Castle and Cathedrals

Hey pics to follow guys. Here is the post for now.

Bonsoir All. Sorry I haven’t blogged in a bit but it goes without saying that finding times to get this on here is limited BUT (and a big BUT it is) I MIGHT BE MOVING INTO MY OWN APARTMENT!!! Free internet, phone, my own kitchen, bathroom, NO OLD FUCKIN PEOPLE!!! I am looking at different apartments tomorrow, Friday 28th, with Chris. He has been a savior for me. Jean Luc said it would be possible to find another living arrangement if the prices met. So hopefully soon I will be able to keep in touch with you guys more. I’m crossing my fingers. A lot has happened this week. Rain, snow, sun, and a couple of field trips. Thanks for all the compliments. I especially liked the *Illegal Immigrant Alert* one. If you guys are going to be anonymous on the page, at least tag your name on it so I know who it is. I bet that one was Alex though….conservative asshole.
Easter Sunday. Our games were cancelled due to rain and I was going to spend Easter with Chris’s family. I wasn’t expecting any candy at all but Anne, Chris’s wife, got me a huge orange chocolate egg with candy on the inside. It was so nice. Anne really has gone out of her way to see that I am ok. She researched all these apartments for me and has tagged a couple that we are going to look at. I am so grateful that I have her to look out for me. The lunch was wonderful. We had a salad, beans, and lamb. I still think I amaze every one in France about how much I can eat. Still being polite on my portions.

Boy’s gotta eat ladies and gents.

The next day I was supposed to go to the Normandy Beach but snow prevented that trip. Yeah, fucking snow. So Chris picked me up around noon when the snow had melted and we were off to see Chateau Gilliard (Castle Gilliard). It was a holiday on Monday due to Easter. Kinda weird but hey, what’s the point of a holiday if you don’t miss work? It is a medieval castle in a town about 2 hours to the south of Rouen. Emily, you would have just loved it. When you enter this town, it sits in a Seine River valley that is overlooked by this castle. You have to trek up winding roads to get to the top of this hill amidst a huge forest area. It was amazing. Rolling, green, French plains were visible from the top. I took a lot of pictures of the area, trying to be the best Ansel Adams that I could. So the Harrison family and I enjoyed the day at the castle. It was really weird walking through the courtyard of a castle. Again there are not any adjectives to describe some things. Chris, Gabriel, his son, and I walked around mostly because little Emmanuel, his daughter, fell down and scuffed her little hands up. The kids are really starting to warm up to me and I feel like their Uncle Tony. It was a good day.

The next day Chris wanted to take me into Rouen to show me the sites in the downtown area. He keeps on assuring me that there is no problem with him toting me around. Rouen actually isn’t a huge town, it is just the surrounding suburbs that make it big. So we hit the popular part of the town. I have to apologize about one the posted pics. The first cathedral pic that you see is not Joan of Arc’s cathedral, it is just another cathedral in town. Joan of Arc’s Cathedral is a rather unorthodox looking one. The cathedral’s main building represents a ship, with the other structures representing huge waves crashing onto the ship. It was really impressive. We saw the main cathedral as well. It is still hard to believe that people go throughout their normal routine of life living in a town with these massive, intricate, beautiful structures. The main cathedral is impressive. It is the tallest building in the town and it is only when you are inside of the cathedral that you really get a perspective on how big it is. Massive halls, intricate stained glass paintings, huge alter, and huge stone carvings. Is carvings the word? Whatever. I took a lot of pictures. Emmanuel even let me take a pic with her with a beautiful smile. She is starting to think my face is a familiar one now. Gabriel climbs all over me like a big brother and he actually took me down when we were at the castle. I really appreciate how his family has taken me in. The day ended with Chris and I taking the kids into a huge candy shop. Think Mr. Bulky’s on steroids. This place is just full of color. I grabbed a little plastic bag and carried Emmanuel around the shop to pick out what candy she wanted.

Chris took me home after that because I had to plan that nights practice for the guys. I was going to have fun this practice. Jean Luc said, “Uhhh Tonee, I vant the guys to feel….how do you say….tired, at the end of practice.”

“No problem, Captain Bicard.”

I didn’t say that. But was thinking it.

I went through bunt coverage’s with the guys and some hitting drills. I have started kinda of a neat handshake with some of the guys. I have a special one for each one of them. Kinda of a tag we have with each other. For instance, Charles and I have a handshake with quick hand movements and at the end we point an imaginary gun gangster style and click twice. After about an hour and a half of practice, I had a good conditioning sequence for the guys. I broke down my “300 Spartan” workout into a nightmare of running exercises. I showed all the guys the different exercises that we would complete in a series of 1 minute intervals. I was noticing that they were muttering to each other when I would show them each drill. It was probably something along the lines of,

“What the fuck…”

They didn’t particularly like the “Spiderman pushups.” That is where you get in pushup position but your feet are on top of a bench. When you go down, one of your legs comes off the bench to touch your knees to the ground, then visa-versa.
Haha. So we did all the exercises in the time I had allotted. Everyone, including myself was hurtin. I was screaming at the top of my lungs at the guys. “C’MON OLIVEAR…..LET’S GO PIERRE!” I still really don’t know how the guys feel about a little American yelling at them.

Today I had the softball team to coach and I did the same type of thing to them. It was great. Not so Uncle Tony anymore though. Kinda like, “fuck you Uncle Tony” now. But a good “fuck you”, if there is such a thing. I have put quite a big dent into The Hobbit. Ian, you’re right, it is like seeing old friends again. I didn’t pick it up the first time, but Gandalf is kinda an asshole to Bilbo. Well, it looks like our games for Sunday in Dunkirk are cancelled….Give you two guesses….So we are going to practice once again on Sunday. That is fine with me because Dunkirk is in the most northern part of France and “Latino boys don’t play so well in cold weather, now do we precious.” I love and miss you guys a ton and will talk to you soon. Au revior.