esa_morena

I was reading my friend Owen's blog today -- www.francetales.com. He recently moved to France with his French partner Jean Jacques after living together in the U.S. for number of years. In my friend's blog he mentioned that the French love Queen, Jim Carrey, and the Smurfs. I had not known any of this, but was not surprised that the French love Queen; I mean, who doesn't? Even my six year old likes Queen. In fact, just yesterday, he was singing "We Are the Champions" loudly while bathing and playing in the bathtub with his toys.

 I have to say, however, that the Smurfs thing really cracked me up. What a funny thing to like, then again, my husband, Ines, really likes Alf. Remember Alf? He was that funny, furry, alien puppet character that lives with a suburban American family, and according to Wikipedia, "becoming a permanent member of the family."  I never watched much Alf, but I saw a few episodes and probably laughed, but Ines, who was new to this country when Alf was on the air was apparently fascinated by the show and partially credits Alf for his keen English speaking skills. Having been very well-educated in his own country, Ines knew that he had to watch as much American TV as he could, rather than the Spanish language channel in order to gain English fluency, and Alf was one of the ways he did this. I can picture Ines now in a cramped apartment, watching Alf, or alien life form -- the acronym that serves as his moniker, listening closely for the punchlines to the jokes, and identifying with the furry little alien who was easily misunderstood, had to hide in his own house from those who wouldn't understand or accept him, and growing all the more close to those who did. 

We'll have to rent some Alf for our son Luis Manuel -- but no Smurfs.