Celebrate

Yes, today's my 39th birthday, and we celebrated this evening with dinner at the little Korean place on the boulevard. It's nice - they open early (7-7:30) and with Korean you always get the panchan quickly so nobody starves. Anyway, it was very nice, and now the boys are down and we're watching France play Scotland in soccer. Paris was full of at least 15,000 drunken, kilted Scotsmen today. While the boys had their first Wednesday afternoon sports practices, the Scots were gathering at the Eiffel Tower before marching to the stadium. During sports, the sound of singing got louder and louder. We walked by just after practice at 6pm, which apparently was when the police decided to move the fans along - all we saw was their backs as they swarmed across the river, plus roughly 50,000 empty and smashed beer bottles and cans. They're all still singing. I'm told the French and Scots are pretty goohttp://beta.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gifd sports pals, given the common enemy (England) and the generally unthreatening sporting nature of each country. That holds with what I saw at a Paris St-Germain soccer match last year, a cup match against a Scottish side. I've never heard such friendly, good-natured cheering among rival fans.

My big birthday celebration happened Sunday, when we sorta spontaneously had 18 people over (well, us plus 14). We were going to go out, but Meredith volunteered to cook for us, so she made real southern fried chicken with dirty rice and gravy, and others brought wine, cheese, bread, desserts, etc. The 11 adults (two who don't really drink) went through 10.5 bottles of wine and half a bottle of liquor, and the last guest left at 1:45am. Yes, SUNDAY night. So Monday wasn't so easy. But the party was really fun, not just for me but I think for all.

(Man, you can type a lot during a 0-0 match! Crap, Scotland just scored.)

The Rugby World Cup is also going on in France this month and next. France is generally thought of as one of the 4-6ish best rugby teams in the world, but lost their opening match. The city and country have gone rugby crazy though, as the Eiffel Tower hints. The USA has started with two losses, but still has a chance to win one before going home. I was given a ticket to South Africa vs England at the Stade de France Friday, so that should be excellent! Turns out they sell beer at rugby matches, though not at soccer - kinda encapsulates their fans' behavior, it seems.



Enough about these petty celebrations - DO NOT forget this next week!