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 !

Vote's day

On the 6th of november, Americans will vote.
We received at home a lot of posters supporting the Romney side and the Obama side.

Sport is a big issue for the universities

Guess who has the biggest wage in the University of Delaware?
The president of this universtity is amid the more paid of all the universities presidents, almost 600 000 per year. You could believe it's the dean or a professor of the chemistry's department, as it is a department which won a lot of nobel prizes.
Wrong answer. The lucky one is the coach of the football team.
We saw a game on saturday, it was quite impressive.
As usual, around the game, you have cheerleaders on both sides, music bands during half time, a screen with advertisements also.

Universitie's mascots

Each american university has his mascot. The University of Delaware has his "Blue Hens". Sport teams will be "Blue Hens" ; you can support your university with sweaters, pants, hats, scarf, coffe cups... with the funny blue and yellow hen on it.
The university of Towson, Maryland, has his Tiger, "Doc".