No Class Today

Funny story...One of my friends that while in France I should go to the town square and march around doing the Nazi salute. Then another friend said, "Well, they'd probably just give you the country." I thought it was funny.

I watched the season finale of Battlestar Galactica. It was good. I've started watching season one on the interwebz.

Bears beats Battlestar Galactica.-Jim Halpert, The Office

Oh, I also watched the movie "Marley and Me" except it was "Marley et Moi" and it was dubbed in French with no subtitles. It was pretty good, but sad. And they gave me a bucket of popcorn that was halfway between kettle corn and caramel popcorn-wasn't that bad.

In relation to the title of the post there was no class today, but I don't have class on Tuesdays anyway but we still used it as an excuse to have a party. WooHoo!

I give a powerpoint presentation over Estonia tomorrow. Yeah, it's going to be badass.

Travel update: I probably won't be going to Germany (Sorry, Lyndsey). But I am working on atrip to see some badass aqueducts in Avignon.

well hello

To be honest, I don't think the women in Auvergne are as attractive as the ones in Oklahoma. So American girls: 1, French girls, 0. But back to business. I really don't feel the need to travel that much. I mean sure I want to visit places like the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and Big Ben but it seems like for me to travel other places is to just pay a lot of money to say, "I've been there." That seems ridiculous. And any information I could get there I could just as easily get in a book. Maybe I'm still getting used to it, but I must say that I prefer Oklahoma, American, etc. life to Vichy, or most of Europe.

Anyways, in recent news the UN drafted a resolution to ban speech criticizing religion. I think it was brought up by largely Muslim countries. Are they that insecure about their religion that when someone insults it, they have threaten death to the perpetrators? Never mind that this would completely go against our constitution. Earlier this week diplomats took out the defamation of religion clause to help bring in Western nations for the vote. Free speech for the win.

Oh yeah, I watched that movie "Slumdog Millionaire." It was OK.

OK, so...

I finally heard from the State Department about my internship applications...Unfortunaly, I did not get the job. Some 6,000 applicants applied and the job would've been in Washington, D.C. but oh, well. I'm not really sure what I want to do for the summer yet. I'm thinking about staying home and working at the pool, mainly so I can make some money and maybe try and fix some things with my car. I doubt any summer classes would be available for me to take. Shit, I just remembered I have to enroll for Fall classes. I'm ready to be done with school. I've really been missing American food. I know French cuisine is supposed to be good, but it's not...well, it's okay. Yesterday, I was watching an American television show and there was a box of pizza on the table and I couldn't help but think about a good Papa John's, Pizza Hut, or Pizza Port pizza. They don't have any fountain drinks here, and the coke doesn't have that much carbonation to it. So, when I get back I'm going to go to a restaurant where I can get some American food with a glass of coke with ice. Can't wait.

My Apologies

Sorry for the lack of blogposts. I've been a little bit busier with the business classes and the bad internet here has made it difficult to get in a good blog post. Not a whole lot has been going on. I'll go to class, go to lunch, go to my afternoon class if I have one, go back to the flat, eat, and in the evening play cards with my friends. Last weekend a group of us went to a nearby town and went sightseeing and the girls shopped. Usually on the weekend we'll go to a party and maybe the discotheque, or basically a club. Next weekend we'll be going to Lyon and staying the night there. We'll probably go sightseeing and things like that. Looks like the road trip isn't going to happen during the break, but the American girls here invited me to travel with them since everyone else will be going back to their countries. Today was actually a nice, warm spring-like day with the temperature in the 70s and the sun was out. Usually, it's in the 40s here and cloudy. I'm enjoying my classes, especially one about the European Union-it's very interesting. My class partner and me have to give a 5-10 minute PowerPoint presentation on Estonia on Wednesday which we'll work on tomorrow. a tout a l'heure. (See ya later)

Zach

Skyping and Glasses

Well, I finally got around to talking to family back in the States. It was nice even though I had to borrow someone's headset, well worth it. I talked to Lyndsey and Madelyn for a little while and was suprised that they could here me OK because my floormates have told me their skyping experience hasn't been that great.

The past few months I've noticed that when I'm in a classroom sometimes it seems harder than usual to read what's on the board. Moreover, when I'm on the street it seems harder to read signs. Today in class, my friends were trying on each others glasses, so I decided to see how blind they were and I tried a pair on and I could see really good. Apparently, I have worse vision than I thought. I think to get glasses here would cost around $150, so I think I can do without.

Tonight were going to a bar to celebrate someones birthday, I doubt I'll drink though. If I do all probably just have one beer. And...I haven't missed a class yet.

Views

I've had some discussions lately about European views of America. I tend not to say too much about the subject because I feel like I am a guest on their continent and more so because these are the same people I hang out with all the time. So, I will use this to express my opinions on the matter because they have been bothering me lately and there aren't exactly a lot of people here that I feel could relate. Anyways...

I hear an argument how America polices the world, etc., etc. when there are gang wars going on in America, and people are getting murdered, etc. So, they argue that maybe America should stop policing the world and take care of things at home first. (In this person's home country the military will sometimes patrol the streets and they have somewhat of a nanny state.) My reply back to this is sometimes people or events abroad pose bigger threats to national security than say a thief down the street. (Ex. 9/11, or the American military aid to Mexico for their war against the drug cartels that could leak over into the U.S.)

I've also heard criticisms how America goes abroad and rapes a country of its resources etc. Needless to say this was a very vague critique and I have yet to find out where this happened and with what frequency.

Then a final rhetorical question posed was along the line of why did the U.S. drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki if not just to say, "Hey! We're America and we have an A-Bomb!". I tried to say that the Japanese hadn't surrendered, but my opponent suggested that Japan had "formally surrendered". By this point the subject had changed. I did some research and no, the Japanese had not "surrendered" formally or otherwise. At Potsdam towards the end of July 1945, the allies issued an ultimatum to the Japanese which was either surrender or the Allies would attack Japan, resulting in...

"the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitably the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland."

The Japanese Emperor responded to his ministers that the Imperial Regalia of Japan had to be defended at all costs. Long story short, there was a planned manned invasion of Japan, but the estimated casulties were anywhere between 250,000 to 1 million. (There was also an order by the Japanese that if an invasion did occur, authorities were to execute all the allied prisoners of war which was approximately 100,000). Thus the bomb was launched to achieve a speedy end to the war and to reduce the loss of life. The bombing of Hiroshima was approximately 140,000 lives. More warnings were issued to the Japanese and the war minister refused to accept that the bomb was atomic and refused to surrender. Three days later Nagasaki was bombed kllling approximatley 80,000 people. Finally, the Japanese surrendered.

The person I was talking with hadn't realized that the Japanese hadn't surrendered. However, it isn't surprising that they hold the view that America just wanted to show off their A-Bomb. They come from a country where I believe there are a few news outlets, if not just one and that almost (if not all of them) are government owned or substantially subsidized. Anyways, I found a really good essay about anti-Americanism in Europe and it's kind of long but you can find it here...http://www.hudsonreview.com/BawerSp04.html.