We are in a wonderland

After the Halloween decorations all around our neighborhoud, it's place to christmas lights. It's astonishing. Instead of having lightening in the city, it's on private houses. It awakes the little child we have inside each of us. I share some pictures with you even if it's not redering too well, imagine...

Christmas traditions

We enjoy all the nice christmas trees in department stores, museum, gardens. We enjoy the gingerbread houses also.

Wasted food !

I was so angry yesterday at school. I was in Eugenie's kindergaten class for her Gingerbread house and her Christmas Party.

Why American people aren't angry like me when they throw away so much food ?

First, children have crafted their gingerbread house, in front of them they have too much candies parents had to bring (list of candies, how many do you know ? licorice pieces, spearmint leaves, candy canes, necco waffers, gum drops, skittles, hershey kisses, miniature marshmallows, pretzels...). Without kidding, we put more than half of the items in the trash bin.

The party : there are 23 children in the classroom and there was food for let say 50 children, perhaps more. With the food (cupcakes, cookies, pretzels, fruits, vegetables...), come also paper or plastic plates, glass and napkins. 

At the end, within two hours, we filled three enormous trash bins.

Now the data of the ecological footprint became more concrete. You anderstand why we'll need five earths if every inhabitants in the world had the standard of living of American people.

Damages causing by guns and weapons...

It's frightening to think of neighbours, people in the streets, cashiers in stores who may have a weapon to use when you are in this country.

This week, I was thinking about it because of three events. 

I just came back from my running when Thierry scared me to death by sending me this email :

"The UD Police Department has been notified of an armed robbery at the Buffalo Wild 

Wings Restaurant on Elkton Road.  This incident occurred today, 12/11/2012, at 4:02 pm.

 Two suspects were last seen running towards the Rodney Underpass.  If you see anything

 suspicious, please contact the Newark Police at 302-366-7111." 

I was just running around in this area, I go to the dance class in that same street. 

The second one occured the day after, a man has killed two people and has injured others in a mall shopping center in Oregon, near christmas trees and Santa Claus display.

The last one is the most scary ; a young man killed 27 people including 18 children in Newtown, Connecticut.

After that you remember some of mass rampages of the last decades : Columbine (1999), Virginia Tech (2007), Colorado in a movie theater (2012). Often, the killer is a young man, shy and unnotified, he shut himself with the other victims, he was from a white middle class family and the shooting occured in wealthy areas.

Will we have Baby shower parties in France ?

The first time I heard about it was in two TV shows.
What's a baby shower party ? To organize one, you have to be pregnant of your first child. You invite only women and they offer you presents for your future child. It's a convenient way to have quickly clothes, stroller, crib, diapers... It's all about money saving for the hostess. And you can organize 2 or 3 baby shower for the same child.
For the other childs, you'll have a baby "sprinkle" party, the gifts will be more modest as you can use again some of your stuffs.

I'm a fan !

Thanks to the New York Times, I discovered a wonderful blog : brainpickings.org.

The writer lives in the United States but is originally from Bulgaria. As the blog title announces it, you will find whatever is in her mind but as she knows a lot and she is very eclectic, it's very interesting.

It goes from culture to science. From children picture books, to photography to Einstein equation... I let you discover it. Enjoy your reading !

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Comitments to the arts

If there is one thing good in American schools, it's the place for the arts.
In elementary schools, you have one music teacher and one drawing teacher ; kids have one hour of each in one week from kindergarten until 5th grade. They are proud to learn songs with their recorder and to paint "à la manière de".
In middle schools and highschools, it's not optional and you can take two specials between music, dance, arts, acting, cheerleaders, sports... and you will have some hours each week in your timetable... Those teachers are respected ; kids have a lot of opportunities to perform in front of others. For example, during the football season, the school team will have a game each friday evening, during the half time the school band will play and cheerladers will support the team during the game.
They have dedicated program for the arts in a lot of public schools. That's why we are impressed to see so many teenagers good at sport, dance, voice, music...
When they go to college, the arts are well placed too. We had the chance to see a Nutcracker performance, one major cast was in the chemistry department and at the same time in the dance department  and it's not unusual. You can mix your courses easily and both departments are important for the success of the university. The department of music has also very good players, we saw a very good performance of a violonist in 2009.

My own neighbour is a baker, lucky me !

As you don't have so many  bakery here and industrial breads are not so tasty, some Americans are baking their own bread.

My neighbour is one of them. He was very proud with his first baguette and he can be.

Driving on the I 95...

When we have to drive, we are often on the Interstate I 95, we take this road to go to Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore or Washington. It's the main highway on the East Coast running parallel to the Atlantic Ocean seaboard serving areas between Florida and New-England inclusive. You can play "on the US road again"...

I was quite worried to drive on this big road but I handle it right now better ; sometimes it has four or five lanes. Big trucks and cars by pass you either from the right or from the left. My GPS helps me to be confident... It's less in a good shape than the french highways, you have to be careful espexcially for the flat tires. 

For Christmas, we will drive until Charleston, South Carolina.

The new technology era

It's so great now to be on time at an airport where you need to pick up a relative or a friend. You don't have to waste your time by waiting in front of an arrival time checking board. With internet, you follow the plane ; it tells you if it will be late or on time. When you read "on its way", you imagine the plane between Paris and Philadelphia or Montreal and Philadelhia, it fills my dreams...

The redemption 's life of Georges Wallace

I watched the movie named Georges Wallace. He had been the governor of Alabama four times from 1963 until 1987 with some pause.
In that movie, you perceive what meant to be Black in a south state like Alabama in the sixties and seventies. At the beginning of his political life in the democratic party (you imagine, the same than Obama), he wasn't in bond with the Ku Klux Klan. Anyhow, to win this state, he had to take position. He had been after a big voice for segregation to continue. He opposed in 1963 two black people to enter the university of Alabama ; Bobby Kennedy, John's brother, of the Supreme Court came to visit him and told him he had no choice by federal law...
In 1963 four little black girls were killed in front of a church in Birmingham, Alabama. Birmingham was the town of the beginning of the pastor Martin Luther King.

In a policical meeting in 1971, he had been wounded and he was paralyzed after this accident.
Years later he had apologized for his position against the civil rights movement, he begged the black people their pardon. He was reelected as a goverbor of Alabama in 1983 with some voices of black people.
Crazy life ...

Yearn for Oklahoma...

Where is  Oklahoma state?  Right in the middle of the United States. It's not the cultured East or the wild West or the frigid North or the humid South but exactly where all those things meet. It's also a place which weather can be challenging because three different weather systems converge in this area ; meteorologists in this state are famous like rock stars.
Oklahoma city, the big town of this state, seems to be a place where it's nice to live. People are kind and humble, the exact opposite of Texans just below them. There is a life in downtown, citizens have accepted 20 years ago to pay more taxes to allow the city council to built and run public services. They have, like many european cities, a public bikes service.
In 1995 they were hurt by a bombing attack (like in Denmark summer 2011) which cost the life of more than 150 people and injured more than 500, the bomber was a Gulf war veteran. Sad story...

Let's speak about famous people down there. Do you know Kevin Durant? It's a basketball player, one of the best of all time. He is good in his sport and he seems perfect, nice with everyone. He has decided to stay with the Thunder team of Oklahoma because he likes the behaviour of people there. It's the place also of a well known rock band : the Flaming Lips.
Oklahomans folks are proud of their city...

Learning is fun !

In this children museum you had a part about money, everything was expalined for children.
They explain you how to be a futur Bill Gates or Mark Zukergerg, you are in the temple of capitalism !

They learn you, also, how to lace your shoes...

Museums for children

In the US they have museums for children, everything is designed for them, and they love it !

Eugenie builds a house, Diane is a repair woman in a garage, and Margaret did a porch.

My first Thanksgiving

I was so lucky to have my first Thanksgiving in a wonderful family...
We were 22. Very American as from all parts of the world : Helen's grandparents were from Switzeland, they had migrated to Mexico and a lot arrived in the fifties in Philadelphia, USA. One of Helen's sister is married to an English man. Helen's little cousin was married to a vietnamese. And Helen's nephew was with her spanish girlfriend. We have had the typical meal : a turkey, peas, mashed pumpkin, canneberge sauce ; we have had in aperitf a rhum with a mixed of egg and milk, delicious...

At the beginning of the diner, everyone had to say what he or she was thankfull for, it's the tradition.

Thanksgiving

We enjoy the thanksgiving holiday...
Eugenie had a thanksgiving feast just before the vacations week. In class, they had the choice to make a pilgrim hat or an indian hat with feathers ; they draw the Mayflower boat. Some kids don't do any party for thanksgiving, if you are black it's not a part of your ancestor's story.
Once upon a time, a boat called the Mayflower arrived in New England in a place the first pilgrims called Plymouth in the year 1620. One year after, they could handle a ceremony to say thank you for the so good harvest. Indians tribes shared also some food with those first pilgrims during this ceremony. And there it is, now Thankgiving happens each third thursday of november.
Turkeys are ready to sell everywhere.

Big role for money in this 2012 election

Two weeks before the presidential election, TV was flooded with super pac ads, some were for Obama, others for Romney.
Did you remember the propistion 37 in California? Citizens of this state had to say if they were agree, just to label food with GMO. Unfortunately, this propistion didn't pass. The opposition of this proposition, say the big food brands, spent a million dollar a day in advertisings the week before the election to deter  you to vote for this proposition.
Lobbying groups are not only in the US. Why eventually the EU dismissed his law for flight companies to acquire carbon property rights? Lobbying...

Debit or credit?

When you pay a good with a card, you have to be very focus because of all of the questions you may give an answer.
Firstable, would you like "debit" or "credit"? In fact when we say in France we pay by "creditcard", we are wrong, we have simple "debitcard".
After that "cashback or no?", this is quite convenient, you may ask for $30 in cashback.
It's not finish, one  month ago it was "would you like to support breastcancer association by giving 1, 2, 3 or more dollars". Right now "would you like to give money for the aftermath of the hurricane Sandy and help people in New Jersey and elsewhere?"
You have a last one "is this amount correct?" yes or no. Each time you push a button. Sometimes I make a mistake at the end by pushing "no" and I have to do it one more time....

Hair's for the party girls

Hopefully Diane isn't a party girl in the Nutcracker. I went to a special meeting this saturday to learn how to do the exact bun and to put all the make up on Diane's face.
The meeting has been lasting a long time about the way to handle the curly hairs for the pretty girls. You have to begin 3 days before to apply the rollers ; the girls must sleep with them and go to school like that.

A "so desperate housewife" explained to us how to manage with rollers, with the hair net, with the make-up, her daughter was the model.

The Nutcraker tradition

The ballet Nutcracker is celebrated nationwide during december all around the United States. In our little town, there are two Nutcraker performances ; Philadelphia has some show also of good quality.
It's a must to attend one of these performances.
In the stores, you have already christmas' decorations, a lot are Nutcracker casts.
We are going to the one who Diane is dancing during the second week-end of december.

The aftermath of the superstorm Sandy

Two weeks after the hurricane, Sandy stills in the topnews in the US.
More than 100 hundred people died in the eastcoast, half of them where living in the coast of New York and  New Jersey states.
More than 8 millions people had power outage and today some doesn't have their electricity back. Imagine how it must be challenging, you can't have any heat, you can't cook hot food. And last week snow was falling around New-York.
They worried also that those storms will occur more often with the global warming problem. When you have a look of the east coast, you can see how it's indented !

Queens and Staten Island, areas of New York city, have been paticularly hitted.

Obamania

Yesterday we watched the results on TV, switching between CNN and CNBC, holding our breath.

When a candidate has the majority, he has all the votes of the big electors. So swing states were very important to win because they could make the difference ; Obama did there a great job, he won in Ohio, in Florida and in Virginia. We saw the results in a lot of states county by county (it's like our "departments"). In Florida for example, Obama didn't win a lot of counties compared to Romney but he won them where the density of the population is higher.

We knew it was OK for Obama when the results of California were known, imagine 55 big electors compare to only 3 big electors in the little state of Delaware.

With this electoral system it can happen that the one who win didn't have the majority of all Americans. This time Obama have a clear victory, more Americans vote for him than for Romney.

Even, if of course, I didn't vote I had a sticker with Martha so we were able to have free donuts !