Fencing and getting back to business....

Hi there folks. It's been a while. There really is no excuse for me not updating for like five weeks but I am working on catching up, hopefully I will be fully caught up in the next couple weeks. I may update seemingly randomly but that is because I have notes for some days and not others and it's been five freaking weeks. From here on out I am hoping to update daily, not only the post for the day, but also three or four posts from weeks ago. I am determined to see this through.
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So today, Colette and I went to a fencing class. The first class of the session is free, so what could it hurt? The answer is my right thigh. At the beginning of class, we did a bunch of laps (not a fan but not a huge deal). We then learned the proper stance, how to move forward and backward, and how to lunge. Not the most natural positions or movements for my body but it wasn't too bad. I believe the lunges were the culprit when it came to my thigh. We then got the equipment and proceded to poke each other for half an hour to 45 minutes. Literally. I would poke Colette, then she would poke me, etc, etc, ad infinitum. Then we used the forward/backward movements to poke each other. And then we lunged. It got pretty repetitive and Colette got annoyed that I kept poking her in the same spot. Eventually, we learned how to block the attacks. At the end of the class, we began sparring which was officially the best part. So today's favourite thing was sparring in fencing class. While the sparring was cool, I don't think I will sign up for the session - too repetitive and it was hard on my body.

Second verse, same as the first

Today was President Obama's visit to Ottawa to meet with PM Stephen Harper, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, and the Governor General . So I was sitting at home, watching Oprah (for the first time in about a million years) who was talking about declutterifying your home (an appropriate topic for me!) when it cut away to the press conference with Obama and Stephen Harper. After some preamble, Stephen Harper started his speech completely in French. I was really trying to listen because I am trying to improve my French (though that endeavor may not be a great success if I try to improve it by listening to Stephen Harper) but the annoying translator lady was way too loud. Eventually, they got around to the time when Stephen Harper started to repeat the entire speech in English, at which point I turned off the TV because the translator lady pretty much told me everything he had to say (Although if I had listened to it twice, I may actually remember what was said). I now wish I had kept the TV on because I kinda wish I had heard what Obama had to say.
While I know why we do things in both official languages and actually appreciate it, I am not entirely sure why we do it if someone is pretty much translating everything as we go along. It seems like it just takes up a whole lot of time for no reason. Maybe the second time was for Obama because I don't think he has the need to learn French as our leaders do, but if that was the case, they could have started in English and had French translator. There is probably a good explanation that I am not seeing at the moment so if someone could explain it to me, that would be good. That being said, today's favourite thing is the fact that we have two official languages (even though it can occasionally make things long and/or repetitive).