I had a bit of difficulty with the word massage as a kid as well, despite being a native speaker. A friend of mine is a "massage therapist", who occasionally gets called a masseuse, and then becomes deeply insulted. The word "massage" and it's relations are just full of complications :)

God do I love bread too. Europe made me very happy during my brief time there. It is trickier to find a proper crunch here - the average American prefers gummy bread. It's a very sad business.