Trying to get lost in Paris

Well yesterday I went into Paris just trying to get lost. Moreso just wanting to sit back and take it all in. Because we have exactly 3 months left in France. It was good. I got out of the RER at Chatlet Les Halles and walked around the streets for a while. I stopped by the Eglise Saint-Eustache de Paris, a church close to the station, and hung around in the Jardin there for a while. I then made my way over to the Louvre where I began to notice my stalkers for the day. (Don't worry I'll explain later) Maybe it's best that I use pictures to show and talk about some of what I saw.

The Louvre Pyramid. The Weather was really nice and there was a choir group performing in the hallway. It had great accoustics and echoed throughout the entire pavilion. I then took off to walk along the Seine river.

I walked across at Pont Neuf, which goes throught the island in the middle of the Seine where Notre Dame and the French military are located. I stopped along the bridge at first because they have really cool sitting areas on the bridge. I listened to some music and watched the people as they walked by. You could see local artists taking up some of the small semi circular setting areas. Room for atleast 6 to 8, but normally occupied by just 1 or 2. The sun started to get hot and I felt Spring coming. I then walked to the picture above. The center islands end. Many people where doing the same thing. Wasting the day enjoying the weather. There where TONS of tourists out. The languages walking in the streets of Paris are as numerous as the new colors Crayola is coming up with to sell crayons. Plus you could tell they were tourists because each one of them had a camera strapped around their neck.

I sat next to an older German couple, I hung my feet off the edge and enjoyed it. You can also tell the season is changing because everywhere people are walking in pairs. The Germans laid out sharing a picnic. I thought that would be fun. About this time my two stalkers showed up right behind me and started taking pics, modeling in front of me. I chuckled inside and tried to ignore them. I got up and headed off to the South side of the river.

I wondered over to Saint-Sulpice finally and sat in front of this beautiful fountain in front of the Church with Lions on it. Wait let's play a game... kind of like where's waldo, only you have to find the pigeons in the picture....ready, go.

Anyways my stalkers again followed me to this place. I was sitting on a bench in front of the fountain, watching some boys play soccer, a camera crew recording the fountain and the people, and an elderly woman sitting next to me just taking a break. The stalkers who I found out were Italian walked right up to my bench and again started posing/ taking pictures right in front of me. I took this just as they walked in the way. At this point I kind of ruled out coincidence. They tried to talk to me, but only knew Italian. So my english was of no help. They shrugged at each other and then decided to walk away after they realized I wasn't going to burst into an Italian speech pattern.

After taking some time to think about what it's like for girls having stalkers. I decided to get up and look around some more. I wondered around and found this super sick tree. I just thought it was really cool.
I then made my way into the Jardin de Luxembourg. I big park area with lots of small kids playing, tennis courts, a huge fountain with people lounging around, and all kinds of activities. I watched some pick up ball and thought back to my 8th grade year and how I wanted to just play basketball and not focus so much on football. I'm glad that didn't happen. Street ball is street ball in any country the only difference was the sounds or the language being spoken. This was the large fountain in the park with tons of metal chairs available to the public. The center is the big fountain filled with ducks taking baths in the water. I found a chair that reclined and proped my feet on one a marble bench.

I think this is actually the back side of a Senate building in France. I'm not quite sure though so don't mark my words. It's good to realax and enjoy life. I think we rush too much in life to get "things" done, which are really not that important. Life's in the journey and it's good to be able to stop and smell the roses.

After a while a group of tourists came up right next to me and started taking pictures. I felt bad for the actual picture taker because as you can see there was atleast 10 different cameras he was responsible for.It was kind of fun watching him take 10 shots of the same picture. I thought to myself, sometimes it's better to just use one camera and then share or steal the photos from the one person's camera. I mean makes since right???
There was a cool lion statue. I think I'm obsessed with the sculptures and statues in Paris.

Since the time change which happened last Saturday night, the sun doesn't set until around 8:30 or so at night. Making the days feel like they go on forever.
Just a picture of me with the Montparnasse tower in the background. From up there you can see ALL of Paris. It was a good day. I'm loving Paris.

Random Ramblings

Just some thoughts have had over this past week. Being in France seems so normal now, just a part of everyday life. I was realizing how strange/ new / shocking things were when I first arrived. Matt had a phone interview with a local newspaper in Chatam and I ended up having to talk to him for a little bit. He was wondering what the toughest thing is and all that. Looking back EVERYTHING was difficult. Everything was confusing. I had trouble answering some of his questions just because it all feels so normal now.

This of course led me to think about reverse culture shock and what I'm going to have to do when I get back. I can't believe there's only 3 months left.

Ok so I haven't been able to watch any college basketball until now, the tournament. I get to see some games. Thanks to French TV, I also don't get commercials, so I get to see President Obama say that March Madness is the most exciting sporting event, nearly every 10 minutes. That as well as seeing his Oval office picks. Kind of funny watching the commander in chief picking his bracket.

One thing I've recently paid more attention to is that Parisiens are not afraid to use their car horn. I mean we will be sitting at a red light and the second it turns green people from the back of the line are quickly laying on the horn. I mean come on atleast give them a couple seconds to respond. Just a little difference that I've noticed.

I went to the top of Montparnasse tower in the South part of Paris the other day with Matt, Kristin and Hannah. I was afraid the bad weather would keep us from seeing the view. It was wet and rainy... we went to the top of the skyscraper. 56 floors up around 210 meters or so. The views where ridiculous. It was like seeing the world living below you. You could see all the way out to Cergy, the entire layout of Paris and the suburbs. It was really cool. The weather also was incredible. First it was overcast, especially over La Defense, the business quarter. I thought that to be a bit symbolic of the times. Then it started to hail. Which was so funny because apparently we all had been told at lunch by differernt people the french word for hail and that it was normal for this time of the year to have rain or hail and then good sunny weather.

Almost on cue after the hail, the sun opened up and God showed up. Well that's what it looked like to me... somebody else thought it looked like an alien ubduction. You can make your own decision. The coolest part though was actually going on the roof top of the building. I've never been on the absolute rooftop of a skyscraper, but they let you meander on the top next to the helipad and everything. Of course there was a security guard, sharp metal bars to keep you back from the edge, and a security guard. I thought about what would happen if a gust of wind knocked something out of your hand and it fell to the ground. More so likely if a young child threw something off the edge. Potentially that could kill somebody with the whole gravity and 9.81 m/s. I mean I'm not positive, but I'm sure it would suck.

I have found a good chinese food place close to Paris. Actually Will took us there. It's location.... Chinatown. It is awesome. The soup they have with noodles, shrimp ravioli's, vegetables, and all other sorts of deliciousness is quiet amazing. How can you not be a fan of such authenticity. The menu is in chinese with some french subtitles. I definitely trust a place where the language spoken matches the food. You can tell this is where the real Chinese go to eat good food. It's fun.

We have a big game coming up this week against the Flash. I'm looking forward to that one. Also we planned another trip to go see Barcelona. I love having the opportunity to just travel to a completely different country and culture so close. Can't wait to see some spanish shoreline and good spanish food.

We went to a little house party the other night to with a bunch of French guys that we have made friends with. They are fun and a good group of guys. It really is hard sometimes to muster up the courage to try and communicate in French. Once you start though it really isn't so bad. The most difficult part for me is not having any vocabulary knowledge or prior teaching. The team actually tried French night and just speaking in French. That's tough, I realize how easy I've had it. It's frustrating not knowing what's going on.

Oh also the food we've had in Paris is pretty amazing. I know I talked a lot about it in earlier posts, but I figured I'd make a quick video so I could show you exactly what I meant. This is from one night at a restaurant with Matt's parents, coach, and one of Matt's friends from home.

Warning: Do not read if you can't handle suspense

Sunday we played the Argonautes from the south division. It was quite a thrilling/suspensful game that left you guessing all the way until the end. The weather was nice and cool at the beginning of warmups. The overcast clouds helped create a chill in the air. I prayed that it would get sunny because I didn't bring any long sleeves. As we arrived in the lockeroom, we all sat in the same one. See our lockerroom has 4 different rooms. One on gamedays used for the refs and normally the other 3 for the players. This time coach wanted us all together.

We crowded into the small room. Cramped we each tried to make enough room to get our stuff together for the game. Two of the refs were actually smoking cigarettes right outside the lockeroom. Another first for Matt and myself. Struggling to find room to relax and think about the game, we all managed to get ready. We were a team, we were together, and we were united.

The game started much like the weather had...overcast. Slow and grey, with not much happening from either side. We both stalled early going three and out, but there were a few surprises along the way. As we recieved the ball to start the game, we were the first to punt. I snapped the ball and ran down the field. The kick made it's way directly to the back leg of an Argonaute player. LIVE BALL. Unfortunately we were not able to recover. The Argonautes then began driving.

After there failed first 3 plays, they punted as well. In the spread punt formation, which allows greater coverage, but is more susceptable to blocked punts....their snapper delivered the ball to the upback, who in turn spun around and pitched it back to the punter. Our guys on the punt block ran into the punter who was kicking the ball. They called a penalty and gave the Argonautes a first down. Ok so I'm thinking that was definitely the wrong call. 15 yards now they are close to the 35.

They run some more offense, counter, screen, pass. Then Bago intercepts a pass. Wait! Of course there's a flag if any big play actually happens. I don't know what the call was, but Argos you get another shot at it. We stop them on 4th down and get the ball back. By this time the weather has opened up and the sun shined it's way down to the field. We drove the ball a bit and then got an offsides penalty on Loic, which thankfully was cancelled out by the 15 yard personal foul by the Argonautes. I think this is a good time to introduce you to the dumbest football player I have ever met. Yea that's saying something.

Number 75 on the Argonautes was stupid. Not just a jerk, or a mean ass...no he was legitimately stupid. After every pass play when he obviously didn't get to the quarterback and after Matt had thrown the ball up, he would then run and hit Matt. This will be important later, needless to say it was his penalty. However we still ended up stalling and punted away.

The Argos hit the jackpot on the 2nd play following. Their Quarterback an american from Utah State, hit the wide reciever for a 78 yard touchdown. Somehow he broke our coverage and out ran the defense to the endzone. End of the 1st quarter.

We get the ball back and start driving. Dino makes a good run up the middle. Then we hit Jean Michel over the middle down to the 25 before he fumbles. Luckily that idiot hit Matt late again and got a 15 yard penalty. So still our ball. About this time, it's also important that you realize Coach David is going crazy on the sidelines trying to protect his players. Team first. Anyways, this kid is chirpy. The type of character that runs his mouth like he's the king in a movie, only to get shot a few seconds later. Yea that's him.

So a few pass plays go by. On one play he ignores the ball and get's in Matt's face, the other he get's chopped by Loic S. Then it happens. You know it. Normally preceeded by an S and an H. Yea. Matt makes another pass play, rolls out of the pocket towards our sideline and gets hit. Well 75 runs after the play up to Coach David and pushes him. Coach obviously having enough of this character looses his cool and goes back at him. Penalties fly, and it really looks like a Parade of Yellow flying from the sky. The rest of our players start getting upset and it looks like a brawl is about to happen.

Someone eventually pulls Coach back. Because I think he was going after the ref for a little bit. Being that the ref wasn't paying attention. I tried to get the offense to huddle up. It was chaos for a few minutes. We drive to the 10 and then switch into Goaline offense. The first play dino runs for 5 yards or so. Next Matt rolls out to the left on a QB keeper to the 3 thanks to a bad spot. Then a dive to the right and we are on the 2. Fourth down we go for it, run a pass play and turn the ball over.

A solid defensive performance 3 and out and we get the ball back. Matt hits dino over the middle for a big gain, and then another pass and we are on the 14 knocking at the endzone again. Matt then throws a touchdown pass that get's called back for an illegal reciever down field. I watched the tape and it looks like Will is about 2 yards in front of the line of scrimmage as Matt throws the ball. Ahhhh....

We turn over the ball again, being so close to scoring. Matt who was also getting his first shot at defense this game, made some big tackles in the unsuing drive. One of which was on their QB causing an increase in excitement and talking. The announcer yells "Quarterback on Quarterback" The game is getting fun.

The Argos drive to the 6 yard line before stalling out. They grab 2 offsides penalties and try to kick a field goal. As they attempt the 33 yarder, I tell Michel Donati that I want to try and block it. So Johan and Michel rush the guard and I time up my jump. It was a low kick but not to low, I barely get the tip of my finger on it and land back to the ground upset that I almost had it but let it go through my fingertips. Then I look back and the kick hits the bottom cross bar and bounces up. PLEASE DONT GO IN. It flys back to the field and we are safe!

(ok I have to make this clear. They were on the 16 yard line. After the missed kick the ball stayed on the 16 yard line.... point of reference)

We drive the ball to our own 15 yard line before time becomes our worst enemy. We head into the half time with the offense moving the ball and the defense only giving up one huge pass play and one drive that we held strong on.

The second half kicks off and we are hungry. A quick 3 and out by the defense and then it's the offenses turn. Dino takes the first handoff and runs 36 yards to the 20. Another couple runs and finally Matt powers his way into the endzone on a QB toss. The extra point is blocked and we are still down 7-6.

They drive the ball. The QB hits a 10 yard gain over the middle. A few plays later and it's a big 3rd down and 8. Somehow I run past the Guard, the QB steps up into the pocket. I grab his right arm and rodeo him down for a sack. Lucky me. Fabien returns the punt from the 4 yard line to the 20. We drive the ball through the 3rd quarter and half way into the 4th all the way down to the 2 yard line. We tried a field goal to take the lead, but missed wide right.

Remember the point of reference... we'll since we missed on the 2, the ball got moved back to the 20 yard line. A knew rule for me, I guess I had never seen this before. I was confused trying to figure out what was going on, but the ref said it is a rule. Later after the game he would open up his rule book and show Matt P. At the time I thought he had lost his mind. I guess it's because I'm used to fieldgoals from that distance being made most of the time, thanks to T-Bell at Tech.

The Argos get the ball and drive down the field. They make some big plays and come up with conversions at the right time. I am exhausted at this time. My body feels like it's been pushed to the limit. They drive all the way to the 8 or 9 yard line. At one point I made a good read on the shovel pass and tackled the rb for a loss. But it was never enough, because they found a way to move forward. Another time Ben and I tackle the rb on a counter and started pulling the crowd behind us. I pumped my arms up and down...needing their support because my body felt like shutting down. The juniors in the stands and the rest of the Cougar faithful yelled for us.

We stopped them and pushed them back to the 16 before they kicked a field goal to go ahead 10-6. Less than a minute left on the clock. Never losing hope, the cougar offense took the field. A good return by Michel took us only 42 yards away from victory.

The first play Matt scrambled from the pocket and gained a hard earned 2 yards. On the same play a defender from the Argos broke his arm. It reminded me of A.J. Smith popping his elbow out of socket. The guy tried to make an arm tackle and it just came out of his shoulder. Laying on the ground it looked disqusting. The only good thing about that was that it gave us time to come up with our plays and get set. We hurried to the line after the medical time out and ran a passing play. Matt got hit by the rushing lineman at the precise moment that the ball left his hand. The ball flew high into the air and was then caught somehow by Nico, who saw the ball coming up short and ran back to catch it. A small 3 yard gain, but a momentus saving grace.

36 yards to go and only 13 seconds remaining, Matt took the 3rd down snap and fired the ball long to Michel. Michel reaching out grabbed the ball in the back of the endzone with 9 seconds left to take the lead and give the Cougars a 12-10 lead. AMAZING. The stands went crazy. The players went crazy. We all went crazy.

As I sprinted down to the endzone to congradulate my team...all I could think about was this is worth it. This makes it all worth it. Definitely one of the most amazing comebacks I had seen/ played in. I mean Clemson and Calvin Johnson is probably by far the greatest, but the fact that this one was close. A buzzer beater. It means the world to me. I tackled Michel and everyone else piled on. The 15 yard celebration penalty meant nothing. Today the Cougars had fought to the very end. Never quiting, never giving up, and never hanging their head in defeat. New team, new attitude. MY TEAM.

The extra point was good and as we made the tackle on the return, the Argos only had time for one more play. From their own 26. The QB hurled up a deep ball, while getting hit in the chest. Matt Polhemus came down with the interception and gracefully touched the ball to the ground to end the game. Who are you? Cougars. What a great game. Now it's on to the Flash... A team we have never beaten.... I think it's time to write some more history.

FYI- the game should be available to watch sometime soon on http://www.radiossa.com/

Island hopping

To conclude this three part dialouge I have to talk about the Greek Island adventures. I initially wanted to go to the island of Rhodes, for obvious reasons. However, after discovering it was more like an hour and a half flight, we decided to hop to some of the closer islands next to Athens. Aegina and Agstri, i think?

Well anyways Matt had to say it. "This has just gone to smoothly." ....NOOOOOOooooooooooo ...

Now we were jinxed from the start. There had to be some kind of mishaps along are so far amazing trip. Well here it was.

You know how when you hop on a ferry, it usually takes you directly to the destination and then stops for EVERYONE to get out. The Hellenic Ferry we jumped on was nothing like this one. It more so resembled a metro on water. We pulled up to the first island and started to dock at the port. Matt and I walked down to the exit, but the door was not open. Thinking that maybe this would take a while, we went back up to quickly use the bathroom. As we finished taking approximately 4 mins 34 seconds, we noticed that the boat just so happened to be taking off to another island destination....

What? Matt figured maybe they were going to dock somewhere else. Maybe the guys messed up. After about 10 mins, we came to the conclusion that they really messed up. Apparently 10 or so other people also didn't get out of the boat at the stop. I think the crew just forgot to open the door to let people out. So all of us are trying to figure out what we are doing, where the boat is heading now and all that jazz.

Turns out we basically get to take another ferry ride in a completely different direction that will use up a lot of our time, leave us with a little under 2 hours on this other island, and then come pick us back up and take us to aegina. GREAT. Being that we had a lot of extra time to spend on the boat, Matt and I just started playing around on the top deck. We just spontaneously made a video, the 24 hour ghetto workout video on a boat...yea that one... Turned out great.

As we got to the new destination, Matt and I stopped to get a bite to eat and drink. We order some coffee and some desserts, like bread. The Greek guy taking our order had no clue. We ended up with this cold frappachino type drink, that was half foam. However I will have to say it tasted delicious. For the "desserts" we recieved a bowl full of peanuts. Translations are fun!!!

Afterwards we finally got him to understand sandwhich and he brought the glorified grilled cheese to the table. It was another day of great weather and after we finished eating, we headed to the little beach there. The water was pretty crystal clear and you could clearly see the rocks that made up the ocean floor. While on the beach we noticed some really good rocks for skipping stones. It looked like a granite manufacture had lost his shipment somewhere at sea, and it all managed to end up here on this beach. Tons of pieces of smooth white granite countertops broken into perfect throwing sized stones lined the shores. Matt and I skipped stones in the beach and tried to see how many we could get. Timing up the waves was very key.

Finally we moved over to the bay that was right next to the beach and found the tranquil waters to be perfect for our new found hobby.

We headed back to the dock and jumped on the ferry back to Aegina, our initial destination. When we arrived we walked along the island shores looking for a souvenir t-shirt or sweatshirt. It had started to get a little cold so the sweatshirt seemed like a good idea. However size is a problem. The biggest we found was an XL which more so fit like a Large in the US. Matty bought it. I found a cool shirt and wrapped it up to go. We enjoyed the rest of our time on the island by watching the sea and taking the whole trip in. When you think about it we had a pretty amazing weekend.....

Old women walking in on us at night, breaking handles in the bathroom, climbing the acropolyis, touching the temple of Zeus, best weather so far, incredible landscapes, monastaries, old world, gyros, taverna experiences, including a washed scarf, stray dogs, the friday market lined with fresh veggies and what not, impossibilities of catching a cab, island hopping, and most important making new friends. I mean it was pretty good. I feel spoiled now and I don't know how I'm so lucky!

Meteora....and the GREAT METEORON!

As we jumped on the train I remembered wanting to take a train ride somewhere as a kid. Not that it mattered where to, just a train ride. It felt good to jump on and see the countryside. I think if you have the time, train rides are the way to go. You get to see the countryside and enjoy the company of friends, or maybe even making new ones. It was a fun train ride. The best story from the train was when Matt went to the restroom and got himself stuck by breaking off the door handle... hahahaha so funny. The Greek countryside was really beautiful. Mountains lined the horizon and the green grass looked like a photoshoot for Ireland or somewhere else you would expect to see REALLY green grass. You drive along the cliff sides/ mountain sides and the sunsrise and sunset where gorgeous.

We arrived at the stop in Meteora at night and decided to find our way to the Koka Roka Taverna, our room for the night. As we walked through the city, it seemed very peacful/ tranquil. We managed to figure out the right direction, knowing that it was towards the base of the mighty cliffs. The only problem was that the city started looking a little more sketch, and the silent peacefulness turned into more of the same silence during the climax of a suspense movie. The foreigners not knowing where they were headed, walking up dark streets, passing pubs filled with nothing but old men and the only thing outnumbering the amount of beer was the excess of smoke. It turned out great though as we climbed up the windy streets to the taverna. Lauren called to make sure we were in the right direction and of corse Katarina just said, "keep coming up" in that unique questionable European accent.

As we arrived Nick who turned out to be her husband pointed us in. He was playing with some old equipment and reminded me of a Texan Great Grandpa fiddlin' with gadgets and equipment older then I am. Katarina showed us the room. Apparently she only had 1 because a group had decided to stay an extra night. This would be a problem the next morning when we tried to pay, but don't let me get ahead of myself. We go above the taverna which actually turns out to be their old house that they have converted into a makeshift hostel to give guests a place to stay. The room was great 3 beds for 4 people. Thank you girls for sharing a bed despite Katarina's suggestion of "...if 2 want to sleep together it works...you with her? or you two??" ha. The bathroom though demands some explanation. Lets just say you could use the restroom and shower at the same time.... not because they were so close together, but because they were one in the same. Just a hose connecting to the wall next to the toliet paper dispenser and a drain in the floor.....We didn't take showers.

We go to a Taverna in town and enjoy the splendid prices of a family run operation. A lot of Lamb, salad, feta, meatballs, chicken, eggplant, etc. They however didn't have the stuffed peppers we all wanted to try. Anyways we make it back up to the Koka Roka and head to bed. Meaning girl-esque pillow talk about random crap. Apparently this was a little too loud, and too later for Katarina. Only being 11 I didn't think it was too bad for a hostel and the later European lifestyle. Well here comes Katarina the little old lady, she barges into our room and lets out a "You go to bed now, it's sleepy time" and then shuts the door closed. Um what?? Yea what if I had just hopped out of the shower naked, or if something else embarrassing like that happened? I couldn't believe it and we all cracked up laughing and tried to fall asleep.

The next morning we had breakfast and some really funny anecdotes transpired. First a small Korean man comes walking in with his bad and says he would like to stay the night, but doesn't have much money. Sweet Katarina tells him it's not a problem, how much would you like to pay? Korean man says, "I just have 10 Euro" ...come on dude it's not a hostel and you've got more money than that because I saw you last night at the Taverna eating more then the 4 of us...oh right, that's probably why you don't have money....anyways sweet Katarina turns into ruthless business woman and tells him he heard wrong that she doesn't have a room and that nothing in life is free. He leaves for 5 minutes while we continue our breakfast.

Then he comes back again dragging in his luggage. Katarina yells at him to leave his bag outside, while my own backpack and Lauren's backpack are in plain site lying on the ground in front of him. It's a small place, he see's it. The Korean guy then says, "ok...I don't want room, just take shower" Katarina upset at this point says, "I dont have showers, leave." It was funny, but should have been a big clue. We finish our meal and then try to pay the bill. Katarina comes over and gives us a 97 Euro bill. EEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkk.....

Horse's come to a hault, wagons stop rolling, and all of our faces drop to the floor, eyes peering up lost in confusion. Excuse me? The meals where 30 and the room apparantely 67 Euro. Well Lauren had called and she had said 35 Euro for 2 rooms. Again I re-iterate that we all slept in one room. So it should be cheaper. She says oh ok.. I give you good deal, she writes out the bill, which consists of her scribbling on a small white piece of paper with a pen. Much like you would do if your doing elementary math. Then she presents her 'adjusted' price... a whopping 96 Euro. Sweet an entire dollar off for sharing a room. This makes a lot of cents!!! bahahaha... well I guess when Gyros are so cheap 1 Euro is like half a meal! ok ok so we debate for another good 10 minutes and finally she says ok ok I understand.... same process and comes the same result 95 Euro.

At this time we were just frustrated and decided to forget about it, not waste anymore time and head to the mountains. Walking up the footpath was definitely the most difficult/ rewarding part of the trip. You wind back and forth not knowing where you are going when finally you find an opening and see the magnificent mountains in the background, town in the valley, bluffs along us, monastaries on top, it's breathtaking. Literally I can't tell you how amazing this hike is. It takes us 40 mins just to get up the footpath and another hour or two across the asphault over the mountains to the other side. It's so surreal, every 200 yards or so you just want to stop and take pictures and take it all in. It's so beautiful. I can't describe the view. You'll have to see it from the little movie Matty P made.

Link for video click me

In the monastaries it is so quiet. So hermet like. The monks dedicate their lifes to becoming closer to God and Holy. The women as the walk in to the monastaries have to wear skirts around their pants in order to keep temptation away. It was so interesting for me to see this lifestyle, and the traditions, customs, and rituals that they do in order to get closer to God. For me I found some difficult questions. I mean for instance, they built the monastaries in the most desolate/ beautiful places away from everyone in a place where there is not question to see God. Trying to be away from the world and yet this in turn draws everyone else to see these places.

Another thing was, these men are dedicate to Christ. However they isolate themselves. How does this work out? I'd figure they'd rather show others the same love. Then I thought about it, I mean I guess this lifestyle really brings the people to see how dedicated they are. Either way following brings fruit even if the fruit is of a different kind. Weither it's monks, missionaries, or the average joe, we still have our own impact. Sometimes in ways we don't know.

Anyways being up there just really brings a peaceful spirit and a calmness. I was just in awe of the countryside/ landscape. We had such a fun time walking up and down together. Taking it all in. It was an experience. That's how I'd describe it. An experience.

Well that's the 2nd part of the trip, still have island hopping to talk about so look forward to that soon.

My big fat greek visit

Thursday morning Matt and I hopped on an Easyjet flight and took off for Athens. Not to be confused with the cestpool of the south...no, no, no, Athens Greece. First lets talk about how weird this airline was. Some of it's rules where just ridiculous. For instance, I had a sweatshirt with me that I wasn't wearing. It was sitting on my lap and they proceeded to tell me that it was imparitive that I wear my coat for take off and landing or else they needed to store it in the overhead compartments. Ok? Also, Matt had to have his shoes on for landing because the plane can not function with unworn shoes. Another thing was that I couldn't put my bag in front of me on the ground, it had to be put above. Just some really strange rules that annoyed me a bit. However we succesfully arrived in the early afternoon to beautiful weather.

We jumped on the bus that heads into Athens. It was a whole new experience. Not only was the language now completely new, but the alphabet was as well. We were looking for the stop to meet up with Lauren, Matt's friend. This was a donting task when all you see are Greek fraternity and sorority letters strung together. Plus I had no clue how to pronounce the differnt letters. I got lucky because all of a sudden I saw that a blonde girl recognized Matt and started standing up waving. Thankful it's pretty easy to pick an American needle out of a Greek haystack. We could've rode that bus forever and I would have had no clue when to hop off.

Her apartment was really nice, the walk up to it however was tyring. She lives half way up a mountain, so we got our excersize climbing hills all weekend. That day we headed over to Laurens school, which is right next to the Olympic Stadium. The one that held the first full fledged Olympic games in 1896. It was pretty cool, but the track/ infield was so close together. Not like the football fields width that I am used to. Afterwards we went to grab a bite to eat.

Hanging out at the Olympic Stadium

Gyros would become my new best friend. Better than a McDonalds cheeseburger for the same price. We ordered 3 Gyros, chicken slouvaki (chicken on a skewer), and drinks from this one local guy. Lauren then translated "10." Matt and I, who have become used to Paris prices immediately started pulling out 10 Euros a piece. The old man laughed. It was 10 Euro for everything. Amazing. I was not expecting such a deal. We must have eaten 20 Gyros a piece in our 4 day visit.

Also along the walk to her school, we saw the presidents house and some other important building surronded by armed guards. However in front of the president's abode, the guards were dressed in formal attire. This includes long white tights, sweet hats, skirts, and my favorite part shoes with big furry balls on the toe. They did this weird looking ritual that involved standing perfectly apart from each other, holding one leg up, and touching toes. They held that pose for a while... I died laughing when I saw it. Check the short clip below. That evening we rested a little bit and then headed to a taverna.



Shay, one of Laurens roomate and co-tourguide for the trip, along with 2 other friends ate with us. The taverna was a great experience. The Greek's do it right. See a taverna is owned and operated by a family. No employees to pay or deal with, just family members. Therefore they can afford to make things cheaper, resulting in us sharing all sorts of food family style kind of like a tapas resturant, while still paying close to nothing. We had greek salads, hot feta cheese, tzatsiki, chicken, lamb, pork, a pasta meat dish, etc. Also, we had some of the house wine. Stored in huge wooden containers and more then likely made at the taverna.

At the Taverna

The one thing about the meal that went completely wrong was when we tried Ouzo. Willie, my roomate, told us we had to try it because it's normal and what they do in Greece. So we ordered some for the table. We all took a shot, and it was like a Sambuca type of liqour leaving a sweet after taste. One girl didn't want to drink which is the decision she should have stayed with for the night. Later we took another and this time she was coaxed into taking one. Not 5 minutes after she took it, we saw it again. She threw up on the middle of the table, covering her scarf and splattering my right arm. Lucky me I got to sit next to her! It was disqusting, but as she still had food coming out of her mouth she said, "this never happens to me." We all tried to hold it together, but ended up laughing at the whole situation because the owner came over and stepped right in.

Not sure if he knew what actually happened or if he thought we had just spilled something, but he grabbed the scarf that had been wadded up and placed on the table with the table cloth and said "No worries, I clean for you" He takes the scarf and washes it in the back for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, the girl that lost her meal is still sitting at the table. I guess I was expecting an "I'm so embarrassed, I'm going to leave" type of attitude. NOPE. She totally toughed it out and stayed in there. Then the owner came back with the washed scarf, placed it to his nose and took a deep whiff. "Clean now" he said. A hilarious story that capped off a great welcome to Athens.

Randomly the city of Athens had stray dogs all over the place. They walk around looking for food and someone to take them home and take care of them. They kind of operated in packs with different dogs owning different territory. I saw different dogs chasing others that had wandered in. Shay and Lauren told us stories of how the dogs will follow the girls home and if guys come up to them, they become extremely protective. I felt bad about petting the dogs because it was like giving them false hope.


Zeus Temple with Acropolyis in the background.

Next morning we headed off to the Acropolyis, home to the Parthenon. Before we got there, we stopped at the ancient ruins built for the temple of Zeus. Really large towers still standing from over 2000 years ago. History has become so cool to me once you become able to see it in real life. Before I didn't really care/ think to much about what people in the past did. Now it's a bit more thought producing, like how did they build such structures without modern technology, or if they could do this back then, why'd it take so long to make the internet. Anyways, the hike up the Acropolyis surronded you with the ancient life. There where 2 great theaters along the way. Some of the marble stone work was really nice. Chairs carved to fit the back and labeled with the individuals name/title surronded the bottom level of the theater. For my opinion the Greeks were master sculptors and stone workers.


After the climb to the top, you see the Parthenon standing triumphantly in the sun. The weather turned out to be beautiful all weekend, allowing Matt and myself to wear shorts and T-shirts for the first time since arriving in Paris. The view from the top of the tower was stunning. You can see the Greek mountains and the coastline of the Aegean sea. The city looks massive from the top, all small buildings. It looked much like a village. I appreciated that it wasn't dominated with skyscrapers and modernism. Again thinking about history in a place like this, all I could imagine was the stronghold this would have been in a war. There's no way someone's easily going to defeat them here and with a view of the sea, you would be able to tell what's coming long before any actual attack. That or an army would have to march over mountains to get to the mighty city of Athens. We stayed at the top taking in the culture and enjoying the sunshine.




Later that day we left by train to Meteora. Over a four hour train ride. I'll tell you all about that on the next edition of My Big Fat Greek Visit.

Ok so I went to Greece this past weekend... the trip was so amazing that I'm going to have to sit down and do like 2 or 3 installations for this blog. But I wanted to get something up as soon as I got back. So here is a video of our "Ghetto workout" combined with "i'm on a boat"...if you don't know it's some ridiculous youtube hit videos about working out in the hood, and the SNL skit I'm on a boat... we were hopping around some Greek islands and thought it'd be a cool video.



Hope you enjoyed. Anyways, I'll get to the rest of Greece in a little while. Just check back in a day or two, hopefully I'll get it up, but friends coming in for Spring Break might make it a bit more difficult.

No more Flora

So Flora has been gone not even a week and I already miss her. I mean who else is going to wake me up early in the morning, want to watch disney movies, yells out Arrete, loves riding in the back of Wills Jungle Buggy with me, and always wants me to regard! What am I going to do with out this little bit running around?

I know... I'll just mess with her father!!! We got Will to do one of those impossible maze's where there's a surprise at the end. Hilarious!

In other news.... I'm going to Greece tomorrow morning. Matt and I will be staying in Athens and then hopping around the Greek islands. I am pretty pumped about it. I wish we could go out and see Rhodes island, but I think that's gonna be a little too far away. I'll update you when I get back Monday on the long weekends events.

Cougars versus the Spartiates

Saturday night we played the Spartiates of Amiens. It was about an hour to an hour and a half ride to get to Amiens from Cergy. It is North of us about the same distance to England as it is to Paris. Along the ride all I could think about was how lucky we are to be where we are located. Hopping on a bus ride to go into Paris for the day, doesn't seem like something the Spartiate players are privilaged with. The country side reminded me of the hill country in central Texas. Jean-Michel drove Matt, Danny, and myself. It was good because Jean-Michel had a bunch of Atlanta rap music in his car which I was thankful for. Especially before the game.

At the field, it was pretty solid turf. Solid as in I'd probably have to use a jackhammer to get through it, that's how hard it was. Might as well have painted up a parking lot and played on concrete! Before the game I walked out on the field to pray on the 50 like I always do. It was silent, no one was near the field. It was like I was a kid standing on the field all alone, kind of peaceful. As I was heading back in the coach from the Spartiates was walking out. He is an American, doing pretty much the same thing I am. Staying with football while learning a new culture. He told me I was playing well. I wished him luck and he did the same. I couldn't tell what that meant... was there anything behind that, was he trying to build my ego, or was it genuine?

The Spartiates have the best linebacker in the league. #35 kind of reminded me of Keith Brooking, except his arms are bigger. Anyways, he seems to be all over the field, in on every play. They came out in a 3-4 defense, not what I was anticipating, but no problem none the less. I'd prefer to go against 35 all game and see if I could cancel him from making plays, but you play the hand your dealt with. Anyways, the game started off pretty slow, and maintained that level of excitement throughout it's entirety.

We both had a touchdown called back for penalties in the first quarter. Penalties being something I'm used to now. I got the holding call for blocking the Nose with one hand while sticking my right hand into 35's chest, to help Will. I didn't think it was holding, my the big eye in the sky will tell. Anyways it negated Matt's beautiful fade route pass to Michel Serre. This would haunt me after the game.

On defense they drove down inside our redzone and were remarkably close to scoring. The defense with a bend don't break attitude, playing with mainly hurt/ out of position players, did well to stop them. Loic le Glas' ankle was hurt, Johan our fullback was playing Nose tackle and Left Guard a bit out of position for his body frame, Nyda our defensive lineman hurt his leg, and my knee was a bit banged up.
Later in the 2nd quarter we scored on a brillant run by Matt. I thought time was winding down and I was yelling for him to get out of bounds. However he willed himself into the endzone for our only score of the night. We missed the extra point.

The Spartiates threw up a hail mary and their reciever import a 6'6" body frame, that looked more like a strong forward in basketball jumped up and caught it on the 2 before the clock went down. The second half must have kept that Spartiates momentum because they went on to score quickly and lead 7-6. The ensuing kickoff Michel Serre returned 88 yards for a touchdown which was called back. Apparently a ghost had jumped on the field in a Cougars uniform and blocked someone in the back. Atleast that's what the ref saw...We battled well throughout the 3rd quarter.

All of a sudden on one defensive stand, there little scat back took the ball and scored by running for 67 yards to the endzone. One big play and the game changes. 13-6. This would be the final score since they missed the extra point. Looking back at it, I think we were aligned in the wrong defense. I think I could have made the play if I didn't rush upfield so hard. I'll have to consult the tape though. It's funny when you look at how one big play can change the game, just think of the last two superbowls. An amazing catch for the steelers, and a houdini-esce play for the Giants. Sometimes it doesn't matter.... (ok I'm writting this blog and a motorcycle rider just bit it riding down our street. His bike is on the ground and his shoe is like 10 yards away, nothing serious...but definitely funny. He's inspecting his bike for damage now... I think he was being a hot shot and wasn't paying attention!)

Back to the game. At the end of the 4th quarter, we drove the ball to the 22 yard line to get stopped on a 4th down failure. The Spartiates ran the ball for a first down and then kneed the ball to win the game. Afterwards the players on their team were real class acts. Nice guys, friendly...talked to you. We headed back to the locker room when all of a sudden I get selected to be the lucky contestant on a new French gameshow. The game is called, see if you can be like Lance Armstrong and get through the same French doping laboratory that tests for the Tour de France. Sweet lucky me.

Let me tell you what this consists of. Sitting an extra 2 hours outside in the cold, after being wet with sweat from the game. I was freezing. Luckily we got to talk with some of the players, and one of the imports with the Spartiates. Their Defensive End, he was a pretty cool guy from Chigago. Said he played D3 ball and was loving it. Seemed to be having the same type of appreciation for the experience. We talked for a while about Amiens, his new city, and what he was doing...etc. When one of our own players skipped me in line for the drug test. I later confronted him in a playful way and he said, I called your name. Well you could have touched me on the shoulder, or made sure to get my attention, but I guess that was TOO MUCH EFFORT! I was giving him a hard time, so I waited some more. Finally I got to go last and a French man had to administer the test.

It's like any other drug test, you just have to pee in a cup, that's all. However this guy happened to make a HUGE ordeal about everything, probably why it took so long. He read everything, not to mention it wasn't his first language he was speaking. He told me how to fill out paper work, while covering his ass as much as possible. He said you can select any bottle you want, I am not making your choice, here I have tons and tons of bottles so that I can not interfere with your choice.... OK OK i get it, just let me pee and lets go. Nope he went through everything over and over. AHHHHHhhhhhh so annoying. Luckily for me I had been waiting so long that I drank 3 Litres of Water before, so going was not a problem. (for the record, sometimes this can really slow down a process) Looking back though I realized how much GT had their procedures and paper work together. The NCAA could test an entire team in the amount of time it took for 6 players to get tested in France. C'est la vie.

Now we are 2-2 and pretty much in a must win situation against our next opponent, the Argonautes. Not the position I want to be in. One penalty less and we tie with the Spartiates, one non fumbled snap and maybe we have a chance to win against the FLash. I HATE LOSING. I hate losing more then I love winning. I hate it. It sucks. All I can think about is what stupid mistake I made and how it cost us the game potentially. Not good.

Just another day in Paris

So there is this one painter close to the Centre George Pompidou, a cool building in it's own rite totally built inside out. Anyways one night Matt and I were walking around that area and stopped at a cafe to warm up a bit. We sat next to the heat lamps and saw this guys painting. I thought it was pretty good. A few weeks later Matt's parents came into town and we met them at the Pompidou. This guy had a huge attraction watching him work.

It was crazy that so many people were sitting around watching him paint, while listening to one of President Obama's speeches. Anyways heres a video of the painter.... you have to check out his jacket, it's pretty sick.

Why, Why, WHY Delilah!!!!

This past weekend Matt and I ventured off to the land of the Irish. Where a redhead is finally in the majority outside of a Ronald McDonald convention. Where God invinted beer so the Irish wouldn't take over the world. (Actual proof click here) Where it's ok to yell the lyrics to your favorite song as loud as you can in a pub because 20 other people are guaranteed to join in. And finally a place so influential that people want to be Irish so they can find "WHERE DA GOLD AT"
In all seriousness Ireland was pretty great! We came thinking the weather would be rainy, overcast and dark grey. Needless to say we were pretty happy about the beautiful weather, bright sun, blue sky, and green grass. We got into Dublin at around 1pm and took the bus to O'Connell street. See the whole reason for going was because Ireland was playing England in the 6 Nations Rugby match and we were sure to be in the middle of a great atmosphere. We stopped in a little shop and bought some shirts for match, supporting the Irish. These would prove to be very useful when added with an Irish accent.

We checked into the hostel and left to check out the scene. Abigails Hostel is right in the middle of Dublin and was an amazing location for the weekend. We walked around the streets and found the Temple bar district, from the movie far and away. Also home to Gogarty's, a traditional irish bar, where we ended up watching the rugby game. The atmosphere was nothing less then intense. Tons of fans dressed in all kinds of Green and Orange representing Ireland. Countless Leprechaun Costumes, a huge group dressed in pink, and a group of guys with special made shirts just for the occasion, but by far the best dressed guy was the one in the picture below. Rocking out the Green, White and Orange full body suit. The man's got class.

When I first met him, he asked for an autograph. I was in shock because the only place that ever happened was at GT, so I figured he was just a Tech fan or something. He totally thought I was some Richie McCaw or something from a New Zealand rugby team. I of course had no clue what he was talking about, but figuring I'd play with him a bit. After speaking in a heavy Irish accent, or atleast a valiant attempt that got me by most of the night, he let it drop thinking I must get that all the time.... right everyone I meet and know is dying to tell me how much I look like a New Zealand ruby player.

Eventhough the match was being played in Dublin, there were a ton of English fans also out and about supporting their team. We saw a bunch of them and throughout the match Matt and I pretended to be hardcore Irishmen. After the 14-13 win, the English guys did something I wasn't expecting. They all came up to us after the game and shook our hands and said things like "Great Match," and "just tell me you'll beat Wales and win the crown" and all other forms of encouragement. I guess I was much more expecting broken glasses and bodies flying more then handshakes and words of congradulations. (One really hilarious part was during the playing of the National Anthems. I looked at Matt and told him, you know we have to stand up and try and sing. Not knowing the Irish song, we mumbled our way through what I thought was the finish of it. Then the started playing another song after I had sat down, and I was totally confused. But we did our best Milly-Vanilly impersonations and managed to go unnoticed.)

That night was just elbow to elbow people drinking and singing great old songs. My absolute favorite from the whole trip was the Delilah song. Click here to listen to it. I had never heard this one before, but quickly picked it up. It was so much fun blasting out songs, especially since they were all in English. They played Johnny Cash, John Denver Country road, and Grease songs....all just heartfelt. We met some Canadian girls Annie and Mallory, who I think at the time where taking pictures with random people?!? Anyways we ended up making friends with them and hung out for the night.

The next day we woke up and headed off to see some of Dublin. Trinity College was literally 2 mins away from our hostel, so we walked their first. It was a beautiful campus and with the nice weather made for a great day. We saw the old buildings and then made our way to see the Book of Kells. One of the oldest surviving books on the Earth. It is dated to the 800's, and is written on vellum, a high quality calf-skin, in Latin. It was really cool just learning the detail and craftsmanship that went into making books in the old days. It was quite an art. The illuminated pages made from different colors depicting images in great detail were actually breathtaking. I mean these scribes spent countless hours using colors from minerals or even special red bugs found in certain foreign countries, to paint the pictures or scribe their text. Ok I'm done with the histroy lesson, but if you want to know more just google it. The library hall upstairs was quite amazing however. I mean breathtaking. Row by row of ancient books. A picture says a thousand words.

When then made our way into Kilmainham, an older part of the town. Our taxi driver was quite the proud authentic Irishman, as well as an opinionated history professor. He told us all about different buildings, and politics and about Croke Park stadium...where the rugby match was played...all while driving on the left side of the car. Something that really freaked me out. I mean we almost got killed just trying to cross the street. Forget that inate instinct to look left first. I felt the gust of wind from the passing bus on one of my mistakenly timed jaywalk. If I stuck my tongue out, I would have licked it's windows. At Kilmainham we wanted to visit the old prison which was made into a museum. However, the only real down to the trip, they would not let you walk in and see the prision without being on a guided 1 hour tour.

Ok, ok. I'm all for learning about a country, or even financially speaking helping to stimulate the economy, but seriously all I wanted to do was see the prison. I'd pay my 8 Euros to go at my own pace. If that wasn't enough, the next available tour time wasn't for a good 2 and a half hours. We decided to just have a look through the free museum. It was quite informative and showcased numerous articles from the prison and even through the Irish Revolution. You had one of the original sub-machine guns, to a box of un opened chocolate from 1917 stating "...if I get a pass from prision we'll share the box of chocolates together. If not, you can eat them on your own." Also there were countless love notes and last words written. One very touching one to Mama, and one declaring he was an imbecile for not marrying a girl and that he would not have another. There was also Michael Collins memorabilia (Julia Roberts film), to some items from 17 year old kids who were hanged for having illegal weapons. Wow. Real eye-opener.

One point during our diving into Irish history, I figured out how the tour system operated. People gathered by a glass door and the man took the tickets and another tour guide walked them through. Instead of letting the massive amounts of tourists stop us from seeing the jail cells, we quickly went into Mission Impossible mode and stealthily crept into the line with the tourists after the ticket taker left. As we stood there for a breif 5 minutes on top of the world, my heart was pounding and I thought nothing would go wrong. Until I heard the click-clock of shoes stepping on the hard wood floor. "Excuse me sir, may I see your tickets?" ...

CRAP! "Um....a... I dont have them, Matt do you have them?" .... "Uh no....a... I thought you had them" followed by a prompt and proud "Well I must ask you to leave, you can NOT go on the tour without a ticket!" SOOOooooooooooooooo close. It literally would have made the trip. Oh well.

After that we headed back to the Guinness factory. One of the real reasons we didn't want to wait around to see the prison. The Factory's tour entrances close at 5pm. And we wanted to be there around 3:30pm to have enough time to see it all. I mean since Guinness pretty much runs the country! As we walked back we went through the National Museum of Modern Art, were I became scalded for life. One exhibit had just a saddle. I thought, ok old country saddle....interesting, but how is this art?

Upon further investigation it was discovered that on the saddle, the seat had been comprimised. The leather had been replaced for real cow skin. The only problem was that they used the skin for the cows bladder. So you had 4 udders popping up from the seat. All I could think of was Brokeback Mountain and couldn't compose myself to the artistic standard of silence. I mean it was strange, bizare, gross, and I just couldn't get that image out of my head. I proceeded promptly to the nearest exit.

At the Guinness factory we went through most of the tour learning about the beer making process, understanding ingredients, and becoming professional taste testers. We then met up with Annie and Mal and went to the top of the 6 story factory tour. Once at the top, you could see all of Dublin and taste the freshest Guinness in the world. The bar tender would draw designs in the foam. Matt got a superman symbol and I got the clover. We sat with the 360 degree panoramic view and just enjoyed the sunset. It was like we saw all of Dublins weather patterns, from brief ran, to sun to rainbows, to darkness, and the fog that sat in over some of the buildings towards sunset. It was really relaxing.

Afterwards we grabbed a quick bite and headed to the hostel just to hang out. It was fun making new friends and watching weird TV shows about cars and the Irish version of America's got Talent mixed with Gun's n Roses songs coming from someones computer. It was fun. We went out again and I introduced ourselves to Old Grand Dad Whiskey. Bah. It was so old the bartender had no problem handing us the bottle for a little photo op. Really I think he didn't care if we kept the bottle or not. I'm sure it was a strange request, and rightly so. When compared to Irish Whiskey... Old Grand Dad just comes up a little short.

All and All I had a great weekend. Learning the Irish culture, enjoying Irish drinking songs, I even had good Fish n Chips, Making new friends which hopefully ends up in seeing Scotland, Great weather, pretending to be Irish, sleeping in a hostel for the first time, I'd say all in all it was a great success! Oh well back to normal life in France :P!!!!!!!!!!!