A Great Day for France

Today has been quite the day for France. The Tour de France started, and the France soccer team beat Brazil in the World Cup semi-finals tonight. I started my day by doing a little grocery shopping so that I'd have some snacks and things in my room. Then I went to lunch with the ISU group where I met James, who is from Australia. After lunch, James joined me as I went to meet my coworker Colin's brother and his girlfriend. Dave and Shaina were great. We walked around the path for the Tour de France time trials. We were there for most of the prologue (I believe that's what they call the time trials). Two Americans got 2nd and 3rd place! We went to the area where they awarded the jerseys, but it was packed with people, so we really couldn't see much. Oh...I also found out from Dave and Shaina that Colin and Rachel are engaged! I responded by shouting hooray and saying it's about time. Then Shaina showed me the pictures from the night Colin proposed, and I cried. I'm so excited for them!

After a long day of excitement at the Tour de France, we all went back to our rooms to relax for a short while before meeting Dave, Shaina, and Colin's Aunt Lynn, and her friend Magda for dinner. We went to a Lebanese restaurant called Au Petit Mezze. We had mezze, which is similar in the way it is served to tapas. If you've never had either, I'll explain. They brought out around 8-10 plates of different cold foods, and everyone took a little of each. Then they did the same thing for the second course, except the second course was hot food. It was a great way to try a little of everything, and for my first experience with Lebanese food, I thought it was very good. Of course, it was a traditional French meal in that we sat down around 7:30 and didn't leave until almost 11.

After dinner Lynn and Magda showed us some other great places to eat and shop. They both lived in Strasbourg at some point during their lives. Our short tour ended at a local restaurant that was showing the France vs. Brazil World Cup soccer game. We saw the last few minutes where France managed to hold their lead, and they won 1 to 0. Everyone went crazy at that point. Although, I have to admit that it was a very tame crowd compared to what I expected and what I've seen back home. Maybe if they make it all the way and win the whole thing, they'll really go crazy. I guess we'll see! At some point during the evening I did find out that the shuttle launch was scrubbed today and will be tried again tomorrow. I think they're going to try to get it set up for us to watch here at our dorm, which would be awesome! Hopefully there won't be any problems or weather delays tomorrow!