Vive la France! Pony Pony Run Run and other French things in Laos

 Already one of my favorite things about Laos is how many French people are here. The French community here puts on activities, has the best (by western standards) medical clinic, has some of the best schools, and a lot of the younger people here are French. This is the ultimate badass part, because (a) I love speaking French, and (b) I love French people (also (c) I think French food is freaking incredible).

Yesterday (Saturday) the Institute Francais put on a "Fete de la Musique". Starting around 10am there were a lot of live performances by local artists. I didn't get to go to the day activities, but last night there was a concert by "Pony Pony Run Run", a French electro-pop bands that sings in English. I've never heard of them before but apparently they're a pretty big deal in France and Belgium. This is their most famous song "Hey You": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InO1-QYsnnc
I think they did a great job, but live performances of electro-music (for me anyway) always feel harder to follow than the album version.

Et voila Pony Pony Run Run

I brought along my American friends/ coworkers, but was so excited to meet new people (esp French!) that I spent most of my time talking with the French girls who were there. I think I spent 60% of my time speaking French, 30% translating between French and English, and 10% talking with my coworker people.

Favorite part of the night- I was talking with one of the girls, and one of my coworkers (Wes) walked up and said "You speak French?! I didn't know that."

Me: "Yeah, I do!"

So he turns to the French girl I was talking with, and says proudly, "Me llamo Wes!" 

Which was incredibly confusing for her, even though she also spoke some Spanish.

I might also have found it hilarious because I had a couple of glasses of wine by then.

Other note:

Americans are really good at getting a concert going. I don't know if it's because we have to make due with shitty high school bands or awkward live performances or what, but I think that's one area in which our loud (and at times obnoxious) energy becomes an asset. The Pony Pony Run Run concert had pretty good music but everyone was doing that awkward barely-moving, arms-by-your-side swaying type of dancing, and eventually three of the guys in my group (shout-out to Rich, Brett and Griffin) and myself just started jumping up and down and doing 70's dance moves and- to some extent- getting low. The party got much more fun after that, and even though I think a lot of people presumed we were just dancing because we were drunk (which was partially case for the gents, methinks), I think we did a great job of bringing more life to the party. 

 Here is Rich. I like this pic cuz it summarizes the evening pretty well. Also, at one point he put one of the French girls on his shoulders. No one else at the party was doing that, but that just made it more hilarious.