Why football matters (...can't call it soccer) to me

I like being French for a multitude of reasons. Football is not one of them.

So why is the premature end of the French team's adventures in South Africa bumming me so much?

Let me preface this by saying: I love watching sport. I watch tennis, rugby, basket-ball, volley-ball, skiing, curling, (CURLING), track and field, swimming, you name it.

I don't enjoy football that much. And I hate, hate, hate the French obsession with the sport. All the sport newspapers talk about is football. Who is winning the national cup, who is winning the Euroligue, who is winning the European Championship, who is winning the World Cup.

Boredom.

I was 12 when France became CHAMPIONS DU MONDE, world champions, in 1998. It was an amazing day: the whole of France went down in the streets, dancing, singing, hugging. Racism, faced with the amazing achievement of a team composed of white, black and Arabic players (or in French black blanc beur), appeared to be obsolete. Newspaper editorial after newspaper editorial celebrated the success of New France, which integrated its minorities and became leaders.

Fast forward to today. THe French football team has been utterly disgraced. I won't bore those who don't care about the game, but suffice to say we were bad, lazy and atrociously boring on the field.

Why do I care? I care because people are talking back home. People are saying that the team players who come from other countries are lazy because they can't be patriotic. And by people, I don't just mean people on the street, which is bad enough. I mean our elected representatives.

Can you imagine Senators of America commenting on the failure of the...I don't know, golf team for the Ryder cup and attributing it to the fact that some of the players have foreign origins???

So football matters to me at the moment. As a symbol. Racism never disappears in France. It just hides while we're winning.

PS: I'm in Berlin. Adventures to follow!

tell me about your first job?

It's that time again.

Time to leave home.

My sister is gone and with her a part of me, but also a voice of reason. If she were with me now, she would dismiss my fears and make me laugh, and I would remember how excited I am to live in Berlin for a few months (only four!) and that it's going to be amazing.

I'm leaving in a week. Next Sunday is my going-away party. And then I'm going to do a job I don't even understand, in German.

So this is a request: can you tell me about your first job? I'd love to know how it went.

Visiting Greece II

After Athens, AD and I decided to wander around on two islands, Santorini and Paros. Santorini is a volcanic island in the shape of a crescent moon. The sand on the beaches is black, which is very impressive. It's also one of the most touristy places in Greece, so it was quite a feat to get it relatively free from visitors, May being the beginning of the season.

AD and I are both huge eaters, and we ate our way through Santorini. One evening, I slipped on a pretty dress, AD put on a shirt and we went to an excellent and very chic restaurant, which was entirely empty! New food crush: beetroot salad with yogurt ice-cream on top. Amazing.

So what did we do on the islands? We spent a little time on beaches...but not that much. We walked a lot, inhaling the soft, almost sugary smell of fig trees. We rented a quad bike and wandered around the coasts. We climbed up black volcanic rocks and ingested a huge amount of olive oil.

I loved Greece. Before I left, I was pretty nervous. It was my first trip with my boyfriend and we've been dating for six months-it's all very new and freshly painted still, and I was afraid a whole week of twenty-four/seven exposure to Sara would drive anyone mad. But it was wonderful. Even when I got earache on the plane coming home and dragged my suitcase through a rain storm to get home, before preparing for a gruelling week of hellish exams, it was so worth it. I'll never forget the colour of the sunsets, or the way I could feel the past come back to life around me.

Now that I'm preparing for new adventures in foreign countries, I'm thankful I had a true week of holiday, with sunburns, giggles and yogurt ice-cream.

A few snapshots, mostly taken by AD, so they look much better than usual!





Beautiful Santorini and its ridiculously photogenic troglodyte houses...


Enjoying the black sand beach with my partner in crime...


Looking ridiculous with my Birkenstock sandles on our vehicle.


Drying octopii. The fishermen bash them first before hanging them out in the sun. I was both repelled and fascinated by them.