A typical Thursday

---

Here is my typical Thursday living here in France (sort of).

I wake up around 9 am, just enough time to have a morning coffee, have a pastry, and to check my email before going to the gym. We have an overflowing amount of pastries, like croissants and chocolate croissants, because this is always in abundance at the pig park whenever we go there.

By 10 am it is time to go to the gym but flo was not yet awake. I go upstairs to wake him up.
We arrive 20 minutes late to the gym, and as usual Christophe is there on the stationary bike waiting for us.

We go through our workout, and as always someone wants to know what we do with the big blue ball(everyday at the gym we bring a big stability ball to use during our workout), I show them, then they watch us for the rest of our workout to learn about the bizarre things we do.

By 11 am, the gym is usually cleared out except for one or two others who come later to avoid the rush. By 12:20 we are out the door because at 1230 the doors close automatically and if you are still in the gym you must stay there until the afternoon when they open once again.

We head home, I shower, then I fix lunch (not an everyday occurrence). I fix some pasta with some sausages and chicken cordon bleu from a package, along with some spinach on the side.

I spend the afternoon doing nothing, going on the computer, like normal. I get a call saying that there will be a practice in Rouen in an hour.

I leave as fast as I can; the road that normally takes 40 minutes takes me over an hour because I keep getting lost, especially in Rouen because I do not know which exit to take.
I finally find the field.

The Pole Espoir team has already arrived and are warming up. Our team is warming up as well, there are nine of us mostly guys from the Rouen squad and then myself and Charles from our team. Ardo usually shows up as well, I was told that today he went to the gym instead because he did not think he would get much out of the practice game.

The first pitcher to throw is Keno Perez, a Venezuelan who pitches for Rouen. It is interesting to watch him pitch, he threw hard and had a good changeup and curveball.

This practice is what is called the Centre d’Entrainement, mostly made up of Rouen players but in fact it is a separate program set up for anyone who is willing to pay for the year membership. They do gym workouts in the morning and practices in the afternoon. Since I am only here for a short period of time, Seba, the trainer, is letting me attend for free.

There is another player, Danny Scalibrini, from Canada who played for the Quebec Capitales for several years; the Capitals are a pro team in Montreal owned by Miles Wolff, a Durham, NC, resident. Danny plays shortstop and pitches from time to time. Seba is also from Canada, he is player and coach for the team.

The scrimmage is against Pole Espoir, with our pitchers pitching for them and their pitchers pitching for us.

I drive Charles home after the game, he lives in downtown Rouen not far from Stade Saint-Exupery. I stayed at his house to have a drink with Jean-Luc, his dad and the manager of the team. We talked about his disagreement with Flo, about the team and what the best lineup for the team would be, and about baseball in general.
After, I left and drove all the way home. By myself! This was, again, so exciting to be driving myself, all by myself. I did not get lost this time.

When I got home there was a huge crowd of folks at the house—Bebe, Ian, Fred, Flo and Adele, and Arnaud. We watched the movie ‘300’. Then after a few hours on the couch watching TV, I headed to bed.

---