The Olympics

I've been in an Olympic stupor - stuck in front of my tv, watching the Olympics on 3 screens (picture-in-picture and my laptop). Subsisting on healthy snacks and a later day work schedule to accomodate the stupid 8pm primetime West Coast starts.

Best friggin Opening Ceremonies EVER aside, when will the Chinese government get it? You have to treat people better. The final straw was uprooting 7 year-old singing phenom Yang Peiyi, pictured right, to sing under the damn stage while less talented, but cuter (according to the music director) Lin Miaoke, pictured left, lip-synced for the world to see. What the hell?

Apparently, Yang Peiyi won the singing contest but was deemed "not pretty enough" to be on stage. She looks pretty darn cute to me, particularly with that snazzy little bob of hers. But, whatever. The Chinese never fail to disappoint me - unless we're talking about gymnastics, then they totally kick ass.

"We have a responsibility to face the audience of the whole country, and to be open with this explanation. We should all understand it like this: it is a question of the national interest. It is a question of the image of our national music, our national culture. Especially at the entrance of our national flag, this is an extremely important, an extremely serious matter...So we made the choice. I think it is fair to both Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi - after all, we have a perfect voice, a perfect image and a perfect show, in our team's view, all together."—Chen Qigang, musical designer

In other news, its been absolutely orgasmic watching Michael Phelps and friends totally dominate in the pool. And I'm thrilled that the plagued men's gymnastics team pulled a Bronze out of nowhere. Through which I am pleased to announce my first Olympic crush since Greg Louganis - the fine physical speciman, Raj Bhavsar. I have watched on in mock pity on other (sub-par) countries as the hammer that is Misty May-Treanor and Kerrie Walsh keep smashing people on the beach volleyball circuit. They dispatched the Cubans in less than 32 minutes. Sad.

photo credits:Getty/AFP as seen on Telegraph.co.uk

It's Nice to Meet You Again For The First Time

(Vida, remember that quote?)

Yesterday was the first day of my beginning French class. Now, mind you, I took 4 years of French in high school. Clepped out of the first 2 semesters of college French, then amassed enough French credits for a minor in French. Well, then I moved to Indiana (not exactly known for its diverse culture) and all French-speaking, writing and reading ceased (unless I was cruising the BBC website, or sneaking in on a French conversation class). So, after 6 years in French wasteland + 1.5 more in BF Texas (also no French speakers - imagine that!), I felt like I had maybe lost my skillz.

I recently decided that I wanted to be able to speak 3 languages (take that, American education system!) and figured I might as well start with one I used to know. Well, it turns out, I'm still pretty damned good with French (if I must say so myself) and am well on my way to being GREAT with French.

I do have beef with my teacher, though. Her name is Juliette. And, in addition to having a completely cute name, she weighs about 7 pounds, but has curves in all the right places. She also has a fantastically cute personality, a great sense of humor and happens to be beautiful. Is this a requirement for female french teachers? My high school French teacher had the same characteristics. The French teachers at Purdue also had these characteristics. It isn't fair!

I think I should mention that I am the 3rd youngest person in the class - the other 2 are high school students and really don't count anyway. Do you know how fun it is at the age of 31 to be the youngest person somewhere? Yay! I'm going to love this class.

I'm picking up Arabic in the fall, as long as they don't raise tuition too much. If the Europeans can be fluent in several languages, damnit, so can I!

To hear more hateration, particularly aimed at Europeans, read the next post...