The Weekend

This weekend was pretty cool. We went to karting yesterday at this one place. It's similar to Andretti's speed way. It has putt-putt, bowling, a racetrack, food, etc. It was fun. Coach knows a guy that works there so pretty much we can go as much as we want for free. It was sick, the cars are pretty fast. The first go around I had a car that could handle a little more weight in the back... meaning i wasn't sliding all over the track. I actually finished second next to Matt. The next time we went around wasn't so hot... I finished 5th. The car I had was horrible at gripping the track. I looked like a cartoon character slipping on a bananna peal. It sucked. Ha, but it was pretty good when we first started, I was chasing Matt and I gunned it down the hill into the straight away before the turn and just rammed him into the wall. It was solid. He'd later return the favor.

Saturday we went to the Cergy Jokers hockey match. It was freezing, my dumb self thought that just a fleece would be good.... boy was I wrong. The team was pretty good, they scored 7 goals, 5 alone in the first period. It was weird because apparently your not allowed to fight in their league, I thought that was more than half the fun of a hockey match. Also, there was not glass around the entire rink, only the back ends...this resulted in A) having to pay attention to the game at all times possible B) becoming colder by the second C) some sick checks into the wall. It was fun though.

Before the hockey match we walked around the commerce centre, which basically is the mall in Cergy. I know this is not even close to highend, and still the fashion is incredible. Everyone looks like they want to be in a magazine, and like the Paperazzi is fixing to jump out any minute and start taking pictures of them. It's nuts. You thought American teens cared too much about their apperance, think again.

Friday night we went out to a "pub" in Pontoise. Which is more like a mini-club. It was pretty cool. Small scale, but good music and atmosphere. They bring out bottles filled in icebuckets with lit fireworks going off as they're delivered to different tables. It is so hard to speak French for me. Right now I can pretty much say. How are you. My name is Matt. What's your name? What's new? Where r u from? You are beautiful. Please say that again. Good morning, Good Evening, and Good night. Later..... all good phrases, but not enough to really get past small talk. I need some work on this. Meaning I need to learn some more vocab.

Today we learned the Train system around Cergy/Pontoise... Let me just tell you this little gym. After we got back from our "MUSCULATION" practice (HAHAHA) we waited for the bus. As soon as the next one came up, Matt and I got up to get on it. The bus slows down just enough to make us think we'll have to move a couple steps to get into the front door, then I guess noticing that we were Americans, He takes off and we have to wait an extra 20 min's or so for the next bus... ARE YOU SERIOUS?!? I guess the guy doesn't like us, or was just thinking "got you suckers" either way I guess we stick out as Americans. I thought it was funny though. However, we did get to meet Adrian a guy getting his masters in business, who happened to speak English, eventhough he was French. He spent last year studying in the UK and felt the urge to practice his English again. It was more of us listening.

I need FRENCH LANGUAGE HELP!!!

My roomate, William, got back from his work trip to the Sahara Desert. He brought us back some cool stuff. This is a Dgelabr, basically traditional desert attire. I also got a nice army shirt. Matt got a sweet whistle/pipe to play. He also brought back some really good olive oil and some different candies, much like the applets from up in Washington outside of Seattle. It was good seeing him back though. He made carbonera, out of creme fresch and fresh bacon... it was incredible, but really strong.