Forgot it was St. Patty's Day

I can't wait for Electric Zoo 2010.

!!!!!

On another note, spring has somewhat begun to thaw the glacial landscape that is the Vosges, meaning two things: the Geromois are pissed (they want to keep skiing) and the dog feces are back on the sidewalks in full force.

I am a little disappointed too, actually, since I had Le Grand Parcours coming up this weekend: a massive national alpinisme event sponsored by the Club Alpin des Hautes-Vosges. Warm weather, however, takes the alpin out of the whole event, making the snow so heavy and wet that avalanches are a very real threat. So -- we'll see. But being "too warm" in the Vosges just means more frolicking in the woods for me, so I'm not too upset if it's canceled.

France also had its regional elections on Sunday, with somewhat striking results: a return from the right. Le Front National (FN) is one of France's most conservative parties (that gets anywhere in the polls, that is), and it's been gaining ground ever since Sarkozy took office. Check out this cool map from LeMonde.com:

My neighbor explained it to me this way: everyone just wants to be different from their parents. Our (my) generation of the French are more interested in specialized, private healthcare, for instance, as opposed to the (excellent) socialized system the French use today. There was a huge debate earlier in 2009 over whether to make the postal service privatized (which it will be); the autoroutes are already private. There are, of course, the already-conservative French who have, on top of their existing unfortunate political views, suffered greatly from la crise and are shying away from both the leftist Socialist Party (PS) and even Sarkozy's party (UMP).

But what's right for France (pun certainly not intended) is probably far-flung left for the United States, where school textbooks are written by Joel Osteen and a square meal means corn, beef, and BPA. The French can want more privatized health care, but at least they have it at all.