season, also became the best friend I had while in the Czech Republic, a makeshift assistant coach at times who helped with the development of some of our young players, and someone who helped me keep an even keel when going through rough patches that are expected with a foreign coach or player in his first year with a team.
Andrew and I, despite 10 years in age between us, became close buddies in the near eight months that our stay here in Prague overlapped. We were the two import guys with the baseball side of the club, and gave each other someone to hang out with when checking out the city's centre and many sites, while doing some traveling during down time from baseball, and drinking buddies when checking out the night life in this great city. When one of us was struggling a bit with adapting to the culture here or getting a bit home sick, we leaned on each other to get through it.
For that, I wanted to say thank you, Andrew. You're a good apple, as they say, and I know your family is stoked to be getting you back home, and your home club will be pumped to have you once again back in uniform.
I'll also thank you for making me a little more "Aussie" while living here. It took me awhile to catch on, but I now know that when someone from Australia asks if I want to meet for "tea", that they actually mean dinner, not sitting around a couple small glasses of hot tea in a coffee shop somewhere. That was a relief, as I thought there for a minute there that I may have recruited one of the Golden Girls over to play for me.
I find myself now telling people or asking someone if they are "keen" or "keen as" to do something? I have caught myself referring to sweatshirts as "hoodies", and have added "cheers" and "no worries" to the vocabulary. I knew before that "mate" referred to a friend or companion, but now also know I can refer to a male buddy as a "bloke", or someone who's not a buddy as a "wanker". If there's something weird or shady going on, I know I can refer to it as being "dodgy", by Australian accounts. I now know that the ball used in Australian Rules Football is known as a "footy", and that looking for "birds" doesn't mean we're going on a nature hike, that it in fact refers to looking for girls.
And then there's the very versatile word "suss", which can be used in many different fashions that I am still attempting to grasp. I'll Google it, and will have it in the vocabulary arsenal when I come visit OZ one day.
I enjoyed playing translator when our Czech and Slovakian guys couldn't understand your Aussie English and accent. Appreciated having in essence a coach on the field (coaching is definitely in your future), and having a guy who I knew would bring his best effort to the yard once he stepped between the lines every day. And I know the club will miss having a guy who filled three roles for them this year, a defensive presence on the left side of the infield, a guy who could lock a game down as the closer in the ninth inning, and a guy who could hit at any of the top three spots in the lineup.
It was great to have you here mate, and I'll always appreciate your friendship, the good times we had together and the stories we'll be able to tell from our time spent here. Give your Mom a hug for me, continue to work on that slider and hitting line drives to the opposite field, and I'll look forward to seeing you again soon, on one continent or another.