france- week one

After a day of non stop travel, I have arrived in the town of Lille, France. I started off in Vegas with a 455pm flight on Thursday. Around 130 I called a taxi to come pick me up at the country club. As I finished packing and got all my travel things in order I assumed the taxi would come in 15-20 minutes ( as they mentioned when I ordered it). Yet, at 230 there was no taxi to be found and I called back. I talked with the same guy who said," Son, there is one on the way, for sure." I replied, "Ok father, thank you!" So I watched a little TV and waited some more. At 315 I started to get nervous as my flight on a budget German carrier only flew to Frankfurt twice a week, Thursday and Sunday ( and Sunday would get to Europe Monday, too late for the tournament). So, I called back again and he said I was next in line for a taxi, meaning it could be 10 minutes or 45 minuts, a very comforting fact as I had ordered the taxi a few hours ago. So I called Nick up and he came cruising over around 340 to take to the airport. After we took a shortcut and hit serious traffic I started to really sweat (taking off my wool sweater was appropiate at this time). After turning the corner and seeing 50 cars piled behind a green light and not moving, this is when a sentence complete with less verbs than expletives was appropiate.

We got to the aiport at 415 and I stumbled out of the car with my loads of luggage all but defeated and thinking I would have to buy another flight at the airport. I ran straight to the Condor (budget German airline) counter and laid on the please and thank yous as thick as possible. I also said I had to be in europe asap as I was to be playing in a huge tennis tournament which was being televised all over and it would not be complete without me, yes me. For some reason they do not adhere to the 60 minutes before flight, check in is closed for international travel. So without breaking out some cash to bribe the little old lady fumbling with my passport and paper ticket she got me a middle seat direct to Frankfurt (middle whoopee). At thsi point I didn't really care, so I sprinted upstairs with my racquets in tow and made the fairly short security line. I made it through, but I forgot to see the four large letter s's on my boarding card, special screening for me (whoopee!). So it was 435 and this guy was going through all my electronics trying to figure out what they were. "Son, what is this for?" I replied, " Well that is for entertainment, to keep me company on my 12 hour flight to Frankfurt, (cough) if I make it, that is." What are they for? What do you think they are for, having fun, being entertained, passing the time, not for cooking eggs or stringing my tennis rackets thank you very much!

So, I made the flight and had a whole row to myself, thanks to that little old lady at the desk! I stretched out and got out the electronics to get me through the flight as we took off. This was all too easy I thought, so a baby behind started to wail like he had swallowed some spicy curry of sort. This went on for about 80% of the flight and the mother seemed to think it was all ok, and didn't really bother to think much of it. Also, the baby's jump kicking my seat didn't seem to bother her, but why would it, it was only my neck being catupulted back and forward every 90 seconds. Well, at least that kid will be the next chuck norris, eating indian food between takes of his action movie or something.

After having some much needed down time in the Lufthansa VIP lounge in the Frankfurt airport, I had some food and downloaded my emails to check on the short one hour flight to Paris. I got on board a packed flight, but had a decent aisle seat and fell asleep as soon as we took off. Getting up only to snag some orange juice and a little snack, I went back to sleep until the wheels touched down in Paris at Charles De Gaulle International airport. After asking a few people, I found my way to the udnerground TGV station and bought a direct train ticket to Lille Europe ( why does it say Europe after the city, who knows). 55 dollars for a one hour train ride, I thought I was going to get a FFM (French foot massage) or something like that, but all I really hope for was no samurai side kicking babies behind me. I was satisfied to see it was all 60+ something people aboard and no one was kicking any seats at all, mostly snoozing and that was fine with me. I played a little bit on my playstation and went to sleep. Getting to the train station, I followed the taxi signs to the ground level. Twice I was stopped by young kids with what it looked like tennis bags. They asked in French if I played tennis...I nodded yes, not saying much as I don't speak French. All I said was, "you too?" They said, nooo, "squash!" Ok, son great talk! I made it to ground level and went out to the busy street corner outside the train station. Thinking this is where the taxis would pick up...but 40 minutes later I had seen one taxi and after I had waved frantically at him, and he had waved frantically back but had not stopped, I walked down the street a few blocks. With less people down here, the taxis thought it smart to wait where there was no train station, but just a regular sidewalk, brilliant!! After a 25 dollar taxi ride to the hotel, which looked as if the tennis tournament once a year kept it in business, I got my room and passed out, barely getting my coat and jeans off.

Today is Sunday and it was a pretty good day overall. I slept in after waking up at 2am smelling smoke of some sort, and realized it was permeating through the paper thin walls. I think the guys next door had lost in qualies and were seeing who could chainsmoke through a pack of cigarettes, whoever is the fastest sleeps on the floor!! So I was up and could'nt go back to sleep, thank goodness my unisom sleep pills were within a inspector gadget reach. I popped one and was dozing off in my non-smoking smoke filled room, solid! I slept in until 955am and figured I should eat breakfeast as I had bypassed dinner the night before fora clif bar and my warm bed. I threw on my coat and went down to the lobby. Bonjour messuir! Halo was all I could muster, I guess I could have said Bonjour Madame! But then they would have tried to speak more french to me, and we all know that aint happening! I went straight to the crossiants, because,"When in Rome..." Well, I am in France and I hear the pastries are greatm, so I had one or four croissants. Also the yoghurt was pretty good and I had 3 of those. After they told me I had eaten enough ( I thought it was a buffet, Madame!) I hiked back up to my room on the second floor. After laying in bed regretting I ate half the croissants for the entire buffet I mustered up the energy to throw on some spandex (yipee) and my tennis clothes and slung my racket bag over my shoulder. I wandered over the freeways and past a bustling mcdonalds near a large apartment building. Right near the courts were some Sunday church bells playing, but no people, do they go on Sunday's here? I asked around to see if anyone wanted to hit. Most guys were set or grinding out qualies so I went out back on the outdoor courts and did some fitness. It was actually pretty nice out so I did some court sprints, jump rope, and theraband. After working off the croissants I headed back inside and was met by a girl asking if I wanted to practice in broken english. I asked her if she was any good, hhaha, she replied that it was for another male player. Dennis, from Russia or Uzbekistan, somewhere with a hard accent it was. We hit for an hour and he was pretty good, the one seed in doubles I learned later. He asked me why I was so far from home. Well, Dennis I heard Lille, France had great croissants of course.

I did some more fitness because I doubted I was going to hit again and then went to ask if they had a buffet. No buffet, but thank goodness they had more than the jambon baguette the previous day. A whole three course meal complete with beverage, booyah! 10 euros was the asking price and they had a taker in me. First was a rice pilaf of sorts with salami (4) and a great crab salad in a half shelled tomato (7). Next was soft penne noodles and chicken/ham stroganaugh (7). To complete this nice tennis club of Lillois lunch was a chocolate tart with caramel center. I said no, but the chef insisted...so I abliged. Halfway through I pushed it away, but he insisted again, caramel, caramel. Maybe he thought caramel was only produced in France or at least not in North America. So I ate the fabulous caramel and gave the rest to the dog begging at my feet!

When I asked for a ride back to the hotel, they told me the tournament hotel had been switched, sweet, just when I had unpacked all 6 bags of mine. So I had someone take me back and wait for me to throw everything together. Our new hotel, Balladins has rooms the size of my closet back in Vegas and a spicket on the ground for a showerhead. Maybe it is not considered a shower since it is not above your head?? Clarification on this one judges....

I am sharing with my doubles partner, Florin Mergea from Bucharest. A nice, laid back guy who speaks some French, so he should come in handy this week! We ate across the street and I had a solid barbeque chicken meal (6) and he had miniature chicken wings, no wonder you are hungry two hours later Florin! We have been sharing psp games all night and he has a good collection like me, so we shouldn't be bored this week. Let's just hope we can also spend some time going deep into the tournament. Speaking of the tournament, there are two sites, little did I know! The qualies site has a nice kitchen and 5 courts. The main site, downtown has one court on a wooden surface. Good thing we can't practice there at all, solid! Neither of us play tomorrow so we will head to the qualies site and get a hit or two in and try to find some wireless internet somewhere in this city. I am pondering taking the train to the Paris station, because I know they have it there. HMM 80 euros round trip, three hours out of your day, but wireless internet, priiiceless! Ok well it is almost 11pm here and I want a good nights rest for our adventure trying to find some wireless and my grind sessions on court as well as in the email inbox!

Sunday 3/18
We lost today in the finals, in three tough sets vs Carraz/Siderenko. We actually played quite well and won a tiebreaker in the first after being upa break earlier in the set. After losing the first point, Florin and I played a near flawless breaker with some great volley reactions to win it easily. They served well second set and we couldn't capatilize on some chances later in the set and lost 64. Third set everyone was holding easily through the beginning and middle parts. I think everyone kind of lost rhythum with the match and at net as there weren't too many points played. They cracked some returns up my line out of nowhere and we couldn't hold on to Florin's serve late in the set and they broke us. Sidorenko served it out fairly well and that was that....

A good sized crowd was nice to play in front of, even though they were cheering for the frenchies, but who cares... After Florin, George and I went to Flunch a buffet sort of decent restaraunt. We crushed the salad buffet and a steak (quite rubbery) and I had a large strawberry tart for dessert. I felt much better after as I only had a baguette with a little bit of ham before the match. We headed back to the hotel and relaxed, talked about the match a little and figured out we would go later to the train station to get our France udner 25 rail tickets ( 60% off prices) and our ticket to Poitiers in the early morning.

Later, after getting the ticket and rail card we decided to eat again, even though none of us were hungry. We headed to china town with George's directions and settled on a small, muggy chinese/thai place. I had sweet and sour pork, reminding of the good old days back in California with my family. On a side note...I would always get sweet and sour pork when we would have a celeberatory dinner when my dad sold a job. I don't know why I would, but maybe because it was fried ( never had that at home) and it was really sweet! So, it was always a custom, and I always felt awful and so full after. Same thing this time as well, also due to the fact that I ate a feast 2 hours prior---fatty alert!! The guy next to us bought a meal and let him cook it at the table witha portable grill, bad idea, idiot alert! This guy was grilling his onions for a good 15 minutes on high heat. We didn't think much of it at first as we were trying to talk with this waitress who didn;t have a great handle on any language really. So before we know it, this guy had the place looking like we had been bombarded with a sneak smoke attack by SWAT. Maybe Colin Farrel had thrown a smoke bomb in and wanted to steal my pork and Florin's spicy thai soup! They manager finnaly came over and just turned it off, it was so funny! She didn't say anything to the guy, just turned it off, looked at him and went in the back! He was quite dumbfounded but the message as well as us staring at him...good stuff here in Lille. We waddled out into the cold and piled into George's little car. Back at the hotel we packed quickly and fell asleep quickly...