Time... is on your side...

Wazzzzzzzzuuuuuupppppppp.

I figured with the Super Bowl having been played last Sunday, that would be a fitting way to open this latest Captain's Log.

Life in Rouen knows not the meaning of the word uneventful. Now I realize I may have used that word at some point in time before, but I digress.

Monday, there was one of the slates competing for ESC Rouen's sports council for next year putting on some kind of fair at school. So all day long there was free hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, cakes, brownies, cookies, water, orange juice, coffee, crepes, and similar things being offered, as well as giant inflatable games to play, which were good ways to pass time between and during the two classes I had that day. Then at night, there was a poster advertising a broomball tournament down at the arena in town. Being Canadian, I was very intrigued at the prospect of spending the evening in an arena, and quickly formed a team comprised of Jordan and Nick from Ontario, Daniella and Ana Laura from Mexico, and Amanda from the U.S./Brazil. I wanted to call us Team NAFTA and thought that was a clever idea, but the Mexicans chose are team name, so we were Team Chile, though I won't get into why in order to keep this blog as close to g-rated as possible. So we brought our team down to the arena for a little after 9 pm, and enjoyed the free cheese fondue that was also being offered there. Unfortunately, we were soon disappointed by the fact that it wasn't really much of a "tournament", but rather kind of just timed, casual-ish games of broomball. They kept score, and wrote the scores down, but it really served no purpose. Still, competitive spirit boiling, we were eager to get into a game.
And so we did, being paired up for our first match against some French-men, and sticking it to them, with me giving us the early lead, and then Jordan standing tall in nets, preserving the 1-0 win. Our next game was also against a French team, but it ended in a 0-0 tie. I had a breakaway with little time left in the game, but was unfortunately frustrated by the goaltender, a la Michael Ryder. For our final game of the night, we set up a "championship" match against the other Canadian team, featuring a full load of 6 Canucks, and a Fin to boot. Again, I had a golden opportunity to put us ahead, being set up perfectly by Nick for a one timer, but Laura, their goaltender, had the last word. And again, a 0-0 result. So we finished the night with a 1-0-2 record, which was ahead of the other Canadian crew and their 1-2-1 score. All in all, it was a very very fun evening, and we set off by foot back into downtown to catch the nightbus. All seemed according to plan.... until we almost got killed! As we were walking in a line-ish formation through the streets, I was in back, and heard a wooshing noise go by behind my foot. I quickly turned around to see a line of smoke running across the street. And then, as everyone turned to look, a small explosion on the sidewalk, of a cherry bomb-like firecracker. Someone shot a firecracker at us!!! We don't know who did it, as we didn't see anyone, but it was kinda scary all the same. And then next, waiting at the bus stop, two 20-something year old drunk french guys came up to us and had a conversation as follows:
Them: "Do you have any water?"
Us: "No, sorry."
Them: "... All we want is some water..."
Us: "Sorry, we don't have any."
Them: "FUCK YOU," giving us the finger, and then turning and walking away.
Ya... That was a little strange. And that wasn't the last bit of it either, as when we got off the bus back to residence, two guys kinda followed us up the street and were asking questions to the two ladies in the back of the line. So Jordan and I hung back, and kinda got in the middle, so the guys started talking to us a bit, but eventually gave up and backed off. So, if you add them up and exaggerate a little bit, that's THREE near death experiences in one night!

Tuesday was a little bit less death-like, as I got to relax in the morning, and only had a make-up class to attend at 5 pm for a class that had been cancelled two weeks earlier. After class, I kinda wanted to stay in and get my presentation ready for Thursday, but there was a pretty big party going on down at O'Kallaghans, and since that's been dubbed "our" bar, I felt obliged to go. And it's a good thing I did, because the place was packed and it was a ton of fun. Drinks were cheaper than usual, so 20 euro got me plenty drunk, and we ended the night walking Ale back to her appartment downtown, and then hailing a cab between 6 of us back to residence. I got to bed at about 3:30 am, which is relevant because...

This morning I had class at 9! But I made it, and it was fine. And then after eating some quiche in the cafeteria, I got my presentation done, had a brief 'accidental' nap, then prepared what I want to say for the presentation, and am now writing this at 10 pm Wednesday night. There is some kind of dance party going on not far from residence that just got underway, but I'm pretty sure I'll be skipping that to get a good night's sleep for the presentation at 9 again tomorrow morning.

Right so that's all for now kinda. Hope all is well back home, or wherever you may be reading this from.

In true French fashion, A+.

Dan