Things I did this weekend:
- go to a “Salon Bio”
- go to a professional soccer game
- watch a rugby game!
What is a “Salon Bio”? It’s basically a conference hall with stands full of organic foods, and other fun things. Not everything was organic but it all somehow fell under the “green-living” label. I was super excited to find the stand for Greenpeace France! 🙂
Professional Soccer Game: This is just a concept that doesn’t really register with Americans, I think. Before the game I was pondering to myself, but also out loud to my host family, “I wonder if it’ll be like a baseball game.” In fact, it kind of was… except without pretzels and Kosher dogs. There was, instead, sandwiches made out of baguettes. But the general atmosphere was like a baseball. Complete with a club of fans cheering frantically the entire time. I think its safe for me to say that soccer is France’s Past-time like baseball is America’s Past-time.
-
-
Panorama of the stadium!!!
-
-
Warm ups!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
These are the ball-catchers.
-
-
I took this picture only because of the lenses… enormous!
-
-
Welcoming the teams!
-
-
-
-
-
Kick-off!
-
-
-
This is just a really giant TV camera.
Rugby Match! (France vs England):Â 22-24, France lost… I’m very disappointed actually. I thought their defense was a little weak. (My host dad agreed.) I have to admit this game intrigues me to no end. I wrote down the rules that I noticed during the game. But the really interesting part was that I watched the game in two different languages. My host sister and I started watching the game at a local Irish Pub and the broadcast was BBC, so it was in English. At halftime we went back home- the wind was making us cold- and finished the game in French on a French channel. I have to say, that in my honest opinion, BBC was…that seemed to go out of their way to make the French look inferior. I didn’t see that in the French broadcast. More time was spent on the French plays/players, but it didn’t seem like they were making the English look bad. I don’t know what this means…I’m just remarking on what I observed. I will say, again, that the brutality of this sport is..awesome.
culturalrelativity 