Je suis en train de mourrir

I am dying. I've been horribly ill all week - and not the Beasty Boys kind of ill (I'm that all the time), I mean sickly. Sickly like a little bitch. I've been in bed for a good 32 hours now. Awesome.

I have come across some very interesting information in my fever-ridden stupor. Apparently, St. Louis is home to the world's largest geyser - the Gateway Geyser. It's a big fountain built on the East Side (so really, it's in Illinois) to bring the other side of the Mississippi in on the "Gateway to the West" action. It was built in 1995 - and I had NO idea it exists. It spits a column of water 192 meters (~630 ft) into the air, almost as tall as the Arch itself. This beast discharges 8,000 gallons of water per minute via three 800 horse-power pumps. My god.

Also, for those of you who don't know (and many of you probably don't), the St. Louis Arch has an observation deck at the top of it. You pay ten dollars to ride a completely creepy, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-esque (the Burton one) elevator up to the top to look out over St. Louis in all of its glory. Don't bother looking to the East side, there's no point (other than the world's largest geyser, I guess, if it's on).

I hope my snotty ass has shed some light on "the most dangerous town in the U.S." (which is complete bullshit). Most people I meet over here have no idea where St. Louis is, much less that there's a giant arch and a huge geyser to match it there. Sorry that this wasn't in French - I gave it a go with the title...