Weekend of 29 & 30

Hey Again,

So on the weekend of the 29 & 30... I played soccer on the saturday. The coach met me at the Gare in Vaires and took me to the game, he is real nice and likes to bug me. Ha ha... The game was at 4pm but I had to meet him at 2:30pm for the game, He likes to be really early! When we got there the place wasn't even open. Anyway the game went great, I played outside midfield, on the left.. I am always really really nervous for our soccer games and don't have much confidence at all, but I know that I should, I should just go for it and try different things, but it's a new team and I'm a bit scared still! eek?!? Anyway I actually played not bad, if I do say so myself, the coach also remarked on this to me after the game. It felt really good though, to feel satisfied with how I played. We won the game pretty easily, I set up some goals - which was sweet! he he! But k I can not imagine what it would be like at a REALLY important game, or like a professional game, because people here get VERY intense!! Which is great, but wow we very nearly had a brawl in the middle of the field. Honestly!! I guess it would have helped though if the referee had been more sure of what he was doing! At one point a girl from the other team went offside, he blew his whistle and then she scored, and he called it a GOAL!!!?? I was like are you insane? If I could speak french right now I would give you a piece of my mind- damnit!! Well it seemed that I didn't have to because EVERYONE else on our team did! Holy crap it would have sucked to be him, I am sure he knew it was wrong after, but he really messed up!! ha ha.... The other big problem was the linesman were just like friends of the ref's and knew way less about what constitutes the ball actually going out than I know about fashion; which here..is next to nothing!! Anyway on quite a few occasions the ball would touch the line and he would call it out...once again I really wanted to explain to him that the ball actually has to roll a complete rotation over the line to be OUT! But err I can't speak french!!... Anyway this linesman started fighting with our coach and then parents.. OHH it got UGLY alright!! ha ha pretty unbelievable for me anyway! lol anyway it was a pretty sweet game anyway, we won!

On Sunday, I never have anything to do, So the Rotary club mentioned that there was a "fair" in Bussy St. George (Where my rotary club is from) and that I could tag along if I'd like... So I did!! Julia's family was going to Versaille that day and asked me to come and I really wanted to but I figured that I should really go to this fair because the Rotary club was now trying to be interested in me. So this Fair was like a benefit for a childrens hospital, mostly for sick kids with a disease in their chest that prevents them from breathing properly.. sorry I forget what it is called in french (no idea what it is in english though?! sorry) Anyway it was a pretty big thing actually, there were SOOO many kids and many many booths. The kids had to buy tickets and then go around to the booths and they got to play a game, and then would get a prize, or another ticket that they could then collect and trade in for a bigger prize. With the Rotary booth, they had about 5 games, but they had all already been asigned and seemed to be completely under control so there wasn't much for me to do. But luckily where they were situated was right in the center of the whole thing and infront of us was a stage, where they had really cool entertainment ALL afternoon. So that is what I did, watched and took pictures of this, it was soo cool!! Anyway you can see for yourself...


This is one of the first performances...each of those snake costume things has 2 guys in it, who control the costume and make it come to life basicly. The little kids got a little scared because they came really close to you but all the same they were well liked by the audience. The colours were really cool too. They were soo animated!




Here you can see that each one has two guys under it, they had to be real fit because they did ALOT of this jumping up and down and stunts like that. It was sweet!




Here is another type of oriental dancing.. I was told that Bussy St. George has quite a large asian population, therefore alot of different types of dances from China and Japan. Here they were using fans and they were soo synchronized, it was cool, when they all whiped out the fans it made a really loud clash!




This is a picture of some Salsa dancing. They had demonstrations of many different types of dancing; Salsa, hip hop (except they were guys and Believe me, it was NOT what as cool as you think it might have been, the very reason I didn't show you pictures - I don't want to scar you all for life!!) also they had like classical and many others, sorry I don't quite remember. Anyway with the Salsa, that guy just whipped that girl around, it looked like soo much fun and really awesome to do!! I would like to try it here if I can!!





This is just a picture of the inside of the one building where the fair was, it was also outside and in another small building. As you can see it was pretty packed full of people, not alot of breathing room, but that is something very common here. Spaces are small with alot of people.




** Also Veronique's Parents were here this weekend, back from their trip to the United States, they really enjoyed it and had alot of pictures to show us. They went to the Grand Canyon, and WOW... I want to go there too!! It looked soo amazing. Here parents are actually from a town way down in the south of France, right along the border of Spain. That is why they were staying with us, because we live quite close to the airoport. As you will see in this photo, they are quite small, as is everyone here, I find. Also they just look so very french and cute - or so I think so. Veronique's mother, is as she says "a typical mother", ha ha wow!! is all I can say, she loves to talk about VERY personal things, or well they are very personal by our culture, I am just going to leave it at that!! Ha ha culture is such an eye opening experience, sometimes you just gotta laugh!! lol Anyway here I am with Veronique's parents in her kitchen.

Precy St. Martin - Weekend at the lake

Hey all, So I am now Trying REALLY hard to keep this here blog slightly updated!!

So I think that I had mentioned that on the night of Julia's 18th birthday that her host Aunt and Uncle had asked us if we wanted to go to their other house for the weekend which is very close to a lake. Did I mention that they have a boat!! and a wakeboard and skiis and also a wakesurf board..yes thats right! We also drove to the lake in their mercedes!! ha ha it was pretty unreal.. Well I'm just going to show a bunch of photos cuz that is WAY more fun and easier!! So here goes!


This picture is of the back of Jean-Marc and Genevieve's other house, the one in Precy St. Martin. We were about 10 minutes from the lake. Their house was so nice, they had alot of Haribo (which is french candy) here, and as it is completely peanut free (Julia is allergic to peanuts) we ate alot of candy.. ha ha good times though. They have 2 beloved dogs that they brought with us, you can see them laying on the deck here. They are both real old though and Jean-Marc said that the Vet doesn't even know how the older of the two is still going.. eek.?! The really neat thing about their house here was that pretty much all the windows were full length so they were also like huge patio doors!! It was really nice, Jean- Marc and Genevieve were so so incredibly nice to us, it was a great weekend!





Pic of me infront of a sign coming into Precy St. Martin. Julia and I went for a walk around town the first morning we were there, just for something to do while Jean-Marc went for a run. And wow what a nice little town, so very french and cute! It is a relatively countryside little village and I really really enjoyed it here. There were fields and forests and flowers and trees and more fields... it was really great to have some space!! - can you tell i'm from the farm? ha ha




Funny, random pic of Julia and I...at the house in Precy.



Ha ha, yeah I'm pro! lol Just jokes! but no, this is me wakeboarding at the lake. I thought at first it would be hard but then again not too bad because I have snowboarded before...well it is really not that similar to snowboarding! ha ha It was real fun though, harder for Jean-Marc to explain to me because I ride goofy and he and Genevieve are both regular. So for me I had to do everything backwards of what he had shown us... Anyway it was really awesome though, I got up the second time, after finally realising that I should not be starting with my arms full extended - duh!! ha ha




Me wakeboarding again!! It was soo exhilarating!! Very fun and awesome, Jean-Marc and Genevieve were really patient and great with Julia and I. The hardest part for me was hanging on to the bar, it really started to hurt after awhile. Jean-Marc wanted me to try some tricks but I figured for my first time that I'd just stick with the basics, back and forth, back and forth across the wake, lol.




Me in the fairly freezing cold water!! The weather here is rather rainy, kinda dreary alot...so it is not really hot ever; hopefully in the summer. As you can see, we wore wet suits and gloves, which was good because once in the water, when your body went numb basicly, the wet suit kept you warm! Nah but really once you got in the water, and after the shock, it was really not that bad...Alot of fun!






This is wakesurfing! er...the start of it! ha ha The wakesurf board has nothing to hold your feet like the wakeboard, so it is all a balancing act with the water...Once again, I ride goofy and wakesurfing is done on the left hand side of the boat...of course, had to be more difficult for me!! lol So to get up you have to (for me) place your right foot on the board and your left knee to brace yourself and then push the back of the board with your left hand so that you can position your left foot (hope that makes sense)...anyway it is rather difficult as all the while you are fighting with keeping this board the right way in the water, you are still being pulled by the boat. So you are being dragged through the water, trying to position your feet. However once you get it, it is soo easy to get up!! It's just like a rhythm, every time do the same thing.. and actually it becomes the real easy part of wakesurfing! Oh yes and in this pic. I realise I look ridiculous, but you have to start with your knees very bent - ok!?! ha ha




This is the next step, staying up! ha ha Not that bad though... however because I ride goofy, I had to traverse across the wake to get to the left hand side of the boat, where you are to wakesurf...So this pic is of me coming at the wake, and going to cross it. The board has like grippy material on it so that your feet don't slide off, but it is still difficult to move the board - takes alot of balancing and weight transfering.





And the final step! ha ha here I am on the left hand side of the boat and Genevieve is sitting on the edge ready to take the rope. So essentially wakesurfing is just that! 'Surfing in the wake of the boat'... So once you get infront of the wake, right behind the boat you have to use your weight shifting to keep going and you give the rope to the person in the boat. This is the insanely hard part - I found! Jean-Marc was unreal at it though!! I could do it sometimes, I would have Jean-Marc hold the majority of the rope and I would hold a knot on the other end and only pull on it when I needed to...It was difficult, to shift your weight "just" right so that you were going the same speed as the boat, infront of the wake without having the type of the board go under!! Ha ha I hope that all makes sense!? Anyway it was such a blast!! I was soo determined to do and I did!! (for short periods of time ) but non the less I did it!! he he!



I have to say that this occasion was one the rare occasions in my life where I actually was really gratefull that I had "tree trunks" for legs and had some muscle on me. Because without my huge legs and arms, I am not sure that I would have been able to manage it!! lol I felt sorry for Julia, she is a danser, (they are muscular too!! ) But her arms just couldn't do it, she never got up on the wakesurf board, but she did finally manage the wakeboard though!! She was hilarious, and we had alot of fun that weekend!