isn't it magic

aaaah, magicians week at the theatre...and I get to assist all week. It's a ton of fun learning the magic tricks, but boy oh boy, I do have to say 29 kids all in one room is a handful! Even down at the beach they are a force to be reckoned with. Don't get me wrong, they are really great (at least many of them are) but there are moments I feel a bit out of my element. I don't really know the first thing about magic I'm learning the tricks the same as the kids. I can help them with their presentation of it, but sometimes it's hard to keep 8-12 year olds focused on doing and perfecting one trick for more than 15 minutes at a time. you know how kids are- they think they know how to do everything. They want to make up their own tricks and show you - which is great, but not really the point of the exercise we may be doing at that particular moment.

There are moments when I think, "this is why I don't have kids." The raving lunatics. I know, I know everyone says it's different when they are your own, and I'm sure that's true. Someone has to love these little tyrants. I witness daily parents cooing over these minuscule savages. I'd definitely be the parent of a wild thing that I would adore, coddle, and spoil. Hence I should not reproduce. Even if my kid wasn't one of those his/her friends would no doubt be. So best to just not procreate.

On a totally different note, I notice my North American repressions surfacing all over the place - ok well really only at the beach. We go to the lake for lunch and I am ALWAYS astounded at the number of half naked people there. Sometimes I want to yell, "put your withered old French titties away, can't you see there are children here!" But I'm the only one who seems to notice or be bothered by the abundance of breasts taking in the suns golden rays. then there are the old men changing into their swim trunks on the beach, granted they do wrap themselves in a towel so you can't see anything so that's not too bad. There's also the old foggies sitting around in their tidy-whiteys. Now that is something I could have lived without ever seeing. The kids, having grown up here and being kids, don't even blink an eye. In fact, today some of them whipped of their own trousers (I keep saying pants and the Brits think I mean underwear) so that they could wade in the water. I was practically speechless when I saw the first little boy splashing around up to his thighs in the water with an over-sized shirt and no pants...er trousers, that is. I did a double take - at first thinking he had rolled up his shorts quite high. Nope, he was pantsless...or trouserless. Then I spied another one trying to pull his off. I rushed over and said, "Uh-uh, keep your trousers on." Thank god it was time to go at that point. I think tomorrow we're going to have to lay a few more ground rules for lunch - like keep your CLOTHES ON!!! Seriously, if they want to strip down on a trip with their parents more power to them, but running around in your undies is not the thing to do while you are at a summer camp. I could be wrong here and I am trying to adapt to European culture, but somethings I just can't adjust to.