Cinquante Six

Happy Birthday

2009-06-16T03:07:00.000-07:00

So I was awoken to the sounds of Will and Matt losing their minds yelling, telling me to hurry up and wake up, followed by the silencing murmur of an entire football stadium hushing me....

What is this? That's all I could think. What's going on? As I tried to wipe the sleet from my eyes, it just wouldn't go away. It actually started to get foggier, WHAT? Is this like one of those dreams where you think your awake? I couldn't get a grip on reality. As they told me to grab my stuff because "it's fixing to explode." I decided to document the first thing I saw on my 24th birthday.

French Riviera and Italia

2009-06-11T07:13:00.000-07:00

After our last game against the Nice Dauphins, we spent the night out in Nice. I have to say it was a pretty fun time. Originally we tried to get all of the guys together to go out. However trying to get 25-30 guys without any females can pose a bit of a problem. Also when no buses are running, you can't find a cab, and it's a bit of a walk to the city center, you have to improvise. Matt, Will, Dino, and myself finally hailed down a cab and meet up with Alex, a former cougar who was playing for the Nice team since he's now living in the south.

Anyways we ended up having a pretty fun night out in Nice. Will talked two girls into walking into the bar with us just so we could get in. He's a charmer. I even ran into someone from a hostel I stayed at in Barcelona. Talk about random. But when you look back to that day it was pretty intense. We drove the entire morning on a sleeping bus from Paris, then we went to the beach for a couple hours, swam in the Mediteranian, played a football game, went out, all to wake up the next morning and see some more of south France.

On the sleeper-bus, riding from Paris to Nice.

I must mention the pregame was quite intense. You see on the beach after riding in a bus 10 hours all night, we got the privelage of seeing the Danny Mendes show. Danny rocked his small bathingsuit and went up talking to girls and just being hilarious. It was awesome. The whole team was just hanging by the beach, throwing rocks into the ocean in a little game we came up with. It was just fun and I felt like we all shared that moment. We were all cougars.

The one and only DANNY MENDES.

After the game we spent the morning in Nice walking around the old city. There was a fresh market that was really incredible. As we were touring the city Sally spotted a tour guide and we arranged a trip to see the Riviera. We stopped at a little resturant and I had a huge steaming pot of mussels and some fish soup. Really fresh ingredients. Afterwards we meet up with the tour guide and saw some of the country side.

We drove to Monaco and Monte Carlo along the coast, stopping in Eze. It was absolutely gorgeous countryside. The water, the rocks, the cliffs...really something special. Also, I must mention that the Canes film festival was going on at the same time. A little crowded. In Eze we walked through the old city, I must say that each old city I have seen in Europe is somewhat unique. Each having their own special style, their own little quaintness about them. Somewhat similar to the rest, but each capturing the individual spirit of the people, the culture and the town.

Eze was beautiful, on the top of the mountain you can see to Italy and to France. We strolled through the little streets looking into the small shops. Next we stopped at a local perfumerie. Eze is famous for making fresh French scents. I'm sure my aunt's enjoyed it a lot, and the tour guide was nice, but perfume isn't the tops on my list of things to do. Nonetheless I learned that it takes almost a million pounds of flours to make a gallon or so of perfume. When they capture the "essence" of the flour it is very strong and potent.

After this we went on to Monte Carlo, where the town was preparing for the Formula 1 Grand Prix. We drove through the track that the cars would take. Fairly small with limiting space, you learn how impressive it is when a car can actually pass. The roads all had safety barricades and water barrells to help for wrecks. It was fun going through the turns down to the harbor, where private cruise ships were parked next to each other a hefty price for a one of a kind view on race day.

A view of the harbor and Monte Carlo and the race day grand stands.

Afterwards we stopped in Monaco, the 2nd smallest country next to the Vatican City. You had a great view out to the ocean on one side, the harbor and the grandstands for the race on the other. I learned the history of Monaco, apparently the village was actually housed by tons of monks. A pirate came and clothed himself as a monk and killed all the monks, then after he got tired of it and sold it to a rich family. Thus how it came to be it's own country. There was a little park we stopped at and looked out over the ocean and enjoyed some of the plants and statues.

After enjoying some ice cream, chocolate & pistachio combination, we headed down to Monte Carlo center. Aston Martin's, Lamborghini's, and Ferrari's lined the enterance into the Grand Casino. It's so expensive it costs 15$ just to go in and see it, and if you want to sit down and gamble you probably need to take out another mortgage on your house. We didn't go in, instead we grabbed some drinks at an outdoor bar. The bartender was a really nice guy, I ordered a beer and basically he gave me 3 for the price of 1. I got the one from the bottle, he then gave me the same from draft, and the same brand but white beer on tap. I was happy, for Aunt Sue he played it cool and asked her what her favorite color was, she said blue and he made a blue lagoon type of cocktail. I have to give the man points for style.

We drove back to Nice and spent the rest of our daylight on the beach. All I could think about was how surreal my life is. I NEVER would have planned this path, and I fully believe that God opens doors when we least expect it. I know this is all his doing and I am just fortunate. If I could give any advice it would be to run through those open doors with no hesitation because you never know when they will shut.

The next day we headed by train to Firenze...aka Florence. However the train took us all through Italy, from Genova, up to Milan then switched trains and ran down Bologna, to Parma, to Florence. Italy was beautiful and the food authentic. The pasta's where just unbelievable. We ate at this one small restaurant with a really cool ambiance. It almost felt like you where in an Italian house and sitting at their dinning room table. I love that feel, the homey-ness (if that's a word)

No pictures where allowed, but I managed to snag this one.

The next day we went to see the statue of David, and the 2 replicas. I must say his head and hands are enormously out of proportion. Our tour guide told us it was because Michelangelo wanted to emphasize 2 different things. First the power of man's mind. That is, a man should realize the capabilities of the mind and think things through. The hands being bigger was to emphasize how much man can do with his hands. Physically being able to create, weither that be sculptures, paintings, or any other type of trade work. He believed that men should use their hands to work on making life a better place.

Locking out on the old bridge

We also saw the old remaining bridge from the Medici family. It is now lined with top end jewelry stores. The ancient walls that used to surround the village are now 90% tourn down, but we still got to see some of the remaining pieces as we viewed the city from the top of this hill. The city seemed to be situated in a valley so it was a really beautiful view from up their. Originally this is where they wanted to put the statue of david, however being to difficult to move the kept it down in the town.

Afterwards we strolled the streets, I love the narrow corridors. It feels like you could touch both walls if you laid out across some of the passage ways. We found a museum. Let's just say the line was intensely long, over an hour plus wait. We decided to try the other side of the line where not many people were going in. Only to be told that this is where you bought tickets for a day in advance. The ticket lady naturally showed us to the other side, where the line was waiting. Seizing the opportunity we tried to hop the line and go inside, playing the dumb tourist role. It almost worked until a small Italian man started screaming and saying "You think you just jump the line and no one notice" (well actually yes, bc Aunt sue was already at the window to buy tickets, past the security checks.) It was a good laugh and we can say atleast we tried!

Later that evening we came back to the hotel and sat on the bench outside watching some of the Italian kids playing soccer. No wonder their so good, these kids were playing in a little park with trees, bicycles, benches, trashcans, fountains, etc. in the way of their game, but that didn't stop them. The played around the obstacles, onto different terrains and just played. Aunt Sue noted that this is just what today's kids in America or missing. Just being outside, playing, having fun. I must admit it was relaxing to just watch the kids enjoy themselves!

Italian soccer

All in all it was a great trip and I'm glad I had the opportunity to see all these things. My countries traveled list is starting to increase a bit and I'm somewhat happy for that.

Reims

2009-06-10T08:10:00.001-07:00

Sorry it's been a while, my life was kind of stuck in a fastforward motion. But let's get back to it. Aunt Sue and Sally came to visit for a week or so and watch my last 2 football games of the season. It was quite an experience. I got to play tour guide and showed off my new knowledge of Paris and French History. It was exhausting and fun at the same time. We made tracks all across the city and judging by the blisters on Sally's feet, I'd say we all lost a couple pounds throughout the week.

On one side day trip we went to Reims, a city in the Bourgogne - Champagne district of France. It is where all champagne comes from. Our tourguide drove us through the country side and through all of the small vineyards. They were all so beautifully kept and clean and very well taken care of. Aunt Sue marveled on the way the rows were oriented. They all ran from the top of the hills down to the bottom. Which you would assume would cause a lot of the soil to run off through the rains and weather..... Actually we ended up coming right after the region had experienced an incredibly strong thunderstorm.

Anyways as we drove through the small vineyards, each one having a stone with the marking of who owns the lot.... Moet & Chandon, Mumm, etc. We stopped first at the little abbey where Dom Perignon is buried. I think it is also where the monk invinted champagne. The church of Hautvillers was such a small little abbey. We sat on the old pews and looked around at the different relics and history. Next we took off to Moet & Chandon and took a champagne tour.

A picture of the old abbey where monk Dom Perignon is burried.

Most of you will know Moet & Chandon as the maker's of the one and only Dom Perignon. The world class champagne. We walked through the cellars and learned all about the process, time and effort spent making champagne. They keep a lot of their grapes from each year/ from each different vineyard stored in the miles of cellar space. Marked with a very difficult code, that way no one could find their stuff. It is much different however then wine. In that it won't get any better, the longer you wait. As advice they said you should drink your bottle of champagne within 2 years for a regular bottle, 5 for a special bottle, and 8 for a vintage elite bottle. If you let it sit there is a very good chance of having an expensive bottle of vinegar!

Someones bottle of Dom Perignon with my name on it! There where endless quantites of the champagne, and it was tempting not to take one out with me!

They taught us about the process. Some of the more interesting notes where that the bottles are hand turned in very specific ways. I really don't know how many ways you can turn a bottle, but I guess its an art. A turner turns 35,000 bottles a day. Talk about redundant! Another fun fact was the way they get the sediments out of the bottles. First you place them in different tilted angles for maturation from the small angles all the way up to about 75 degrees. Then they freeze the sediments with liquid nitrogen and as the open the bottle, the sediments pop out the top. A lot better then the old day from letting the sediments fall out and losing some of the champagne.

After the cellar we had a tasting. It was really delicicous and I enjoyed the opportunity. After a bit of the bubbly, we then went to the Notre Dame de Reims, the place were all but one of the French kings where crowned. Much larger then Notre Dame in Paris, but very similar architecturally. It was breathtaking, some of the old statues and high, high arched ceilings. It's just incredible how these things were constructed such a long time ago. We had lunch in Reims before heading to another champagne tour.

This time we learned all about Mumm. G.H. Mumm is the brand name most notably recognized by the red slash on the bottle. This tour was similar to the other, however it had a more welcoming feel. They did a great job showing you and teaching you about the process. It was like the tour was designed for the people, whereas the M&C tour was just a glimpse into their everyday operations. Mumm had a lot of the old equipment used in champagne making on display.

Also one of the coolest things from both tours was the extremely old bottles of champagne on display, however locked away in old cellars that resembeled medieval prisons. Some of them dating back to 1893. Old champagne!!!

After the tour we drove back to Paris.

Saint Denis Basilica Cathedral

2009-05-13T09:31:00.000-07:00

The other day I had the pleasure of seeing Saint Denis Basilica, the resting place of some of the kings of France. It was a very historical church, actually I think it was an abbey first. It was built on top of the resting place of Saint Dennis in the 7th century. Many kings would also be buried here. It was a place of pilgrimage for the people. Many viewed it as beeing buried closer to Saint Denis himself would of course help their case to being closer to heaven. One particular tomb has a carved sculpture showing just this, I believe it was Dagobert's tomb, the man who constructed the abbey and the first king to be buried here. It is still in the main area next to the altar. It shows the man falling in sin, then it shows the demons coming to take him away, followed by St. Denis stepping in for the man, and then finally his ascension into heaven being caried by angels.

It was incredible, yet eery. You had the tombs of all but 3 kings of France in this abbey. As you walked in you could see the incredible tombs made for the kings. Most of which where done in a true to form spirt. The sculptures on the tops of the tomb in marble or stone, would have life size depictions of the kings. Most seemed to be a lot smaller then myself. However king Francois the 1st was a man of great stature. Being close to 6'6". I do believe he is the one who had a spear wound through his groin during a battle.

We also saw the statues for the kings hearts. King Henry the third I think had his statue that contained his heart. Also we saw the small heart of one of the dauphins who died at a young age, it is sealed into the wall and he would have been Louis XVII. It was a pretty eery site, but still so much history in this place.

Marie Antoinette was buried here along side of Louis XVI and Louis XVIII after that. There craves where a massive black head stone rested in the bottom of the crypt. Each statue had an animal at the base of the feet. This was so to identify the kings and bodies. It was interesting seeing how different kings where remembered. As a king with prayerful hands, strong fists, or even holding a church. It was very old and took you back to the time period.

You can find the links to the pictures here. CLICK ME.

Foire de Paris

2009-05-12T21:31:00.000-07:00

The other weekend I went to the Foire de Paris with Hannah. The Foire is a huge fair where you can find everything you've every thought you might need while watching a late night infomercial on QVC. From kitchen equipement, housing windows to cars, modern art clocks, jewlery, clothes, food galour. Not to mention the cultural experience and the live entertainment. Mix that in with good marketing and free samples, and you've got yourself a great time.

I had free cold coffee, free crepes, free ice creams... funny story on that one. The lady apparently thought she was too good to be serving ice cream and that I was not a worthy customer. So instead of the cones everybody else got, I was treated to a small taste spoon. And as if that wasn't enough, told that "we say MERCI in France." WOA! ok ok... i think she was just having a bad day... Anyways not like that would bother me. We saw old style kitchens, convection ovens that boil water in a minute.

The food was incredible, rows of stands from all the regions of France, including Guadalope and the Antilles. So amazing I tried chocolate made with no sugar and just olive oil, foie gras, different beers, wines, candy, and my favorite the Basque stop. The guy actually handed me the bottle to give samples to all the customers coming around the tent. His name was Damien and he was very entertaining, definitely knew how to keep a crowd going and get people to buy his flavored drinks. From Sangria's, to Margarita's, citron vert, and "FIRE WATER"... it was amazing. I actually captured a little bit of him on camera. You'll have to watch the video below to get a feel for the Foire. I meet another nice man who gave me a free t-shirt. With his company http://www.atlantic-cocktail.com/ . He had flavored cognac, I believe. But loved that we are American. He told us all about his grandfather fighting in the war along with the US. And his love of motorcycles. How he road route66 and loved being in America. A really great French guy.

The cultural part was really cool. I got to see some of the customs from Loic's home island of Guadalope. It was really fun and I felt like I was back in Key West at some points. Also there are tons of dancers, performers, and I even saw a country western line dance. No joke...got it on tape. The French can line dance!!

Pics of the team after

2009-05-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

At Fab's house

Fab After hurting his shoulder

Michel cooking some meat Gob or his brother cooking meat...

Nico and Michel trying to get a bite to eat

Nyda with a French hotdog

Johan

Jean Michel

Ben and me

The Danny Mendes show

An incredible game: Templier vs Cougars, part deux

2009-05-03T13:03:00.000-07:00

4-3. That's our record. Four wins, three losses. We can't lose if we want to make the playoffs. Things are different now. It's like we ARE in the playoffs. In that can lose mentality. 3 games left. We win them all, we knock out the Templiers and the Spartiates.

All week we are ready. Everyone shows up to practice...I mean everyone and that's huge for us. We get some good quality work in having all the guys there. We are prepared. The stage is set, the gladiators are ready, and it would prove to be one of the most amazing shows I've been apart of.

We traveled to the Templiers home field. The last time I was there it was frozen solid and looked like a pond at winter in Michigan. The turf was horrible. Think astrodome astro turf of a lesser quality. How were we going to be able to run and dive on this. The spots where the turf was laid next to each other, about every 15 yards or so, was covered in a paint mixture to try and seal it up. This was like throwing sandpaper on the ground and telling us to slide on it. Also, I didn't have shoes. I mean I had my cleats with screw ins and my tennis shoes, but no turf shoes. Crap. What am I going to play in? The cleats are too tall and I want be able to cut, but my tennis shoes are the Asics that are almost the same material as water shoes little kids wear in public water parks. This is going to be good.

I tighten the shoe strings on my sneakers. The shoes that have taken my all across the streets of Paris, Barcelona, Dublin, Dortmund, Athens and up mountains in Meteora, will now let me hit Templier players. Toe meets leather and the game is on. We kick off and the Templiers get the ball. It's the back and forth. Drive the ball, stall, punt. This goes on back and forth until the close of the First Quarter. The Templier, led by Perez Matison, hit a huge 31 yard pass for a touchdown. Concluding a 90+ yard drive. 7-0.

The Templier offense is similar to Texas Tech spread, quick short passing routes with excellent precision and timing. It's clock work and they look like they've spent a lot of time working pass routes. Our defensive strategy for the game was to only rush 3 lineman and let the 8 remaining guys cover. With double teams across the line, it was hard to get any pressure on the quarterback. Even when we finally did he would just scramble up in the pocket and out to the side. This bought his recievers some of the extra time needed to find the holes in the zone.

The second quarter is a little bit more active. Pakat steals an interception on the sideline. Unfortunately we could not convert. The defensive tackle, an american from UMass and former tight end, had an a pretty good game. He was a good athlete and our guards had some trouble at times against him. They walked the middle linebacker directly over me, so I had to block him most plays and isolated the American guy on our guards. This freed him up on one on one situations and allowed him to make plays.

The Templiers scored again making it 14-0 on a 77 yard drive. And by drive I mean a 77 yard pass that took about 10 seconds for the QB to scramble and throw. I also have to mention that their offensive line coach had suited up for the game. He came in around the 2nd quarter mark. I guess he felt his guys weren't doing a good job. It was hilarious though as I was on the line, his lineman would ask him, "coach what do we do", "should we double team" and the coach would tell him yes or no. It was fun getting to play against him. Sometimes they'd hold me and I'd get their team so upset since they just completed a big gain. Now it was 14-0, we get the ball back and need to score now to cut the lead in half, so when we recieve the ball in the 3rd quarter, we can tie the game up.

We need to rally, to get life back in the Cougars. We can't let the guys shut down. Then you realize... we are Cougars. This team doesn't quit, regardless of what events have just taken place. We drive trying to beat the clock into the endzone. And do just what we needed to Dino scores on a 6 yard run and we've cut the lead. Unfortunately the extra point get's blocked. 14-6. Halftime.

We started what we needed to. Getting the train on the tracks and headed in the right direction. Now we needed to believe that we would win this game. We decide to stay on the field and rest instead of heading to the locker rooms. Partially because the visitors lockerrooms are right below the Templiers and we needed to come together without distractions. We recieve the ball in the start of the 2nd half and muster a brilliant 87 yard drive. Matt scores on a 1 yard QB sneak. 14-12. We still need a 2 point conversion to be tied and even the playing field. We run a pass play that fails, but thankfully their is a penalty. Next play from the 1.5 yard line. We throw a fade to Michel and tie the game. Were back baby. The Templiers, who had purred at us (yes I mean pur, like a little kitty sound.... to which I kindly reminded them that they lost the last time they played us!) before the game started as we ran onto the field, weren't purring anymore.

The following drive the Templier went 3 and out and the Cougars take the field. This is the pivotal starting point where some of our recievers really step up. Jean Michel catches a 62 yard pass and scurries into the endzone. 21-0. The game now would start to take shape of a tennis match more so then a football game. An epic back and forth battle that Agassi and Sampras would be jaw dropped at. We kick off the ball and the Templiers return it to our 30 yard line.

The Templiers score 3 plays later with a 10 yard pass. 21-20. On the extra point I move Ludo next to me and Nyda across. We drive the guard back and I am sure we blocked the extra point. But no, they faked the kick and threw the ball to the wide open up back. 22-21. Ah. My emotions are starting to spin. The roller coaster ride of emotions from this game has just begun. We have been down 14-0, fought back, tied the game, took the lead, and now we have lost the lead. Time to get back to work.

4th Quarter. It takes me back to high school. To the extra work we put in sweating our buts off in a locked down, taped up gym. The windows were fogged from the amount of sweat and heat we put off during the strenuous conditioning drills. Pushing ourselves to the limits, so that when the 4th quarter comes, you are not as tired as the man in front of you. You can push forward, while he tries to hold on. Then I'm at Tech. We hold our hands high in the 4th Quarter because this is where you finish the drill and get the job done. It doesn't matter how you start, it matter's how you finish. I've been through Spring ball, summer agilities, 5am team drills, Camp, 2 a days....they all add up for these moments. The forth quarter. Let's go Cougars.

The crowd is pumping, it's intense. If we were in America, 55,000 fans would be on their feet. Yelling and screaming, losing their beers and their voice. We drive. Thomas makes a huge conversion on 3rd down and gains 61 yards. Another one of the recievers that has stepped up in this game. Our drive stalls out in redzone and we settle with a huge kick by Michel Donati for 33 yards. 24-22. Our sideline is going nuts. We've taken the lead! Yes I say to myself. We've got this. I'm riding high.

The defense takes the field. With cougar pride they stop the Templiers and bring them to a 4th and 1 situation. Of course they are going for it. We crank it up and the defense stops the conversion. Cougars ball. We then drive the ball to the 11 yard line. Now faced with our own 4th down situation we turn the ball over. The Templiers seizing the moment drive the ball 89 yards and score on a 33 yard pass to a reciever finding the open hole. The life drains out of me. I'm exahusted. I can not take this. But we still have time. The clock ticks. the score 28-24. They try the extra point. This time we do push the guard back into the kick and block the extra point. The brief ounce of hope will be all I need to push on.

We return the ball and it's 1st and 10 on the 34 with just under 2 minutes left. Then the roller coaster takes a huge turn from the previous drop and pulls us back to another mountain top. Matt hits Jean Michel for a 66 yard touchdown pass. His second in the game. We go nuts. The celebration is spectacular. We are losing our minds. YES! YES! We are up 31 to 28 after the extra point. AMAZING!

The Templier will have to run a two minute offense to try and touch us. I feel confident. Perez felt more confident. He drives the Templier 78 yards down the field. With the help of 30 yards in penalties from the Cougars. One of which being a late hit by myself on the QB. I had spun in and saw him letting it fly. All I could think of was what a bull see's when the matador flashes the red flag in front of him. I didn't stop. AHHHhhhhhhhhh! What did I just do? Composure Matt. Stay composed. I think of the personal fouls I've had at Tech and Coach Gailey pulling me out on one particular occasion, one that cost Choice a 100yard rushing game.

They end up scoring with 20 seconds left. 35-31. We have no time left. This knockout punch would prove to be the straw....or more like a Mike Tyson right hook.... that broke the camels back. The air was knocked out of me. I lied on the field for an extra 30 seconds to the sounds of the home fans celebrating the Templier touchdown. It would be the final score with the failed hail mary's.

I watched my team fight for everything they had. They laid it on the line. Nyda shed a tear or a few after the game. I knew how much this means to all of us. To fight and lose. In an epic game, and epic battle. Someone has to be the loser. That's sports, that's competition. We all felt the same. DRAINED. Giving all you have and having it come up just a little bit short. It's heartbreaking. No playoff shot. It was finished. Our season would only have 2 games left. Thomas, Jean Michel and Florian have stepped up. They have made huge strides during this season. Their hard work, consistent attendance at practice and work ethic have helped take them so far this season. I look at them and our proud. They all had huge plays this game and stepped up big. Matt ended up breaking the record for passing yards in a game for the Cougars record books. 384yards passing. But records mean nothing unless they are in the win coloumn.

Our team had suffered some serious injuries. On one drive Nico had an amazing catch. Somehow managed to keep his feet and run forward without balance. At the precise time 3 Templiers hit him. Hurting his back and causing it to be his last play for the Cougars, more then likely forever. He laid it on the line. Fabian hurt his shoulder making tackles and is done for the season. Ben Simon hurt his MCL during the game. These guys laid it all out for each other, for me, for the team. "TEAM FIRST" I am impressed and proud to be a Cougar. Fighters.

After the game we had a planned party/ BBQ at Fabians. The entire team showed up and it was a lot of fun. I will just show you pictures which speak the loudest. I'll post them after this. We are a team. A group of friends, who lay it out for one another. A unit. Gung-ho baby. GUNG- HO....... Who are you? Cougars!!!

Cougars vs Molosses

2009-04-27T04:11:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday the 19th the Cougars played the Molosses at home. It was a sloppy game. We started out sluggish. This easily being seen in the 0-0 half time score. The Molosses are the weakest team in our division. Their Americans seemed to have changed their attitudes a little bit about playing in France. The runningback now was the play caller. He'd run to the huddle and tell them what they were going to do. Their other import who was playing center now moved to guard and helped lead their running attack. They tried to follow him and utilize his talent, but he was really just a bad holder and a squatty body which didn't really prove to be that usefull. It was a slow game, not a ton of action in the first half.

Some of our players who have worked their butt's off at practice and made big improvements got an opportunity to display their talent on the field. Danny Mendes, Florent Hirel, Alexis Dorard got to start. Danny had a huge catch for a 20 yard gain, which was huge because I think it was his first reception in a game. However he had a chance at a wide open touchdown pass, that eventually fell to the ground because of his over excitement. We were all so upset because we wanted it so bad for him. Florent made some good receptions 3 for 18 yards and is doing a great job catching the ball. We still have to work on his moves after the catch, but he is doing a great job pulling them in. Jean Michel also had a big touchdown reception. His first of the season. Nico caught a touchdown pass as well. Both first for those guys this season. I was proud because they have worked hard and deserved that. Alexis made 2 solo tackles and it's so good getting to see the guys that pour into the team, get something back for their hard work.

Coach later told me that Alexis was nervous going in and getting to play in the game. But he did well. Bago grabbed a screen pass out of the air on defense and scored a touchdown on the play. Matty, playing safety at the time, had told them to look out for the screen. As soon as he did, the RB's eyes lit up as if saying, OH CRAP. Bago jumped the passed and scored. Rounding out our 21-6 victory. I had a statistically decent game, 7 tackles, 3 solo.

You can find other pics of the game here... click me

Barcelona film

2009-04-24T10:30:00.001-07:00

Highlights of the trip to Barcelona....

A little taste of India

2009-04-23T04:18:00.000-07:00

The other day Apputhurai Sinthujan .... aka Pakat... one of our safety's for the cougars, took us out to eat Indian food in Paris. Pakat is actually from Sri Lanka and I had been bugging him to try the traditional food. It was an experience. Matt, Will, Loic S., Pakat, his girlfriend Caroline and myself went to Chettinadu, a traditional Indian resturant.

We walked in and dominated the space. Being 3 offensive lineman, it was funny watching all the people look up to us and stare at our size. We sat down and Pakat started to speak in Hindi (i'm guessing that's the language I'm not quite sure) It sounded like a fast mumbler ripping off word after word. Kind of like a motorcycle engine reving up. It was so fast, I have no clue how he could understand.

Anyways I told Pakat to just order for me... give me the traditional experience. It was great. We started with some appetizers. Samossa Viande, Somossa Legume... small triangle shaped pastrys filled with meat or veggies. Medu Vadi and Masal Vadai.... small packed veggies or bread fried, think hush puppy like but with more ingredients. My favorite the rolls packed with spicy meat, eggroll style fried and dusted with maybe cinnamon or sugar or something sweet. Amazing these where so good. Of course we had different sauces to put on all of these. A white sauce that was not as spicy and a green sauce resembling guacamole that was spicier.

Then we got my favorite part of the entire meal. Nan au fromage. This Indian type of bread, delicious on it's own, filled with creamy fondu like cheese. It comes to you in a huge puff ball shape and you push down the top layer of Nan onto the cheese and bottom layer. It is amazing. We had about 2 of these per person, or more. SOOOOOOOo good. Oh and the sauce we put on top of it. AHhhh seriously amazing. They also brought out a Poulet Tandoori....some very tender rottiserrie barbecue style chicken.

Along the appetizer Pakat introduced us to Necto, a drink. The bottle has a huge elephant on it, so I didn't know what to expect. It was a framboise flavored drink, meaning raspberry. I usually dislike raspberry flavored stuff. Just not a fan of artificial raspberry syrup, but this was the real deal. It was so sweet and helped the little bit of spice from the appetizers. We then sat around talking and waiting for the food to come. I tried to work on my french and understand why sometime you have to use "pas" after for instance "Je ne sais pas" Je= I, sais= know, ne + pas = the negative, like don't. So you use ne pas for the negative of a noun. Anyways there was some case about me trying to say I can not take any more food. Where you do not use pas, because the next word includes it or what not. This being said, I in my Texan ways, got a little louder in trying to figure it out. Apparently they thought I was yelling and getting upset... not the case, just my style of intensity and passion. All was good but it was a little funny.

After they brought out the main courses, we had 4 Kothu Parotta, a neat dish eaten with the hands...mostly made up of the diced nan bread, some form of meat, and some veggies. It was really neat you basically balled up a bite to eat on the dish and then grabbed it like you would an egg. Then with your thumb you pushed the food into your mouth. It was so funny, Matt was like "all my life I've been told not to eat with your hands and now that I'm older I get to do the opposite." I ate a huge crepe like thing filled with a potatoey paste with 4 different dipping sauces. Really good and crispy. Willie had a nan filled plate too. It was such a great dinner.

Afterwards we went to a different restaurant for dessert. My belly was completely full by this time and I told Pakat, I don't know if I can do this... he assured me it would be alright since dessert was just a drink. Oh and it was worth it. A strawberry milkshake type drink, with pieces of jelly like candy floating in the drink and small hard sugar things in it as well. It went down quick.

All in all I had a great time learning the Indian cuisine and it is definetly a lot easier having a native speaker order for you. I don't know how I would've been able to go on my own. Actually I probably wouldn't have. Thanks Pakat.... Indian food was delicious.

Coming to a house in Cergy-Pontoise.

2009-04-21T01:21:00.000-07:00

So we had this ridiculous photoshoot thing about a 3 weeks back or so. Well the other day we opened up our mailbox and viola...sitting there is the magazine that was delivered to every house in Cergy-Pontoise. If you can translate it, let me know. HAHAHA

Normandy

2009-04-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

Thursday Coach Mas drove Matt and I out to Normandy. It would be an adventure that was a lot too take in. I must have said that 50 times since I've arrived back from the shore. The sites, the sounds, the events unfolding in the background of your mind, survival, death, politics, economics, radical leaders, strong speakers, the importance of the entire situation.....it's all too much to absorb without somewhat being changed.

We arrived first at the Caen museum. It is about 20 miles inland and is dedicated to the preservation of the events that occured during the war. It was incredible. The first thing was saw was a 40 minute film with nothing but film from the war. It was breathtaking, jaw dropping, and fear striking. It starts with two split screens. One side showing the Axis powers, the other the Allies. Let my try and take you there. Intertwined you see the events of D-Day playing out live on screen. Footage of young men, most mere boys suiting up and getting onto boats along the British coast. Fixing their jackets, cleaning their guns, going over strategies. While at the same time the Nazi's are working on their defense. Young guys setting up barracades, working on machine guns, loading the ammunition rooms.

Then to the water, the troops cross the sea's as airplanes more numerous then a hoard of locusts devouring a field from it's crops. Men jumped from planes behind enemy lines, Nazi's raced to their battle stations. Alarms sounding, guns loading, battles beginning. Men running for their lives onto the beach taking massive quantities of casualties. At a moment I stop and think about the cameraman. How brave and scared do you have to be to charge into a nightmare with a weapon that only shoot's film and light. No source of defense. Men's faces a pale, painted with fear. I breath in, thinking how different the time was. The only draft we know now is coming in 2 weeks, where 21 year olds will become millionaires. There draft was different.

You see inside the bunkers, one of which we actually visited. This of course would bring chills down your spine as your standing in the exact spot that soilders where killing Americans. The war is playing out in front of me in two simulatneous screens. Two different perspectives, both sides mortal. Then a plane flies across the beach showing the battle from above. Covered in obstacles, barb wire, vehicles, bodies, firing of weapons back and forth, it seemed to go on forever. Then it switched it showed the beach today, the tranquil silence. Almost as if a destination for summer vacations rather then a battlefield. Again it would switch back to the fighting.

Scenes of boats coming up to the cliffs, shooting rope ladders for men to climb. Victory coming and Nazi's surrendering, raising white flags. Then shots from the overall war. The strategy. The push. The Red Army covering Europe being pushed back and back. Devestation surrounding towns. Battle after battle. Strategy unfolded and the plan was unveiled. Soilders marching in French cities. French citizens celebrating with glee. Freedom had for all. Thousands died for this one idea, this one concept, FREEDOM.

The movie was incredible. I was there. I was lost in this world of horror and celebration. The museum had plenty of relics. Parachutes used as decoys to throw off the German troops, a soldiers parachute used as a wedding dress for his bride, vehicles and planes. Photographs galour and explanations of the events. The men who died are honored with pride. There is enough material here to learn and go on forever.

After preparing our minds, we drove to the Juno/Gold beach. We walked along the beach and saw the remains of the floating harbor. An idea from Churchill himself. The harbor was entirely built out at sea and capable of holding countless ships and providing roads to transport vehicles to shore. You could see the length of the harbor as the remains only deminish from the toils of the tide.
I took a minute to take it all in and re-live what happened here. I walked along the beach and stood on a blockade remains that ran into the water. Built to break the easy sands from the cliffs ahead. The base was all that was left.

We walked to some of the old bunkers housing the large guns used for taking out ships and massive numbers of troops. They were quite a distance away from the shore and high in elevation in comparison to the coast. It took an entire day to capture the bunker. The sheer size of the guns where impressive and 3 of the 4 where actually in recognizable shape. I climbed on one of the barrels and took a photo showing the perspective towards the sea. It doesn't do it justice because I have climbed halfway down the shaft.

We then drove down to the beginning of Omaha beach and parked on the sands nearly 20 yards from the high tide. It was a pleasure seeing the children play on the beach. This site helps take away the horrible memory of the tragic events and reminds you that the price of freedom is never forgotten. To have this ability to see kids run and laugh freely is priceless. We climbed up to the bunkers and saw the memorial for the 5th engineer brigade. There job was to clear the beach of obstacles and they paid dearly for their actions. The said 94 percent of their company died. We also saw one of the main bunkers that the 1st infantry took out. It took 19 hits to the side of the bunker with a tank to render the defense ineffective.

The standing room in the top of the bunker was just head level for me. I had to squat down to see through the windows. The bottom floor was pitch dark. Walking through coach led the way and actually stepped in a puddle. He was moving out of the way for a British girl and fell in the hole, which was actually uncovered by the planks. The girl laughed at him and he was covered in water about a foot or so down. The bottom bunker was so dark. I imagined the boredom soilders had to face during the war. Countless months sitting, waiting. I thought about them playing cards to pass the time, practicing their marksmanship, drinking beer. And then all of a sudden the most intense fight of your life happens. How do you plan for that? How do you deal with that? How did they react?

I stared off in the distance almost in a haze from all that I was taking in. This is the beach. This is the place where US soilders stormed the beaches fighting for another country, fighting for freedom. At first I wondered why they didn't want high tide to get as close as possible, but then it was explained to me that they needed the low tide in order to clear the obstacles for their vehicles. Picture that just right behind me on the beach.

We walked into the American cemetery at the top of the hill and words can not describe it. A place for reverence, for rememberence, and pride. This our my countrymen. These are my people. Americans. Being in Europe it has been hard for me to grasp who America is. What our pulse is, Who we really are....being so much younger then the foreign countries and made up from these different countries. I see buildings daily that our older then our history. Seeing the cemetery reminded me of our character, of our strength, of my patriotism. And I pray that as Americans we all remember this. That we all take history a bit more seriously. Learning what others did for us, where we as a country have come from. And taking pride in it. I am an American.

After my moment in the cemetery, I went to the visitors center and found a registry. I searched my name and found 4 Rhodes buried in the cemetery. One was Carl E. Rhodes from Alabama (originally where my Rhodes family name is from) I found his grave in Plot B row 1 grave 25. First row. He was a member of the 67 bomb squadron and recieved a purple heart. I can only wonder if he is a family memeber or not. All in all it was a great trip, one I think every American should make. I feel changed from it, and I can only hope it is not just emotions that I am feeling, but a deeper understanding of who I am as an American. That I would have had the courage to do what these men did in paying the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.

Find more pictures from the trip here....

photos

Normandy

Barcelona

2009-04-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Matt and myself ventured to Espana. We went to Barcelona for our off weekend and let me just say it is a beautiful city. Very clean and neat. The metro stations are not dirty, it's close to the water, they had amazing parks, good cheap food, and a very fun atmosphere. When we first arrived we tried to locate our hostel and drop off our bags, but instead found our first Gaudi building. Gaudi is the famous architect who has several projects in Barcelona. For me some of his stuff looks like fantasy land, or that he was on drugs when he started building this crazy stuff. A lot of the mosaic tiles are customary for his work, some of it is straight up weird, and some of it really breathtaking. After arriving at our hostel, which by the way was a party hostel, we were greeted by Eduardo a very helpful staff member. He showed us where everything on the map was and where we had to go and what not. So after the advice we decided to head to the main tourist attraction in Barcelona. The Sagrada Familia, the church built by Gaudi. It is still not finished. It was really neat looking at it. Everywhere you look had a different feel. The 4 towers intertwined with intricate details. One side of the entrance had block looking scene of the birth of christ and the crucifixcion. Really cool, but then on another part it looked like the background from the Willy Wonka scene in the chocolate river area. Crazy.

We stayed here for a while and took in the good weather and the architecture.

Next through our walk in the Spanish city we found the stadium for the bullfights. It was neat and we just missed a bull fight scheduled for the next weekend. It's crazy to think about that.

Afterwards the early flight had helped build up an appetite so we headed to a local restaurant. We stopped in and ate a meal, but ordering in Spanish was much more difficult then in French in Paris. In Paris, they pretty much all know English. This was not the case in Barcelona. I also found it difficult because I constantly tried to go back to speaking French. Tough. We managed to get our order in. I will say though that Matt had to go up to the counter and point out what appetizer we really wanted. We had red peppers stuffed with this little meat mix in a red picante sauce. It was incredible. Next I had Paella, and sangria. The Paella was mixed so I had prawns, mussels, chicken, beef and squid. Really hit the spot, but would make it a little heavy on the stomach later. We also had sangria partially due to coach david's insistence that we have a glass. But it was really good.

We then tried to find the Guell Park. Another one of Gaudi's masterpieces, however we missed the turn somehow and ended up watching skaters trying to ride a ledge with a stadium seating crowd in attendence. However we did wander down some pretty cool streets. As we were walking up the hills though Matt and I couldn't help but thinking of the hills in Greece. I stopped to take this picture, you can see down to the city center and the sea. Really cool city. Finally we arrived at the park which was just a masterpiece. It was crazy, like a fantasy land again. The structures looked like a kid had just dropped wet sand on the ground and it stuck. It was spectacular. Some of the twists and turns were amazing. Of course like the cathedral, everywhere you looked had something different. Other parts had beautiful mosaic tiles, or columns, some an open space with palm trees and archways, and even hansel and grettles gingerbread house was there.

I also happened to meet one of the local Spanish girls here. There's a picture of her below. Just your typical Barcelonian. She was a lot of fun to hang out with.

Ok so not really, there was a modeling shoot going on and it was so funny because atleast 20 different people were snapping shots of her posing with Barcelona in the background. She got a kick out of it and was a bit shy. Not being able to understand all the attention. Really funny, the guy model though was dressed in this 80's pure shinny gold sweatsuit which made me laugh. We then took off to the hotel before the FC Barcelona match we had tickets for.

The game was really good, the stadium incredible. Except for the lack of size in between rows. My knees touched the railing and it was quite difficult to get comfortable. The game was great FC Barca won easily 2-0....should have been 4-0 but an offsides call on a goal made by Thierry Henry and a missed penalty kick by Messi cost the score. It was still a great game, the atmosphere played foghorns and would chant "BAR-SSSSSSS-A" over and over. This is the accepted pronunciation. I will have to say though it was not as intense as the Dortmund game. Definitely not up to the Gilberwand standards. However it was a tremendously massive stadium. Holding over 110,000 fans.Later that night we met up with the hostel mates and got to know each other. There was an Australian group living in London, a couple from Chigago, and some Irish guys who ended up going out to Razzmatazz. We walked up to the club and 3 of us jumped the rail to get into the Que line (which had no people in it) and meet up with friends. After we walked down the 50 yard line we were turned back because of jumping it and literally had to walk back 50 yards and down again. Not that it was a matter of skipping people in line, but moreso a matter of security guards wanting to excercise some form of power. It wasn't necessary and pretty annoying.

We finally got into the club at around 1:15AM. Let me just tell you this thing was as empty as main street in an old western films shootout scene. There was NO ONE, here and we thought maybe we just came on a bad day. However around 2am people started showing up. Brings a whole new meaning to the term nightlife. This club was literally the biggest thing I've been in. It had atleast 7 different rooms with different styles of music. Including the live performance stage in the picture. The light show behind the singer was amazing and masked his semi decent performance with the classic "smoke and lights." There were some interesting people though in the club. Check out this guys hair!

The next day Eduardo had a bit of a problem. I was sitting in the common area when he started telling someone to get out of the storage room and open the door. After many attempts at trying to push the door open, I decided to see what the commotion was all about. He thought someone had locked themselves in with the luggage. Thankfully though there was an old airvent about 8 feet from the ground, so he grabbed a step ladder and tried to peer through. I took a look and realized the bedframe was pried against the door making it not budge. Somehow we came up with the bright idea of me pushing him through the hole in the wall. This is a picture after we succeded in getting the door unjammed. A funny story.

We then took off down La Ramblla. The famous street in Barcelona with street performers galore. My favorite was Edward Scissorhands. He had the face and the actions down to a T. Very impressive. There was also a group of street performers playing bells on their back by walking with their heads bobbing up and down. A very unusual site. They were dressed in this old ox skin suits and paraded the whole time. We got a bit hungry and ate at McDonalds. I couldn't believe it but at all the fastfood joints apparently you can have a beer with your meal. It took me a back. I settled for sprite.After walking through the streets we ended up at the port and took some pictures on the lions. Feeling a little fatigued from the late Spanish nites we sat on a bench in the port and watched the sailboats, fish, and seagulls. After relaxing a while we then walked through the old town with small narrow streets. Easy to jump from rooftop to rooftop, infact you might even be able to lay across the street below. We tried to see Picasso's museum, but the line was really long at about the same time the rain started to pour. We opted to head back to the hostel and relax.

That night we went to an Irish pub and sang karaoke with the entire group staying at the hostel. The people there were very friendly and organized all this for the travelers staying at Saint Jordi Hostel. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed hanging and meeting new people. After the night ended we headed back to catch some sleep before our 8am departure from the hostel in the morning. All in all Barcelona was a very fun time and cool city. I'm learning that wherever we go we meet new people and make new friends. I think I'm ready for a traditional getaway maybe to Italy with Will's family for a real Italian experience!

Cougars vs Flash part deux...

2009-04-08T04:53:00.000-07:00

We played the Flash last Saturday night at 8pm. Saturday night lights! It's always fun playing a night game and this was our chance to make history. A chance for redemption. The whole week Dino our running back was intense. He has some friends who play for the Flash, some really good friends and you could tell he wanted nothing more then to beat them. The Flash recently returning from their Russian victory had a new attitude and quite literally a new looking team.

I think they must have gotten 8 or so new players, some of which had experience with the NFL Europe. It was going to be a tough test. We came out and chose to recieve the ball. The inspired running back, Dino led us down the field in one of our best looking drives so far in the season. We ran left, right, and up the middle on the back of Dino's will. He ran hard and after Michel's pass that got us to the 5, Dino ran in for a Touchdown. As soon as we started celebrating, it was as if Lee Corso himself pulled a "Not So Fast My Friend"... of course holding. Finally we plunged the touchdown in on a Quarterback sneak. Matt and I went on to the line and Matt told me he wanted a silent snap. We rushed to the line and only me and him where moving as we caught them off guard for the touchdown. Where up 7-0 in the makings of what appeared to be a great match. Unfortunately though Dino twisted his ankle on one of the runs and was in pain for the rest of the game.

With a confidence and enthusiasm we kicked off the ball to the Flash. They returned it to the 40 and their offense took the field. I'm not kidding you, their Offensive line was as big as Georgia Tech's starting line, but with one key advantage that you don't find much of in college football... Man Strength! Knowing they liked to run the ball to the tightend side and often on first down, they made a brilliant play call with the play action and scored on the first pass. 60 yards to Number 9, who would turn out to be frog picking flies out of the air. The guy had hands, normally you have guys who drop a ball here or their in France, but not sticky fingers. I wasn't surprised to learn he had almost made the Bengals team.

The rest of the match would look like a bigger brother holding down a little brother. We couldn't seem to get anything going on offense, and as soon as we'd get to 3rd down on defense they'd find a way to make things happen. They ran quite a bit behind their massive line. 21-0 at half. We seemed out of it going into the locker room. That first play touchdown had swept the wind right out from under us and some of the guys looked asleep.

The second half as we walked out of the locker room the Flash were chanting and yelling as we walked through the tiny tunnel out to the field. See their locker room was right upon entering the hallway, while ours was left. As we walked to the field, they were waiting chanting together as a team and it seemed eager to beat up little brother some more. Personally it fired me up because I love playing the cocky arogant teams/players, who think they're God's gift to life. However they would pick up right where they left off. They scored twice more in the 2nd half to go up 34- 7. They didn't even play their americans either, I guess figuring they didn't have to, or giving them a break and the younger guys a chance to compete. As they went to kick the extra point to go up 35-7, I broke through the line with Ludo and Nyda and blocked the extra point.

I was pissed and we needed to come together as a team. After we got the ball back I said we were going to score regardless. The offense needed it, the Cougars needed it, I needed it. With time winding down we made it into the endzone on some good quarterback keepers and hard earned yards. It seemed that we were going to stall on the 4 yard line but then got some good breaks from stupid mistakes/ penalties by the Flash. We finally punched in a touchdown with 0 on the play clock. I was proud. It's what I've learned about the Cougars, about my teamates, about my friends. They didn't quit. They didn't give up. They played til the end. Even when we were physically outmatched they left it all on the field.

After the game I got to talk to the Americans on the Flash, and talk a little bit about our experiences. Seems like they were having a good time and some of the same things when it comes to football. I also noticed that the Spartiates head coach was at the game, kind of different because they should have been playing. He came and said hello to me and is a nice guy. Apparently the Meteores where not able to produce a 2nd ref for the match so they would automatically lose. Instead of going to play the game for pride, their coach decided it was better to just not go at all. A 5,000 Euro penalty for this. So the Spartiates got the win without even stepping a foot on the field.

4 more games to go and in a must win situation, we still have a shot at the playoffs if everything goes our way.

Chantilly....The home of creme, castles, and chevals

2009-04-03T07:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Coach Mas took Matt and myself to Chantilly to see the chateau there. It was a pretty quick ride. Funny to think that it took the Kings and Queens of the time over 8 hours to arrive from Paris to Chantilly. Coach made the comment that for us 8 hours now means New York, not Paris. The world is definitely getting smaller, which makes you think what it will be like in the next 100 years.

Anyways as we arrived to the Chateau, you could see the overwhelming size of land that belonged to the estate. The Chateau was situated on the left of the cobblestone street, while the Great stables and horse track where on the right. Chantilly seems to be the place for the horse. As I was told... apparently the King who lived in the chateau was so convinced that he would be reincarnated as a horse, that he built an enormous stable just for the horses. It was incredible to see a building of such grandiuer housing just horses. But I'll get back to that later. It was a warm day with no clouds to block the sun from beeming down so we were comfortable in shorts.

First we went into the chateau and looked around through the open rooms. It seemed to me that the inhabitants of this specific place were well intrigued with hunting. There were lions and platypus and stag and horns lining the walls.... that's right a platypus was on the wall. Not to mention the massive amounts of old school weapons. Like staffs, swords, and even a completely silver knife decorated in ornate fassion.

A picture of the all silver knife.

One of the Lions hanging from the wall.

The Orleans family owned the property and then left it over to the Institute of France. Apparently his rule was that you could not move the collection of his library and you could not change the arrangement of his paintings. The painting gallery had frame to frame pictures and was quite a unique layout. The library was imense for a private collection. It also had some cool chairs in the room with built in reading stands to lay the books across your laps. Because some people are just too good to hold their own books!

One of the rooms held this really weird piece of furniture. It looks pretty normal from the bottom up, but once you reach the top you'd think you just found Superman's home planet. The top of the dresser or desk or gun cabinent had huge rocks standing on it. I didn't quite understand this one, maybe you can figure it out.

We went into the chapel built for the king. Probably capable of holding 20 people at a maximum. I started singing old songs from choir class, which I still remember. (sidenote I wonder if I just put every piece of information into a song....would I be able to recollect it on demand? Because some how I can still remember the words from most songs I know) After seeing the chateau on our own, we went on the guided tour into the parts of the castle that requires a chaperone.

We saw a 2 million dollar table that was valued at 4 million. The chandeliers that used to run on candlelight only. The guide would explain that they had to constantly clean the candles and could only use half of a candle before they would change them. This was the second highest price spent on utilities, the first being fresh flowers that were exchanged twice a day. As you woke up the flowers were yellow and as you went to bed they were blue. All of this of course was being translated by coach to us in the back of the room.

Afterwards we walked to a small shop which served amazing desserts. Coach Mas is obsessed with desserts. He was literally a big kid in a candy store and couldn't wait for the creme chantilly. It's actually the place where they invented the creme. Needless to say it's amazing. It is whipped cream with a sweetflavors, sometimes having vanilla in it. It was really good on my chocolate pear pie. I tried to take a picture, but of course we couldn't help ourselves and already began to devour the desserts before I remembered to pull out my camera.

Afterwards we saw a pretty neat animal gladiator competition. Against the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. Ok so a duck and some fish were fighting over bread, but I did get it on camera. Check out below.

Afterwards we walked over to the Great Stables and walked around the horse track. The stables were huge. I couldn't believe that they only housed horses. Ridiculous. But when you think about people in power wasting money on things, it's not too bad! Really though it really is a place to show off the horse. The ceilings and walls were all solid stone and had to be close to 3 stories high. Just for 30 or so horses in the main hall.

All in all it was a good day. I learned later that they have a huge firework competition out on the lawn for all the people to see. It's sometime in June...so might have to check that out. Not a bad place to celebrate the 4th of July if it was in America. Also I learned that Ronaldo got married in the Chateau, and that you can rent out the Chateau for formal occasions. Seems me and Ronaldo have been going to the same places. That's another story for another day.

Check out the pictures HERE

Trying to get lost in Paris

2009-03-31T05:01:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-25T00:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-23T02:11:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-03-20T07:10:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-19T00:42:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-17T03:59:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-11T01:47:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-09T09:34:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-06T03:25:00.000-08:00

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!!!!

2009-03-03T13:37:00.000-08:00

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!!!!!!!!!!!

DISNEYLAND in Paris

2009-02-26T07:21:00.000-08:00

This week has been a very crazy week. Flora, the 3 year old ball of energy, has been taking over the apartment and draining all of our energy!!! IN A GOOD WAY. She is such a non stop energizer bunny from the moment she awakes to the moment she passes out. In fact right now she is trying to get me to play with her. I might have to take a break. Anyways she is so fun and has been really teaching us French. Since it is the only language she knows...check that, she can count to 5 in english! Speaking in French is the only way to communicate.

So we went to Disneyland Tuesday and Wednesday and it was a blast. It was both Flora and Matt P's first time at a Disneyland. We stayed in the Disney hotel, which is actually right above the enterance into the grand theme park. The first day as we arrived, we told Flora that we were going to see some of "Papa's amies." As we walked through the hotel to the gate it was impeccable timing because the train/ parade was making it's way down the street as we walked. It was awesome seeing her face light up.

We walked through sleeping beauty's rose chateau to the Merry-go-round... one of Flora's favorites. Next Papa took her to ride the Dumbo ride, while Matt and I took off to Space Mountain. We waited a solid hour in the ride before I remembered how Fastpasses worked. It was worth it though. I'm a fan of dark rollercoasters where you can not tell which direction your going next. Previously the Mayan Mindbender at Astroworld was one of the only inside roller coasters I had been on. Well lets just say it failed in comparison, which I wasn't expecting. You see I didn't think the kid friendly park was capable of producing an indoor roller coaster in a small space, that went all 360 degrees. Kind of a nice surprise.

We then met back up with Will and Flora and settled into the room. The hotel was first class and in my opinion worth every penny. The decorations where grand and huge, they had Mickey and Minnie and friends roaming around the hotel and taking pictures and signing autographs. The rooms themselves had high 20 feet ceilings, something I hadn't noticed at other hotels I've stayed in. They had daycare, a spa, small pool, and workout room as well. We ordered room service and it was really good, but the service outshined the food itself.

Also, there was a really funny story that happened in the hotel. While their I tried to find the ice machine. There is only one on each floor of the huge hotel. As I got their I realized it was out of ice, so I was looking at a map to try and find another one. A women approached me and tried to help me in French. I told her my problem in English and without understanding she marched me to the ice machine. I again tried to explain the situation of no ice to no avail. Finally I showed her it didn't work. She gave a shocked "OH" and said "2nd Floor" As I got into the elevator after having my English drilled, I decided to speak French. I entered the elevator with 2 small children and their mother. I said "Bonjour, etc..." to which the smallest little girl dressed as snow white started speaking in a heavy scottish accent, which I couldn't make out. I asked her who she was dressed as in French and the child looked lost. The mother kindly told her daughter, "I don't think he speaks English." Which I could understand, but I totally played along with it. (sidenote.... I have to stop here, Flora wants to play with the voiture rouge...haha) Anyways so basically I went from to opposite extremes in 10 minutes and it was quite humurous.

We played in the pool for an hour or less and Flora is just a brave little one. She would jump off the steps into our arms and try and swim. She has no fear and is just like her Papa. It was fun watching her splash around and get all wet.

We then went back to the park and rode some more rides. I like the Buzz Lightyear Laser ride, where you shoot the villans with a Laser gun and different things happen. My favorite. We also rode the Indiana Jones Temple of Doom ride and meet back up with will and hung out with Flora. I think her favorite rides where actually all of us just playing in the hotel. She'd jump on the bed and run around. One point she was acting like a lion and we all ran from her. Such a little ball of joy. I hope I never grow up.

That night we went to the Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. Will said I was at home. It was quite pleasurable seeing the highly fashionable Europeans all wearing cowboy hats. It was much like medieval times is in America. Matt actually brought up how ironic it was that in America we go to the European show and in Europe they see the American show. Anyways I made a video about the show, its 8 mins...check it out if you want.

Such a blast, our team the blue moon, won the competition against the rest. Our cowboys and indians were better....so at the end they asked for volunteers. However, they wouldn't let me go even after Will insisted and told them I'm from Texas. Anyways, I could work that show. The cowboys where actually English speaking guys. The one representing our blue side was actually from Arizona. He gave us the flag to wave after we won an event. Also, it was kind of interesting how quite the crowd was. They were not the rowdy type of yellers, as you can kind of tell in the video when Matt P yells out America. Oh well it was a blast, good food, ribs, corn, chili, chicken and beans, and apple cobbler with ice cream.

The final day we went to some of the rides with Flora, again jumping on the Merry-go-round and the Dumbo ride. Also we went on the Pirate ride, which was a floating boat ride with drops and such. Flora was a bit shocked and scared but still enjoyed it afterwards. She got a new robe..a white Aerial dress from the little mermaid. Matt and I jumped over to the Disney studios park and rode the Tower of Terror and the Rock-n-Roller Coaster. A little bit of history, we ate at the oldest serving restaurant in any Disney Park. A small dinner where you again had to wait in line to get a seat. Not to bad of a double bacon burger, but the prices where as expected. Finally we went back to the hotel to grab our stuff and head back to Pontoise for Practice.

Unluckily I forgot my keys after we had already bought tickets and went through. Will called to let us know so Matt hurried back to grab them. I went back into line to explain our situation.... the lady was the least bit helpful, telling me I should have just gone... WHAT? did you understand that I forgot my keys in the hotel? Anyways I ended up having to press the handicapped button and after speaking Franglish we happened to get the woman to open the gate for us. It was a fun time and I enjoyed it. Flora is precious, but I started to get a little sick on the trip and am now still fighting that.

Flora Arrives and Les Cougars win 21-0 vs Templiers

2009-02-23T00:47:00.000-08:00

PRINCESS FLORA HAS ARRIVED IN PARIS!!!

Flora got here the other day and let me just tell you she is precious. She is such a cute little kid and loves to play. She has this cute little princess dress that she plays in a lot. It's adorable. When she first got here she was really shy, like any kid. She didn't want to talk or play, so I got down on the floor and we started playing with the toys. We rolled small cars back and forth and then crashed them into each other. We played tea time and dress up, it was just fun.

She has this bright smile and happiness that is just infectious. When you wake up or see her after it's been a while, Will says "Flora give a bisou." She runs up and gives you a kiss on the cheek. It is really cute. I'm also just amazed at how much more French she knows then me. She is really good at 3 years old, I gotta pick up the pace here! She has just been so fun and I think has taken a little liking to us.

Also, yesterday we played the Templiers, a team we were competing with to make it into the playoffs. We won 21-0! It was a good game. The Templier seemed like a team that thought they were God's gift to football. They talked a lot and never shut up. I'm just glad the scoreboard talked for me. I mean even at the end of the 4th quarter when we were up 21 to 0 a defensive player made a tackle and got up acting like King Kong.... REALLY???

C'est la vie. It was a really fun game though. They had a QB who is from East Carolina originally, he was their entire offense. I think he actually has a girl friend/ wife or something here in France and lives here. He ran almost a Texas Tech type offensive system and had some of the prolificy as Matt Ryan when he beat us with BC. The QB kept spliting out the offense and his timing with the recievers was spot on. Before they started their breaks from routes, he was already throwing the ball where it should be. I was impressed and after the game he seemed like a good guy, who generally understood the essence of the game and the spirit of the sport in France.

Their other import played defensive tackle and running back, quite the combination. He was a big boy from U Mass. I think he played TE there? One play he was rushing our left guard and got by, but I was there to help. After the play he asked why I did and said I should of left him one on one??? WHAT? Do you know anything about the Gung-ho nation....5=1. Unity. Togetherness. That's a offensive line... of course I just laughed after hearing this. There's no way I'd leave a teamate out to dry. But I will also say, he was giving the guys some headaches.

Also I was yet again amazed by the number of flags thrown in the game. We had 13 on us and 21 on the Templier. 34 penalties in a total of around 110 plays. That's atleast a flag every 4 plays. But I will say most of the flags where legit. A lot of holding calls, some personal fouls. We only had 39 plays of offense, 60+ on defense. But it proved to be enough. Dino caught the first TD pass from inside the 10. The second score coming in the first half as well was Michel catching a fade route for about 41 yards. The final being a QB sneak from the 5 or so.

On the QB sneak, we went up 21-0... I think that's when it finally set in that the Templier were not going to win. You see the other week they played the Spartiates (our next opponents) and rallied to win in the 2nd half after being down 10-0. So I think they felt they were going to have another big run. After the score, there was almost another little fight/ brawl. Two of the Templier tried to be tough guys on the extra point and wrestle/cheap shot some of the Cougars. Afterwards tempers were high and everyone was tense. Some of the Cougars tried to settle things down and tell them to calm down, but it was a difficult task.

Another thing I've noticed, is that after the game is finished, teams are not afraid to rub in a victory. For instance this week, the Flash beat the Molosses 84-0... That's a basketball type score. Our team got together and started singing "Hey, Hey, Hey....good Bye" It was different for me because I'm not used to that. For me you win with class. Because your supposed to win. Learning is fun though.

On a personal note, I got a couple flags for extracuricular activities while the whistle was in the middle of it's echo. Basically I got warned that you can't hit a guy late, or whatever. For me it's not late if the whistle hasn't been blown. I dont care if the guys down or not. One instance I hit an offensive lineman in the back while he was standing around the pile. I've always been taught you don't wear a uniform to watch, you buy tickets to watch. If you put on the pads, you better have your head on a swivel the whole game. So I thought that was a bad call. Yea it was unnecesary, but still I didn't think it was late. The other one, I definitely deserved because I jumped on a guy after he was clearly down. It's tough trying to stop. But I'm learning to play defense.

I had some good moves that resulted in QB pressures. And batted a ball down for a PBU. It was a good match. And I love this game.

Raclette Party

2009-02-21T01:54:00.000-08:00

Last night a couple of th e offensive lineman and Matt P. got together at Arnaud (the left guards) apartment. First off Arnauds got a pretty good set up, his TV rivals the excessive size of most TV's in America, and the oversized leather couches were comfortable. Anyways we ate Raclette which is a traditional type of meal. It is based off of the type of cheese you eat with the meal, Raclette cheese.

Normally what you do is boil some potatoes, then after they are ready, you start melting the cheese in a litle tray that sits in the heating machine. It is amazing because the cheese gets so hot it becomes almost fondu. While your melting cheese you also heat up an assortment of meat's. Jambon (ham), bacon, salami, bologna, etc. You cut open the potatoes, put some butter on it, add the meat, and finally cover it with the cheese. It is amazing. You can also do this in the warming trays and you have it already melted together (my personal opinion on how Raclette should be consumed) Also you can have cornichons (Amy's favorite, pickles) or olives with it, or whatever you like.

I picture if Americans get a hold of this it would make a great tailgating experience. Because it is a big social event and really brings people together. Anyways it reminded me of some film that I took a while back of a raclette party we had at the apartment. This is just a video of the typical raclette.

Also, Will's daughter is coming in this weekend and will be staying with us for 2 weeks. I am excited because I love kids. She is 3 years old and will be awesome! I think we are planning on going to Disneyland with her as well!!! Anyways I will let you know how she is and our adventures. Also, we have a game this weekend on Sunday at 2pm against the Templier. They are probably a team we are competing with to get into the playoffs. It should be a big make or break the season type of game.

Cougars versus the Molosses

2009-02-16T03:49:00.000-08:00

We played the Molosses yesterday at their place. It's a bit closer into Paris then Pontoise. As we drove towards the field you could see the eiffel tower in the distance. The game would turn out to be a 19-0 victory for the Cougars! The visitors locker room was a bit far from the field, so after we changed and got ready to go, we had to bring all our stuff, for me meaning a Muscle milk energy bar for half time. Gotta replenish when you go both ways.

The game itself was a good one for the cougars. Matt P went 10/17 with about 160 yards or so 2TD's throwing and a TD running. The first drive we got the ball and were stopped close to the redzone. I think we went for it on 4th down but failed. The Molosses got the ball, but we'd quickly gain it back. Loic had the guy for a sack but caused the QB to fumble and luckily yours truly was right there in time to hop on the ball. Looking back I wish I would have picked it up and tried to run with it, but not knowing how far away the defense was from me and being instinctivly trained as an offensive lineman to jump on a rolling ball, that's exactly what I did.

We went on to score. I believe the first touchdown was Matt P running a QB sneak on about the 15 yard line, just trying to get the first down, however after we drove the line a bit Matt managed to roll out from an arm tackle and scramble to the left side of the field all the way for a hard earned touchdown, getting hit as he rolled into the endzone. The extra point was good and we were up 7-0.

The next drive on offense we made it to the 17 or so before we stalled out and tried a field goal, we missed the 33 yard attempt and defense took over. Luckily the defense had a pretty great day, allowing less than 150 yards the entire match. We scored again in the 2nd quarter on a pass by Matt for 2 yards capping off a 45 yard drive.

We went into the game thinking the Molosses would play a 3-4 defense with blitzing linebackers, however when they came out they played in more of a 4-4 setting with the outside saftey being almost in the box at most points. The line played well throughout the game. It's good to see them improving.

I will have to say there were a couple of unusual things that happened in the game, that just can't go unmentioned. Arnaud, our left guard, who couldn't play against the Flash because of his job with the police band/orchestra finally got to play. However sometime in the first half he happened to lose a tooth. So at half time he was trying to find it. I think it was a fake one, but it's still a great story to tell one day. I can only picture it....Arnaud what happened to your tooth, well I hit a guy so hard that I lost in the field... Made me picture Jacob Lonowski.

Another funny ancedote that happened at halftime. Since the locker room was so far away, we stayed on the field during halftime. A first for me, since I never played Pee-Wee football or anything like that it was new. The other team stayed on the field at half time as well. This was quite humorous because since there were no bathrooms in distance, most players used the wall at the end of the endzone. I got to literally lay down on the field at half time, using a football for a headrest. I bet it was quite a humorous site for any fans to see.

Throughout the game there was also a real blood battle... in the sense that Will our right guard and my roomate had a cousin who was playing Middle Linebacker. His name is Frank. During warmups Frank came out of their changing area and yelled for Will. It was the closest thing I have ever seen to an old age battle, where one guy calls out another guy. They yelled at each other for a while and it was funny throughout the game. Frank would prowl and blitz through the A gap on Will's side. (between Will and I) The type of reckless blitzing that would cost their team valuable yards in offside penalties. Just to give you a visual image.

One time Will caught Frank and drove him to the ground. The whole time Will was just punching on his cousin and hitting him in the sides. Frank was telling him to stop and it was just hilarious

seeing those two go at it. On the very last play of the game, Will told the Defensive Tackle in front of him to move so that Frank could line up there. We were taking a knee to end the game so the only 2 players actually playing would be Will and Frank. Well that and the umpire who before the whistle lined up in a 3 point stance in front of me, kidding around! Another first for me, having a ref line up and kid with you during the game. He was a good guy. So Matt says hut and they semi go at each other for 5 steps or so.

Also during the game Micheal, one of our recievers, made an great catch. He dove out for a ball nearly out of his reach and somehow managed to come down with it. Maybe to emphasize how legit the catch was, just remember that this is coming from the same guy who saw Calvin make ridiculous catches for 3 years both in and out of games. So needless to say it was a great catch.

We scored again to cap off a 72 yard drive with a 5 yard pass going up 19-0. Missed the 2 point conversion and that's were the score would stay. Loic le Glas had a good day playing both offense and defense and recording 3 sacks... one of which should have been mine, I broke through the middle and chased the QB right into the waiting arms of Loic. I'm pumped for him though. I've been giving him a hard time at practice and stuff, telling him I'm coming for his sack record. He has the record for sacks in a season with 11 in a 10 game season... Well now that he has 3 in 2 games... I don't think I'll be talking much.

After the game we talked to the hockey guys and the GT girls who came out to support us. THANKS. Also, there is this one crazy fan that we have who makes it to most every game. Through out the match he yells ALLIEZ COUGARS! It is awesome, probably one of the most loyal fans I've met. If he where in Atlanta he'd definitely be mixing it with the Hive's faithful.

We got to talk with the RB import from Temple after the game a little bit, just asking how he was liking it and how the experience was going. He said it wasn't going so well and that it was tough if you can't speak French. It just made me realize how lucky both Matt and I are to be playing for the team we do and with the guys we have. They are all good guys and I'm just glad everything has worked out the way it has. I am truly blessed.

All in all a great time to finally get a win. I mean it had been awhile and against the Bulldogs to. Previously I had never beaten a Bulldog in my carear, but I guess things are different now! We are 1-1 and tied for 3rd in our conference. We play the Templier friday who are tied for 1st. Wish us well!

Again if you wanna check out the team website its http://www.lescougars.fr/ I'm sure they will have an update soon enough. Thanks for reading!

Game number 2

2009-02-14T13:08:00.000-08:00

So it is Saturday night, the day before the game and I can't help but think how different it is then back in Atlanta. The hotel with all you can eat buffet followed by Muscle Milk, protien bars, and cookies has now been replaced with KFC chicken tenders, corn, frites, and "Toon Ice Pep Hits" (bite size carmel ice cream covered in chocolate.)

It's funny because as I look back I remember how habitual / ritualistic I was in getting ready for games. From the way I prepared the night before, what I did on the plane rides, when I ate/drank, to the game day preparations in the locker room. Getting taped as quick as possible. GBY/LD on the wrist, go to the field, 50 yard line prayer, pads, read the program, team prayer in the shower (which is amazing to me to see how big that grew from 7 or so guys my freshman year to nearly the whole team my senior year....D Mo is an amazing man of God) To pregame warm up, Till I Collapse followed by a becoming mentally prepared and a loud yell in the locker room. Being the last one out, circling the team, running the same warm-up plays against the defense. After 34 zone, 4 pack...etc. Back in, total silence, hearing the band roar, the stadium fill. Nervousness and Intensity setting in. Run out the tunnel, embrace the crowd. Stare down the opposition. Kickoff.

It's crazy. I guess I'm just realizing how fortunate I have been and that I still get the opportunity to play this great game. I can't wait for tomorrow, it's been 3 weeks and it almost feels like our first game of the season. We were supposed to play last week, but due to a conflict with scheduling of the younger teams ... the game got moved to now. I am worried because as some of you may know tonight is Saint Valentines Day. In case you were wondering, YES they have it in France. I just don't want to go out there tomorrow with half of my teamates being a little weak in the knees. Then again maybe half there team will be too!

It should be fun and I am excited to get things going again... Hopefully I'll get another sack on Defense... man it's fun. We need a win... I NEED A WIN... it's been to long for me. November 17th 2007 to be EXACT... yea think about that a year and almost 3 months... let's go! Anyways I'm pumped, hopefully it'll be a good one. I'll update you on how it goes

Learning 'football'

2009-02-10T10:32:00.001-08:00

Made another video of learning how to play soccer with Andy. Basically I just had a lot of time today bc the weather's being pretty windy and bad, atleast 50mph winds...or whatever 140km/hr is? You do the math. The video was just from a day goofin' off at soccer world with Andy, but he does have some pretty good skills and even taught me a thing or two. Check it out. 3 mins long.

Wedding at Cana

2009-02-08T15:08:00.000-08:00

The other day I made my way into the Louvre. Matt and I and a couple of new friends from Tech, Emily and Jessica walked around. It was one of those rainy cold days in Paris which really made it great to be inside staring at something someone else made so long ago. I think I'd like to be a sculptor. Just looking at some of the old works are Really cool to me. I mean what if they sneezed and totally ruined their inital concept.... how many times had that happened?? I mean you look at Aphrodite or something that was made about 300 years before Christ... seriously.

Just one of the amazing sculptures...typical man wrestling with the "serpant"

Would look good at Mema's house

We walked around and saw tons of neat things, like the crown jewels, a rooster which I thought would look great in Mema's house, small little relics and jewlery, one of which looked like the first play toy ever... you know the little bouncing balls that look like they've been fused together and when you throw it on the ground it bounces in all kinds of directions... yea it looked like that just made out of steel. There was a three person chair that looked like it was made for the purpose of the massage circle. I mean you can sit in it, but never see a person's face that's sitting with you... awkward.

The Massage chair

There was a sweet painting that was actually two paintings placed back to back. As you walked around it you could see both the front and back view, like it was actually happening in front of you. Such a cool idea/ concept/ loved it. It's actually a picture showing two guys wrestling for their lives. I just thought it was neat, and well displayed.

Oh and then there was little Mona. She was a lot smaller then what I expected, you could tell it was her spot in the Louvre because the crowds naturally emassed around her. We had fun taking pictures with her and what not, but the crowning painting for me in that particular room was the Wedding at Cana... a 16th century painting that is massive. It completely covers the wall opposite the blank wall with only Mona Lisa on display.

Holding Mona, she's tiny.

As you walk up to it you start discovering little things that our going on. What's happening in the painting is it's the wedding which Jesus was invited to and he turned the water into wine. Basically the first miracle. There is all sorts of things going on and it's at such a grand scale that it takes a while for things to sink in so you can finally notice all that's going all. For instance, theirs hunting dogs, people partying, someone serving up food, bringing in a huge cow or some type of meat, the bride and groom being served by a great looking man, and some other stuff that you can see hear at the video.

Throwdown with Matthew Rhodes: The falafell challenge

2009-02-08T04:12:00.000-08:00

Check out the new episode of throwdown with Matthew Rhodes! Falafell Challenge.

The jewish district in Paris has really good street side falafell stores. We actually found two that were right across the street from each other. Watch as I put them to the test to find out which falafell is better!

Here is the video.

Traditionally German!!

2009-02-04T06:43:00.000-08:00

So I had a TRADITIONALLY GERMAN weekend....*inside joke* everytime I experienced or saw something new/tried something new Andy would say it is TRADITIONALLY GERMAN, it was funny because after a while Josefin, the guys and myself would give him a hard time about it.... ok. So I arrived in Dusseldorf on Friday. Andy met me there and we drove to Dortmund normally a 40 min drive or so, but traffic jam on Friday meant an extra half an hour on the road. We arrived and Andy showed me some of Dortmund before having to go train some kids at Soccer World. First, we stopped by his house so he could change and I could drop my bag off.

He said help yourself to the fridge and of course I did. All I have heard about Germany is how good the beer is so naturally I grabbed a beer (Brinkhoff no.1) and made myself at home. I mean when in Rome...or this case Germany. This of course made Andy laugh. He gave me a "you're not hear an hour and your already drinking!" I told him that I had just heard so many good things about it. Apparently Dortmund used to have a bunch of breweries in the 80's and 90's (don't quote me on it) and had some good beer. Now there was only 2 or so left. Brinkhoff was seriously a traditional Dortmund beer.

At soccer world I watched Andy train the kids in soccer. He is really good at it, even in a foreign language you can tell he's challenging and tough, trying to get everything out of the kids...while still being able to know when that fine line of too much is. I think he'd be a great coach one day. Andy showed me the empty pitch and it was breathtaking to see the endzone squared off with 30,000 fans ready to yell the opposition into submission. Quite an amazing site. We then went to eat with Josefin, Till, Wolf, and Kathe. It was a blast. I'm glad it was not so overwhelming this time being around a totally new different language. We then went to a little TRADITIONAL pub and had a beer and watched the soccer match.

When we got back Andy wanted to play Madden. I had been talking a lot of trash over the internet about how good I am and blah blah... I mean it's how we roll in the 205...(just ask Tumi, DB, or Bull) Of course I won! ha no but it was a really good game and I had to score in the 4th with 2 mins left.

The next morning we woke up to a symphony of Porsche enginge's boasting their horsepower. It was a beautiful sound...actually I think it would make a great commercial to have the engines playing Mozart or Bach! As you already know the Autobahn was an amazing experience...SEE PREVIOUS POST...

Then we came back and got ready for gameday. Dortmund Borussia vs. Bayer Leverkusen. The match would be intense throughout. On the way up to the stadium I walked the path with many fans clothed in the bright yellow and black...some bundled up with Borussia scarfs displayed, while others bared the cold weather to show off their team spirit. As I inched closer to the stadium, the crowd had already began to assemble. It's still a solid 2 to 3 hours until the match even starts. The smells coming from the Brats and Beer stands lining the path were great. I sported my new Dortmund jersey.

As I walked in I had to go under the stadium to get to the access for the business club. Mats Hummels, a friend of Andy and defender for the pro team, gave me the ticket for the game. He was a really nice guy, down to earth and I appreciate that. I started wishing I could speak German now to communicate. Actually I really start feeling like I want to speak a lot of languages. The ticket was great first row close to the middle or "50 yard line."

As I got to the business club it was a great buffet of currywurst, turkey, veggies, kraut, soup, the works...and beer. I ate and then walked outside to check out the scene. The Gelb Wand or "yellow wall" had already started to get a bit rowdy and there's still over an hour before the match starts, but don't worry they wouldn't stop. You'll just have to see how the rest of the match goes on my video below. It's 10 mins long, I know I know...I'll start making them shorter, but I really wanted to capture the atmosphere.

After the game we came back and hung for a bit. We got ready and went out to Justins, a nice club in Dortmund. They give you a ticket which stamps how much you owe throughout the night and you have to pay after the night is up. Anyways I almost lost this because it fell out of my pocket, luckily Josefin found it or else I would've been out 80 Euros. The club was great, we got a table and just enjoyed it. They had a saxaphone player who would play with the house music and that was really a neat sound. Some of the players from the team showed up and it was cool getting to be around them, but I have to say Till, Wolf, Andy, Josefin, and Kathe were a ton of fun!!

Till, Wolf, Andy, and Yours Truly

Josefin and Kathe

The next morning we went to see Dortmund from the tower which is 200 meters up. (working on another video to show that one, promise it will be shorter) You could see the entire town and it was extremely cold and windy. Andy, Josefin and myself had to share just 2 pairs of gloves. The one who didn't have them on really couldn't move their hands...it was that cold. The wind made it a bit frightening as well because on the very top there was not a good guard rail, only waste high. The wind really could blow you off if you weren't careful.

Taking the bull by the horns under the tower. Still 100% TEXAN

Kaiser Wilhelm

Afterwards we went to see the Kaiser statue. Kaiser Wilhelm statue, which is a lot bigger then it seems at first glance. We played around up their for a while and again could overlook the half frozen sea and some of the businesses in the valley below. Josefin actually drove right up to the statue which apparently you can't do...C'est la vie...

We ate at an American restaurant for Hot chocolate and nachos. The best American food I've had in Europe so far. I can't remember exactly when but it may have been earlier for lunch, Andy's mom made a TRADITIONAL German meal. Goulash with beef, these amazing green beans rapped in thing proscuitto like bacon that had been crisped(absolutely delicious), 2 salads, German bread which is really good, and for dessert a Waffle with cherry sauce and whipped cream. Absolutely amazing. I love home cooked meals, regardless of where I am...well atleast so far!!

Later was the Superbowl, not until after we played our own superbowl on madden and won with the Cowboys. We watched the game and I got pretty warn out from the non stop weekend and started to drift. The next day I had to fly out. It goes by too soon. Deutschland was good to me and for once I didn't feel like the giant walking amongst the French, but rather just an average human. The food and beer were also a lot less expensive in Germany, maybe why they are bigger people?!?

The flight got delayed an extra 4 hours so I slept in the airport and got a great 12 euro meal from Air France for my troubles. I wouldn't have traded it though. All in all it was great and I'm so glad I got to meet up with Andy.

For My Troubles.

The Chocolate cake was really good. Like German Chocolate cake with a berry type of layer and a cream layer... Delicious

It reminds me that sometimes the friends you make are friends for life. You never know when your paths may cross again and when destiny may bring you back together. So meet new people, say hi to someone new today, you never know what type of friendship could develop from idk ... lets say a highschool weightlifting class and still remain friends after not seeing someone for 7 years... Or maybe reconnect with an old buddy.... either way, Life is short and People are worth it.

Experiencing the Autobahn

2009-02-03T17:29:00.000-08:00

I went to Germany this past weekend to meet up with an old friend from Angleton. It was great catching up with Andy and seeing Deutschland. This entry is strictly about my experience on the Autobahn.... wow..... I understand the need for speed. Andy's friends Till and Wolf woke us up to the sound of purring engines. We immediately ran down stairs to hop into the Porsche's.

We got up early so we could try and avoid as much traffic as possible, but we still had some cars on the Autobahn. Also, the track was a tid bit slippy because the night before it had started to snow/freeze the ground a bit. As we turned onto the track, you could immediately feel the power in the Porsche as Wolf accelerated and moved into the farthest left lane (it's were we would spend most of the morning driving...the passing lane) The car really is magnificent. It has great lines, strong engine, really grips the ground even at high speeds, handles smoothly and brakes extremely well.

After we found a nice open stretch of straight unhabited road Wolf opened it up and showed just what the Porsche was made for. Speed. We reached a bit over 290 km/hr which is roughly a bit over 180 mph. The thing was moving, you could have gone faster and I could tell the car could handle it, but on a day like today you don't really want to chance it. Also, it didn't help when a car moved over into the passing lane.

Speaking of which, one time a car moved over in front of Till and completely hindered our speed. He took forever to pass a car and you could see Till getting a bit frustrated after the guy finally pulls around, Till passes and you can see the guy flash his lights at Till. It was funny. I had an absolute blast learning about the Autobahn. Thanks Andy for an amazing time, and for Wolf and Till for taking me out. (I'll be writting more about Germany, but I just wanted to get out the video I made as soon as possible....It's just a 3 min video of the Autobahn...this time with sound...THANKS YOUTUBE for deleting the other videos sound)

Click here for Youtube link

The Domestic Matt's

2009-01-29T15:15:00.000-08:00

Ok so here is the film from our everyday life in Paris. Watch as we learn how to enhance our culinary skills. Really it's just to show you what our supermarket is like, what cooking in a French kitchen entails, the reaction to French cuisine, and the massive amount of dishes afterwards. There's some funny parts and I hope you laugh....or atleast understand the humour.

It's about 9 mins long, so make sure you've got a bit of time to watch it.

Click me for the video link on youtube.

Deutschland

2009-01-29T06:38:00.000-08:00

Ok so I have a ton to catch everyone up on. Things have really settled down and I feel like Matt and I are both in the groove of things. I'm currently working on a new video which will hopefully show you the L'Eclerec (that's are supermarket) experience and what a duo of world class chefs have to go through in order to make and eat a 5-star meal. Hopefully that will be done by tonight, which for most of the people reading this, is like 4pm or something.

I am heading to Deutschland tomorrow to meet up with an old buddy from Angleton. Andy and Matt team up for the facebook official Matt Rhodes Welcome Week 2009. It's going to be a blast. For those of you who don't know, Andy plays football (soccer) in Dortmund. Were going to the game to watch Borussia Dortmund play and then Superbowl on Sunday. Oh and he told me that I have to experience the Autobahn. He asked if I ever heard of it, and I simply said how fast. He said I can't tell you, you just have to experience it. So I'm pumped.

It's gonna be great and I'll have a ton to update you about. Also, I've still got some more blogs to finish about the Louvre, Matt's parents in Paris, and some other videos I'm working on. Just want you all to be able to see through my eyes....probably b/c I'm much more of a visual learner then a reader as well!!!

Here's some pics and videos of the stadium in Dortmund.

Cougars vs. Flash 20-8 loss

2009-01-27T05:17:00.000-08:00

Sunday we played the Flash. The returning French Elite Champions for four consecutive year. The Flash are a very confident team and have some really decent sized players. The lineman where pretty big boys. Definitely some +300 pounders. Which is different then the size of the cougars. There running back was an Eddie George-esce body type and had played in NFL Europe. The imports they had were a QB from western michigan (who reminded me a lot of Matt Hassleback) and a OL/DL from NC State.

I went into the game thinking they were a totally out dominant team and unsure of who the Cougars really were. I didn't know if we'd be the type of team to think the game was not possible to win or if we'd be the type of team that gave all we had at all times. After the game I've realized one thing, the Cougars are fighters....we are scrappy, we lay it on the line, and we don't fold. For me there is no better type of team. Statistically we may not "match up" with the Flash. But I'd take us any day.... An old coach used to have a saying about "fat cats" and "street cats." You see fat cats just lie around the house all day, eating what's given to them and don't know how to work. Street cats are the total opposite and have to fight for the food they eat each night. So when the time comes when the fat cats and the street cats are moved out of their elements... the street cats know how to survive.....couldn't have picked a better name for our team then Cougars!

Chasing the running back. I got to play defense. It was funny he I'd mouth
off at the line and then he would wink in the back field and I'd just smile.
Pretty much got to play the whole game... I think it's actually the most
plays I've ever had in one game.

The game started off strong. We drove the ball down the field and get into scoring position. However, Matt and I had a fumbled snap. Matt had the ball and got up when the whistle blew, however the flash player layed on the ball afterwards and they ruled it Flash ball. However on the Flash's next drive Alyou caused a fumble and Clement recovered.

We drove the ball again against the mighty flash and scored on a QB roll out to the right. The play however would be called back for a holding call on one of our recievers. Now I know as an offensive lineman I tend to gripe about holding calls. However, this game was unlike anything I had ever seen. They had to have called atleast 10 holding penalties in the first half all against us. It was completely onesided in the first half. We ended up going for it on 4th and 1 on the 4 yard line and were unable to get the much needed yard. This makes twice that we didn't score when we should have.

The next defensive possesion we held them to 3 and out. I was upset because I should have had the safety on a 2nd or 3rd down passing play. We had a stunt on and I slipped past the guard and tackle and couldn't get to the QB fast enough before he threw the ball. I did get to deliver a nice blow to the QB though causing him to land on his back. I still can't believe I didn't get that one. (There would be a couple of times on defense where I should have had tackles for no gain or a loss. I tried to reach out with my left arm and make an arm tackle...basically I forgot how to move my feet and run through a tackle....it's been a while since I played defense)

Sandino got a safety on the 4th down punt after a bad long snap. 2-0. They go on and score twice and it's 13-2 at halftime. There were a couple of interceptions that gave them good field advantage and a nice 33 yard reception for a TD on the 2nd one. The 2nd one coming as time was dwindling in the 2nd quarter. They shouldn't have scored, but they did a great job managing the clock and running a 2 minute attack. On the extra points I almost blocked the first one, and the 2nd one they missed.

Going into halftime, you start to wonder. This is the turning point of the game. How will we react? Do we come out ready to take back the game after pulling a "Plaxico Burress" or do we lay down? The Cougars showed real gumption and came out on fire ready to win. We stopped them on defense and then drove the field putting the score at 8-13. We decided to go for 2 but failed on the try. The 3rd quarter would be back and forth. Then the break hit in the 4th. We drove the ball down to the 18 yard line or so, with 7 mins down. The crowd was into, the team was excited and we were fixing to take the lead.

John-Michel had made a great third down catch on the drive to keep us moving. He ran across the middle on 3rd and 15...the ball hit his hands and a rush of excitement hit, then he juggled it up in the air and all of a sudden it was as if the wind was taken from underneath me, then he managed to pull it in for the 1st down. It was such a change of adrenaline and such a quick change in high's and lows. However on the 18, Matt and I would fumble the snap again and turnover the ball. I felt like "merde." It was as if I lost the game for our team and it sucks. I still replay that over and over.

They went on to score on the next drive. 20-8. We tried marching again, but time would be our enemy. The team NEVER quit though. Throughout the game they wouldn't give in. With the last seconds of the game winding down, we caught a ball and took it to the 1 inch yard line. I thought we actually scored, but the ref said no. I am proud of my teamates and proud to be a cougar.

I know we are better then we played. We competed against the best team in the league and had a chance to win it in the 4th quarter. We will continue to get better and work to be the best.

After the game, there players were pretty cool guys. Not jerks. Except for this one guy. Some little looking dude with an attitude. While we warmed up before the game, this little jerk stood on the 50 telling us to move. I thought it was pretty rude and immature, but thought nothing of it after 5 seconds. Then during the end of the game, this little prick starts waving at Matt and telling him "nice try Ivy league" and little inappropriate jabs/comments that were uncalled for. If I ever met a guy without any class in his body, it's this little guy. I don't know if he's a coach or what, but the guy needs to grow up a little bit.

I did get a penalty in the game...for those of you wondering....apparently you can't touch a guys facemask at all, but it's ok for them to "DEACON JONES" headslap you, or choke you.... REALLY? I don't get that one, but C'est la vie.

*I also wanted to take the time and say thank you for Emily, Jessica, Caroline, Hillarey, Mere Bear, the hockey guys and all the fans who came out to the game. It really made it awesome having you support us and I thank you for bearing it out through the weather and unfortunate outcome. Mere, thanks for the nicknames for Matt!!!

Also, thank you to Matt's parents who really showed us some quality picks of resturants in Paris. It was great getting to meet you and I hope the jet lag is not to bad today.

You can read the link here about the game from the les cougars website.

For pics click me or at another site click me

Another Day at the Office

2009-01-23T04:57:00.000-08:00

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN....MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE!!

So this is a video I compiled at a normal practice in Pontoise. Hopefully it will give you the look, the feel of what an everyday practice is like. And just in case the video isn't working I'll talk about it breifly. It's 8 mins long, please watch and comment on youtube.

CLICK ME FOR THE YOUTUBE LINK

So first thing that happens is Matt and I arrive like an hour before practice, if we catch a ride with coach, usually 20 min's before people show up. (But if Will drives we show up with the rest of the guys) Since we have some free time, Matt usually takes a nap and I get ready or nap as well. It takes me a little longer with the ankle braces instead of having a CLAY FARR approved double-double...or "The Honeycutt Special"....for those of you who don't know that's the trainer at Tech and the best tape job in the country, seriously this guy can put on a clinic.

Then we usually mess around on the weights for a little bit. Around that time, the people start to show up and everyone says hi to everyone... wait let me stress that again....EVERYONE stops and says "ca va" to EVERYONE...this is your typical hello/ greeting. After that we put on the pads and warm up. Matt throws a bit and we get the equipment situated. Then take two laps around the field, followed by a NFL EUROPE circut? (not sure if that's 100% correct, but who knows) This is the shuffle across, high knees up, run back, butt kicks up, karoke across, run up, do it all over again, and sprint back down the length of the field warm up. It takes a while..

Then it's fundamentals and techniques. "The building blocks to success" (thanks Coach D) We hit bags and drive the one man sled. A lot of footwork and firing off the ball. Then its run blocking drills, schemes, pass pro drills, OL vs. DL one on one, two on two. Inside period and a team period, with a scrimmage sometimes at the end of practice. Your typical practice progression.

It normally lasts about 2 hours or 24 periods. You start off freezing and end practice with steam coming off your head and your hands frozen. Take a shower and hang out with the guys.

This Sunday we have our first game against the Flash....the best team in France. They have beaten the Cougars EVERY time they've played. We have never won, and if that's not enough adversity, we have a lot of injuries on our team. Nyda, one of our defensive lineman, will be going both ways playing Left Guard and DL. He's only practiced OL probably 2 days in his life. As for DL one of the LB's will be playing end, Will and myself will play Defensive Tackle. Our tightends our hurt, so we'll be using the linebackers. One of our DB's might be absent, so might is probably a substitute in the secondary. So it is IRONMAN football. It will be a tough test. But there's no other way to tell what your made of, then to be put in the fire.

Masters of the Universe... (He-Man)

2009-01-20T09:33:00.000-08:00

Sunday Will, Matt and myself went to one of the street markets that Will used to work at when he was younger. It reminded me a little bit of New Orleans and a flea market mix. There was all sorts of small little shops with cheap clothing and bartering going on around every corner. The massive amounts of people strolling through the little shops made it quite different to manuever quickly.

After parking Will's huge Landrover, we walked up to a little snack shop. Will was the celebrity of the streets, as we rolled through everyone stopped to speak to him. At the little snack shop, Will knew the owner and his wife. We had a crepe and a drink, and then walked around. The find of the day was without a doubt a Green He-man t-shirt I spotted in the top of a little corner shop hanging in the open air of the streets. I stopped Matt and Will who had walked ahead and we took a look at it. It looked like a cartoonized Matty P and Will had to buy it for him. (Note... French people are generally smaller then Americans....probably due to walking All the time...so the smallest shirts you can find are probably XL which is a tight XL)

We then stopped at a little cafe that had a jazz band playing. The music was just like being in the streets in New Orleans and you start putting together the pieces of French culture in America. It was fun and relaxing. I like good jazz music, made me think of Doc Osborne for some reason. We drank some chaud vin... translation HOT WINE. It was really warming and delicious. They had some fruits at the bottom that you could eat as well. I think it's really a good/ different taste for a cold day. Afterwards we walked back to the cafe with Will's friends and just talked for a bit.

While on the way to the outdoor markets, Caroline invited us over to dinner at her place. We went over after some funny story swaping conversation and some useful metro manuvering advice. We arrived at her apartment and met Hillarey and Jerome, roomates. The apartment was absolutely gorgeous. They really lucked out. It's big for American standards...again things are smaller in France, definitely smaller then TEXAS!!!

It was situated right across from a local church. As we walked up the bells were ringing in an out of tune, out of sequence style...which reminded me of spending Christmas in San Francisco for the bowl game and hearing the bells ringing before having to get ready for practice. They fixed us an American meal, which I have to say is always a delighted change of pace. Cheeseburgers fries and a vegetable casserole. When your in the land of delicious desserts, you might as well stick with that. We had a strawberry tart and there were chocolate almonds. The almonds however looked like blue marble stones, maybe used for decoration. At first instinct I picked one up thinking it was chocolate. After putting it closer to my eyes, I decided against eating it because I thought it was a rock. Then someone told me it was chocolate and ok to eat. I had this really confused look on my face that can only mumble the words "ohhhh...."

Hillarey had lived in Texas and it was good to talk to someone who missed Tex-Mex as much as myself. We talked about tortillas and how they are not the same here....which to me makes no sense because their bread is REALLY freakin' good, so if they made tortillas it would be good too.. c'est la vie. But overall it was really pleasant and I appreciated their hospitality. Afterwards they went to see a movie...Twilight I think.. but we being football players wanted to hurry home to catch the game. It turned in to a pretty fun debate on why we should/should not go. Kind of reminded me of the good old days of arguing with Justin just for fun, or just to be right. Like General Patton would say - You're never beaten until you admit it.

We made it back in time for both games and had an overall great day. Larry Fitzgerald is a beast! So glad we decided to get up and going after the American party!

What to wear to an American theme party?

2009-01-18T15:16:00.000-08:00

If you were an American going to an American themed party what would you wear? I mean it's a tough question. I know what I'd wear to a French themed party, but I've never taken the time to think about what an American themed party would even look like. Or what people's perceptions of America is...Never really needed to. But Saturday, we went to a pretty awesome American themed party and it was a blast.

Well first I should start off by saying we went to the Cergy Jokers hockey match... They basically dominated and won 6-2. This would totally set the mood for a good party, I mean it's always better with athletes after you win. I am enjoying watching the team play, it's a pretty cool local atmosphere and your in the match. Never a real dull spot. Matt P. forgot his jacket and was basically freezing the entire time.

Anyways, there were some cool points in the match. First off I had never seen 3 players in a pentalty box at the same time. This was new to me. But they still played 5 on 3 and after Cergy scored then the next guy started his time. It was pretty ridiculous.

Also, they had a penalty shot. I snagged a video of it. I'm liking the camera, being able to just show you what I actually see. If you have any requests about what you want to see in France, just comment or send me an email/message.

This is the penalty shot.

The American Themed party was being thrown by one of the Jokers and his wife. It was his 27th birthday celebration and an all around good time. A couple of us met up at Roland's place to get ready. The outfit ideas were pretty Awesome. I'll just show you some pics.... We had a bunch of cowboys and indians, the blues brothers, some football players, both the young and old elvis, wonderwoman, homer and marge simpson, laura croft (lifesize and miniture), Lil John, a baseball player, a skater, military madman, and a bunch of gangsters.

The couple had rented out a little club/bar for the night. When you walked in, outside they had this huge ice sculpture of the Statue of Liberty. (which again if you don't know was a gift from France, and is actually modeled after a smaller version in Paris that resides on a bridge over the river.) After you walk in there was a huge table for food and stuff. Some of the family and friends where running the bar. Giving out Budweisers and American hotdogs (French style...basically you take a baggett cut a whole in it and shove the dog through it) and Chicken Nuggets, along with the homeade ice shot glasses and a full service bar. It was American.

It felt like a typical college party...besides the costumes... There were some pretty good songs which of course made everyone get involved. The whole crowd started hopping to "Jump Around" And some other French and Spanish songs. They played some rap songs which got everyone up and going, IAM and NTM? IAM is like the old school rapper whose most famous in France. Kind of like the guy that started it back in the day, think of Dr. Dre or L.L.

I got to talking to one of the hockey players about modern day rap music now. He was pretty much upset that now rappers don't actually talk about anything important. He started talking about Tupac and how he rapped about real life and trying to bring a MESSAGE to the people. One that inspires and brings change. Now he feels like everyone is sell outs just talking about Cars, Money, and Women. I agree, I tried to explain that it's all about a catchy beat that becomes a hit and brings in the most money. Oh how hard it is for a rich man ... I mean they forget who they are, where their from and how they got their.

But isn't this one of our most common faults as humans, we put the value of a dollar above what we stand for... It was pretty surreal for me that something as simple as talking about rap music at a party translated into a pretty insightful conversation about life. (Maybe it's just on my mind being the inaguration and all is coming up, or that campus ministry is eating at my heart.)

So back to the party. There was this little girl probably 6 or 7 dressed as Laura Croft. She was dressed like her big sister, or mother, or idk the relationship, but it was cute. She danced the night away and I thought to myself I don't think I've ever seen a little kid out that late in America, but I'm not in America am I? She crashed at around 2am. Here's a video of her.

Oh and I should also show the video of the Happy Birthday. Everyone gathered around and it was full of energy. The cake they had was like 4 individual cakes that more than live up to the standards of French desert. The top cake was a orange cream style cake, 2nd was a strawberry shortcake like dessert, 3rd was my favorite a rich chocolate pie like cake, and last was almost a tiramusui coffee style cake. It was really good. So overall the party was really a great time. I like the hockey guys, they are down to earth and fun to be around.

Don't worry....be happy

2009-01-15T16:49:00.001-08:00

It was quite a Thursday. After waking up early in the morning to the AirFrance bag man bringing my luggage, I was in a great mood to hit up Paris and show you what goes on in my hood. See I was watching this episode of "cops", Paris style of course, and I decided to check out the local scene. I met up with the teen gang the Kingz, who are famous for writting stuff on walls after they have committed a crime. This was taken after my initiation in the Kingz gang in Paris. Yea I had to tag a wall after my initiation was complete...... (and if you buy that, my friend George has some Ocean Front Property in Arizona for sale, he might even through in the golden gate for free!!!!)

Really I just wanted to get your attention... first impressions have been on my mind this past week or so, and they really can be a doosie. Also, I just thought it was a pretty cool wall to take a picture with. Matt and I went met up with Brandi at the Eiffel Tower. He had to take a picture for his uncles birthday and thought it would be awesome to get the tower in the background. Having my camera now powered up, I decided to use my skills and take some photos as well.

I have eaten so many Milka bars (The French Wonka Bars) that I've grown to be as tall as the Eiffel Tower. I actually tried picking it up, but it's still pretty heavy. We took this shot right across the river from the Eiffel Tower. It was such a beautiful day, for the middle of winter. The sky was so blue, and the sun was out, I really enjoyed just playing in Paris.

Having Brandi as our day tour guide was pretty neat. After the photo shoot, we walked to the train station and jumped over to the "Red Windmill." See I had been hearing a lot about this whole Red Windmill thing and figured we should investigate. Tickets however are like 80 Euro's a show. It's not really my scene that much either. I mean seriously it was a pretty RED district in Paris. Oh btw Red Windmill translates to French as Moulin Rouge...

After walking around and noticing the History of Sex muesum, which had some very liberal articles in the front window, we headed over to Sacre - Coeur. A famous Church on top of the Montmarte hill. Montmarte used to be an old village north of Paris back in the 18th century. A farming village if you will. Now it is a huge tourist trap, but it is easy to see why. It is absolutely an amazing view of the city. I mean breathtaking.

You climb up these stairs and along the way tons of africans try to stop you with 3 strings. Luckily Brandi was there to inform us that they take like 10 mins to tie a little friendship braclet thing on you, all while talking about some African fable....after they are finished, the braclet is to tight for you to take off and you have to pay them or else you are stealing. I mean talk about hustlers, these guys are good.

We went inside the church and it was beautiful. I made it about 10 feet and snaped a picture of the altar when all of a sudden a small indian looking french man rushed me and started barking at me in French. He told me to leave, that photo's weren't allowed and all this stuff. I mean I didn't even get a good picture, as you can see below. But it just sucks that churches seem to be tourist spots/museums instead of Churches... maybe it's just my first impressions, but it still just seems odd. I mean it's beautiful. I stand in the back for a couple of min's and then exit as asked.
The Trouble making Picture.

Afterwards we sat on the steps with a pretty decent size crowd and just listend to a local musician singing typically English songs. It was awesome. I tried to catch a video for you. You can see Paris in the background and hear the man singing. It was perfect for the day. I mean I could totally come and just sit on the steps, have a picnic and waste a day during the spring. Matter of fact I think I will. Here's the video.

DON'T WORRY.....BE HAPPY!!!

Afterwards we walked through the streets to the little Painters market. There are some very talented artists. It kind of reminded my of New Orleans, where the painters have their own little block. Of course the hustlers walk around trying to sketch your picture in Charcoals and charge you for it. We stop in at a little cafe and have a late lunch. Sitting and talking is always so good. The food was decent, I had a fish pate' and a steak with potatoes. The mustard however was....how can should I say..... nostril opening! It was very awakening. Of course I had some dessert, just a little glasse (ice cream) which was amazing.

We then head to the Chatlet les Halles area to walk around. As we hop down on the train, my nose starts to bleed. I'm a little embarrassed and thankful Matt has a tissue. I am trying to stop it all while a small French boy sits next to me and his mother beside him. He was adorable. I felt bad because I almost bled on him, thankfully I dropped it on my sweetshirt instead. It was precious though when Matt started asking him names for body parts. He'd point to his nose and ask, Qu'est-ce que c'est? And the little boy would answer. *SIDENOTE.... we totally need to get a tutor, or even a babysitting job to learn from the little kids vocabulary words....*

I wish I could have spoke to him but it was awesome. The kid was very young and didn't know them all, so sometimes he'd ask his mom. While others he'd quitely answer. Matt said yes when the boy was correct or just nodded his head when he had no clue what the real answer was.

At Chatlet les Halles there was a protest by the Palestinians about Gaza. That lasted a good 2-3 hours. We walked around, grabbed some cafe/ hot chocolate and sat. Brandi left to met a friend for dinner, while Matt and I went to see Slumdog Millionaire. Matt had said it was a great movie, I was skeptical thinking it would be in French and we'd be lost.

While in line a Canadian couple in front of us were going to see it. It was so comforting to be able to understand what others are saying and have conversation with them. (I don't know if you realize it or not, but my one hang up is not knowing French!) We made a joke though about how movies weren't big here, and how there was a whole 86 seats left in our theater. I laugh thinking it was like the other one which probably only holds 100 max. Nope this theater was HUGE, like a giant IMAX. Seriously it was hard to find 2 seats together for Matt and I. It was packed. We watch the movie, which I highly recommend, and then head back after one amazing day.

On the train there is a massive attack dog muzzled. This really freaks me out. I mean not as much as the armed military guards who patrol the subway systems and the Eiffel Tower and such, but seriously pretty crazy. Heres a pic of the sucker.

FINALLY

2009-01-15T02:29:00.000-08:00

After 12 days Air France had finally found my luggage!

At 6:45am this morning, someone rang our door phone to bring me my luggage. I mean don't get me wrong I'm thrilled to actually have it now, but seriously it took you 12 days... I mean what was it doing. It could have travelled to a different country, got left out in the snow, been stuck in a closet just sitting because someone was to lazy to just look, got stuck under a german sheppards cage, the possibilities are endless and having worked on the ramp in Atlanta, I really don't want to know. What if this had been my first flight over to France? I would have had nothing and my whole experience of France could have been different. Thankfully I had already been here and didn't mind to much that it was missing.

What I can't understand though is that Air France refuses to reimburse someone until 21 days. THREE WEEKS. That doesn't make sense. What if it was a matter of importance for someone else, like someones wedding or a child's graduation, or even a job interview. They just have to buy another suit and other random items out of pocket. Thankfully though it's not a big deal to me. But I will have to say 6:45 am is pretty early to be delivering anything...so I'm glad that once they did find it, they didn't hesitate and brought it immediately.

Now I have my camera battery charger and can take some sweet pics/videos. I think I'm going to Paris today so we'll see how those turn out!

Try the Football Quiz

2009-01-14T05:54:00.000-08:00

I made a copy of the quiz we had to take. The first question is in French, but after that I tried to translate it into english. Don't cheat and see how many questions you can answer. There's 41 questions, I got 36 right... CLICK HERE FOR THE QUIZ

Bonne Chance!!!

Locker Zoo

2009-01-13T04:44:00.000-08:00

I totally forgot to mention one of the most random things about camp. So apparently our O Line part of the locker room has become somewhat of a zoo. So at first there was a stench coming from the room and I just thought someone had a serious case of not being able to put on deodorant. I was mistaken, after some research we found the culprit.... a small mouse trying to get away from the cold. No biggie.

Will scoops it up in a dustpan and decides to mess with some of the defensive guys. He takes it into there room and starts messing with the guys. One by one he puts it in there face and says all kinds of stuff messing with them. Then Alyou starts freaking out. It is hilarious, Will's telling him he's a killer and Alyou has to eat the mouse or something stupid like that. Alyou was a little taken aback by it. Really crazy.

The next day after the morning practice we come back into the oline room and again there is a visitor. This one has wings and crows. I guess while at practice a bird managed to fly in and nestle up in our room. He is trying to get out and can't seem to get down to the door to fly out. The top of the ceiling being around 20 feet. Somehow the guys coax him down and Djilali catches the bird out of the sky with his hands... I had never seen this before, I guess crow goes well with cous-cous...(*Sidenote Djilali is sometimes called cous-cous)

Cougar Camp...Temperatures a brisk -12 degrees

2009-01-12T06:07:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Cougar Camp 2009. Happy New Years!

ok ok so it's not a full 2 weeks long Camp experience like college was, but it was still intense. We stayed in this huge sports complex which housed a full indoor track and field facility, basketball courts, it had outdoor soccer fields, tennis, a weightroom, rooms to have meetings, it was pretty intense... Reminded me of an FCA thing we did at the University of Houston's indoor facility when it was new. Of course Matt and I share a room, it's a pretty sweet little loft, with 2 desks a bed, salle de bain downstairs and then 2 more beds upstairs. Pretty solid.

On the 2 a days on Samedi we just focused on Offense. This was great because we got to use a whole defense just to work on run and pass. It was good to be able to give the Lineman a look of an entire defense. See at Tech we had like 16 or 17 O Lineman, so you would always have a 7 man defense to see, when working with only 7 Lineman you can only give them half line looks. So we got a lot accomplished. However it was freezing! Remember the ice on the field... Yea that just didn't go away. So after the first practice, we come back. They have a full cafeteria like the athletic dining hall at GT, same quality, just less variety.

We run through meetings and get a test which asks like 40 random questions about NFL football. Like....

Whose the most prolific WR-QB combonation?
Who had 7 sacks in one game?
How many teams have never played in the super bowl?
... and of course some french questions like,
When was football first started in France?
How many French football players are there?

Then we had the second practice and worked on more Offense. For warmups I had the great idea to plow the field so we werent running on ice anymore. Becaue it was seriously like a dump truck of Ice spun out on top of an ice skating rink and spread ice all over it. So I get the Lineman and we each take a bag, like the ones you do footwork drills with, probably 2 yards wide. I make them push the ice off the field the entire width of the field. I did this 6 times and then got pretty tired. But we had some space to work with after this.

Now this is the part were American camp and French camp differ! We had what was called the Rookie show. In America you do not have much hazing because of NCAA regulations.... No NCAA in France.

We gather up and all the rookies are lead outside to a snow covered soccer field. They tell us to line up and say are name, where were from, what we do...'etc. I'm last. For Matt and myself we have to parlez in francias. Fun stuff. I managae a my names matt. I live in the US from Texas. I play American Football. We then are paired up with are arms taped together. OK ... if your like me I bet your thinking, What's going on? What's about to happen?

Not speaking French sucks when your trying to understand directions (Matt and I are putting up flyers for a tutor at the University today....or if your interested and in France, lemme know) They set up a square with cones about 15-20 yards apart. First you have to spin around the first cone 10 times taped to your partner. Then disoriented, you sprint to the next cone.

Hafid and myself after spinning circles. It was so good being teamed up with him after he rilled up the team acting like they weren't going to get him!

At the second cone, you and your partner hop to the ground and army crawl to the 3rd cone..... little to your knowledge, the entire team has made a gauntlet. So while you are army crawling they kick snow in your face and on your entire body. I actually had someone shove snow down my pants. (I'd like to take this time to say thank you whoever you are, I really appreciated that one.)

Some of the rookies crawling through the gauntlet.

Once at the cone you do 10 pushups still arms tied together. You hop up and then one partner carries you to the next cone. This is more difficult then it seems because using your arm while attached to another persons is pretty awkard. Many teams bite it and tumble to the snow....my team being one of them. Then you switch partners and finish. This is all "timed.

Yea if you think that's it. Ha. The teams are then ranked based on how fast they finished. Now the teams have to compete against each other. We have a bunch of competitions ranging from easy to difficult.

Notre Maman jokes... who can say the best Yo Mamma joke.
Impersonation... the last impersionation was who could do Coach Mas
Don't forget the Lyrics.... the guys have to finish singing a song
Water chugging competition...2 litres of froid water, then a small one of chaud water
Dance in the lobby.... Tom cruise in Risky Business minus the shirt style
Throwing competition....outside in the snow, strip poker style

It was hilarious! The Yo Mamma joke that made the team laugh was basically some version of your momma's already been with the entire team. The Impersonation's where good, but I could have done a better Coach Mas! (Let's just say if you've ever seen coach dance, you'd get it...it's very unique) Don't forget the Lyrics was hilarious. Jesse has to sing R-E-S-P-E-C-T, being a non english speaker it is funny. Click for the Video. Water chugging was good, it was hard for them going from Cold to Hot. (last year they had salt water afterwards and all the guys puked) Dancing in the Lobby was just ridiculous. The throwing competition had both Matty P and Hafid down to their boxers in the cold. The QB didn't win..

All in all it was a fun experience and we had a fun time!

Getting back in the groove

2009-01-08T09:39:00.000-08:00

It's been a few days now and I am getting back into the routine of Parisen living. We had practice last night on the snow covered field. It was pretty intense. The closest thing I had ever seen like that was when we went up to Boise for both of the Humanitarian bowls. (...well one was the Roady's Truck Stop bowl) Anyways, the field had about a good 2 inches of snow still on it from the previous monday. However, the cadets and juniors practiced on it Tuesday so there was a nice packed ice field.

Have you ever tried holding someone back on slippery ground? Not to fun. I could have been better if I played in skates instead. I mean it was a bit different. Hopefully we won't get snow during the season. That's all I can say. But it did have it's bright spots. At the end of the practice we huddled up into offense and defense as usual and after we finished and broke down, we started packing snow balls.

Being from the coastal plains in Texas, there is not too many snow falls growing up, precisely one that I remember. So it was a pretty neat, kid-like experience to have a snowball fight. It was awesome! At one point the defense just ran over and jumped me and I got to eat a face full of snow. After wrestling them off, they then jumped on Matt P. Being that I just got to feel what it was like when a ton of guys are stuffing snow into any crevise they can find, I decided to start pulling people off. I threw someone off and the next thing I know I'm at it again wrestling with 2 defenders. Someone runs up again and stuffs snow in my eyes. (Luckily I'm not wearing my contacts thanks to AIRFRANCE losing my bag and still not being able to find it... I mean really how do you lose a bag? Will you replace it? GRRRRRR....oh and no pics/videos yet until they give me the bag that has my charger's in them....Again I appreciate it)

So I'm beat, I get up and slowly rise to my feet then WHAM! I'm pelted in the neck with a snowball from 7 yards away. It stung for a while, but it was a great experience and I'm glad we had it. It seems to me the only snowball fights I've ever had are with football teams... I had fun. Matty P got kicked in the shin, but other then that no serious injuries sustained. It was also Nida's birthday so he got it from the entire team as we sang happy birthday. I went back to the locker room with my fingers frozen because Matt and I are the only one's playing without gloves.

GOOD TIMES!

A little video experiment

2009-01-07T15:34:00.000-08:00

Geronimo the Dog.

Yea so he is a huge boxer and pretty much can reach my chest while on two feet.

Last Play for GT 2008. Here's to my boys.

A white Paris

2009-01-06T08:03:00.000-08:00

Back in Pontoise

I arrived yesterday in Paris to a cold winter snow. Apparently however this is unusual for Paris to have so much snow. It hasn't been for 17 years since there was snow this early in the season. (Dont quote me on that, but that's what I was told) Anyways all is well in France, except for my baggage being lost and left in Dublin I do believe.

You see my flight from Atlanta got delayed over an hour thanks to a bunch of firery Irish people. We were loaded up and ready to go, but a flight hadn't arrived yet, so 60 seats were unoccupied. We waited til they showed up and let me tell you it was chaos. I mean I felt like there was no control. This one group of 10 or so was not going to sit down until one of their friends got on the flight. Well that's just great. I tell you what though, if there was a flight terrorists wouldn't be able to control it would be a flight filled with the Irish. (That or if they used thekidfrombrooklyn.com's idea for airline bat day....Youtube video here *vulgar language...if your on the OLine at GT you probably know where this comes from)

I'm back though and life is good. We have camp this weekend for football, so that should be good. Friday practice, Sat practice, Sun practice, Mon practice...hopefully it will pay off and we will get better as a team. I have a ton of pictures I am fixing to put up from Christmas Break and such. Oh but I wanted to post the newspaper article from France... for anyone who speaks french.

Crayon Physics Deluxe - someone check this out for the IPhone and tell me if it's good....

Im back!!

2008-12-23T06:07:00.000-08:00

Ladies and gentlemen it is good to be back on United States soil. I figure maybe I'll write a little bit about the trip, being that flights always seem to involve some of the best characters and anecdotes you could imagine (I mean really you can't make this stuff up.) This one definetly does not lack characters, but don't worry you'll meet them shortly. I just wanted to say that I still have a bunch of unfinished blogs, so keep checkin back about my adventures in France and I'll keep you updated. Oh and if there's anything you want to know about specifically in France, or from my perspective, just make a comment, send me a message or shoot me an email and I'll post an answer.

Ok now back to the wonderful 13 hour or so flight day. Let's see.... how should we do this? I have an idea....

Let's meet the characters first.

Phillip Anyou - nice security guard who really got to know me

a REAL wanker - just some guy in the London airport

The "GREEN" family -the family that adopted the air out your laundry policy from France.

the 'happy' flight attendant - do a synonym search for happy

Passepartout - around the world in 23 hours... i think he's got time to spare

Mr. Pierre Walker - 2 good legs and 1 mission

and as a bonus the entire cast from what international sport do you play

Ok so we start in Paris at around 10am. I arrive and coach drops me off. Knowing I don't have a boarding pass, I go through the line to the border patrol thinking that maybe it's on the other side. Oh no. I get directed back to the desk at the far right were a little French woman is sitting. Not speaking english she points to a machine when I ask if I can check in. Great! Who needs real service when you've got a computer to do your job! Let's just get rid of all the jobs and make it "EASIER" by using computers.... hahahaha.... (but I'm not bitter)

Well it says all you need to do is scan your passport and your good to go... enter computer failure. I scan my passport and the next thing I see is an insufficient data screen. Awesome! I try to do it again, no luck. Ok side option, check for the electronic ticket number or something else I dont have. Great. Didn't print out the paper, so I make the decision to use the phone...

eventhough I'm probably over my data plan because AT&T says when you
take pictures with the Iphone and download to your computer using a cord.
It's IDK an extra dollar a pic. and you've seen how many pics I've
taken...sorry mom.

After making that gut call, it's good to know that reliable service is at your finger tips.... or not. I see the little clock spin countless times and just wait... good thing every 3 mins the computer I'm trying to board at wants to know if I've walked away or am still waiting. I have to press a button like 15 times while looking for service. I'm getting a little nervous thinking what will I do if I get stuck. I don't have a phone or coach's number... crap. "Lord help me" (good idea)... Of course afterwards I get service, thankfully have saved it under starred emails. And get the eticket number. Walk through the line again and thankfully I get the same lady who smiles and lets me pass.

I get to my gate and wait in the baggage check line, check my baggage and proceed to the gate number. The lady tells me it's gate 29. vingt-neuf. I try to find it, but it's rather difficult to find. I walk back and forth and then notice that each sign doesn't include the 29 gate... you've got 12-28 on one side and 30-4o something on the other... SWEET. Finally I find it and wait with the other people to go through security check.

People are so fun to watch. It's one of my favorite things to do. I really love people and seeing how different we all are. In the line there's a young Irish guitar player, a Japanesse man in a rush and a bit confused, an English girl who keeps looking at me like she know's something I don't, an Arabic family, an old man in a kilt who becomes a little upset when security wants to check under his kilt ( I dont know why he'd be upset though?!?.... thankfully he's yelling at them in english and I can understand his enormous sense of frustration), I mean really the bases are pretty much covered here.

Then introducing Phillip Anyou. This is the guy who basically molests me. I totally relate to the old man now. I mean I'm wearing just a T-shirt and jeans, that's it.... there is nothing in my pockets, no hat, no shoes.... ok I do have socks on.... no belt, nothing. (I learned this lesson working with Delta, if you throw all your stuff in a bag before you walk through there's no way this type of "Philling up An-you" ever happens) I understand the normal pat down, or wave the wand over you, but this guy was one more grab away from me being locked up in a French prison. He seriously had a problem.

So after I get through a nice lady asks me if I'm sure I want to wait because there is nothing in the terminal except the seats right next to her.... You think I'm going back there with the French fondler... I dont think so.

As I'm waiting for the plane to arrive, I listen to my Ipod and try relax before the flight. Finally hearing a couple of English voices around is a good change of pace from the everyday French. I then see the main guy from British Airways coming through and asking people where there going. So... next thing you know I have to go to gate 28, totally different from gate 29. Instead of making a big security line and letting people walk to the right gates, the terminal I was in decides to have individual security for every 2-3 gates. You know what this means- say hello to Phillip again. After being molested we hop on the quick flight to London.

London's airport is intense. I mean after you go through the maze to get to where you are going, its really nice. There's all kinds of nice duty free shops and restaurants to really keep you entertained. I decide to grab a bite to eat, in case I don't get feed for a while on the plane. Not a huge story here, but I got a mexican sandwhich in London. I thought that was ironic, until I tasted it and realized it was crap. It was on some super fiber, whole grain, whole wheat, make a whole foods super shopper throw-up, kind of bread. And I have no clue how much I paid for it because the Euro isn't accepted in the UK.

I eat the sandwhich and head to the gate. They haven't started boarding so I go to the restroom. Introduce the REAL wanker. I can understand now why they call men from the UK wankers. As I go to the urinal to relieve myself, I naturally take the stall away from as most people as possible. Unfortunately it's the holidays so I have one free spot on my left, myself, and then said wanker to my right. Minding my own business I was rudely interrupted by the wanker wanking... too much information I know... I move to the left, finish and get out of there as fast as a Jamacian running the 100yard dash.

London's airport is a little bit different then most I've seen. After you check through the gates you then walk down the escalators and rows of stairs to ground floor, then hop on a bus that drives you out to the airplane, manuevering all over the ramp (ramp is the word for the floor that the planes drive/ park on, etc.) So being that we have the holidays, every one is trying to get back to the US for a Merry Christmas. The Green family was one such group.

As we load onto the bus I am followed by the Green's. You see I made a V-line to the back of the bus in a place I could stand. They followed and sat in the 3 seats that I had left. Basically this is how this ancedote goes. The man starts histarically gripping at his wife, whose daughter around 14 is sitting next to her. Being a woman she says I don't want to talk about this here and I've had enough. Logically thought process I think, but papa's pissed. I mean let's describe this guy. He looks like late 40's early 50's, you can tell he's a business man who values his time and makes a lot of money. By the way his dressed I'm drawing conclusions of snobishness. He's already pretty much grey, but it's the kind of grey on a guy's head when it shouldn't be grey; making me think he's up tight.

So Mr. "Green" decides to really show off the environmental side and air out that dirty laundry. Apparently he asked his wife to get the tickets, and she had an 8 hour lay over in London. We are getting on the plane to Houston now so why is it a big deal. I guess the past 8 hours really wound him up. He's "like dynamite. Where gonna explode, then were gonna get higher. Then we'll catch on fire." (a replaying series on NASN about the worst coaches...this was a pregame speech to one of the NFL teams)

So the daughter is totally respectable in this situation. She plays peacekeeper and tries to calm the situation out. I think it's crazy. At one point the man grabs his passport and slings it at the wife. You can tell she's sorry, but Mr. Green doesn't much stand for sorrys, atleast from what I gather. I feel sorry for the wife, proud for the daughter, sad for what matters most to the man, and thankful that I can use this story to guide me in my own family one day...

I start thinking about people. I just start thinking how different we all are and yet how much God loves us all. It opened my eyes, as if I was the one looking from above. I could see how this would effect the little girl down the road. How strong she'll be because of it.

Ok back to the ancedote's.... I'll try and wrap it up bc I know I'm taking a while....

So I hop onto the plane, with the help of my new favorite "happy" flight attendant. I mean this guy is just a bundle of joy (insert wrist flick) All in all though the guy did a pretty dam good job serving all of us on the plane, but I still can't get over looking back for a whinning girls voice and hearing him. His name was Nicolas, and there is nothing funnier then when we started going through a little turbulence hearing him scream at some little kid for getting up into the aisle. I about died laughing.

On the flight I had the privelage to sit in the middle seat next to 2 guys around the same age as myself. One was Passeport, he had one of the longest days I had ever heard. He had woken up in New Delhi at 2am and flew to London, had a 4 hour layover, and was on this flight.... Basically the guy was in a plane for 18 hours, overall 23 in an airport, and still had 5 hours once we landed to finish out Dec. 22nd. It played out great bc the guy slept like a rock the whole ride to Houston, except for the first 20 mins were he told me he was from the woodlands, studying, and going home to see the fam. He was definitely a talker so my right ear was pretty glad he fell asleep. To the right was a non talker who listened to music the whole ride there. It only sucked bc he was just as broad shouldered as myself...so when we sat it was normally a pushing match on whose shoulders would be sucked in like a man frozen in the antarctic. I gave in for a while streeching my arms to the sky.

It seems like it would be the worst, scrunched next to 2 guys on a plane with my knees being crammed from 1/2 the part of the love fest going on in 2 of the seats in front of me, and not to mention the old man playing patty cake with the touch screen tv on the seat behind me. But all in all it was a pretty good trip. I mean seeing Greenland is pretty surreal. It's like look through the white clouds to see the white ice capped land. It was beautiful.

Also on the flight was this random creepo named Pierre walker. Pierre went to the bathroom every 28 minutes. I say 28 bc it was pretty spot on. I had no clue what he was doing, but it was a little freaky. I wrote him off with a bad case of bowel movement problems and left it at that. But after he was finished he strolled through the aisles for a good 15 mins before starting the cycle over again. Quite odd, which made it humorous to me.

Oh and finally let's not forget the endless streams of international athletes returning home for Christmas. On our plane we had 2 guys from a basketball team. A girl who looked like a basketball player, and a legit volleyball player. Also in London there was the Italian handball team, and various random basketball players flying to Miami. It's comforting being able to relate to them with just a look.

I finally arrived and made it through the line at customs, waited on my bag, and all in all only took from leaving my apartment in Pontoise at 9:45am to arriving in Houston at 7:30pm... add the 7 hour time difference and you've got a long day. But I'm thrilled to be home. Hope you all have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and I'll write in after the holidays about some other things that have happened in France that I've yet to talk about.

2008-12-22T00:36:00.000-08:00

Off to the US.... I'll update you with more from France while in the continental US!!

Au REVIOR

Finally the lil monster returns to the football field...

2008-12-20T19:38:00.003-08:00

"Far Droite 357 fullback flat on 1. Ready, Break." We run to the line of scrimmage and I call out the Middle Linebackers number. It's second and goal from about the 8. "Down... Red 19, Red 19...." Then the strangest thing in my entire football career happened. A definsive lineman, nose tackle to be exact, walks across the line with his finger up speaking in French. Uh..... What? Should I snap the ball take the half the distance to the goal penalty? He taps my left guard on the shoulder. Djilali a first year rookie at the young age of 30 something rocks out of his stance a little bit. What the crap great now we've got a false start.... (no whistle) HUH?

The defensive lineman then proceeds to fix Djilali's jersey. Apparently a shoulder pad was not fully under the Cougar jersey and the defensive lineman found it imparative to fix the jersey before he tried to pound Djil into the dirt and kill our quarterback. I say try because there's no way I'd allow that. I guess it's just a different mentality. I mean really....

"Concentration is the ability to think about absolutely nothing when it is
absolutely necessary." - Ray Knight

Football is different. I mean it takes a different mentality to play this game. You have to be a tough SOB with a high pain tolerance and be a little bit on the sadistic side I take a totally different mentality when I step onto the field. Coach D at GT called it the Lil Monster. You have to transform into a barbaric being who get's the job done. So after the guy fixes Djil's jersey he lines back up. I'm just talking to Matt in the middle of the cadence completly confused. "Did that just happen? what was that? am I playing football?" I almost couldn't compose myself enough to block. My mind was literally doing backflips.

Needless to say the day would be a bit of a different experince. When we arrived at the stadium at 4:15, it was the first time I had seen the field in the sunlight. Normally we practice at 8:30pm, so it was a little different feel. It was tough to get into the mental zone as well. At GT, the locker room is silent. Even the pipes know not to squeak on gameday. The normal custom in France is to say hi to everyone as you arrive or they arrive and shake hands. It was a little different saying hi to everyone and trying to not be a jerk, while at the same time getting myself into game mode. Thankfully the earphones kinda helped some of that. The Meteorites are not quite the same talent level as the Hurricanes or Hokies, but you never take anyone lightly...I'm mean ANY GIVEN SUNDAY. (thanks jamie fox) Plus being a scrimmage it's not a real game, so your not as amped generally. I looked back and I think the last scrimmage I had was against Texas City... well atleast the last scrimmage I can remember.

Ok. The scrimmage was designed to be 3 quarters long 12 minutes a piece, no field goals/ kickoffs, the rest is full go. They win the toss and get the ball first, we stop them defensively. Here we go... football in France. We run the ball. Knock the cobwebs loose and get the bodies used to contact early. Sebastien Torel runs hard and we gain 8, until Will get's busted with a holding penalty. They only move the ball back 5 yards. Confusion? Whatever I'll take it. We call the next play and hurry to the line. As we get set, the refs realize the mistake and move the ball back. Good because I almost thought I could double my holding penalties a game if the foul was only 5 yards! Guess not. The drive ends up stalling, I make a bad snap at center on a zone run right with a middle linebacker blitzing over me. The snap was too low and went to Matt's knees. I'm a little upset with myself and make sure it doens't happen again. Now we have to punt.

Whose the punter... Mickael.... Where's Mickael? Working as a firefighter, he'll show up later. Who gets to punt then. Matt Polhemus. Matt's had one kick at yale for like 17 yards or something of that nature. It's funny. He makes a nice kick to the 10 yard line, but forgets he then has to be the saftey valve in case something happens. They break the return and Matt has to make the tackle. He pushes him out around the 45. That a boy QB.

Someone scratches my arm on a pass play and now i'm gushin blood. It's not hurt, but it wont stop. I send someone into the locker room to grab some tape that Arnaud has in his bag and try to wrap it up before we have to go back on.

The defense get's an interception or a punt not sure which and we start driving. Thankfully the guy arrives as we take the field. I have just enough time to wrap the wound while walking to the huddle. The tapes a little different because it has a protective layer before the sticky part which makes it kind of difficult to apply in a hurry. I manage to do a make shift job and get the gash bandaged up.

We are looking alright and do a good enough job to get Seb into the endzone. On one block, Loic Le Glas wheels back and makes a monster block on an unsuspecting DL chasing the ball. I'm pumped! That was nice. I check my chinstrap since it's unbuckled and notice that I'm now missing a snap. We go for 2 since there's no FG's and honestly I don't remember the play but seb punches it in on a tough run. I think he's even a little shaken up, but fights through it. I'm impressed. As I run to the sideline I have to send the guys back into the locker room to get a new snap. Desolee

Start of the 2nd quarter, Loic, the one who made the big block, get's rocked and becomes concussed. He doesn't remember his name, where we are, or how old he is. Not a good sign. We only find out because during the punt return he's not out there. As I'm working on my chinstrap snap...(that's a mini tongue twister, say "chinstrap snap" 5 times fast) ... I barely get the snap screwed in and run onto the field with the ear pad in hand trying to get it hooked on correctly. You forget how nice it is to actually have guys like Tom and Punt at GT doing that stuff for you. I'm in the huddle and getting the play with my helment still off. As we walk to the line I get in on in time, put on the helment and get set... barely made it.

So I don't remember this part perfectly because it was really freaking akward. Play was all of a sudden completely stopped. The officials huddled up for about 5 mins and then the next thing I know I hear someone shouting something about a medecin (thanks Rosetta Stone for teaching me that's a doctor.) Apparently there is no doctor on hand...being a scrimmage coach mas just thought it was like a glorified practice. Since Loic's concussion and another player on the other team got hurt the ref's are tenative. We all sit and wait in confusion, wondering if we'd get the chance to continue playing or not. I take a seat against the retaining wall around the fence.

I kind wonder, who cares, let's just play. It's football, people get hurt. It's a tough game for tough people. Later I am informed that the ref's are appointed or something by the federal govenment or what not, basically meaning it's on their heads if someone is seriously injured without the doctor there to help. (ok ok I get it, I mean I want to play football, but I understand you do what you gotta do.)

We wait a 15 mins and let the refs leave. Then we continue to scrimmage with some of the refs staying and ref-ing. You see some of the refs were old cougars players and volunteered to ref, one is actually on the team, but didn't have his papers to play. Who needs to pay refs when they play for your team right?!?!? haha.

We begin playing and Mickael arrives from his fire fighting job. He is one of our top recievers and really helps freeing up the passing game. He catches a bomb and breaks a takle on his way to a 60 yard TD. We line up for the 2 point play and a player comes into our huddle trying to speak broken english. He says when we touch you stop you. Our OL pushes him away and we have a little scuffle of words. Matt was wearing a red jersey, which of corse means don't hit me. On the pass play the defensive player from the Meteorites felt Matt should've been sacked, but as Matt kept running and threw the pass, we scored. Blah Blah... we line up and this is when Djil get's his jersey fixed.... Seb runs untouched into the endzone for 2 on an inside run that bounces out. Will and Loic Soutenare make a monster combo block allowing this to happen. I feel a little more confident about our running game.

Oh I forgot. I got to play on defense!!! I LOVE PLAYING DEFENSE. It was awesome. I mean I had no clue what I was doing but I went in and we stopped them from there parade down the field. The D was missing a few tackle and they started driving, so I got to go in to give some of the DL a break to catch their breath. We stop them. I got cut blocked by two DL. But seriously it's not that bad, just annoying. I don't know why everyone hates it when I cut block! Just kiddin, it sucks I understand now, but it's not as horrible as most guys think, but then again I didn't get cut by a replica of me.

That was supposed to be the last offensive possesion but the Defense on their last possesion grab another turnover. We march out and run a couple plays, then "IT" hits the fan. We run a pass and the same guy get's to Matt. And by gets I mean what happen was a defensive lineman spun off of will on a one on one pass pro. I happened to see it and got there in time to knock the DL out to the right. (Will plays right guard.) Well he get's close enough to Matt that he rolls out to the right even further and the dude who was talkin says he touched him.

Ok time out. Just because you touch someone, or are close enough to touch someone does not, I REPEAT DOES NOT, imply that you will tackle him. We're not playing freeze tag on some elementary school yard playground. It's football. So he starts jawing and Matt jaws back a little bit. Nothing serious. Your normal talking for football, but some of the Cougars take offense to this and run up and get a little more physical then an altercation of this magnitude needs.

Next thing you know the teams are pushing in shoving. I'm standing were the huddle should be thinking, come on. The Meteorites are getting a little antzy or whatever, coach mas decides to call it. We have a lot of yelling and griping from the players. Coach set's us down. From what I gather he's trying to tell us to just play during the whistle and not give a crap about that. Which is what any coach in football would do. Another first happens. In front of the team a couple of our players talk back to the coach, or speak their mind. I was a little in shock because this never happens in America. If there's a problem or something you speak to coach after the team breaks up, but not in front of the team, and never challenging the coach in front of his team.

What I learn is some of the players feel we need to be respected. Couldn't agree more with you. But respect is earned, never given. You also don't get respect on a football field by starting fights or crap like that. You earn it by driving a guy into the ground every play and doing you job well enough to have more points on the score board at the end of the game then the other team. Anyways, I hope the guys get this. But it's hard to tell in a different language. Overall it's an enlightening experience and we need to travailler dur and get ready for the Flash. Because there a dam good team and I'm a little worried.

French Interview

2008-12-20T19:38:00.001-08:00

HAHA... first words I can think of to describe it. Matt and I went over to the Parisian newspaper for an interview and it was a pretty interesting experience. First we rolled in and said hi to everyone, thankfully coach was there to help translate because if not then I think we'd just be lost. We went outside to pose for a photo for the article. The photographer set it up perfectly. He shot from the ground and with me closest to the camera, basically resulting in what appears to be me an 8 foot tall tackle, coach a small child in the middle, and Matt looks like a normal QB. (For the record though, Matt's a pretty big guy for a QB... he could play LB and it'll be good to see a QB that can hit)

So then we sit down and try and talk to the reporter and answer all his questions. What would normally be a 3o min interview lasts around a couple of hours. We talk about our experiences here and back in the states. What it's like going from football being the top sport, to one at the bottom. About France, our opinions. Pretty much just about anything. I think the reporter started just chatting after a while and got intrigued with College football. But I couldn't really tell you because everything I said then Coach translated and vice versa. So I have no clue what exactly the guy heard, but we'll see when the paper comes out. Sometime while I'm back in the states.

Just thought I'd enlighten you on another eye opening experience. Oh and he asked if we found any French girls yet. We said no and it sounded like he's going to write a personal ad with in the article. That could be weird. Anyways I'll post the article for you when it comes out.

From Paris with Love

2008-12-19T09:51:00.000-08:00

It was the best day of my life. Top 3 memories of all time. Matt and I had took off to another excursion through Paris just to check out the city and become more familarized with Paris. We left early to make sure we had enough time to get back for practice, maybe even a pre practice nap. The sun had just decided to show itself through the cloud of grey that had been surronding Paris for the past week or so, Pretty much setting up the greatest day of all time.

Matt and I arrived in Paris and started walking down a side street close to Champs de Elysses. Just stimulating the local economy by purchasing enough pastries to make any man gain 3lbs. (serious addiction is starting to kick in and I'm about to have to purge myself by entering pastry rehab.... they call it America.... oh wait I forgot about donuts....dang...what will i do?) Anyways were marching along and then we see a big commotion in the crowd. Like seriously what's going on here?

We check it out and they are literally shooting the new John Travolta film, FROM PARIS WITH LOVE. Ok and apparently the guy kissing guy thing as a greeting does happen. Just in the form of real creative types/ actors/ etc. You know the people who think there totally B.A. Just a sidenote. So were walking by and apparently there is this scene that there trying to do where they need some American tourists for the background shot. Thankfully I'm American. We walk up to the gate after the guy with the mic points us out and asks us to come up. This is gonna be SWEET! I tell matt.

On the set of From Paris with Love

They take us back to the make up closet or whatever it is. Think about a 18 wheeler's trailer converted into a costume/ makeup thingy... I'm not to up to date with my fashion, so I have no clue. So we get all ready and stuff. All were supposed to do is walk by the big shopping store, look at a map, and then scratch our heads as the screen strolls past to Amber Rose Revah strolling past on the cell phone.

I can't tell you how pumped I was, I mean really amazing opportunity. I'm gonna make it, say hello to stardom. Here comes the red carpets, and after partys with the big timers. I'm a little nervous... as we hit our part, I actually stumble and fall into Amber on the first take. "WHAT THE CRAP MATT GET IT TOGETHER" I tell myself. She's ok. The director's pissed, but who cares. We get it on the next take fine. He wants to do one more another way, just to make sure I guess.

Afterwards Amber comes up to me and laughs about me falling. I stumble over myself just a little bit, then try to put the old Matt Rhodes charm one. I tell her she's a little bit too beautiful and I didn't know how to control myself... NICE recovery. Ha, so it's awesome. She ask me and Matt to hang out with her friends after the shoot. I'm like YES!!!!!!!!!!! Does this actually happen????

Then all of a sudden I hear a loud roar.... people are protesting. Yelling and screaming and throwing stuff and setting cars on fire with alcohol soaked rags rapped around bricks. It's utter chaos. I don't know if I should run or watch or rent a video camera and become a youtube star....

Another loud BANG.....

.... I roll over. What the crap? I'm still in bed, but the noise it's not going away. What time is it? 9am. What? Did Will go to work? Is Matt up this early? Did someone leave the TV on? It must be the hooligans movie. Lemme go check. I'd hate to waste energy.

As I roll out, my head still trying to hold on to the dream, I think...."why did John Travolta actually work out in my gym in Cergy 2 weeks ago? Why is that stupid story from the gym owner infesting my dreams? Maybe it's the urban cowboy/ pulp fiction fest that's being played non stop on the movie channels that's helping?"

I check the TV. Nothing...

What. The sounds coming from outside. What could it be? I walk to the window, crack open the door. As the cold air says hello to me standing in my boxers and t-shirt, I peer through sleet filled eyes to a full flegged student protest.

Kid's are going crazy, marching in the streets. Chanting non stop. I notice as one group of boy's comes parading down the road leading to the already massive crowd amassed at the gates to the school. The leader is a boy probably 17 carrying a cone chanting French obsenities... (I KNOW THIS FOR A FACT) And yelling out. The others behind him, totalling close to 100 follow in order. I can't tell what's happening.

Is this about to be a fight like I saw in that Hooligans movie? This is gonna be good. I feel a bit of pity for the few cars that are parked along the road. Boy are they gonna get it. As the group approaches the crowd. I start getting intense. Here they go. Welcome to the war on Rue de Matisse. An actual part of History. This isn't a dream, atleast I got woke up for this. A good enough reason in my book.

The students however don't fight, unless by fighting you mean yelling loud and shaking the fence to the school. Still wouldn't know who'd when that one, the students or the fence? I decide since I'm already up I will grab a bowl of cereal and let the real life television show playing through my new HD window entertain me. I throw on some sweats and sit on the balcony.

It's a good show. Last's about 2 hours. The police come. Instead of breaking it up they just let it go. There's not to much. Some actually "good" students actually went to school. What were they thinking? One girl pulls along a trash can... OK. Pour quoi? Whatever. Girl you sure showed them who was boss by grabing that trash! Don't let the garbage man clean that up, Your so bad ass. The crowd then marches towards the police and onto a main road stopping traffic. Well the cops had already stopped it for them, but whatever.

It dies down. But was a great way to realize that your dream wasn't true. Apparently what had happened was... the new minister for the schools in France/ Paris expecially, decided to fire a bunch of teachers and change the criteria or something. I guess it wasn't to the liking of the students. Apparently all around Paris the students protested. Some might have actually got a little crazy(story). But all in all a great show from the 3rd story balcony overlooking the main strip.

* Side note: Riots actually ocurred on the shooting of From Paris with Love.

May I have some cheese with that wine.

2008-12-16T01:48:00.000-08:00

The Streets are packed with the hustle and bustle of Christmas time. Children stop and stare in the windows of the puppet displays for some of the department stores. There are street shops lining the paths selling everything from Crepes to toy helicopters to leather knee high boots. Noel is in the air and it's a special time. We stop to enjoy a Crepe. I have Nutella and Almond, matt nutella and bananna, and Will decides to take Sel (salt). This is partially because he's jealous of my breakfast taco I made that same morning. Potatoes, eggs, cheese, bacon, hot sauce...

We scower the stores looking for the appropriate gifts. Enjoying the style that France has to offer. Matt buys a grey and black scarf. We are becoming more and more French by the minute. *Sidenote: I actually was amazed just this past afternoon when I was riding the bus from the gym to the apartment and I could read the titles of the Newspaper over the shoulder of the women next to me.*

I notice while shopping in the stores, there is a lot of American influence here. You have some of the same brands, however the styles are a bit more fashionable. For instance Carhart, a brand I know for tough rugged wear, for cowboys or more so the blue collar guy, where actually designer t'shirts, pants, sweatshirts, etc. I mean they still had a true carhart jacket that one would be familar with, but WAY more fashion. America has a big influence on the world, and you begin to realize that the world becomes a smaller place with advance in technology and international influences.

A European Carhartt Jacket... I know Eddy Parker would never approve!

After shopping in the main district, we went home on a route that showed us more street vendors. I guess you would think china town type of look. There are row after row of tents set up on another never ending street. One side of the street has endless amounts of shoes mixed with other random products, while the other side has clothes and attire. It is pretty crazy. Finally we arrive at the apartment with enough time to change in order to make it to coach david's place by 7:30.

Have I told you yet how much I love French meals! Coach David and his wife, Karen, invited us over to his new place to enjoy a meal. Coach's place is really nice. I was impressed by the size, again the perception that everything is sooo much smaller in France was wrong. I think it's just America's obsession with more, more, more. I mean it's not anywhere near an unliveable one room flat like some would think, but I will say that their balcony is pretty huge, I can only imagine the barbeques and partys they will have on that thing. You could play a small football game on there!

It's a good time with the group, Coach, Karen, William, Matt, and myself. Apparently William, David and Karen all worked at the same company and this is how the relationships where born. Karen met David and obviously that's working well! Also, David introduced William to the sport of football. They tell stories of playing in the long corridors of their office and getting the President to play with them. There's also a story of perfume wars and Will breaking down a door to try and get to David. It's a great night learning about the people that are becoming my close ami's.

Ha so of corse being a man who loves tasting the food and remembering the places by the food I eat, I'm going to tell you all about this meal. Will starts cutting up the sauscission, a big sausage that we put on the toasted bread and butter and David brings out by far my favorite meat so far. It is a wild boar loaf with noisettes or some other kind of nut in the middle of the loaf. It is so good. I mean it's a little creamy with a slight "gamey" type of taste that just hit's the spot. I don't know why but I love it. Also it worked really well with the glass of Porto that I had.

We continue to trade stories, Will brings out the action figure of Coach David making a touchdown catch for the Cougars. It's awesome, Coach's own action figure! Apparently the guys got it for him as a wedding gift. Karen and David got married in September and we see all the photos from the wedding. Oh and my favorite David explains why Will calls him a "farmer" in French though. Because the word actually means standing in Cow manuer or something like that, apparently David is from the North Eastern part of France closer to Belgium and was from a farm. This leads into Texas and cowboys and country music. Karen actually says she likes some country, or more so the line dancing...and I say I noticed the Country greatest hits CD she had under the TV.

For the meal we eat a Pork loin that has been cooking for a while so it is nice and tender. It has prunes in the center of the meat to give it a nice flavor/dynamic. The sauce or natural jus from the meat is just really good. I use that to put on top of the alfredo pasta and the cheese pilled on top. The bread of corse is amazing... I've become so used to having good bread that it's almost an after thought now.

Afterwards we have cheese, and bread and a nice bourdeaux. Coach describes the cheese as a mild one. Mild my butt. It's pretty strong. I eat a little and enjoy it. I think for me the fromage is only good in moderation. It is good though, but too much of a good thing can sometimes take away from it's quality. I eat about three forths of the cheese and then get prompted to finish with the encouragement/ force of David and the rest of the crew. David then starts talking about some of the other cheeses and how there only good when the maggots or worms crawl out of them. This of corse is only for the hard core fanatics or the older population. I've had enough needless to say.

We drink some wine which provokes another story from the group. David apparently never had alchohol until he met Karen. They talk about him and being a farmer and it's just good times and good laughs. I enjoy it so much just sitting around the table learning about each other eating good food and laughing. We take a bouche which is like a traditional christmas dessert. Much like a log cake or whatever is in America. It has ice cream and caramel and little toffee pieces in it. It hits the spot and concludes another fine French dining experience, well along with another digestive of Courvoisier.

I love this the most. Good food with good friends and good laughs. It's quite the time.

Confit de Canard

2008-12-14T19:27:00.000-08:00

A never ending Jeudi... We left for Paris around 4:30pm to meet up with Jean Jaques, a friend of Matt's aunt and uncle. We hop on the train and make our way to the connection for the next line at St. Lazare. We get there right at the hot spot for 5 o'clock traffic. You see owning a car in Paris is much like owning a car in New York City I would imagine, actually probably worse but I'm basing my judgement on the price for gas, the price for a driving licsense, general population, etc. That being said there are a ton of people manuevering around this station. We took a different train in, not one of the normal Paris rail lines, and here all these different trains connect with the rail lines as well with buses and so on and so forth.

We are starting to manage the train system pretty well and get to the right train line to take us to Jean Jaques apartment. As we walked into the train stop it is an incredible site of what most americans would refer to as sardines, me however I refer to it more of as the large number of opilio crabs caught on the Northwestern crammed into the tiny pod. I mean literally I have to pry my way to the beginning of the train line which is at least 8 rows deep packed with people. There are marks on the ground trying to control the flow of traffic for easier departures, along with "helpful" workers. So as the first train approaches it's more packed then the people waiting to get in. Really? Is it even possible that there's enough air to breath on that thing.

As we wait we let 2 trains pass before we can get to the front of the line. As our train comes the masses pile out and we fight like a salmon trying to spawn onto the train. It's packed, I don't know if I could do this everyday. I was touching atleast 7 different bodies, while another 3 were touching me. Imagine me being a petite woman and seeing some random guys chest while standing next to my child. No way Jose. Thankfully we only had to go 3 stops on this packed beast, with each stop bringing a new current of anxious people pressuring their way in while the few tried to fight their way out. I even had a little trouble myself pushing out.

Finally we depart to the street and arrive a little early to scope out the scene. We find the apartment and then go to a little brasserie to kill some time and maybe watch some sports. My French get's tested as we order a drink and I ask for the Toilettes. I can tell I'm getting better, but not even close because the waiter immediately switched to English and told us what they had. Ah, it's frustrating. We go back to the apartment and try to find which door was actually his. You see he told us he lived on left door on the 2nd floor. Easy right? Well not so much when you don't know if the bottom floor is the first or zero floor... then once you climb the stairs, which are like the narrow binding spiral staircase the doors, there is one on the left and then a tight turn and two more. So you think to yourself ok, obviously the one on the left is the far left, not the little turn and the door on the left, or would he have said the first door instead of the left door?? Is it the second floor or the third floor? About this time the lights go out... remember the energy conservation... Yeah.

Anyways we find the door it's the far left one on the 3rd floor. Jean Jaques is a really neat guy. Think Albert Einstein white hair but curly a tall guy as well who gives off the air of intelligence. Later we find out he is a math and physics teacher, no wonder. He is a really nice guy, one I enjoyed just sitting down and talking with about everything. From politics and Obama, to the lack of religion in France and his own "Catholicism" eventhough he openly stated he didn't believe in God, too French people and their customs, to traveling in America and his experiences with Matt's aunt and uncle, and all sorts of things in between. It feels really good to have a real intellectual conversation, not one where it is just a dump of information, where you feel good about spilling your knowledge on someone else, but a Real conversation. One where both parties leave thinking differently. I thuroughly enjoyed it.

We also meet his son who was 26, named Camille. He is in school fixing to take his finals exam. In France the government controls the hiring of civil servants, i.e. teachers, and they do not need a whole lot at this time. Basically it depends on whose retired. This is a lot different from the US where we are in need of teachers, strike that... in need of GOOD teachers. Apparently he has to be first or second on his exam out of the 10 or so registered. This is for a job outside of Paris in the suburbs. Maybe we'll get to go out with him some night.

Ok so lets get to the dinner itself. A masterpiece in it's own rite...this is saying something when coming from France the home of some pretty great art, like Matisse, Kandinsky, Monet, Van Gogh, etc... Now that I've got your attention, let me make you really taste the food. Of course too begin with we have a baggette and some wine. Let's stop there. First, Jean Jaques didn't know if we would like wine being American, but wanting to experience all that is France we had to oblige. (side note, I'm falling for the cheese, wine and bread mix) So Jean Jaques goes down to his celluar or bottom holding cell in the apartment complex and grabs a bottle of red wine. I don't know what kind it was, but let me just say it was amazing. Apparently he get's the barrels, yes that's right the barrels of wine and bottles them himself. Wow. It tastes really good, not to sweet, not too dry, and a great taste.

After we get through munching on the bread, and the small breadsticks he brought. We are treated we Confit de Canard. A nice duck leg that falls off the bone. I don't know how often I've eaten duck, or if I even have before...I'm not sure. The taste makes me want to eat it again. It's a darker meat and each bite is filled with flavor. He also brings Pomme duchess a bite size deep fried potatoe mix, which is really tasty and compliments the meat. It's also accompanied by a side salad. The meal is great, even better the conversation. We are then treated with a nice taste of a fine French cheese. I don't know if I've spoken much about French cheese's, but the stronger the smell the better the taste! I mean it's pretty intense and alone, I don't think it would be very good... but the mix is great and really works.

Next we have a digestion to help ease the stomach and clear the palate for dessert. Digestion for this meal consists of a strong Eastern European rum. I really don't know, but it was a Slovakian looking bottle that I couldn't comprehend. Afterwards, he brings out a nice lemon cake and a caramel creme that has the consistency of flan. It is really sweet and with the lemon cake it is a good match. Finish that off with a small sip of courvoisier or Cognac and you have yourself home cooked French meal number 2. It really was quite an enjoyable experience, expecially when we had no clue what to expect. I mean go meet some random guy for dinner. Who knows how that's gonna end up...

Afterwards we head over to the train to meet up with some of Matt's French connections. Apparently a sister of someone he knew from home. We make our way to some place called footsie. This place is one of the neatest concepts I've ever seen. If I owned a bar I would totally do this. So you walk in and above the bar you notice ticker takes...kind of odd. I mean maybe this is the hang out for financial traders, whatever.... but then you notice that instead of companies it is types of drinks served. Every 5 mins or so the new stock prices come in, depending on the products sold last round and demand, much like the real stock market. So let's say I buy a coke and a budweiser (btw this is the first place I've seen with the american classic....mostly bc American beer is not highly regarded here (it's just weaker) ) the next five mins both coke and bud will increase in prices. Maybe some other things will decrease and intice you to buy. The key though is as the night progresses you consistently raise the overall average price of drinks thus making more money and inticing more buying so people feel they got a "deal".

It was a neat place, we meet all the friends and they're a breath of fresh American air. You have Kerri, the sister, Rob, the sister's boyfriend celebrating his 21st birthday even though it's not his 21st b-day but apparently he'll be in Morocco so c'est la vie, Caroline, a friend, Ellis and Andrew, and Jessie, the friend in town for a couple of days looking at a school in Europe to get a masters, but turns out I think he broke up with his girlfriend and left the country. He's a small town guy, so I kind of like him, he has his own business or something, but he spits a little when he talks. Atleast he has some good thinks to talk about though. Kind of like the guy. So that was the crew.

We hang out at footsie and then around 12:30 or so Matt and I decide to leave so we can make the 1am final train ride to Cergy.... Did I say 1, bc that's what I thought it was until I got told other wise by the crew. Apparently the last ride was 12. Great. What do I do? How bout make the night neverending...

We stay a little longer and then make our way to a bus stop and hop on. Bus rides at night are a tad bit creepy in the middle of Paris. Not to friendly, and the people are a little bit odd. So this we hop on and I don't quite catch what happens but Kerri moves away kind of upset. Some weird guy is speaking French. Rob follows Kerri, then out of no where a couple mins later, Rob is a little upset and goes Hulk on us and tries to push his way to creepy guy... OK. This is not going to happen. Can't happen. Won't let it. We calm Rob down, find out the guy touched her or something so we hop off and end up at some other place which seems pretty normal.

It's some type of hideout place or something because you walk around and it looks pretty normal but then we follow the crew and end up in some old cave type of thing that looks like it was used as a wine cellar back in the day. It's been converted into a small lounge, a bar, and a downstairs dance club. It's crazy. We dance a little bit and they start pumping some spanish salsa and I see some Spanish group singing loudly and I think to myself. Here I am in some English type of bar, in some under ground cave, in the middle of Paris, from the United States, listening to Spanish music while some spanish crew salsa's to it. What? .... no really.... What? I just laugh, "life is in the journey."

We make our way out and some weird guy is following us. We hop on various buses, passing different landmarks on the late night bus. Jump off finally evading weirdo and then walk about a mile or so to the University where the crew is in school and living. Thankfully the have been gracious enough to accomodate Matt and I for a few hours before we can hop onto the next train to Cergy. We end up staying in a room with only one small twin size bed. I'm 6'4" and matt's probably 6'1" or 6'2".... Great... oddly enough there is a student in the dorm hall carrying a matress. Someone inside thinks I've lost it when I start ranting to him about can I borrow your matress. Too bad he was visiting too and borrowing someone elses who was out of town. My powers of persuasion must be a tad bit off...

So me and matt made do and napped for a couple hours before waking up and catching the morning train to Cergy, which thankfully the stop was right across the street from the University. We made it back to Cergy around 11am in a neverending night. I am just thankful for the experience and the story to tell.

Down, Set, Freeze

2008-12-12T16:15:00.003-08:00

Ok this is just a quick side note, but it's something that has never happened to me before. Tonight at practice it was cold. Not snuggle around a camp fire cold, not wrap up and stay warm cold...no no no! I'm talking frozen fingers, can't move your body, drink a bottle of liquor and jump off the Titanic like that one guy from the movie type of cold, but I want to clarify it was not close to the ice bowl Cowboys vs Packers cold. So I know it could've been worse. (Atleast to me... fyi Texas was always hot, and Atlanta not that cold either....I've been lucky)

So anyways something happened that I thought was incredible. It defines the cold for me. So I was coaching the line on some blocking schemes and I took out my mouthpiece after doing sled work with the guys. I started talking about play action blocking schemes and literally 5 mins later I stopped to get back in the drill and demonstrate. I grabbed my mouthpiece and put it in my mouth and I literally bit into ice. My saliva had frozen in 5 mins, that's what type of cold were talking. Now I know there has been worse and I know some people from the north might have had this experience, but it was new to me. I mean seriously my spit freezing. You'll have to let me know if that's something that happens often or if it was that cold...

Musculation OCD

2008-12-12T03:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to the gym to work out and I encountered the strangest man I have ever met. The gym we lift at is not a LA Fitness, but it's got all the necessities. Anyways needless to say the gym is a little disorganized there are your typical weights out of place and a couple of bars with weights still on them. I was doing some front squats, which I had to do a make shift workout spot because some guy thought it was a great idea to use the squat rack as a coat hanger. That's another story...

So I've pulled a bar from one of the bench racks and loaded it up and set it out in the middle of the gym. I am in the middle of hang cleaning the bar in order to be able to hold the bar on my shoulders and front squat. Then all of a sudden here comes mister OCD. I mean this isn't a minute case of obsesive compulsive disorder, this is like some worse then MTV "I Have OCD" type of stuff. Here's just a little video about OCD... but anyways...

A diagram to help understand what we are working with here...

So I am in the middle of cleaning the weight and this behemoth of a man comes up behind me. He's dressed in a cut off sweatshirt that's 2 sizes too big and his sleeves are gone, on top of that he has a denim looking vest type thing, perfect for working out. I know I'd rather have a denim vest then under armour ANY day... He basically looks like a big French Russian who just got through watching Rocky beat up some frozen meat. So this guy pushes his way behind me with a bar from the side to the rack where I just took the bar I am currently using. OK. No biggie beside he almost hit me in the middle of lifting some heavy weight and having me fall back on my butt. I figured he just really wanted to use that specific bench... I was wrong

He then preceds to move back and forth from the rack behind me to the rack in the front left of me in order to put 2 25 lb or 10 kilo plates on the bar he just set up. So he's gonna bench what he just set up right? Wrong. After he does this then he goes around the room picking up other random curl bars that still had weights on them and slams them upright right in front of me and cleans the bar. Then walks the bar behind me and puts it up. At this point I'm thinking maybe he's just the janitor or what not, eventhough I've never seen him before.

So the whole time I'm trying to do set's of squats this guy keeps unracking the weight literally 2 feet in front of me and then walking right behind me to line up the bars. Ok so after he's racked the curl bars he then picks up all the free weights and alligns them in the correct spot. He then decides to ask some of the other French guys what bars/machines they are using so he can fix them too. He ask's them because most of those guys take 30 mins to stare at their bodies and the other half a minute to lift, so it's hard to tell what someones actually using in the gym. Sidenote... So he cleans the incline bars the other bench and picks up any plates that have been laying out. He also aligns the clips that hold the weight in place in perfect order. All while being able to distract me from lifting and actually being right in the way.

Hahaha....actually one time he almost fell when I moved from front squats to straight leg deadlift. I was bending down to pick up the weight and as I moved it upwards, I guess he didn't realize how close he was to me and I almost knicked him. This of corse startled him because he was in the zone, the clean up the weight room zone. He almost busted it and had to catch him self on the bench. I felt bad for a second and then was like, well why is he doing this. It was bad because even all the French lifters were getting annoyed

When this guys finished, it's pristine. It is a beautiful looking weight room. He's only spent 30 mins and not a weight is out of place. Only then does he actually begin lifting with his partner. I wanted to laugh. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen in the weight room...we'll besides Ryan Lara almost getting crushed from a missed powerclean but being flexible enough to limbo all the way to the ground with the bar crushing down on him...

The king and his castle.

2008-12-10T03:36:00.000-08:00

So yesterday we went to Versailles with Coach Mas to see the chateau of the king and learn a little history. It was the longest walking I've done it quite some time. A little history first before I jump into explaining the chateau... So King Louis the XIV started building the castle out of his father Louis the XIII's old hunting grounds. The grounds where in the countryside, not so much now, and the king decided to move from Rome to Versailles because the lords had tried to overpower him while he was a boy. Louis the XIV became king at 5, and took full power once he turned 22. So he didn't trust the lords and decided to move away from Paris and make Versailles the center of all political power.

So he began building on his father's land and never actually got to see the completion of the chateau. Louis the XV then built on the Opera and the Petit Trianon. Louis the XVI then took control and he was actually the king there when the French Revolutionaries marched upon him from Paris and took him back and beheaded him. Louis the XVI could have stopped them and had his army kill the French people, but he did not want his French people to die. So he let them come. There is a neat part of history because as the people were coming to kill the king, someone shouted "God save the Queen" and was able to warn the Queen from three rooms away, so she could escape. We actually got to see the secret door from which she left and made her way out safely. It was neat standing from the King's bedside balcony looking upon the courtyard imagining that he once stood there greeting the people who were coming to kill him. Also in one of the king's room, it is noted that Benjamin Franklin actually signed a peace treaty with France in that same room. It is nuts when you really start thinking about the history and viewing the castle with that type of mindset.

So as we walked in I must say the rooms are granduer. They are magnificent. The detail throughout the chateau is incredible. There are so many paintings and sculptures that really show the French love of arts. I can't even begin to describe all of them. Some of my favorites though included the line of sculptures coming from the bottom floor of the Orleans family and other important members of the time. The rendetion of the last supper. The painting of an overview of Versailles. The ceiling in the chapel. The chapel itself. The sculpting of the king on his horse. ETC. ETC. ETC. There's just so many...hopefully you can see some of the pictures.

Anyways the beds in the bedrooms looked so small, but actually it was just the overwhelming size of the room that made it appear so. I couldn't believe that it was the same bed a king slept on. That's nuts. Hundreds of people would actually come and watch as the king awoke or went to bed. I couldn't imagine that. Why would he entertain people coming to see him sleep??? There is a brillant painting above the Kings bed of a woman (symbolizing France) watching over him as he slept. Also I laughed when the audio tour told us that a woman would come change his shirt every morning because apparently the king sweats a lot!! Ha ha. This was Louis XIV.

Could you imagine though being a king? I mean you could never be alone, never. I mean I know sometimes I need space and just want to get away. Even with the kings "get aways" people were still around him. Tough job to inherit from divine right. Anyways I don't think it was that bad always getting what you want. I mean imagine the parties he threw and the music he listened to. Speaking of, the kings favorite was Lully. As we drove to the castle coach mas played some Lully to get us in the mood. I love it.

So after checking out the house. The Kings chambers, Queens chambers, the Dauphines apartements, the Salle de mange, the chapel, the antichambers, and all else we grabed a bite to eat next to a class from middle school. They were all munching on some sandwich's and we were as well. We then started one of the longest walks every. The grounds are huge. I mean it goes further then we could see. It's enormous. The walkways are so beautiful. Trees line the never ending baths, coble stone streets. Beautiful sculptures. The fountains come on as the king marched by and went off as he left. I imagined how he entertained himself. I mean instead of plugging in an IPod he just said "Maestro, play that new jam." What a life. I imagined the king walking during the day through the same park I was walking and the minestrals following him, the musicians playing. The people gazing. Apparently the park was open to the people as long as you had a hat on back in the day. Oh and that reminds me.

That reminds me of the billards room in the Grand Trianon. The king would be playing some pool and the musicians sat up top opening the windows playing down to the king. How cool. The Trianon was the kings get away. A place to get away from the Pomp and Circumstance and unwind a little bit. After viewing this, we saw the Petit Trianon, a place for Marie Antionette and later Napolean's wife. It was small and quaint. We then took the walk to the village built by the King for Marie Antionette to remind her of home. The villagers lived in this and it is actually still used today for some of the same purposes. Oh but the walk...haha... we went all the way around to the back entrance, and it was locked. So coach had a bright idea to hop the moat and just climb up. HAHAHA. YEA RIGHT. Then we walked all the way back to the Petit Trianon and then from there walked back through the garden paths to the village.

It was neat, I felt like I was in another country. I mean it's such a different look and feel. I knew Marie must have loved this. A swan followed me around for a little bit looking for some food. The coy in the pond was definitely overstocked. I loved that they hadn't restored this village, but kept it as it was. It made me think, other countries have so much history. I mean ours seems really small, in comparison. I guess maybe that's why some Americans do not have much pride. I remember writting a paper about that for college my first year. I wish I had this experience to help me understand why. Our history is so young. We don't have the same length of time as other countries. Maybe that's why A-Rod wants to play for the Dominican Republic instead of America, why athletes take dual citizenship so they can play in the olympics, why people have more pride in their Mexican, African, Asian, South American, or European heritage. There's more history in those parts. I have no problem with that, I just wish maybe if we had more of a history, the American people would have more American Pride. Maybe more like Texas pride!! (sorry gotta throw that in every chance I get...DONT MESS WITH TEXAS!!!)

I digress... so we walked back and found Marie Antionette's secret grotto, where she met probably just a few people. It was hard to find, and you also could barely see it. If I didn't know I was looking for it, I probably would of passed it over as some rocks. In fact, I actually did that without even knowing it. There is a little peep hole to see who is coming and a door that blocks off. How cool to have a secret meeting place. I imagined the Queen talking about secrets or even meeting a secret lover or something of that matter. I think there was definitely some of that going on.

Overall it was beautiful even in the snow. Maybe I'll get to go back and see it in the Spring. The picture link is here. Pictures. I have to go to Paris now, so I will come back and re work on this and add some photos, but I wanted to get it out ASAP.

It's official, I lost my virginity...

2008-12-09T15:47:00.000-08:00

Let me tell you how it happened. It was friday night I had just gotten through with another frigid practice at around 10:30. We went out with coach to some of his friends party. Apparently there were a lot of single French flight attendents and they were having a little get together at one of their apartments. We got there and it literally didn't take but about five minutes til it happened. I hadn't even met the girl yet, nor got her name for that matter... this was then followed by two other random girls that I hadn't met yet either... I guess it's a French thing...

My social kiss greeting virginity had been taken by a flight attendent and followed quickly by some more. It is rather awkard when your used to a hand shake and maybe a side hug. I felt so weird having a girl I had never met kiss me on both cheeks. But it is better then the normal handshake I must say. Also though the French are best at it, but it is not that often that men kiss men like the video says. This is more so reserved for maybe special formal occasions between really close friends. I for instance have not seen this male greeting yet in France, but I'll be sure to let you know when that changes.

It was funny later when we were at the hockey players house, and Olivier's girlfriend did the same when she was leaving. We talked about it and apparently it's weird for them when they go to the US to extend a hand and shake. Roland said he has to catch himself because he often turns his check when departing or saying goodbye. The French have a customary type of handshake which is more so a wrap your hand around the thumb as they interlock instead of actually gripping the entire hand. It's more of like a greeting with your boys, but that's it. No following finger lock or "pounding", just a long lock. All of the guys do it and that has been another thing getting used to. It may just be amonst the younger guys, but everyone I have met so far does the same. It's tough because I'm used to the long handshakes in America with friends.

I went to Chateau de Versailles today... I will update you on that A demain....for now Bonne nuit.

The Jokers

2008-12-07T08:09:00.000-08:00

I about lost my mind when I heard country music blasting in the club last friday night. I literally laughed out loud. Even though it was Shania Twain's "man I feel like a woman," it was hilarious. I mean seriously this is like the comic relief in the middle of a movie. This is my life. It was funny. Ok first let me tell you about club duplex.

So you walk in, more like down, into the club from the street level. There are some typical security guys bouncing/deciding who comes in or not. Then once inside there is a main level on top which is a room more with a latin feel and very large. It's only open Vendredi and Samedi. Then there are two more rooms down stairs one a straight up techno type of dance eoom you'd expect in Europe and the other a more hip-hop style. Well I guess hip-hop night was more like open mix night because they played 50's music, beach boys, COUNTRY, and same other golden oldies mixed in with your French/American hip hop mix. It was awesome.

I went to another hockey game Saturday night. Let me just say it was the most incredible tie I have ever seen. I'll paint a picture. The Jokers of Cergy vs the Vipers of Montpellier. The Jokers are your scrappers, your tough kids who can all skate fast and have the gumption to take a crack at the large defenders. The Vipers are from a rich district/team....you can easily tell by the massive amount of advertisements on their jerseys.... I mean seriously I thought the name of there team was some Irish Pub!! That being said you look at these guys and there atleast a foot taller on average then the Jokers. I mean there some big boys. Numbers 18, 25, 77 are all huge defenders, I'd say atleast 6' 6". With names like Vernikov, Urosev, Simak, you can tell there not from France...18 is your prototypical tough guy hockey player, a huge Ukranian getting paid to protect the goalie and rough up the other players....the nemisis.

The first period goes off and it's a battle. If you could fight in this league without suffering being ejected, I swear 4 fight's would've broken out in the first period alone. Its brutal and intense. I find myself on the edge of my seat and entertained with the general gladitoral battles that all men love. #81 for the Jokers, Roland Fontaine, a fast skating small guy wouldn't back down. It was fun watching him jaw with the players from the other team, I mainly watched him bc he was speaking English...it's amazing how much that sticks out in France.... Anyways several times the big guys were elbowing him in the head and playin' a little cheap and he just said in esscence do it again and I'll knock your teeth end. It was fun watching him check the the Ukraine Vernikov into the boards a couple times after he tried a big hit. At the end of the period it's scoreless.

The next period has more action as the Jokers give up a goal a man up. The Vipers skate in attack mode even a player down. But the Jokers quickly answer with a goal to the top shelf on a nice cross pass. The period ends and the Vipers scored another goal. The last period is where most of the highlights come. On one play the Jokers cleared the puck and the goalie came out to get it, but a fast skating Joker went after the puck and leveled the goalie onto the ice. It was vicious, the goalies feet were in the air and you could tell he wasn't used to being hit. Afterwards he laid on the ice and really looked like a baby. The fans were on him. It's physical and the Jokers get scored on again. It's 3-1 and not looking good. Finally with about 5 mins left to play the Jokers score on the Vipers who look like a team trying not to lose, instead of playing to win. After seeing this the coach yells at his players and they start attacking a little more. In fact they scored a goal following the Jokers answer, but it was called off because the player apparently hit it with his hand into the goal...or something of that nature....I'm not to familar with the rule but it was an illegal touching of some sort.

After this the Jokers try to mount a comeback... the clock keeps ticking... 3 mins 2 mins 1 mins.... Come on guys. The captain number 17 Olivier Viennot looks like he has the answer but barley misses the top post. It's frustrating as a fan because you want them to win so bad. Despite being a little cold sitting so close to the ice. Tick tock, tick tock. Time is winding down. Now theres 20 seconds, 15, 10 ...man this isn't gonna happen... but the Jokers never lose heart. The lay it all on the line. With 1 second left on the clock a Joker rapped around the goal passed it to number 8 the Canadian player who slaps it in for a goal. The clock winds and that's the game. It was classic. The best hockey game I've ever watched.

Later it turns out we end up hanging out with Roland, Olivier, and Sylvain (the goalie from Canada) at their house. I think they were friends with Tony, the lineman last year. There solid guys and we talk about the game and stuff. Hopefully we'll hang out with them more. They said they play poker at their house some times... luckily I know the game just a little bit!!!

Life is good.

Door bells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles

2008-12-07T05:32:00.000-08:00

I meet an Austrian girl at the club duplex and it reminded me of this song...

So I wrote my own about my experience in France...

1No raindrops on footballs, and Alyou with glasses
2Champs de Elyses and the high fashion lasses
3Narrow driving alleys and cobble stone streets
4These are a few of my favorite things.

5Meeting new people and trying to speak French
6Pastrys and chocolate and fromage with a stench
7Life still surreal and the Arch De Triumphe.
8These are a few of my favorite stuff.

9Learning the history and going to Chateaus
10All my new teamates and lockeroom French flos
11Cafe's and Pubs and Ice hockey rinks
12These are a few of my favorite things.

....There's plenty more but I just thought this would be humorous!

Snorring man

2008-12-05T03:19:00.000-08:00

After the Eiffel Tower, we walked to Champs de Elyses to watch Quantam of Solace the new James Bond movie. I'm a 007 fan and I like the new guy Daniel Craig a lot. Anyways it's a good movie if your a man. Great action scenes, great get away scenes, car chase, I mean it was pretty entertaining. The plots no award winner for best twist or anything, but it's what you expect from a James bond movie. However I did think it was lacking a little bit in the cool gadgetry aspect that I'm accustomed to with James Bond. I mean don't get me wrong the bureau had a pretty sweet computer like a touch screen on crack, but it's not something I haven't seen before. Also, it wasn't something Bond even used. I digress.

The reason I bring this up is to tell you about the movie theater itself and maybe some of the people in it. So we go in and make sure that it is playing in English. Good call, instead of racking my brain trying to figure out French (like I do with Rosetta Stone....btw I'm a fan of the stone, but it's tough... hopefully before June I'll be able to speak some French!!!) So we go into the theater and I don't know if we just drew the short stick because the theater is about twice the size of a home theater... it might even be the same size as the theater in the SAE house at Tech. But the seats are comfortable and there are not that many people watching anyway

Speaking of people "watching" ... let me tell you about the family in front of us. So a husband, wife, and daughter, the daughter was probably my age, were sitting in front of us. In the middle of one of the action scenes the husband starts snoring... REALLY? I mean you can do whatever you like, but seriously go to a high action packed movie and fall asleep... to each their own... I look over at Matt and then try coughing loud to wake him up... no good, then Matt tries nudging him in the back of his seat. This guys a sleeping rock... whatever, then maybe 9 mins later the daughter also falls asleep. Ok, so maybe they are a narcoleptic family! I just couldn't believe it. I have sounds of gun shots and snoring all in one.

Haha, it was a humourus experience. Here's a pic from Champs de Elyses. I wish I could capture the depth of it. This is only about a 3rd of the way down, but I wanted to be able to see the Arch. It is so cool during Christmas time because All the lights on the trees lining the street fall. Maybe I'll get Matt to take a video and show you guys... Speaking of Christmas... I can't believe it is here already. I think all I want for christmas is a chickfila peach bowl ticket!!! hahaha... Anyways hope you are enjoying the holidays. Au revoir.

Eiffel Tower

2008-12-05T02:40:00.000-08:00

The base of the Eiffel Tower

The other day, when I got stopped by the policier, we were headed to the Eiffel Tower. I had this picture in my head that the Eiffel tower is the icon of Paris and France. I mean it is probably the single most recognizable building, let alone probably one of the most recognizable structures in the world... I mean competiting against the Pyramids and the Great Wall of China I'd say it's doing pretty good. Seriously though when you get close to this thing it takes all of a second to realize how big this thing is. I mean it is so much wider then I thought it would be.

My first view of the Eiffel Tower up close

We approached the tower from the north, coming alongside the river. It is a pretty neat view, you can even see that the tower has a circle of stars on that side of the structure. There are tons of lovers trying to take snap shots of the tower in the background and tons of tourists doing the same. I think I took maybe 5 different peoples pictures before we left. Let's also not forget, for 3 Euros you can take home a keychain remembering your encounter from one of the many scam artists trying to make a quick buck. Boy can they get annoying. All of them carry the same ring of key chains with hundreds of silver or gold replica Eiffel Towers, probably worth 30cents a piece.

The view from the park.

I think the best view was from the park that is situated south of the tower. It is breathtaking and actually being right next to it was pretty cool. Just the architecture was pretty neat, being that it was built over 100 years ago. However, it does have more of a modern feel then most of Paris. I don't know how I feel about this. I mean I love the old town, the quaint little houses in Pontoise and Cergy, the old stones made for walls and the tiny passage ways and alleys that fill the city, and the cafe's on every new corner. But the Eiffel Tower stands alone, theres no other building like it.

The Eiffel n Me!!!

We didn't get to go on the top though, bc there was hunderds of people in line and only one towers lift was working.... THERES NO WAY I'M WALKING 81 FLOORS TO THE TOP... so I'll go up some other time. All in all though it was cool getting to see it with my own eyes.

a couple random thoughts...

2008-12-02T15:11:00.000-08:00

A: The police hate me... I got stopped again today switching trains in Paris. What the crap? I am to American... I must just stick out way to much. Thankfully they let me off when they heard we were football players who got paid...I now proudly boast the international professional athlete card!

B: My coach can not do a regular sit up. Not one, he can crunch and do toe touches, but can not do a sit up. I cracked up laughing when I discovered this at the gym the other day.

C: Ok I don't know if I've just been missing the trends or what, but apparently it's cool to carry around your phone blasting the theme track to your life...via old school beatboxer's carrying the radio on their shoulder... I mean seriously... do you really need a soundtrack? can you not afford earphones....do we give 2 cents to what your musical tastes are? (especially when it sucks???) I thought it was just highschool kids...but no this old lady probably 60's was doing the same. No consideration, I guess it's just the craze.

D: Speaking of music I'll hit you guys up with some of the high played stuff, and some of the straight ridiculously weird stuff:

Bienvenue Chez Les Bylkas
Sefyu
Estelle and Kanye West : American Boy
THE DOWN RIGHT WEIRD:
Mylene Farmer LIBERTINE (NOTE NUDITY, NOT KOSHER)

That's all for now but there is some good techno too! Kate Ryan Elle ella l'a

Bonne Nuit!