France

The actress Angelina Jolie has given birth to both a boy and a girl. The babies were delivered by Caesarean section on Saturday night. Jolie and the twins are doing well. The baby boy was named Knox Leon and was born weighing just over 5 pounds. The girl was named Vivienne Marcheline and weighed 5 pounds. The babies were born at the seaside Lenval hospital in Nice in southern France. Jolie is expected to stay in the hospital for a few more days.

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The actress Angelina Jolie has given birth to twins in France. The twins are the fifth and sixth children for Jolie and Brad Pitt. They have 6 year old Maddox, 4 year old Pax, 3 year old Zahara, and 2 year old Shiloh.

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Ok, I give up. Every year I swear that I am gonna start eating healthier and every year I fail miserably. I feed my kids super healthy, fresh foods. I'm something of a nutrition nazi with them with the occasional french fries and happy meal thrown in for a little rebellion, but I suck with myself.

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So assuming you've read my other entry, you know that I will be visiting The Netherlands and France in May 2008 with my college.

I've included maps highlighting in yellow the locations I will be visiting in Europe for those who dont know where these places are!

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I'm a junior in college and I'm an art major.

About two months ago I found out about a study abroad opportunity at my college that sounded too good to pass up.

Three weeks in Paris and The Netherlands.

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The Eiffel Tower is a global icon of France. It is also the tallest structure in France. Many people travel to France each year to see this and other tourist attractions. As you can see from the picture, it is very large.

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I learned something new about France, France accommodations. This is like a hotel but with a lot more luxuries. They are basically areas to add to the experience. You can stay in a castle or ranch if you choose. This is defiantly something to think about and can make your France travel that much more pleasant. Credit voiture was something else that I got to take a look at while checking out a website known for France. The problem that I ran into was that I do not speak French and it turns out that this part of the site was in French, I guess I need to brush up and lean another language.

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The Rugby World cup semi-finalists found - favourite New Zealand All Blacks knocked out again, along with Australia, Scotland and Fiji.

NZ have only won the inaugural World Cup in 1987 in New Zealand, and continue to lose these one off games, despite beating every other rugby nation in between.

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Inhaling three Cannabis joints is equal to smoking a pack of cigarettes -French research! 2006-04-10

Smoking three cannabis joints is equal to inhaling a pack of cigarettes, according to French research. The smoke contains seven times more carbon monoxide the French Consumers Institute published in its April edition. Regular Marlboro cigarettes were tested against 280 specially rolled joints of cannabis leaves and resin in an artificial smoking machine. The tests examined the content of smoke for tar and carbon monoxide, and the toxic chemicals: nicotine, benzene and toluene. Cannabis smoke contains seven times more tar and carbon monoxide than tobacco smoke. Somebody smoking a cannabis joint rolled with tobacco will inhale twice the amount of benzene and three times the amount of toluene than that of a regular cigarette.

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Australian swimmer Michael Redford, son of the late Des Redford swam across the English Channel on this day, on what would have been father’s 80th birthday. Des swam across the Channel on 19 occasions, and this was the first time that Michael had emulated his father’s extra ordinary feat.

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In the Edo Period (1600-1868) the Tayu arose. They were Japanese Courtesans who entertained with arts of dance, music, poetry and calligraphy, and an educated wit. Due to isolation within closed districts the Tayu became highly ritualized and more removed from changing society. Their clients began to dwindle. It wasn't long before the rise of the Geisha ended the era of the Tayu. The popularity of the Geisha grew rapidly and eventually completely depleted the number of Tayu. The last recorded Tayu was in 1761.

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Could you believe it? With roughly 5 minutes remaining in the 1st OT (Extra Time) period, the last twenty minutes of a tie game that would have to be decided on penalty kicks if the tie wasn't broken, Zinedine Zidane, the famous French striker known for his beautiful footwork and deliciously alliterative name, pulled perhaps the worst move I've ever seen a team captain pull in any sport at any time. Ever. With the most important title in all of sports (back down, sports fans. No sport is watched more or cared about around the WORLD than soccer) on the line and France dominating the play against the exhausted and conservative Italians, Zidane decided that it would be prudent to use his head as a spear with which to rock the solar plexus of Italian defender Marco Materazzi in one of the cheapest and most vicious attacks I've ever seen on the pitch. Materazzi had been defending Zidane all game, and was quite physical with the bald Frenchman, frustrating him often. Zidane DID also get robbed on a header that was struck true but cast aside at the last second by Italian goalie Gianluigi Buffon just a few minutes earlier, keeping the score tied and leaving the Italians with a chance, which they would take by the balls and make good on a short time later. The frustration of the game-saving effort from Buffon and the continued shadow of Materazzi obviously got to Zidane, and he simply lost it at the worst possible time.

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Ah, here I am… My first day of summer vacation, bright sun, blue sky, a warm gentle breeze. Wait, that’s some chick on a magazine cover. I’m the one standing in a line of 15+ people in a tiny dilapidated building with no air conditioning, which somehow serves as a post office for the city of Vincennes in France.

There are no computers, none of the self-service machines work, and there are only two unhappy employees glaring from beneath dripping brows. The room is so small that strangers occasionally brush their sweaty bodies against me. A tall African guy touches my derriere more than once. I doubt it’s a complete accident.

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People think it’s so glamorous to live in Paris, and they are usually a bit surprised to find out how much I dislike it, unless they’ve actually lived here.

I suppose if I was here on vacation seeing Notre Dame and the Eifel Tower for the first time that there would definitely be some charm. However, I’m not on vacation.

I’ve never been somewhere quite this filthy, and I’ve been to some dirty places.

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Lisez-vous le français?

When learning a new language it can become routine and mundane to focus all your attention on one form of learning, such as using a text book. Many language learners nowadays branch out to on-line and audio learning. For authentic reading practice though it’s sometimes difficult to find good texts for an advanced beginner. Choices are often limited to the rote text book style, extremely low level children’s books about farmyard animals, or extremely difficult newspaper or magazine articles.

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