Allez les Bleus, et Vive les Vacances!!

ALLEZ LES BLEUS!! (Go Blue!) It's a big night in France tonight: the French soccer team is playing against Brazil in the quarterfinals of the World Cup. Brazil has been to the finals of this competition the last three times it was held ('94, '98, and '02), and came out as champions 2 of those 3 times, losing the other time to France in '98. After their championship in '98, France didn't even make it out of the first round in '02 (much less score a single goal). Brazil, on the other hand, hasn't lost a match in the past 8 years except for during those finals of '98 against France. All this is according to Manu, whose word I'm taking as the truth because I don't follow the sport enough to know otherwise. I probably would be oblivious to the World Cup even happening if I were still in the U.S., but Soccer is King in the rest of the world when it comes to sports, and it's impossible to be in Paris right now without knowing what's going on.

There was lots of celebrating in the streets Tuesday night after France earned their place in tonight's match by beating Spain. Manu went out and got this jersey, which he wore to work Wednesday and again today as a show of support. Nothing seems to get people as excited around here as soccer, and in Manu's words: "People are so happy -- they're even smiling at each other in the streets!" (Newsflash to those of you who have never been here: That's a Big Deal.) People are hopeful about tonight, but I think a little wary of the chances of a win given who they're up against.

A win would bring a second reason for Manu to celebrate tonight: It's VACATION TIME at our house! He worked his last day of work this evening, and is off on paid leave until - get this - September 4th!! Yes, over 2 months from now. He gets his standard FIVE weeks of vacation that all salaried employees in France are entitled to, plus has earned lots of comp time (as happens most years for him) by working extra hours when his boss has gone on vacation or away for the weekend. It's just the two of them that run the flower shop, and given that Manu's normal work week is only 35 hours (again, the French standard), it doesn't take long to rack up overtime when holding down the fort alone. (Three mornings a week of going to the flower market at 5 am, plus keeping the shop open til 8:30 six days a week and for 4 hours on Sunday.) The only downside in all of this for him is that he can't really break it up and take the time off when he wants it; it's kind of a given around here that people go on vacation in July and August, and the rest of the year is too busy at the shop for his boss to be there much alone. Oh well -- we'll take what we can get!

My teaching job ended with the closing of schools for summer last week, so I'm also on vacation. It was a small part-time job thus I don't feel so different being off, but it's still nice to get paid while not working! Right before the time that school starts back up, my 16-week maternity leave will kick in until January (again, a French standard, paid at 100% of salary by the government), and breastfeeding moms can often extend for another month or so at 80% pay after that. Manu also gets 2 weeks of paid paternity leave, which will fall not too long after he's just finally started back to work in September. Now, there may be a number of things that bug me about living here, but for the above-stated benefits I can't help but exclaim, "VIVE LA FRANCE!!" Of course, the situation would be much less favorable if Manu or I owned our own business, but that's a whole other discussion...

So what are we gonna do with all of this time off?? Good question. This will be the first time since living here that we won't be going to Texas for the summer, and it feels strange. It just seemed a little too risky in the third trimester of pregnancy. Of course there's good health care in the States if I were to encounter any problems, but I shudder to think of the costs of having a premature baby with no health insurance. (Gotta love this whole social medicine thing! Again, if you're not a doctor...) We'll spend a decent chunk of time with Manu's parents, and are also looking at doing some traveling elsewhere in France. It's a good time to take advantage of that opportunity, since otherwise we've always been in the U.S. during vacation and thus I haven't seen much at all of this country. We'll keep you posted on whatever we wind up deciding to do.