Handball! But at Least the French are Happy

Yeah, so for those of you who don't know, last night was like a really big deal in France because there was a soccer game between France and Ireland that France had to win in order to be in the World Cup. This type of thing doesn't happen often because normally France has no trouble qualifying for the World Cup - last time, they almost won it. So France won the game, but probably shouldn't have. Thierry Henry, France's best player, made the most obvious handball I've ever seen in my life and as a result, France scored a goal.

Even though it was pretty unfair to Ireland, I'm glad France won. I think a lot of people here would have been bitter if they had lost, and the World Cup really wouldn't be the same without France.

So anyway, last Saturday I went to Deauville for a Rotary thing. Deauville is this town on the English Channel that is famous for its casinos and annual international film festival. In the morning there was a big Rotary conference, and all the exchange students in our district had to be there. It was held in the movie theater of a super-fancy casino. Outside the movie theater there was a poster for a Johnny Depp movie, so Rebecca, Jessica, and I were taking pictures with the life-size Johnny Depp. Then there was a really big lunch; it was duck as the starter, which I did not eat, then really good fish, and apple cake for dessert. The bread was really good, too.

After lunch, Rebecca, Jessica, and I went shopping. We walked out of the casino and I was like "OMG, THERE'S A RALPH LAUREN STORE!!!!!!!!!!!!" and I was soooooo happy because like two weeks before I had checked online to see where in France there were Ralph Lauren stores and it said only in Paris and Cannes, so I guess the site was wrong. So of course, the store was closed for lunch, as were Louis Vuitton, Hérmes, Burberry, and most of the other stores (they were ALL designer brands). But then like an hour later they reopened, and so we went in Ralph Lauren. It turned out to be a major disappointment because everything was like twice as expensive than in the US, and you can buy the same things online for like half the price and have them shipped to France and they'd still be way less expensive. I'm not exaggerating; a polo shirt that I liked was 11O € in the store, which is like 150 dollars, but online you can buy the same exact shirt for 65 dollars and pay like 20 for shipping to France, thus saving like 65 dollars. So I didn't buy anything there or in any other of the stores, since every single one of them were trés trés cher (very expensive). Pretty much no one bought anything. But Rebecca and Jessica and I got to pet these two little Yorkie dogs with diamond collars that were in Louis Vuitton (their owners were a really rich couple who were actually buying things in Louis Vuitton, and not just keychains).

The Wednesday before that was November 11,which was the day that WW1 ended, so we didn't have school. I went with Sophie, Aubrée, and Romain to see "2010". It was pretty good, I think. It's about "le fin du monde" (the end of the world).
Tuesday night, I went to see "A Christmas Carol", the new one with Jim Carrey. It was to raise money for Rotary; all across France Rotary was having special showings of it. I thought it was going to be like "the Grinch" - with real people. But it was all animated, and since it was dubbed in French, it wasn't Jim Carrey's voice. It seemed okay; a lot of the Rotarians didn't like it because it's a kids movie.

Okay, that's about all for now.
au revoir!