Photo Essay - Spring Sprung

This time of year bees, butterflies, (chocking hazards on the bike - haha!) and beetles are buzzing around everywhere to announce the arrival of Spring.  These two cities (Tours and Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire) are in full bloom right now.  This photo essay represents the best I could do at capturing this seasonal beauty.  The pictures come from my backyard, the flower market, and random walks and rides around town.  Highlights include poppies growing out of stony roadside walls, a sunset behind the gym, and a twenty foot guard dog.  Haha - Enjoy!

Just Another Day in Paradise

Tonight we ventured to Paris to steal a tough four-set win (25-20, 19-25, 16-25, 21-25) against a formidable rival.  It felt so great to get a W!

I also finally found my name on USAVB dot com.  It doesn't really matter, but for some reason it feels super good just to see my name on the same list as some of the greatest female volleyball players in the world right now (Logan Tom, Nicole Davis, Alisha Glass - just to name a few)!

That's all for now.  More later!

Home Is Wherever I'm With You

Here is a cheesy slideshow of the precious time Billy and I spent together in France! *

Slideshow from Amy Moor on Vimeo.

* These photos were put in chronological order for the most part, so it's a total coincidence that this song weirdly corresponded to a bunch of the shots...  Also, I tried to use photos that we didn't already photobomb you with on facebook, but I was not entirely successful, so sorry for the dupes. 

For the best results, watch all the way through with your eyes glued to the screen.  For those of you who want a *real* challenge, try watching without blinking.  It's only five minutes!!  You can do it.  If you're new to this kinda thing, your goal is to stay in the room.  That's a super nerdy bikram yoga joke.  Haha!  :)

Footage is Fun!

Oh my goodness!  I finally get to share some rare footage of me in the wild!  Haha...  Billy took this video during our game against Rennes Etudiants Club on Feburary 9th.  Rennes is the capital of Brittany (far northwest France) and Tours is the capital of Pays de la Loire (central northwest France), so it's kinda like a regional rivalry...  This team is so fun to play against because, even though they aren't very tall, they are dynamic and energetic and go after every ball.  Here are a few clips Billy caught from our match against them: 

I'm jersey #11 and wearing a white headband.

Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire vs. Rennes from Amy Moor on Vimeo.

Haha - did you like that premature celebration??  This game (which we lost in four sets (22-25, 17-25, 25-13, 18-25)) marked a five week break from league matches.  So, after a little Spring break action, we got back in the gym full throttle this week.

Our next official match is away on March 23rd against Vie au Grand Air de St Maur (a suburb outside of Paris).  Hopefully by then my ankles (yes - still sore!) will feel better and I'll be jump serving again.

Here is a link to our standings if you're interested:
http://www.ffvbbeach.org/ffvbapp/resu/seniors/2013-2014/index_2fd.htm
We are Reveil Sportif de Saint-Cyr.

It's really hard to believe we only have five matches left...  to WIN!  :)

The Incredible Story of One Lucky Mitten

After the farmer's market this morning, I headed north on my bike to stock up on staples that don't grow from the ground here like maple syrup, muesli, and oat milk.  Once inside Auchan (European Walmart equivalent that normally makes me think deeply about the Russian anarchist group Voina, but that's a different talk show...) I noticed that one of my new gloves was missing!  I immediately retraced my steps back to the bike rack, but turned up nothing.

After coffee and shopping I retraced my bike route home scouring the ground for one bright green mitten.  Turning around the second time, I started hearing my boss at SweetWARE in the back of my head quoting Einstein "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  I'm having visions of Tom Robbins' Skinny Legs and All, my bright green mitten bravely striking out on it's own and making it's way in the world with other escaped inanimate objects.  This was craziness, and I loved these gloves so much...  I was determined to reunite this perfect pair.

Flash forward three hours, I'm walking and looking.  After no more than fifteen minutes of walking up the street like a crazy person with one glove on (which apparently is the international sign language for "I've lost a glove")  I hear a woman from across the street yell "Madame!"  Yeah?  She's sitting at the bus stop about to catch a bus going the opposite direction.  You will not believe this.  She goes, "Have you lost a glove?"  I reply, "Why yes, I have!"  What a coincidence!  I cross the street and she explains that she picked up my other glove on the bike path a few hours ago and took it home.  She happens to live nearby and can get it for me and it will only take a second...  We walk together for a minute (I'm feeling much less crazy by now) and I agree to wait on a bench outside the entryway to her building.

A few minutes later, an old woman wearing kinda outlandish jewelry and a disheveled hair cut cops a squat next to me and almost sets her scarf on fire lighting her cigarette.  She asks me if I'm visiting someone here.  I tell her I'm waiting for someone.  Not much time passes before I see two people in scrubs leaving the building, which is when I ask the woman next to me if this is a hospital.  She says, "YES, this is a psychiatric hospital."  Uhhh...  The crazy is starting to creep back.  Haha!  Now, I'm sitting here wondering if this lady is going to come back with a rubber ducky declaring "Here's your glove back!" ...or just forget about me entirely.  Wrong on both counts.  Wonderful woman #1 restores peace to my universe and I walk home (so overjoyed) with two warm hands.

All I Want for Christmas

Here's my Christmas wish list:
1.  peanut butter power bars
2.  refried beans
3.  $ for travel (Paris/Amsterdam???), gloves, and winter boots

Of course, if you want to send a care package, pretty much anything you can think of will be appreciated.  You can sponsor #3 here just by clicking the big blue button that says donate.

I'm wishing everyone at home a great holiday!  Big huge hugs!

Random Ramblings - Part II

The *Right* Right of Way

After getting (almost) run over several times, it has been explained to me that the right turn *always* has the right of way here.  So, for example, say you're driving fast down a straight road, but you're approaching an intersecting street on your right.  If and only if there is a vehicle barreling down that street about to make a fast and completely legal right turn onto the street upon which you are driving, it's your responsibility to prepare to stop.  

Video Killed the Radio Star

You don't have to be attractive to be on TV here.  There *are* lots of attractive people on TV here, but it certainly does not appear to be a universal rule like it is in the States.  There are loads of normal looking people on TV.  Makeup, lighting and airbrushing are used sparingly.  This has not affected how disinclined I am to watch TV.  When I do, every other commercial is for cheese or chocolate.

Sick and Tired (In the Best Possible Way... Hehe)

Starting my sixth week of a fifteen week jump training program called Air Alert!  My body is beat, but I'm jumping higher all the time.

Also, my jump serve is steadily improving.  Maguy has helped me in practices to systematically fix one thing at a time.  First, she fixed how I hold my serving hand.  Second, she fixed how I hold the ball.  Next, she fixed the height of my toss.  Then, she fixed how far I stand back from the end line and the size of my steps.  Finally, how high my hand is at the point of contact.  Now, for the first time in my life (and thanks entirely to Maguy) I can confidently say that I have a killer jump serve.  Woohoo!

On Sunday, we lost to the third seed in our league (25-22, 25-7, 25-20).  I can't even describe how frustrating this game was...  What an emotional roller coaster!  We came so close in the first set only to totally implode in the second set - starting out badly with a slough of unforced errors and then ending in a disappointing 12 point rut (stuck in a rotation we just could not sideout).  I didn't even make it to the service line...  Competing in that third set was not enough of a consolation to comfort us from the single digit shut out.  Ugh!  After it was over, I just went to the sideline and wept.  The locker room was quiet, but I wanted more than anything to tell my team, "I'm sick of losing.  I know we can compete with these teams!"  So, I just blurted it out...  Everyone was looking at me like, "Uhh.  You're speaking in English."  Haha!  Here's what I was having trouble with:

AVOIR MARRE DE - to be sick/tired of
j'ai marre de
tu as marre de
il/elle a marre de
noux avons marre de
vous avez marre de
ils/elles ont marre de

RIVALISER - to compete
je rivalise
tu rivalises
il/elle rivalise
nous rivalisons
vous rivalisez
ils/elles rivalisent

So, the phrase would've been:
"J'ai marre de perdre.  Je sais qu'on puisse rivaliser avec ces équipes là."

I'm more fired up than ever to WIN and I believe our team is right around the corner from really performing.  This week, I'm taking Maguy's advice and tapering my double days.  All this down time is freeing me up to rest, write, and chomp at the bit...  I'm excited to have a great practice tonight and blow our rivals out of the water this weekend!

French Milestone #2

Someone asked me for directions!  Yay!

I was riding home from a record-speed shopping stop today and a nicely dressed older woman stopped me to ask where the nearest Picard (French frozen foods store) was.  After barely containing my excitement about being asked for directions by a (possibly senile?) native French speaking person in the first place, I apologized that I wasn't sure, wished her a fine day, and pedaled ahead.  Sure enough, less than a minute later I spotted the Picard.  I wasn't going to miss this opportunity to help someone in need (it's a very rare role reversal these days...).  So, I pulled a uey to let her know that it wasn't much further up ahead on her right.  Nothing like a French Milestone and a good deed all rolled into one to make today a great day!

Stumble the Mumble

We kicked off this month with a three game winning streak, chased immediately by a three game losing streak.  Our best game yet was against Rennes away, where we won in four close sets (14-25, 25-23, 22-25, 21-25).  We're currently sitting comfortably in the middle of the pack (6th out of 10 teams in our league).  The ambiance at practices, however, is far from comfortable...  Me and my teammates and Maguy are all pushing each other harder than ever to keep moving together in the right direction.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my double days where I workout in the morning and then practice in the evening.  Some days are harder than others!  On a clear Tuesday morning, I ride to the Saint-Avertin Amazonia to tag team the gym equipment with a teammate who works out there on her break from work.  On days where the weather is begging me to stay in my warm bed, I end up peeking out the garage door from underneath a pile of wool and three water resistant jackets.  Then, post self-pep-talk, I brave a cold and wet commute (I like to think of it as a refreshing ice cold shower - ha!) to Amazonia Saint-Cyr.

Amazonia is one of our generous sponsors.  It is an amazing gym with locations all over the greater Tours area.  From my house, there is one location walking/jogging distance (Saint-Cyr) and two other locations cycling distance (Saint-Avertin and Joué-lès-Tours).  They have all your basic cardio machines (elliptical, stair master, treadmill, stationary bikes) and all the standard workout equipment (weights for every major muscle group and a workout studio with yoga mats).

One funny thing...  All the cardio machines have audio outlets for streaming TV and internet.  However, the first time I saw this compartment flap cover - I'm not going to lie - I checked to see if wasn't an ashtray.  Nop - plugs for ear buds - Phew!  :)

Even more beloved than cigarettes to the French, though, is coffee.  And I believe I've already mentioned how much people appreciate snacks here, right?  Well, Amazonia wins the Best-Snack-Bar-at-a-Gym Award.  Hands down.  They offer an unlimited coffee and tea bar and yummy apples free for the taking!  So, when I can't motivate myself to go workout, the cappuccino gets me through the door every time.  Haha!

Anyway...  Ah yes, the title of this post...  I saw this quote on facebook the other day - no idea who said it - "Sometimes before you can walk the talk you stumble the mumble." This reminded me of another quote from Picasso who said something like "I'm always doing what I can't do, that's how I get to do it."  And THAT is exactly how I feel about working hard.  It can be a lot of two steps forward, one step back, but as long as you can stay the course, you reap the rewards!

Remembrance Day

168 Saint-Cyriens gave their lives in the First World War.  This morning I attended the inaugural ceremony for a fountain next to the City Hall in Saint-Cyr which signifies and honors their lives.  The ceremony was attended by the Mayor of the city, the president of associations, military, police and firefighters, schools, and families.

It was a clear, cold morning, which made my flip flops a special treat for anyone in my vicinity...  They drew some attention away from the weighty topic of the day and added a little (unintended) levity to peoples' mornings.  I got the classic stare, the look + laugh, the double look, the triple look (which is a lot like the double look, but includes disapproving eye contact), the foot to face stare, the foot to face and back to foot stare (which clocked in at an amazing twenty three seconds!), and the very nice "Aren't you cold?"  I was most uncomfortable and, needless to say, had a difficult time focusing on how deep and beautiful this moment was in the history of the city of Saint-Cyr.

Nevertheless!  The eleventh of November is a national holiday in France that commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany on "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month".  The fountain remembers the 168 fallen soldiers and innocent men, women, and children from Saint-Cyr who died for France in World War I.  The inaugural ceremony was quite beautiful, and (appropriately) French.  Afterwards there was a snack!

A Very Very Un-Scarey Halloween

Halloween came and went here without much excitement at all.  Our practice was cancelled that night, so I went to the gym to workout and on my way back home I spotted one trick-or-treater who, from what I could gather, was being asked by a kind old lady to wait on the sidewalk while she searched in her house for a piece of candy.  I just kept riding, laughing to myself a little, imagining her dumping out her purse on her kitchen table, turning wool sweater pockets inside out, eventually getting out a flashlight, and finding a year old candy bar in her basement.  Poor kid.

The remaining bike ride home from the gym also produced one haunted house sighting.  A neighbor decorated inside and out for what looked like a Halloween party with a mostly invisible attendance (but that could've just been my mind playing tricks on me).  Haha!  All in all, it was a most uneventful evening: no costumes, no gunshots, no stabbings, no drunk adults roaming the streets in ripped stockings, no zombies, no screaming until 3am, no sirens...  Why is this list making me miss home???  :)

With Halloween grossly overlooked, I thought November would come equally quietly, but I was wrong.  Overnight, the cemetery around the corner from where I live turned into a botanical garden of chrysanthemums.  It was a Halloween miracle!  I wish I could've taken before and after photos because it was such a beautiful thing to see almost every grave come to life with bright autumn hues - magenta, pink, yellow, orange, and purple - leaving this previously gray and gloomy plot of land just bursting with color.

After asking around and a little googling, I found out that in France Friday, November 1st is All Saints Day (Toussaint) and Saturday, November 2nd is the Day of the Dead (Jour des Morts).  These holidays are marked by the distinct ritual of honoring the graves of deceased family members.  Apparently on this day more than 22 million chrysanthemums (94% of total annual sales) are sold in France alone.  What a beautiful tradition!

Fun with Verbs!

Here are some of my favorite new verbs in French!

faire valloir - to make the most of
focaliser - to focus
mener - to lead
mouvoir - to drive, propel, move
parachever - to perfect
parvenir - to reach, succeed in
percer - to break through
planer - to soar
pointer - to sharpen, aim, check off
potentialiser - to increase the effect of
pourchasser - to pursue
rentabiliser - to make profitable
surélever - to heighten, raise
tâter - to feel out
taper - to bounce
turbiner - to work, toil
valoriser - to increase the value of
vivifier - to invigorate

... and last, but certainly not least!!
zozoter - to lisp

Their word for LISP is even meaner than ours!  Isn't that crazy?!?
Je zozote
Tu zozotes
Il/elle zozote
Nous zozotons
Vous zozotez
Ils/elles zozotent

...SO MEAN!

Random Ramblings - Part I

51

There's a 51 bus here!  I swear to God...  I was walking down the street and BAM! there was the freaking 51!!!!!  Ahahah - hilarious.  I almost had to sit down on the side of the road I was laughing so hard.  One day - when I'm really homesick - I'm going to ride that line from end to end and dream about the Bay Area.  Ha!  The 51...  We've shared so many good times...

No 666

There's no 666 here.  I found this out in a very absurd way!  Walking into town on a race day, I passed by two guys still proudly sporting their runner's numbers.  One of them was 666!  So I did what any normal American would do - I pointed and laughed in a way that invited everyone to join in - he just looked down and looked back up and gave me the "What, did I forget to zip?!!?" look.  We continued walking in opposite directions, everyone very confused.

Pick a Lane

They don't have lanes in the community pool here, so swimming is like playing a game of frogger.  If you know me, you know that I am a very weak swimmer.  So, as you can imagine, I am like a baby elephant under there...  I've kicked plenty of people and been caught (on a few occasions) accidentally/intentionally dirty looking some individuals who just stand right in the middle.  I haven't built up enough courage to ask them why they just stand there in the middle of the pool causing others to go out of their way to swim around, but one of these days when my anger has subsided I will find a way to ask nicely.

Pre-game Routine  

To prepare the regional men's team for their first match, I wanted to encourage them to find a pre-game routine.  However, I didn't know how to say "pre-game routine", so I decided to just describe what I do to prepare for a match and asked them what they call that.  They said "obsessive compulsive disorder".  Wah wah!

There's more, but I can't think of it, so that's all for now.  More later!

Bordeaux!

At 10:30 AM Sunday morning the whole team piled into a nine-person van to make our 4PM match against team AMAZON (I mean, Bordeaux Merignac).  This team came down from National 1 at the end of last season and has been dominating National 2 with their scrappy defense and ferocious offense ever since. 

Unfortunately for our record, the road trip was the highlight of the day.  The freeways here are fast, direct, and cost a fortune.  The gas was 110 euros, and the tolls totaled 150 euros!  OUCH!  Coach Maguy said if you aren’t pressed for time the national routes here are beautiful *free* back roads that wind through the countryside and tiny town centers (a great way to see the French way of life up close).

Bordeaux was unlike any wine country I’ve ever seen...  Lush vines extended from the freeway in their uniform lines for as far as the eye could see in every direction.  Vineyards weren’t nestled in a valley, or shelved along steep, rocky cliffs.  They just stretched on and on and on forever.  Rows of trees and solitary farm houses spotted the landscape and spurred deep conversations about food, farming, and the environment. 

You will never believe this, but it turns out that on this three hour car ride, I happened to be sitting next to a girl on the team who has also been to Madagascar!  Oh, we went on and on, sharing with Maguy all the coolest things about Mada.  Since Maguy spent most of her life in Brazil, she could relate to a lot of the eating habits that characterize that latitude (ie tons of rice, a million different types of bananas, and avocados for dessert).  Mmmmm… 

I often forget that Madagascar is where I first developed a respect for food.  Despite annual family outings to Apple Hill and my mom’s lifelong gardening and fearless foraging habits, before studying abroad in Madagascar in my mind food primarily existed prepared, packaged, and priced on a shelf, in an aisle, in a huge air-conditioned building with slick floors and friendly employees.  Madagascar is where I finally realized that even the ingredients for pop tarts are planted, grown, and harvested, before being shook up in a test tube, squirted out a mechanical arm and zipped up in a rectangular foil wrapper.  Haha!

That reminds me of a great bit from Jerry Seinfeld on pop-tarts:

Pop-Tarts aside, it’s really rare to meet someone else who has been to Madagascar!  It was so nice being reminded of the year I spent learning, eating, and experiencing life there while studying abroad.  So many names, faces, moments, and meals flooded back into my memory; devouring banana and nutella sandwiches around a campfire; meditatively chatting while peeling apples and oranges; snacking on boiled manioc doused in sweetened condensed milk; harvesting, de-husking, sorting, washing, and cooking huge pots of white, red, brown, and black rice; savoring samosas and skewers of beef with lemony hot sauce; and washing everything down with THB (Three Horses Beer)...  It made me want to go back so bad!

To put it lightly, the game we played once we arrived in Bordeaux left something to be desired...  Enough said.  Bordeaux Merignac provided post-match pâté and crêpes (YUM!) and on the ride home we chowed down on a yogurt and nutella cake that our setter baked and my dad’s famous chocolate chip cookies (which arrived in the mail this week!).   Even though all of us were stuffed from the snacks, the club paid for a pit-stop.  We sat inside a gas station dining area and supped on delicious (by American standards) microwaveable pasta boxes.  Outside the sun set on distant forests and farms in hues of highlighter yellow, orange, and pink behind wide blankets of dark purple clouds. 

We made it home by 10:30 PM.  My head hit the pillow hard, gears still turning over missed serves and bad plays from earlier that night.   Alas!  Sunday nights remind me to look forward to a sit in the sauna and swimming, and a week of hard work for our next match.

That’s all for now.  More later!

We won!

Our first home match was a smashing success.  We beat Landaise in three straight sets (26-24, 25-21, 25-22).  I was so nervous!  The team did some really great things.

After the game both teams stayed and hung out in the team room.  We drank and ate (I had been waiting all day to eat bread, so I went a little overboard on the baguette and brie).  Ha!  It was especially delicious after such sweet success!

Tough week of training ahead...  That's all for now.  More later!

First Official Home Match!

Pizza, Sauna, Practice

Wonderful lunch meeting with Maguy today.  Today was NOT a double day, but we went to a pizzeria, so I just *had* to indulge my curiosity!  Qu'est-ce que c'est la pizza française?  It was so delicious...  I ordered the vegetarian pizza topped with tomato sauce, cheese, onions, peppers, mushrooms, artichokes, eggplant, and olives.  Soooo good!  The thin crust was charred around the edges and soft in the middle.  Mmmmm...  An obvious fork and knife situation...

My Monday training sesh was a swim and a run.  I went to the local pool and almost had my whole workout derailed because it turns out they have a sauna!!!!  YES + exclamation points forever!  If there hadn't been a 30 minute limit, I'd still be in there right now...  Awww, so nice!

At practice tonight my serve-receive passing felt better!  I'm getting into a rhythm of relaxing my arms and then refocusing on the ball to get my platform angle just right before contact.

First home game this Sunday!  Until then?  Work, work, work!  :)

Nutrition: Eat Like the Athlete You Want to Be

Sunday was the 10k & 20k de Tours!  A beautiful day... So, I wandered down to Tours Center to check out all the athletes and the cool booths and stuff.  I stood in line (forever) to get Paella and got to the front of the line only to realize that not only is there meat in Paella, there is *every kind of meat* in Paella (sausage, chicken, and seafood) - and I became a vegetarian (kind of) on Mother's Day this year...  Doy!  Ahahah!  I ate it anyway...  Ooops!  :)

Since I stopped eating meat (okay, fine, not entirely, but for the most part - haters...), I've been told more times than I can count that I'm probably not getting enough protein.  This inspired me to analyze my diet and, believe it or not, it turns out I'm getting more than enough protein, but could stand to DOUBLE my carbohydrate intake.  Insane!

Here's what a day looks like for me right now (a double day is when I workout for more than 4 hours total):
Breakfast - plain yogurt with honey and cinnamon, muesli (double days add eggs and toast)
Snack - fruit
Lunch - spinach salad (double days I get to eat whatever I want for lunch)
Dessert - plain yogurt with honey and cinnamon
Snack - fruit
Snack - peanut butter rice cakes with honey and cinnamon
Snack - bread with olive oil and vinegar
Dinner - vegetables + grains + beans or tofu (double days add pasta)
Dessert - plain yogurt with honey and cinnamon

This gets me to exactly 100g protein, 360g carbohydrates, and 100g fat (around 2600 kCal) on single days... and on double days I get to eat carbs like it's my job (like just throw in a whole baguette there somewhere, double the grains for dinner, and maybe even a pastry and coffee) to bring me to 800g of glorious, golden, crusty, delicious carbohydrates.

When I'm training, I also like to follow a few general rules:
1.  Low alcohol and low caffeine.  That's right.  Except for occasions, if I'm training right, alcohol becomes a distant memory and caffeine stays out of the picture as much as possible.

2.  High-protein post-workout snack:  nuts, hard boiled eggs, or apple with peanut butter...  My go-to post workout snack right now?  Rice cake with peanut butter, honey, cinnamon and banana - YUM!

3.  Hydrate!  I drink about 2 liters a day of water (at least).  When I'm back in the States, I'm drinking electrolytes like a coconut water, or gatorade diluted by 50% to keep that post-bikram head ache away.  Here, I've been drinking lemon water and diluted apple/pear juice with a little pinch of salt after workouts.

This link is an amazing article written by US Anti-Doping Agency about the best diet for athletes:
http://www.usantidoping.org/files/active/what/dietary_intake.pdf
My targets are based off of this and this fitness calculator from active.com.

On that note, if you have anything to add - please leave a comment for me!  I love hearing about new recipes and things that work for others!!  Thanks!

Roundabouts

Today,I rode my bike for an hour and a half to Hopital Trousseau and back.  For some reason, I couldn't get this song out of my head!

Haha - YES!!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure why, but in general - and for some unknown reason - I really do feel safer on my bike here.  In terms of circulation, there are lots of differences between here and the States...  Here's ten off the top of my head:

1.  Widespread use of roundabouts in lieu of stop signs (keeps traffic moving albeit a little chaotically)  :)
2.  Pretty much everyone drives stick shift
3.  Traffic signals appear BEFORE the intersection at eye level on the right
4.  Corners and intersections are yields because there's maybe like two stop signs in this whole country
5.  Roads are narrow and curvy for the most part
6.  Street names mostly appear on sides of buildings if they appear at all
7.  Signs are results based, so destinations are more prominent than street names
8.  Parking on the sidewalk, or halfway on the sidewalk is not only totally acceptable, it's encouraged
9.  Bike routes are super well marked (and cyclists observe red lights and traffic laws)
10.  There is no turn on red lights.  So, if you have a green, it's a sure fire thing you will not be run over!

Today, I had an amazing visit with a cardiologist!  I got an EKG (cool) and we talked a little about my diet.  I told him I've been crunching some numbers (nutrition post on the way) and it looks like I'm getting more than enough protein, but not nearly enough carbohydrates...  He said I should be eating more complex carbs (like pasta and rice) and then specifically recommended (wait for it...) CHOCOLATE!  That's right!  Not a piece of fruit, not a power bar, or a hard boiled egg, or a bagel!  Chocolate.  I thanked him and told him that shouldn't be a problem...  Haha!

Come to France to play volleyball and get prescribed chocolate and carbohydrates...  Life's not too shabby right now!  Seriously though, if you know me well, you know that there's no way I'm going to take any recommendation from any one (even a fancy French cardiologist) at face value, so I'm doing some research about diet and nutrition that I'll be sure to post about as soon as I've finalized my findings - wink wink!  :)

That's all for now.  More later!