Viola!

Today was my second Macrede (Wednesday) in Paris. Meaning, the kids didn't have school. It was a pretty good day overall. Denis (their dad) came over around 13:00 then we took the bus to one of the many local swimming pools. I hadn't been swimming in a pool in a long time and I have to say, I had a lot of fun. Also, no major temper tantrums or crying episodes. I had to scold Chloe for not clearing the table when she said she would, but other than that, everyone seemed to get a long pretty well (and my scolding probably doesn't have the bite that some others may have).

I feel like I'm finally starting to get better because I realized that some of the food I've been eating actually has a different taste than I originally thought. Now that my nose is less stuffy, everything has much more flavor! It's funny though, I found when doing my homework that some of the French words were easier to pronounce with a stuffy nose.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow because I have 2hrs of class then the rest of the afternoon free. I think I'm going to give my brain a bit of a rest and go see Babel at the theater close to my school. I guess the American movies are all in English with French subtitles. There are a lot of marketing for American movies here! Everywhere on the metro there is either a poster for Nuit en le Musee (Night at the Museum) or Hannibal or something. It's pretty obnoxious. Anne-Marie told me that the French government actually had to pass a law forcing French TV stations to show a certain percentage of French TV shows because all they were showing were American ones. Speaking of which I haven't talked at all about French TV. Pretty much all I've watched to far are cartoons, but they are pretty cool. There is one that the kids watch all the time that, from what I can tell, is about history. From what I gather, there are French explorers that travel to different historical periods/events and interact with the characters there. This morning the cartoon was about people going from Oklahoma to Oregon on the Oregon Trail!! How cool is that? Of course there is still all the marketing to kids during the breaks and I swear after every one Chloe says, "I want that!" How many little pocket ponies or whatever do you need? I guess it's not about need eh. I haven't watched too much TV otherwise, but I'm curious to see the differences. There is so much else to do though, I'll get around to it later. Ah, I can ramble on for quite a while, but I need to stop... Oh, totally off the subject, I found out today that France runs on about 85% nuclear energy. Interesting huh? In the 60's they made a decision not to depend on petroleum and sell their energy to surrounding countries. Where do they put the waste you ask?? Hmm, good question.

Alright enough, I'll write more later. Keep in touch!!!

PS: Above is a link to a French news website that Denis sent me. There don't seem to be too many stories, but it is very worldly and best of all, UN-SENSATIONAL. I frickin hate when the news tries to entertain. Just tell us what frickin happened. Anyway, if you can't see the link, you can still click on the box and it will take you there (same goes for the link to my pictures as well).