My Time In the East

Aaron Boone Bobblehead - Give-a-way at the ballpark on Sunday. 

posted by Unknown @ 10:12 PM 0 comments

National Past Time

I had planned to spend most of the day working on my various courses. Which I did and was able to finish one module by around 1130am.

One thing that I noticed on one of the airline magazines on the flight in was that the Indianapolis minor league baseball stadium is one of the nicer minor league ballparks.

Lucky me, the Indianapolis Indians were in town and were playing. I hadn't been to a baseball game since 2003, so I figured I could get some local flavor and by entertained at the same time.

So, the Indianapolis Indians were playing the Durham Bulls. [NOTE: last minor league games I've been to were with the El Paso Diablos from 1999-2000 and were mildly entertaining.]

Game started off normally, the Bulls were retired in stride. The Indians were able to string a couple of hits, an error and a home run into four runs. After that initial push, it was a mostly standard game. However, I was sitting behind the 3rd base dugout, which today was amid a flurry of activity.

I think within a one section radius of where I was sitting there were two foul balls. But, the oddest part was that there were two bats that ended up within 10 seats of me. The first was a broken bat single - no injuries involved, but it was on a beeline towards my direction. The second was a thrown bat (batter had made his swing at the ball and just let go.) - that time the guy that got it had a bruise on his chest/neck.

Anyway, lots of foul balls, everywhere - more than I had seen ANYWHERE else.

The Bulls were able to eventually tie it up by the 8th inning (5-5). Both teams brought in their closers and the Bulls closer had some of the best stats. The Indians had managed to load the bases on a walk, a really bad error by the Bulls, an excellently placed bunt. Bases loaded, nobody out and the pitcher gets behind on the count. The batter winds up and tees off for a WALK OFF grand slam home run.

All round it was an enjoyable and entertaining afternoon - especially it was cheap!

posted by Unknown @ 6:25 PM 0 comments

Trans-Pacific Flights

Well on Saturday 9 Jul, I was able to take a wonderful trans-pacific flight.

Most of my normal flights, when I do take a trans-pacific flight, involve a stop in either Seattle or San Francisco and a layover for a couple of hours before continuing on the flight.

This time I flew directly into Chicago. While I have flow through Chicago a number of times, this was the first time that I had an international arrival there. I must say, it was a nice experience and it was very smooth. I cleared immigration and customs quickly - of course I had to wait a LONG time for my bags to get off the plane. If figured that I didn't have a problem, as the plane from Seoul was the same plane we used to fly to Chicago.

I checked my bags back in and quickly headed off to my final connecting flight. I made it to my gate with plenty of time to spare. The airplane was a Canadair Regional Jet. Very smooth, but a little on the small side as the laptop bag was about the only thing that would fit in the overhead bin.

Flight was short about 30 minutes and arrived at the final destination around 230pm (9 Jul) - at this point I had been up around 24 hours already; I did catch some cat naps on the flight, but not really restful. I wait and wait and wait for my luggage to come out - not a good sign. Anyway, the made an announcement that all the bags had been delivered. I check with the baggage folks and low and behold my bags were still in Chicago and would arrive on the next flight around 6pm.

I checked into the hotel, took a shower and was immediately refreshed. Made a run to buy some sundry items that I had forgot and/or needed and ate dinner. By the time that I made it back to the room, my luggage had arrived. I changed into clean clothes and starting relaxing by watching TV. I promptly fell asleep, woke up about a hour later - trying to stay up, but failed miserably and finally gave in around 9pm to sleep the night away.

posted by Unknown @ 7:54 AM 0 comments

Happy Fourth!

Always an added treat to see fireworks on your Nation's birthday when you are located in a foreign country.

I had a pretty good view of the show from my apartment deck.

Back to work...

posted by Unknown @ 8:57 PM 1 comments