iSurrender

I rode my bike to church and back today. I got off track, accidentally found a shortcut, and made the trip in 45 minutes. Afterwards two of my friends invited me to hang out with them. And where do you think French people go after church? Um... McDonalds. Some French people don't even realize that McDonalds is American, despite the fact that half the menu is in English. Anyway, we had a nice little chat. Most of it was in French, though my one friend kept diverging into English. He speaks too many languages and he likes to "channel surf" through them.

This evening I watched "Indigènes", a French film about the Africans who fought in WWII. It seemed to be very well done, though I don't know enough of the history to guess how accurate it is. It was also very, very hard to watch. It dealt partially with the cruelty of war but mostly with the way Africans were treated as second-class citizens in the army. Also, because it is French, the producers felt no need to have a happy, or even semi-hopeful, ending. Everybody dies except one character. Nobody ever sees their loved ones again. And as far as we know, all the credit goes to the French who showed up too late to fight but just in time to get their pictures taken. Not a fun movie, but a good one for understanding some aspects of the French/African relations that I will encounter là-bas. On that note, I'm off to bed!