Monday, September 7, 2009

Labour Day brings the Summer away

The American calendar is beaten by different festivities and holidays. So, Thanksgiving, the last Thursday of November, brings families together in America as much as Christmas in Europe. Martin Luther King’s Day, the third Monday of January, is an opportunity for a ‘skiing’ week-end. The President Day (or Washington’s Birthday), on the third Monday of February, is when newly elected presidents take office (and when many stores, especially car dealers, hold sales). Memorial Day, the last Monday in May, can be compared to the Italian ‘April 25th’: an opportunity for a day in the country-side. Independence Day, on July 4th, marks de facto the beginning of summer, and Labour Day, the first Monday of September, marks on the other hand the end of it. Public swimming-pools close, the entitlement to ‘causal’ dressing-code in offices ends, and beginning from Tuesday, flip-flop are banned and ties become compulsory again…

Consistent with American traditions, we decided to spend our Labour-Day week-end as American families do: on the beach for the last swim of the year. We drove to Ocean City NJ, three-hour and half from DC, to join Clémence, Christophe, Clothilde, Rémi, Magdelone, and Pierre-Alois + their kids. Despite the very American occasion, the week-end ended-up being very ‘French’, i.e. sit for hours at the dining table with excellent food!

The week-end was also a deep immersion into babies’ business. Out of the four couples, we were the only one without kids (counting those in pipeline as well…). Well, let's say an 'interesting' experience to test our paternal or maternal desire…

Pictures of the week-end have been posted on: http://picasaweb.google.com/mmmarchisio

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