We Believe

Other than the fact that the SAINTS won the freaking Super Bowl...the next best thing about the televised game is always the commercials, right? NOT in Canada. Instead, during every single commerical break, and we all know there are a lot of them, we heard promo after promo like the one above. As if we didn't know the Olympics are in CANADA. Okay, we GET IT. WE BELIEVE. The Olympics are starting this coming Friday...did you know that??? (By the way, that's Donald Sutherland doing the voice over. He's been hard at work all year making these promos. We had to explain to Danielle who Donald Sutherland is. As you know from previous posts, his ex father-in-law was a member of Parliament and one of the dudes to get socialized medicine going in Canada).

The first few of these We Believe promos had us all going "wow, that's cool." After a few more we were all "where's the Doritos commerical? The Clydesdales? Come on...we want Tim Te(ar)bow!" We flipped through the guide since with this cable system we get stations in Seattle (for Vancouver) and Boston (for Eastern Canada). Nothing...everything was hooked into CTV (Canadian TV) which means no Doritos, Bud Light or Oprah/Dave/Jay. By the third quarter we could tell a promo was about to start and we were all saying "ENOUGH." Paul was ready to turn off this amazing Super Bowl game asking, "Isn't Jeopardy on or something?"


It was a GREAT game when we were not being indoctrinated by the Canadian Olympic commercials. Seriously, did you know the skeleton thing has those people in skin tight leotards going 120 KM down the ice track with no brakes or steering? Really, who would do such a thing? It's possible Canadians might be thinking, who would pay all that money to go to a game where a bunch of guys in spandex try and get an odd shaped ball across a line? And they get paid MILLIONS to play that game. When you take a step back, it all seems silly.


In the meantime, Kish has seen enough Olympics commercials and is ready to take up ski jumping. Because...WE BELIEVE.

The French Connection

The only thing that could make Super Bowl Sunday any better for our family would be if the Bears were playing. While we're huge Saints fans, 3/4 of this family are loyal Bears fans first and Saints fans second. The writer of this blog is in the minority. Regardless, seeing the Saints earn their way to the big game is more than just a sporting event for us. As most of you know, we started our lives together in New Orleans in 1989. Paul signed up for Saints tickets before we even had a place to live. We had season tickets for seven years, making the drive from Baton Rouge to New Orleans on Sundays to watch the Saints. They weren't a great team then, but we didn't care because there's no place like New Orleans in your 20s and early 30s.

Danielle was born in Louisiana and is proud of it. We made life-long friends in Louisiana and we keep in touch to this day. We had many "firsts" in Louisiana. Our first ride in a boat through the bayous and rivers with our friend Judy, our first Abita Beers with our friends Margaret and Jason and our first crawfish with our dear friends Bob and Debra. There were several Mardi Gras celebrations, Jazz Festivals, Hurricanes (the drink and the real thing), LSU games, crawfish boils, King Cakes and more. And many, many Bourbon Street experiences we'll blog about when Danielle is much older.

We learned some French while we were there as there's so much history in Louisana. Many of the street signs we see in Montreal are not unlike what we saw in New Orleans. So... the French Connection...it's ironic that now we find ourselves in Canada...the beginning of much of that history in Louisana. The Acadians of Louisiana -- later to become Cajuns -- are the descendants of French colonists who settled in the Canadian Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Quebec in the 17th-century. During the Great Expulsion if 1755-1763, mostly during the Seven Years' War, British colonial officers and New England legislators and militia deported more than 14,000 Acadians from the maritime region in what could be called ethnic cleansing. About one third perished and many later settled in Louisana -- now known as Cajuns. Others were transported to France and some back to the Maritime provinces. (thank you Wikipedia, what would we do without it?) When Paul first started his job in Louisiana, he traveled to many of these Cajun areas. We're talking deep into these Cajun towns. He would come home and talk about how strange it was to talk with them, he could pick up English words here and there, but it was like hearing another language. Imagine when the "Yankee" from the north opened his mouth in the deep south.

So watching the Saints and what the team has done for New Orleans is nostalgic. A couple of years ago we went back to New Orleans for a Saints game. In another bit of irony, Louis' favorite football team is USC, one of his favorite players is Reggie Bush, and of course Bush now plays for the Saints. It was eerie to be in the Superdome just a year after Katrina. The city still was not up and running and it was actually sad to see much of it, or what was left of it at the time. They've come a long way!

Now we find ourselves in French-speaking Montreal and more irony. Danielle's name is common in French -- especially when added with her middle name Marguerite which is very French. Louis, while named after his grandfather Pisani is meant to be Italian, it too is obviously common in French, although he's often called Louie. And, there's another Louisiana connection. The French people here at sporting events love to say Louieeeeee Pisaneeeeeee. There's several other "six degrees of separation" things we could write about later.

But today, Super Bowl Sunday, it's all about the Saints. We've got a Cajun pork roast ready and Jambalaya. No Abita Beer from Louisiana though, so we have to settle on Molson.

A Quebecer in the Super Bowl?

That's not a typo...we do mean the Super Bowl, not the Stanley Cup. Believe it or not there are a few football players from Canada playing in the NFL. We give them credit for going against Canadian tradition and trading in hockey pads for football pads. Sam Giguère is a Colts player, promoted from the practice squad just before the end of the regular season. (While he hails from Canada, we'll still be cheering for the Saints). It's not likely he will get much playing time, if any, since four other Colts players need to be knocked out of the game in order for him to play. But hey, he's technically a Quebecer in the Super Bowl.


If you go to the Colts website it says he's from "Sherbrooke." Unfortunately it doesn't say Quebec, and most people will likely assume this French guy is from Indiana. Or Illinois. He does sort of look like he could be Brian Urlacher's distant cousin, eh?

Canadian alarm clock

Who, me? Doesn't everyone appreciate a little Canadian patriotism in the morning?

Nothing says GOOD MORNING like being awakened at 5:30 am with Louis singing the first line of "Oh Canada" over and over and over again. Perhaps we've been watching too much Canadian hockey?

Things not seen in the U.S. #7

Adding to our ongoing list of Things not seen in the U.S. is this beignet rouge et blanc. That would be a red and white donut. Paul and Kish had an upscale breakfast at Tim Horton's this morning and Paul ordered this donut..."I'll have that Valentine's one." To which the guy said, "Those are maple leaves, it's Canadian, you know, for the Olympics?" All that was missing was the "eh" And Paul's glasses. Those are maple leaves, not just ordinary sprinkles. Oh Canada.