Jacou vs. Nimes

It's Friday, hoooray Friday! Today was pretty relaxed- I ate lunch with the kids, and then went to the movies with Thomas, the older kid, to celebrate his last day before school starts!

We went to see Harry Potter...in French. I was excited though, because I am a dork and love Harry Potter. Thankfully I had already seen it in English (at midnight on opening night, because that's how I roll), so I could follow the dialogue without too much difficulty.

Sadly, I tore my contact as we were walking in, so I had to watch it with one good eye :(

Anyway- after the movie we went to pick up the little kid Maxime and then head back home for me to prepare my things for the evening. I left around 5:30pm to meet my teammates at the "McDo" so we could carpool to our match in Nimes.

Nimes is a big town for handball too, and it is only 40 minutes away. They have a champions league team on the men's side and a very good D1 program for the women. They are known as a developmental center for handball in the region, and they have a lot of young players that go there to play in the Nimes system.

When we arrived at the gym, frankly, I was expecting more! I think our Laurent Puisegeur brand-new gym is much much nicer, and probably bigger. The big plus, though, was that Nimes is sponsored by Perrier, so there was a ton of Perrier sitting around for us to drink. Love that!

I was really excited to start the game at circle, especially since we have four circles now and I had been sick earlier in the week. That was a confidence booster. We started out pretty strong, and I scored two goals again in the first ten minutes. After fifteen minutes, I was pretty beat and Laurent changed us out.

Nimes was a young team, but very very quick. What they lacked in experience and strength they made up for with their speed and fitness. They ran us up and down the court, but part of that was our fault for throwing away a bunch of balls!

We started out strong on offense and defense (even if fast-breaks looked bad), and were able to put the ball in consistantly from the backcourt. We experimented some with the 4-2 defense and then dropped back down to a 6-0 which looked strong.

In the end we won by 1, although it was way closer than it should have been. I don't even want to think about how many turnovers we had! If we can clean-up our fast break, we will be golden. Thankfully that shouldn't be too hard. If Laurent doesn't have a hard attack in the mean time!

After the game we showered and came back to Montpellier. Everyone was pretty tired so we didn't go out, especially since we were meeting the next morning at 7am to leave for the Pyranees!

Yay for winning against Nimes!

Jen Drives Stick: Take 2 (Driving to Practice)

I believe I mentioned in a previous post that my host family had installed a GPS navigation system in my car to help me get around. I believe I also mentioned that I turned it off after 5 minutes because it seemed useless, especially in French.

But, since I was attempting to drive myself to practice today for the first time, I decided to give the GPS another shot.

BAD idea!! I live in a south suburb of Montpellier (Lattes) and the gym is in a north suburb about 15-20 minutes away. Not a bad drive at all if you know your way around town, but for someone like me, who does NOT know their way around, it can be a disaster. Also, the GPS does not know what it is talking about, and was telling me to do things that I knew were not correct (like "tournez a gauche" when "a gauche" was right into a parking lot).

So, I decided to wing it instead. In fact, my driving experience tonight reminds me a little bit of those "Choose Your Own Adventure" novels that I used to read when I was a kid. You know how every two pages, you have to make a decision and then it tells you what page to turn to based on that decision? That is like driving in France. Every minute or two there is a round-about, with five or six choices that, regardless of which one you choose, will bring you to another round-about, and so on and so on until you find yourself driving around the flaming round-abouts of hell.

So, with the GPS rattling in French while I circled infinite round-abouts, I eventually found myself enjoying a scenic tour of the beautiful Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. While I would normally have gotten frustrated pretty quickly, the cute villages and chateaus and grapes growing by the side of the road had a calming effect on me. More than once I was tempted to stop in one of these villages, order myself a nice glass of wine in a cute little restraunt and just resign myself to the fact that I am lost forever, but at least lost forever in a good wine region.

But I trucked on, enjoying the feeling of having totally mastered my little French car, as I upshifted down long country roads and downshifted into the roundabouts. Who is a pro? That'd be me. OK, maybe that is an exageration, but I can totally drive places now without stalling out. Hollah.

The good news is that I actually made it to the gym! I'd like to thank my fantastic hippocampus and its amazing aptitude for spacial and visual memory. People were still putting their shoes on when I arrived, and I joined the warm-up just in time! I totally cut it closer than I would have prefered, but at least I didn't miss anything.

Practice went well- and I have the complete satisfaction of coming home tonight with one missing toenail, stick-um in my hair, and bruises and scratches all over my arms and legs. Hooray handball! We practiced our 5 on 6 and 6 on 5, as well as our 4-2 defense which I usually dislike, but actually was impressed by with this group of players. Shooting was a bit frustrating because I am being re-taught how to shoot a ball (apparently I lean too much, too early and need to straighten myself up more), but I'm trying to be patient and take as much as I can from Laurent.

Tomorrow we have a game against a really good team in Nimes, who not only has a top-ranked N1 team (who we will play) but also has a very good D1 team they feed into. Basically, the N1 team is a bunch of 16 year-olds who will eventually work their way up to the D1 level. We will play in their home gym, so no doubt it will be a challenge!

We will also have a few more players (and 3 more circles?) so I'm not expecting to play as much as last week, especially since I missed practice on Monday and Tuesday because I was sick. Still should be fun, though, and I'm really looking forward to it!

French weight...almost there!

For the last year my handball friends and I joked that when we got to France, we would at some point have to make our "French weight" which, as I mentioned before, is much skinnier than our American weight.

The strong and muscular build of American athletes is not so appealing to the French girls, who value their svelte figures. Lifting weights? Drinking protein shakes? They might as well wear large shorts that actually cover their asses.

French girls may have a genetic advantage, but they also get a lot of use out of living purely on coffee and cigarettes, which is a good way to keep a slim figure. Apparently the smoking also helps your handball skills, because the smokers on my team are the best players! I also noticed many of the men on the professional team smoking before/after games. I also distinctly remember watching Brazillian and Argentinian players smoking in the bathroom at the Pan-Am Championships banquet, with gold and silver medals around their necks. So, if I didn't have asthma (and also hate the idea of smoking), I would totally pick up smoking as part of my training plan. Hey, if it works for professional athletes and national team players, it will work for me!

Only joking. Kids, don't smoke, it is bad for your health.

But anyway- I figured as the year wore on and I adapted a more "French" lifestyle (and less Coke and Ho-Ho buffet), I would eventually make my way down to a French weight. I expected the fact that I do not eat pork, cheese, or milk-based products to aid me considerably since that is all they eat here. However, unexpectedly assisting me in this process has been my bad luck!

Anyone can get sick, but it was definitely bad timing for me to be dragged down with tonsilitis/strep my second day in France. I spent most of last week getting over that, and then thought I was done with being sick at least for a few months. I had a fairly relaxed weekend and finally started eating again and then BAM- Monday night I got sick again with some kind of stomach bug/food poisoning.

Ridiculous. I'm feeling better now but starting to wonder if I am actually going to survive here! My host family must think I'm never well, since I've been out of it pretty much since I arrived. I missed two practices this week (Monday and Tuesday) and so now my coach is wondering what is going on. Great, I love to start off like that.

Thankfully today is my day off so I'm just trying to take it easy. I slept 12 hours last night and woke up feeling much better today. I really want to get settled and start having some fun!

Now the question is, even if I get down to French weight, will I still have an excuse to avoid fashion trends like tights and skinny pants? I hope so. I just can't get into that, even if I am looking more French!

Lazy Sunday

Reflecting back on the weekend, if I had been thinking more clearly, I should have taken advantage of the opportunity to travel, or go visit some people in other parts of France. From now on, I will have a game every single weekend and most likely won't get a chance to spend a full weekend away until December!

I guess I was thinking I should rest since I spent most of last week sick, but I got a little bit bored by the time Sunday rolled around and had really wished I'd gotten out of town for a bit!

Ah well, next time.

Sunday started off with a trip to the local farmer's market, which builds up in the middle of the village where I live (Lattes). Actually, the fruits and veggies looked amazing, and there were a lot of interesting foods around, including rotisserie chicken, local honey, homemade jams, ect. This is apparently the place to be every Sunday, and it is nice that it goes on throughout the year.

Once I have my own apartment, I will definitely try to buy a lot of my fruits and veggies from the market. The prices are really good, and the people selling it know how to pick out the good stuff for you.

I have to say, the grapes I tasted were probably the most delicious grapes I've ever had. So flavorful, like nothing I've ever eaten in the US! The peaches and nectarines were also really good, as well as the melons. As a fruit-lover, it is heaven!

The rest of the afternoon passed rather slowly. It was ridiculously hot, but really muggy. Sadly the family had drained their pool on Saturday, so it was hard to find a way to cool off.

Toward the end of the afternoon I got bored enough that I took a walk through town, down to the ports where there were a few cafes and a boulangerie open. I got myself a little "mini-baguette" and coke for a grand total of 1.50euro and sat outside by the water under some shade just taking everything in.

The rest of the town was quite dead when I walked back, and it wasn't until the evening when things picked up again as the town celebrated the last day of their village festival. We were too late to see the bull run through the town (they closed the streets every night and let a few bulls run through the close streets), but there were fireworks, music, and carnival games. Too bad I wasn't very hungry, because there were lots of good looking carnival treats like funnel cakes and crepes with chocolate!

So, even though it was not a very exciting weekend, at least I rested a lot. Hopefully that will make this week's handball practices a little easier!

Jen Drives Stick-shift: Take 1

Today I took the car out all by myself! Yayyy! And I didn't die or kill anyone, although I did stall out waiting to get on the round-about once or twice and people honked their horns at me.

I actually had my first experience driving my cute little Renault Clio 2 yesterday, but only 2km to the bank and back. And not by myself, but with my highly concerned host family.

So, today I thought I would discover the town a bit, go shopping, and learn to drive my car. Sadly, it started out kind of tragically when I stalled out 3 times in the driveway because I forgot to undo the hand break. Whoops. Jerome, my host dad, looked extremely worried that I was not going to make it there or back.

"N'inquiette pas" I said ("don't worry"). He laughed nervously and replied "OK, bon courage!" (roughly speaking, "stay strong/good luck").

I made it out of the neighborhood with the help of the GPS navigation device that Jerome put in my car for me, programmed with "Home" and the shopping center I was looking for. Sadly, it is in French, and meters don't mean a lot to me, so when it says "Tournez a gauche en 160meters" it really doesn't help me much. So, I turned it off, turned on the radio and went driving around.

I spent the first 2 hours looking for the shopping center that apparently I had driven past in the first 5 minutes. But the good news is now I know how to find the beach, the McDonald's, and the highway- in both directions. And I know how to find my way back to the main round-about in my town. I found it from every direction, I think!

When I finally ended up at the Carrefour- I was covered in sweat from driving through all of the traffic, learning my new car, and trying to figure out the damn rules for the round-about. I decided to treat myself to a Coke at the McDonald's inside the shopping center to calm my nerves, and it worked.


I looked around some of the shops and ended up buying myself a new bag for my handball stuff, so I can carry both my handball stuff, my shower things, and a change of clothes. Should be useful. I also tried on some clothes I didn't buy, but now I know how to find everything so if I have some time next week I can go back and shop around.


Yayyy! I'm learning how to drive in France! I will try to go out again tomorrow so that I'm ready for anything starting Monday. Like driving myself to practice? Hmmm, that should be interesting!

Sidenote: European Shorts!

Handball players love short shorts- and most of them are tall and skinny enough that they look good in them. Even what I would consider to be "normal" shorts by American standards, are wayyyyyy too long for the Europeans. Its a good thing they never saw the practice shorts we used for the US National Team, because I think they would die before they put on a pair of shorts that went to their knees!

I thought it was really hilarious at the game last night when they emptied the uniform bag and there were fights over the small and medium shorts. Even the girls who are 5'10-5'11 were taking people out trying to get their hands on an "M." And even girls my size (5'7"-5'8") clearly thought than anything bigger than an "S" would mean the end of the world. I'm not even sure if I can get one leg in an "S"!

So, at the end of the craziness was a pile of larges, which I gladly took, and which still felt short and tight to me! But I guess in the future if I want to look more European, I'm going to have to throw myself into the ring so I too can fish out a medium :)

My first game!

I really did not think I would be playing a game this soon after arriving, but Laurent set-up 4-5 matches for us to play before we have our first game of the regular season on September 15.

So, even though we didn't have any "real" handball practice (we ran through plays and did fast-breaks on Thursday, but I definitely didn't take more than 2 shots or do any defensive contact), we played our first game Friday night!

I really did not know what to expect- from myself, from the girls, or from Laurent. The game was in Nimes, about 40-45 minutes away from Montpellier, and we left here in cars at 7pm. We arrived at the gym by about 7:50 and started our warm-up shortly after 8pm.

Laurent was pretty laid back- of course, I didn't really understand anything he said to us in the locker room other than the usual gist of things that coaches say (take care of the ball, work together on defense, use the fast break), but I looked as attentive as I could.

The warm-up was almost exactly the same warm-up we used to do with the National Team before we amped it up. Jogging, skipping, karaoke, defensive shuffle for a few minutes up and down the court followed by some passing, goalie warm-up, position shots, and fast-break. At least I could do the complete warm-up without having to understand anything!

I was surprised I started the game, but was excited to be playing. There were four plays we had practiced the day before, but I could not understand ANYTHING on the court. To confuse things, there is another Jennifer in the backcourt so when they would yell "Jen" I didn't know if they wanted her to cross or me to come set a block. So, at some point I just figured go with the flow and look for opportunities to move without stressing about the plays.

I scored the first goal of the game, and then another one a few minutes later. After that our backcourts went to town, and were scoring great shots from 9m, so I was mostly setting blocks and picks for them. I'm excited to be playing with a lot of girls who have a lot of experience, even if it will take me a little while to learn how they move and what they want from me. Hopefully Laurent will help me get their sooner!

There were parts of the game that looked really good, and some of it that was as ugly as you would expect from a team who hasn't practiced together or played in 4 months. The positive part is the potential is there- we have strong players who can shoot well from every position. It is impressive. The fast break is ugly and we threw away a lot of balls by rushing, but that will get better as we practice and play.

Still trying to figure out the defense- I think we started with a 5-1 and dropped down to a 6-0 that worked much better. The girl who used to play on top of the 5-1 has retired so no one else seemed that excited to jump into that without much practice.

The team we played against ran a lot of what I think looked like the Canadian play "passage" whereby they pull one backcourt all the way to the other side and create a quick overload. This proved tricky for us a few times, but once we figured out what we were doing, I think we adjusted well. Laurents seemed pretty content with our defense, so hopefully that won't be a weakness for us in the season.

I ended up playing 50 minutes, which I am still amazed I was able to do considering the week I've had! But I was really excited to play and did my best to hustle for my new teammates and coach, even if I struggled to understand everything that was going on. I made sure I told my backcourts (in broken french) that I am there to work for them, and if they want something different/better from me, to tell me.

Laurent was also super nice, and said some nice things to me after the game. He also told me that I lean too quickly when I'm shooting and that a good goalie (unlike the one we played last night) will be able to read me very easily this way. He said we'll work on that next week. I told him I am here to learn, so please teach me anything you can!

I guess the girls were tired after the long week, so everyone showered and headed back. I was desperate for some sugar, since I'd played almost an entire game on one meal of bread and jam. When I got home I made an egg and tomato sandwhich, had a bunch of juice, and even something with chocolate to try to refuel myself a bit.

When I got home it was around 11pm, and although I was physically tired I was a little hyped up and didn't fall asleep right away. But when I did- it was good.

Yay for my team! We won the game 24-19! Hopefully it gets better from here! I would love to be on a winning team this year :)

Useless day, except for handball

Today I passed what I consider to be an extremely useless day. Still totally knocked out from the strep throat, I woke up, took my medicine, laid in bed again until 4pm, forced myself to take a couple bites of soup so I could take my medicine again, and then laid around resting until I got up for handball practice around 6pm.

Seriously- I have been completely useless since I got sick, and am kind of concerned I will never eat again. OK, maybe not, but it is kind of depressing not to want to eat when you enjoy eating. Maybe this is a totally dramatic reference, but I kind of feel like Tammy Faye Bakker when she said that all she dreamed about was eating a burger and french fries, but she couldn't.

But after I finally dragged myself out of bed and into handball clothes, I went to my first real handball practice in the gym! Yayy! It felt great to put on my handball shoes and some stick-em and run up and down the new floor of the gym.

Tonight was a "tactical" practice, so there wasn't too much running except for some fast-break drills we did in between plays. We learned 4 plays, which we practiced for most of the practice and then broke down into offense/defense at the end.

The plays looked great when were just running through them, but when we added defense and pressure, the timing was off.

As usual, Laurent was super awesome about trying to make sure I understood everything. He took time before, during, and after practice to tell me that if I didn't understand something- just ask. It is a really nice feeling to know that he really cares about me "getting" things. It helps my confidence on the court so I don't feel as stupid if I don't understand something.

Also, apparently it is the "mode" here to shower in the gym after practice, instead of going straight home. Doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me since most people go right home anyway, but what the heck, when in Rome! So I brought my shower stuff and hung out for a bit with the girls in the locker room, and had a chance to talk to a few of them more than usual. I guess that's the point, so maybe if I continue to do this I will get to know the girls a little better.

So, after my social time in the locker room, now I know that this team does like to party (which is cool!) and that some of the best clubs and discos are really close to where I live! On the drive home (I rode with a teammate), she pointed out the best clubs and what days they are open and what kind of music they play, so now when I feel healthy and have learned how to get around a bit better, I know where to go :)

Anyway, back to handball. Tomorrow is our first match against a team in the division below us- hopefully it won't be too hard, although I've heard they are a really physical team. We'll see, I guess. It is just outside Nimes, so about 40 minutes away from here.

Hopefully I will wake up tomorrow loving food again, because I'm going to need some energy to play a game!! Wow, I'm really excited, I really didn't think I'd be playing a game this soon!!

Chez-médecin...two thumbs up!

I woke up this morning feeling much worse than I did yesterday. I didn't sleep much at all because the pain in my throat was really bad, and no amount of Advil seemed to help.

Despite not having any of my Social Security paperwork (besides the visa), I tried to navigate my way through the French system. OK, I take that back, my awesome host family helped me out by calling everyone and their mom to find a solution.

Turns out I have to complete my registration at the University before I can even get the paperwork for my social security/medical card. BUT- like everything else in France- the people at the University are on vacation and won't be back until next week. We even tried to talk to someone at the Mayor's office in town, to see if they could help speed up the process, but they too were on vacation. Love it.

So, with social security a no go, my host family called their family doctor, explained my situation and she agreed to see me.

I walked in, didn't wait a minute and saw the doctor right away. She asked me some basic questions, looked at my throat, saw it was covered with nasty white spots, and diagnosed me with a bacterial infection. Then she went to her drawer, pulled out antibiotics, steroids, and pain medicine and sent me on my way. I was in and out in less than 10 minutes with no paperwork, no money exchanged, just some medicine and a "feel better soon."

Amazing! I still can't eat, so I'm feeling weak, but thankfully today is our day off from training so I can rest. We have practice again on Thursday night, but I'm hoping by that time I will be feeling much better.

What luck! Not even a week in France and I am already sick! The good news is that everyone from my host family to the doctor were all happy to help me out, and now I'm on my way to getting better quickly.

Also- gotta love French administration and how they just take 2-3 weeks vacation at a time. I also went by the bank today and they told me I can't open an account until the banker gets back on Sept 3. So basically, they just have a secretary working at the bank to tell you that you can't do any real banking for a few more weeks. Love it.

I'm off to sleep now, hoping that I will wake up tomorrow and be in much better shape!

When it rains, it pours

I can't believe my luck- I woke up this morning feeling like I'd been hit by a truck, but it wasn't because of the training session, I have some kind of tonsilitis :(

I spent most of the day in bed trying to sleep it off, but the fever got worse and so did my sore throat! Quel dommage, vraiment.

I couldn't eat anything because my throat was killing me, and besides I didn't have an appetite. But regardless, I dragged myself out of bed at 5:45pm so I could get changed and make it to my second training session. I didn't want to be "that girl" who didn't show up on day 2 because I was already punking out of practices. What luck!

Despite feeling pretty crappy, I was happy to see Laurent and the girls. Instead of the lake, we met today at our brand new gym- named after our famous coach- the Laurent Puisegeur Salle de Sports. I love it, and it also has a giant picture of him playing handball on the outside. They just finished it a few weeks ago, so it is brand new and gorgeous!!! This will be our home gym, and I am very excited about that. It even has that new smell right now.

We spent the first 30 minutes running around a soccer/rugby field outside. We were doing intervals across the field, and it was exhausting. It started to rain about 10 minutes in, and at 30 minutes it was raining so hard that Laurent called us off so we wouldn't catch our death of cold (too late?) or hurt ourselves. The temperature was also dropping down so we were shaking when we finally made it back to the gym.

Lucky for us, Laurent had a bunch of extra t-shirts lying around so we could all change. I think we were supposed to do some lifting today, but that did happen and we ended up doing running and ball manipulation inside the gym instead.

The good news is, I survived...and I didn't get passed by any of the goalies on the running :) Small victories.

Tomorrow I am going to try to figure out how I can get my "Securite Sociale" so I can see a doctor if I need to. I hope it will be a breeze, but knowing France and their love of beaurocracy, it probably won't be a simple process. We'll see!!

Lac du Cres

The moral of today's story is that, while I may not understand a lot of French, the concept of "run around this lake until you can't feel your legs" was not lost in translation.

Tonight I had my first training session with my new team. I was very nervous, mostly because I have spent the last two weeks packing, flying, driving, packing, and running last minute errands instead of actually running. I did spend the three weeks in California running and lifting on a consistant basis, but I guess most of that went to waste as I made the final preparations for my trip.

I was also a little bit nervous because my new coach is somewhat of a legand here in Montpellier. His name is Laurent Puisegur and he retired last year after 10 years as the captain and circle for the Montpellier professional team and the French National Team. He won several European Championships and a World Championship, as well as being an Olympic medalist. Basically he is a world class handball player, and now he is my coach! Even though I didn't spend a lot of time with him when I came in June to do my try-out, he was one of the main reasons I wanted to be with this team. I figured I could learn a lot from a World Champion circle!

Anyway, tonight was just as it was described to me in June: run around the lake until you die! We showed up at the Lac du Cres at 7pm and had a quick word from the president of the club and the assistant coaches. After endless kissing of strangers (here it is 3 kisses everytime you say hello), we got down to the dirty business of preseason training.

Running for hours has never been my idea of a good time, but the girls on my team and Laurent made it as pleasant as possible. Laurent especially went out of his way to make sure that I was understanding things, and would take time to speak slowly or re-explain something if I had a confused look on my face. The girls were also really helpful and encouraging, and I felt like they were going out of their way to make me feel at ease even if we couldn't communicate that well.

As for the training session, we alternated running laps around the lake with push-ups, uphill sprints, ab workouts, and medicine ball throws. It was intense, but the atmosphere was upbeat and positive and I left feeling like this was going to be a fun year of handball.

I am particularly excited about our upcoming team trip to the Pyranees on Sept. 1-2, where we will spend a weekend camping in the mountains and doing rock-climbing as a team bonding experience!! Yayy!!

We will also play 4 games before our real season starts on Sept. 15- including one game against a Spanish team (in Spain, I hope!).

For now, it is time to rest and recoup to get ready for another grueling workout tomorrow. We will have practice everyday for the next two weeks except on Wednesdays, and now I know that we will use every minute of the 2 hours to the fullest! But I'm looking forward to it, and will definitely welcome the day we put away our sneakers (and the lake) in exchange for handball shoes and the gym.

Je suis arrive!

I have arrived in France! Yayy France! I had an amazingly easy flight, which certainly helped to get things off on the right foot. Also a plus- my two large bags made it safely, and none of the airline attendants called me out for my extremely large/heavy carry-ons: I definitely overdid it with my "carry-on" as a huge backpack (think travelling Southeast asia for 6 months- it is that size) with all of my books and shoes/boots/random heavy stuff, and my "purse or one personal item" which was a messanger back with my laptop, books and anything else that would fit.

Besides the extra 40kg I took in my abused carry-on allowance, I decided to maximize my carrying capacity by wearing many of my clothes. With everyone else around me in tank-tops and sandals, I looked like a total dumbass wearing my snow boots, jeans, 10 layers of clothing including a sweatshirt and my winter jacket, while carrying another jacket in my arms. Everyone looked at me like "what are you doing dressed like that when we are landing in the south of France in August" only with more of the antipathy you might expect from French people. Whatever. It was cheaper than the $7/kg I would have been charged for excess baggage.

Actually, this was a much milder alternative to the original idea I came up with when I found out how expensive the excess baggage rate was for my airline. What I really wanted to do was sew myself a fat suit and stuff it with a bunch of clothes. I figured they can charge you for excess baggage weight, but they can't charge you for being personally overweight (at least not yet). If only I wasn't one of those people who usually get strip-searched before getting on a plane. Not sure how I would weasel my way out of pretending to weigh 300lbs.

Anyway, when I arrived in Montpellier I was beat, although happy to finally make it to France after what seems like months of preparation. I was met by my host family who helped me take my stuff inside their house, where I will be staying until my apartment is ready on September 1. I am super excited about this! I also saw my new car, a gently used Renault stick shift hatchback. Awwww, how cute and French! I will hopefully be learning to drive that soon? I mean, I know how to drive a stick shift in principle, but will need to learn to maneuver it in France- which is kind of hectic with all of the traffic circles, pedestrians, bicycles, trams, and people on vespas weaving between cars.

For now, I am just finding my groove, getting ready to start practice with the team on Monday night, and French classes at the Universite de Montpellier on September 3. Until then I am determined to unpack as little as possible, besides what I absolutely need. This means I intend to wear the same pants and rotate a few shirts over the next week and a half to avoid having to repack all of my suitcases when I move into my new apartment.

PS: I wanted to include some pictures of my new beautiful town, but one of the various items gone MIA is my camera battery charger. So, now my camera battery is dead and I can't seem to find the charger anywhere. Sigh. Maybe soon.And by soon I mean if and when I actually unpack everything and/or if I figure out how to use French ebay and can get myself a new one.