Short but sweet

Bonjour!

I've finally decided to stop playing video games long enough to post another update. Exciting news I know. Since our last adventure not too much has happened, but I realized I neglected to give a full update as I was in a hurry to get back to playing Nazi zombies with Killian. Oh yeah by the way (btw for short, thats for my mom and others who don't understand) we achieved a new personal record last night, with only us two we got to level 21 on Kino der Toten. Most of you won't understand that nerd speak but for those of you who do, respect. 

Now on to my two favorite F words, food and football, which btw will be mostly what this blog is about. For those of you with short term memory loss the team I'm playing for is Les Aigles of Chambery. I can say nothing but good things about the team. The guys have welcomed me and I truly feel apart of the football family. Which is pretty awesome considering the huge language barrier. I don't even understand what goes on most of practice because all the explanations are given in French. I'm learning a bit here and there but I'm no Pierre Escargot. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFnVI0LThZc&feature=related) The great thing though is that all the guys try and help me out, even the ones who don't know English either try and show me using hand signals or by grabbing someone that speaks english to have them explain it to me. The best thing is that Phillip the O and D-line coach knows English so overall there are no communication issues at all. In case you didn't know either we played our first game last weekend. Unfortunately we lost the game but I like our team a lot. The defense is really the strong part of our team. Its a bunch of cut throats and I love it. We play physical and hard, so much so that we ended up knocking out the other teams American QB. The last play he was he in he ran for the 1st  down that iced the game but he payed for it. One of the corners Francois layed one of the hardest (and  it was clean, the refs blew it though and called a personal foul)  hits I've seen. The QB's arms went limp and he layed on the ground for a while. ( It reminded me alot of Regis Benn after Brian Peters hit him in the 2008 season finale.) Of course I was called over to help translate to see if he was ok. He eventually stumbled off the field and as he was doing so he yelling in English, "Oh my God, I've never taken such a beating in my life." I think he had a pretty bad concussion, hopefully he's ok now though. Our next games tomorrow and its in the south of France. Maybe you've heard of the city, Cannes. Yeah tough life I'm living over here. 

On to my favorite subject of all time though, food. Once again the food has been so good its ridiculous. The other night Catherine made some crepes and when I say that I was close to tears of joy, I'm not kidding. Seriously, it was the best thing ever. I spread pure chocolate, honey, and nutella on mine. I don't want to go into too much detail about that because it'll start making me want more. Another item I've become big on is the kebab. Not shish kebabs because that's what I had in mind when Kevin and Killian first told me about this place. It's more like a gyro but the pita bread used is more of a sandwich bun and instead of Tzatziki sauce theres a variety of sauces. I've so far had two different sauces samurai, and harissa. So far harissa is my favorite its a spicy chili spread and the spicy flavor mixed with the taste of the lamb and freshness of the vegetables is soooooooooooooooo good. I'm gonna need to find a kebab place back home because I've been here for twelve days and already been to the kebab place twice and eaten a kebab pizza. I'm addicted, I'll admit it. There is also a distinct difference in the pizzas here and France and back in the states. The whole concept of pizza is different here. There are no real commercial giants here, even though I heard there is a pizza hut somewhere in the region. Most of the pizza places are pretty nice sit down restaurants that people go to and enjoy the meal. There's an absurd amount of different meat's, cheese's, and vegetables available. As I've already mentioned I've had a kebab pizza and the other one that I've tried had two different types of ham, and 2 other types of meat which I've forgotten. So in case you couldn't tell I've been eating good. 

I know the title says short but sweet, but I lied forgive me, I got into writing this entry. I'm sitting outside basking in the suns glorious rays. It hasn't all been a cake walk though. For all my buddies back at NU and the other areas affected by this past weeks blizzard, I sympathize with you. We had our stretch of bad weather too. It was overcast and 30 degrees Farenheit (important distinction in this part of the world). Monday- weds the sun didn't even come out until the late afternoon, so I too was stuck inside because of the terrible weather. I feel your pain. Actually, I was stuck inside more because Killian and I went on a 3 day call of duty binge which was only aided by the fact that the sun wasn't out. I'm loving life, so glad I took this trip. The Marmions have done nothing but welcome me and help me feel at home. At dinner earlier this week we all shared a laugh because they all said that it feels like I've been here for months because it feels like I'm apart of the family already and I don't really wanna leave anytime soon.  Hooray for spending at least two more months here. I've already made a vow to myself that I can't head  back without going to Paris, the beaches of Normandy, London, and Amsterdam. If anybody has anymore travel suggestions, please do tell. 

Oh yeah I forgot to mention last entry that Catherine doesn't speak much english, and as you should know I don't speak much french. In fact I think I've learned the most french from playing call of duty. Yet we still have our communication too. Mostly through the use of hand signals and the french to english, english to french dictionary. On wednesday while I was busy shoveling crepes down my face for breakfast Catherine sat down at the table with me and we had a conversation and the only way we understood each other was passing the dictionary back and forth and showing each other the word we wanted to say. It was a great talk though, she understands me. It's not a hard thing to do though, all I need is some food and I'll be happy. Catherine actually reminds me a lot of my mom, which I think another reason we get along so well. (miss u mommy :D) I know I promised pictures and don't worry I haven't failed you all. Yesterday Kevin, Killian, QB (thats his nickname, bet you can't guess which position he plays), and I went to the top of one of the surrounding mountains to get an aerial view of the town. I'm not going to even try and describe it. Check out my Tumblr ---> http://mmalachi.tumblr.com/ I'm gonna do all my pictures through there. 

Ok I'm gonna stop rambling now. 

Salut!