Surprises

Ok a report of the surprises I've had from the first week in France:
1. I am about a foot taller than almost everyone here, especially the women.
2. My hair stands out. A lot. Apparently it means I'm from Ireland because everybody asks me. I'm not even a little Irish.
3. It rains a lot and it's hotter right now in Wisconsin than here.
4. The airport is really small and the landing strip is literally a little pavement and the mediterranean sea, separated by a few boulders. When we landed all I could see out my window was water and I almost had a heart attack.
5. The hospital that I work at, 'Lenval', is apparently where Brad Pitt and Angelina had their baby.
6. My host mom just called what I've been calling the mountain that we live on a 'colline' translating to hill. hahaha ok then whats a mountain?!? (can't wait to go hiking!)
7. French people don't drink water the way Americans do. It's been difficult to drink enough water and not feel dehydrated, especially since I'm really used to having so much every day coming off the tennis season. And a lot of the water is carbonated? I'm not really sure if thats the right word for it but yeah, its called 'l'eau gazeux'.
8. My name is really hard for people. As far as I know my housemate last year from Nantes, Kari, never had a problem with it so I wasn't expecting that either. I get a lot of Kles-ay or klee-say.

Trending: new talent - catching famous balls! ;)

Welp, if you haven't seen my Facebook status yet, looks like Roland Garros is a no go (for this year anyways). BUTTTTT I went to the Nice Open last friday, which was fantabulous! First I saw the Bryan Brothers play, which was fantastic doubles. And since of course they are so dominant they finished early so I headed to another court where I could watch some other doubles. That part was cool because I was actually so close to the court that I could hear them planning the next point at the wall between each point, sweet right? Then came Gilles Simon verses Almagro which was another blowout for Almagro. But it was still really fun to see because Gilles is from Nice so he had a lot of loud French fans there that was entertainment for sure. And after that match I could've seen Monfils play but no, he had to lose to some american bryan baker. Who the heck is bryan baker?!? Well anyways that got rained out which was probably good for my mental state because I would have just sat there and pouted that I wasn't 30 feet away from Monfils at the moment because of this Baker dude. Whatevs.

So the title of this post...yes I caught yet another ball from an awesome famous person! After the match, Mike Bryan stood up to take balls from the ball boy to hit into the crowd - I obviously immediately stood up and since I'm about a foot taller than everyone here in France, Mike looked me straight in the eye, pointed to me and hit one right into my hands :) Obviously because I'm awesome and he knows it. Yeahhhh that's what's up.

So I know people have been wanting pictures of Nice and such and they will come! Theres lots so for now Ill add a few more of the tennis ones that I have and you'll see the city later. Ok soon, not later, soon I promise!

First toss...Bob on the left and Mike on the right

I kept telling myself 'this is real life'. I was so close to them! 

The entertaining 'gillou' fans! What it would be like to see a French player at the French Open I can't even imagine...

Almagro on the left and Gilles Simon on the right for the toss

This is where my seat was...no zoom! 28 euros? Id say what a bargain :)

Cannes Film Festival

Yesterday some of my new friends and I took the train to Cannes to see the city and the scene around the film festival. I was expecting a lot more people around, especially since it was the last weekend of the festival but it was nice that we could walk easily on the beach and such. But yeah, nothing like the crowds of Summerfest like I was expecting. We hung out on the beach a little while enjoying the weather and people watching and just learning more about each other and talking about school, home, etc. which included an argument with someone that went to michigan about how much better the badgers are...just like with friends at hope ;) I had really awesome ice cream and we saw some apparently super famous people that none of us recognized - haha we stopped asking who they were after one man literally laughed in our face saying it was the biggest italian star actress of the moment. We were obvious american tourists, but it was still really fun! We returned to Nice for dinner and more ice cream...I had an Irish hard cider with bruschetta which was amazing. It was overall a really nice day! Okay so I'm a little too lazy and have way too much work to take the time to get pictures up, but they will come soon, maybe even later today if I can get my work done fast enough. (This program is a little hard to balance play and work since there is so much to see and do yet so so much homework! :/)

I should be a Packer receiver

I leave today!!!! Whoa, leaving for the airport in the hour. Super excited, a few things that I can't find like my camera case but I'll find it eventually. Dad made pork chops for lunch so I'm about to go eat that...yummm. But basically I wanted to post to brag to the world that I caught about a 25 yard pass from Jordy Nelson last night. No one is as cool as me right now. Yep. Well next post will be from France!

The dreaded 'p' word :(

Hey friends, thanks for being awesome and reading this. The plan is to keep you all updated on my prancing about Europe and such. I've never been good at keeping up a journal but I'll try real hard and we'll see how this goes! So I've been home since Saturday (tennis team stayed after finals to compete at nationals woot!) and am leaving this Saturday. Whoa. Lots to do and no time. Tons of people to see, things to get in preparation, and, dare i say the p word...packing (not what you thought? :p). Friends, I HATE packing. I'm terrible at it. I procrastinate by doing things like starting a blog. And there's something I've learned with this week. With every little thing that I own sitting in my room at home makes me realize I have way more stuff than I ever thought possible. I'd think I'm not the most materialistic person in the world. I'm way more into sports and just chilling with people than shopping. But I have a lot of things! So yesterday was spent filling a bag of clothes for GoodWill, and chucking a bunch of little pieces of junk I've accumulated over the year. I thought I'd be done packing yesterday, shop today, and be free to see people the rest of the week (being only Thursday and Friday, boo). I may have to just host a speed dating night on Friday so I can try my best to catch up on all my lovely Wisconsin friends' lives before leaving. Not a bad idea? Hmmm kind of cheating, but better than nothing right? Plus, I'll have another week home with everyone between getting back from France and leaving for MI for work for the rest of the summer. Procrastination station, out.