Sunday afternoon for me late morning for you

The dentist was a beautiful woman with a Parisian accent. It's not good when the dentist is beautiful, you start to worry about all the flying spray from your mouth. I thought I'd learn some good French vocab from her. I understood vas-y since it's the same thing I yell at the kids sitting on my front porch every morning before school. It means Go. Her assistant's name was Suzy, so it rhymed: vas-y Suzy. I have no cavities.

These kids I'm working with this summer are a bit different than what I'm used to in village. A student pulled out a new iPod last week, and I asked her if it was the iPhone. She said, No, the iPhone is for a man. If I want to go out and put it in my pocket, I can't. No, I like having them separate. I'm filling in the next two days for a prof who is in Ghana. The new experience'll be fun. I don't want to work with kids the rest of my life (please, please, no), but this has been a good thing getting up in front of people and testing my cliches and confidence over and over again.

I'm going to Eurotex, the fabric store, tomorrow to buy some materials to have pants made for Paris. It's only a month away. I'm thinking black pants and one other color. As far as French goes, here is my level: yesterday Zach had trouble ordering food over the phone. Finally he came up to me and said, here, Clay, talk to them, I can't understand him. Okay:

I want three plates of spaghetti, two steak sandwiches, three fries, and three steak plates. No, not three more steak sandwiches, three steak plates. Steak plates? Yeah, the plate I usually order. It comes not on bread but on a plate with a sauce. Steak sandwich? No, well yes, two of them. But then three additional steak plates where there is no bread, just steak. The pieces of meat are directly on the plate. Instead of the sandwiches? No. In addition to? Yes. I'm still not getting it. Umm. Wait, steak simple? What is simple steak? The stuff on the sandwich but without the bread. Yes, that is what I want, three of them. Did you change the name of it or something? Never mind. Okay, see you in thirty minutes.

We should have a grand time as long as Matt doesn't want a steak plate/steak simple.

I've been watching the Olympics on the TV at the embassy. I haven't seen much since Friday, but we should be winning every sport we enter into. We are such a huge country it's a loss if we don't win everything. Now that I'm kind of thinking about it, I did see some equestrian events. Let the others have them.

I saw Iron Man and The Hulk last week. Both of them are great. I liked The Hulk more, but I can see how people could prefer Iron Man. It's faster-paced and flashy. And The Dude is the villain.

I've been sick this week. I think it's all the smog from living here. Sometimes at a traffic light I'm surrounded by dozens of motos. It could be worse though. I read somewhere that living in Cairo is the same as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, the pollution is so bad. I also read that the doctor in House has a Burger King gold card and can eat at any Burger King in the world for free. What do I have to do to get one.

Okay, time to do some work. Hope everyone is good. Clay

P.S. Happy Early Birthday Katie