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Meanwhile we are experiencing many French moments here at home. We watched the French news tonight at dinner. The whole thing was about sports, except for two minutes devoted to Israel/Gaza (the captured soldier is French — holds dual citizenship — so the country is in an uproar) & another 3 or 4 on the anniversary of the London bombings.

Then it was back to sports. (Announcer: "....sadly there were four fatalities during the celebrations....")

Martine called her friend in Reims at 11 last night, and her friend held the receiver out the window. Martine could hear thousands of people screaming & shouting. Her friend said it was going to go on like that until 1 in the morning. The games are being broadcast in huge stadiums, so nobody's sitting around at home watching; they're out in force, in the stadiums, in the streets, flags everywhere.

I'm threatening to root for Italy, but Ed says if I do I can't watch with them.

French World Cup shirts sold out 'til September.



Ed is pulling Christopher out of Spanish & switching him to French. He wanted him to take French in the first place, but I said Spanish is our second language now; nobody speaks French. It was a bone of contention.

So Christopher took Spanish & learned perhaps 50 words of Spanish vocabulary, which was the lion's share of the curriculum as far as I could tell. No sign of verbs, grammar, or pronunciation. Then he got a C for the course. My friend's kid got a U. I don't even know what a U stands for, and neither does she. Is it an F or an Incomplete? I need to spend more time hovering.

I asked Christopher, How did this happen?

He doesn't know.

We blame the teacher.

heh

                        2006 FIFA World Cup Store