With Me It's All 'Er Nothin'.... is it All 'Er Nothin With You?

This has been a week of movies. Movies and normalcy. As in the glitz and glam of "ooooo I'm living in Paris now" is starting to wear off and everyday life is, well, everyday life. People breathe here. For the most part, they dress like Americans do. They eat food (especially bread). They love and hate. They have feelings and ideas of their own. They walk and talk, dance and sing. The Eiffel Tower looks the same every time you look at it. And time moves on, just as it does in the US...

Anyway, like I said we watched lots of movies. Friday night we watched Casablanca in French; we've also watched Chisum (an old John Wayne Western loveeeeee itttttttttttt), He's Just Not That Into You, and yesterday JC had on Men in Black. I also watched Madea's Family Reunion online and really hope i can find a french copy of it or anything else Tyler Perry here. Woot woot life. I'm itching for a purpose. A reason to be here. Ok, the whole resting thing was nice for about a week or so. I need to move. It's like, torture for my body.

Last Thursday night Yadira and I went to Zumba class here in Paris. We ended up getting there about 10 minutes late because we missed the bus we wanted to get onto, and the woman at the front desk of the dance studio it was held in seemed quite annoyed at this. Oops. She also lectured us that we aren't allowed to wear street shoes in the dance studios and that even if we are wearing sneakers we have to bring them in a separate bag and put them on there. It's not like it was raining or anything- our shoes weren't dirty but this lady was not happy about us wearing them in the dance studio.

The class was lot of fun. We did salsa, samba, hip hop, reggaeton, african dancing (that I remembered doing in Charles' class at Muhlenberg), middle eastern dancing, and a few other types of dance. It was a great workout. The only thing was that we don't have water bottles in our house, so Yadira and I didn't have water. BIG NO NO. After about 15 minutes I started to feel sick and my head began to hurt. But I made it through the whole class and Yadira and I both loved it. The teacher, Mary Ellen, was really nice and energetic. After the class, we asked the lady at the front desk if there was any water in the place. She sent us to a room that ended up being the bathroom and showers. It wasn't like we asked the wrong question because Yadira asked her and Yadira speaks French (obviously). So then we asked one of the girls we had seen in the class and she said we could buy water for a euro at the front desk. The water bottle was like, half the size of a water bottle in the US but it was water at least. Next time I'll be better prepared. I really hope I can keep going to the classes- it was loads of fun!

Friday I did absolutely nothing except when we watched Casablanca right before bed. Saturday during the day I didn't do anything but at night, Yadira and I met Gilles and our friends Yada and Florence at a gospel choir concert in Paris. It's part of this 10 day long thing called "Paris Go-Spell". Yeah, I know they spelled 'gospel' wrong. The french apparently all think this is hilariously clever because they made an english phrase by adding another letter to the word. They couldn't understand why I didn't laugh at this. I told them it didn't make sense in english- go spell is like, a command like, "Johnny, go spell CAT on the blackboard". It has absolutely nothing to do with gospel music or the gospel message. But, they get a kick out of it. There's fliers EVERYWHERE advertising it and all who participated got t-shirts with "Paris Go-Spell" on it. Gilles told me that english speakers have come up to them on the streets and said, "You know you spelled that wrong, right?" Now that made me laugh. I find it interesting that the French take such pride in their language to the extent where they even have L'Académie Française, one of the oldest institutions still around and functioning in France, which functions as France's official authority on the usages, vocabulary, and grammar of the French language. Basically it's 40 people who sit around and debate the proper usages of the French language and whether or not they will allow certain english words to be used in everyday conversation. The French take their language SERIOUSLY. Even my family has discussions at the dinner table about the usage of words and their genders etc... and it functions as part of normal everyday conversation. So you don't mess with their language or it's practically a criminal offense, but they can feel free to change whatever they want about our language to try and be cleverly funny. Whatever works for your country, France. I'm on your territory, I'll keep my mouth shut.

The concert was nice. It was a little strange to hear all the songs I am so familiar with from growing up in a black church being sung by French people. They like to lay down their burdens "doUNE bahEEEEEEEEE zeeeee RRRRRRRRReeeeveRRRRRRRRsahEeeeeeD." At the same time, I couldn't help but start to feel like I did about the gospel choir at Muhlenberg... that it's just a concert to showcase a certain type of music and certain singer's talents about how they can improvise or just how high that man's voice can get, and somewhere within the spectacle of "oooo ahhhhh this is cool because its different and look at how joyful everyone is and how the director can get the crowd pumped up and how well the soloist can sing" the very essence of why these songs were written, to bring praise and glory to God, gets lost. I left feeling a little frustrated, but then again, who am I to judge. I dont know what's in people's hearts, and its none of my business either. I guess maybe it was just that I felt a little prohibited from actually worshipping the Lord because of the distractions. I don't know. As a concert, though, it was good.

It was after midnight when we got in, and I felt exhausted, so I decided to sleep in and only go to the english service at calvary chapel paris instead of the french and english service. Of course when I got there, there were a ton of people (well, not a ton, considering there's only about 20 people in each service but you get the picture) wanting to know why I didn't come to the French service. Whatever. We started studying Revelation though. AWESOME. Now this is more like the Calvary Chapel I'm used to! We went through the first 8 verses of just the first chapter and tried to unpack all that's loaded into the Scripture. Yes, it was awesome. I guess this kinda seals the deal... I'll be attending Calvary Chapel Paris while I'm living here in France. Although 9 hours of church is a bit much for one day, even for a Calvary Chapel, when you're with only 20 people. It's okay I guess. When I was there I met 2 people from Calvary Chapel Old Bridge, NJ.... Rosalie and Seth. Seth is here for the summer working and Rosalie was just visiting him, but I loved meeting them. First of all, they went to Calvary Chapel Old Bridge, and I know a handful of people who have went there which is awesome, but second of all, they were puerto-rican. Seth was born there and Rosalie is first generation. They were like, hard-core New Jerseyians at their finest. It was SO comforting. As strange as it may seem, I felt so relieved to be around people who acted like the ones I grew up with. Their attitude, their body language, their way of thinking/reasoning, their accent, their intonation/manner of speaking... it was all so FAMILIAR. I loved it.

Monday we had a going away party for our friend Clément, who's going to study abroad in Montréal. Actually, Clément hosted his own going away party because his parents and little brother were away, so he had the house to himself. It was really nice. Silvia and I walked to the spot where our friend Daniel was going to pick us up. He ended up being an hour late but that was okay- I definitely didn't mind because it gave me the chance to talk to Silvia and we got to sit out and soak up some sun too. Daniel finally came and picked us up, but he didn't quite remember all the directions to get there. We found the street fine but it was a one way and couldn't quite figure out how to get to the other end of the street where Clément's house was. So he ended up just driving in reverse all the way down the street. And then I got to thinking, Do people do that in the US? I can't remember. I mean, I would do it if it was like, 2 or 3 houses but go the entire length of a street backwards? I can't remember. Well I guess I've been here long enough when I can't even remember how things run in my own country.

When we came in, I sat down next to Fannie, a girl I met the first day i was here. She started speaking to me in english, and I responded to her in french, and continued to speak french. I was on no english mode and was determined to see if I could make it being semi-talkative with people and more social than I have been without speaking a word of english. Fannie looked a little disappointed because I think she might have wanted to practice her english with me, but oh well. Another time she can speak english with me. We talked about me getting a job and she gave me a few more websites with opportunities for english speakers that she could think of. Then Clément, Daniel and Clément's friend who is also named Clément watched a few gospel music videos from various gospel choirs across the US. But it wasn't until around 8pm that the people who were working Paris Go-Spell (including Gilles and Yadira) got there. I was a little bored. I spent more time talking to Silvia but I wanted to go home. When dinner came out, I did get excited though. It was pizza! I had been craving pizza for literally about 8 days and I finally got it! The only problem was that there were too many people and not enough pizza to go around, and they were small, like the size of a Dominos medium pizza. I got a half a slice, and that was it. Oh well. It was pizza. There was bread too (of course). There was more of a selection for dessert though, chocolate cake and an apple torte and cupcakes. And of course, at the end of the day we went in the backyard and braved the bloodthirsty mosquitos to dance salsa and do the cha-cha slide and tchiriri. I got to dance with Clément again and it was very fun. Then when we went inside, before we left everyone asked me and Daniel to dance together in front of everyone. We tried to ham it up with dramatic head turns and attitude. It was funny and I liked being the center of attention again. I even saw a few people doing video on their cell phones of us dancing. Clément also had a journal type book and he asked us all to sign it so he'd remember us when he left. I was thinking all day about how I was going to word what I wanted to say, but at the end of the day I was too tired and decided to write in english. What the heck, I thought I'd be different and add a little variety. If he doesn't understand me, well, oh well. He can ask someone in Montréal lol they're all bi-lingual there.

Tuesday was actually a lot of fun. JC and I made homemade pizza. We started by making the crust around lunchtime, and then finished the rest for dinner- Margharita,Hawaiian, and Veggie pizza. It was funny because we pretended that we were doing a TV show like Emeril or Rachel Ray. He decided to speak almost all in english but with a very, very VERY heavy (fake/overdramatic) french accent. It was hilarious. As we say here, j'étais mort de rire (I was dying of laughter). He kept saying things like "wet floor" instead of "white flour" and every ingredient that I said I didn't understand because of his too heavy french accent, he was like, "izzz ok, ju can juzzzzzzt buhhhEE it in zeeeee Frenshhhhh stOre, Yezzz Yezzz, my Frenssshhhhh stOre zat I Ave in zeeee UnitEEEEEEd Statezzzzz". I seriously was almost peeing my pants. It was so funny. I'm actually seriously laughing out loud remembering it all. It was so hilariously funny, in fact, that brought up Imovie on my Mac and recorded 2 hours of us, and his mom randomly chiming in "I don't understand I don't understand" in the background (she doesn't speak english, but that's one of the few things she knows how to say. It made it even more hilarious). I don't think JC is aware that I did this because I turned the light off so my screen was black and it looked like my computer was off/sleeping. Nor is he aware of the fact that I'm going to edit it and send it as a pilot to Food Network so we can have our own TV show. It would be a HUGE hit.... seriously with his french accent and my good looks and his heaven sent gift at cooking and my good looks and his sense of humor and my good looks and his mad skills at being a clown and my good looks (hahahahaha) americans would be OBSESSED. Like, it would top LOST and Grey's Anatomy and all those other shows that I dont watch but hear everyone else raving about. And you'll all be pea green with envy when we're so famous. Bwahahahahahahahahaha.

The only thing was that he put corn on all the Hawaiian and veggie pizzas. I kept telling him he was weird. I've never seen corn put on pizza before. They all liked it, I didn't get to try it because I went to one of the Paris Go-Spell concerts with my friend Pascale. She was born in France but moved to California when she was younger and went to college at Hofstra, now is living in Paris again. This time it was a trio, 2 men and a woman, who came from somewhere in Africa because their accents were more african than french. Oh and a white British guy on the piano. And this time it was held in a theater rather than a church but it was nice. The only thing was that it was tooooooooo hot. We were dying. After the concert was over, Pascale and I went further into Paris to try and find a cafe to sit in, but it was too late at night and we got there, like, literally 3 minutes after it stopped taking customers. Oh well. But we were both so thirsty so I suggested, "Ok, I really hate to sound terribly american here but maybe we can find a McDonald's that would be open?" so we walked to a MacDos (as it's called here) and even that was closed! But the person at the "drive in window" (which was next to the sidewalk which defeats the purpose because no cars would ever be able to go up to it) said we could still get water if we wanted, so we did. It costs us 2 euros and 40 centimes for a bottle of water smaller than your typical Aquafina or Poland Spring, but we didn't care. On the métro ride home Pascale and I got to talk and she really put my mind at ease about some things. One of those times where God just brings the right person into your life at the right time. Isn't He so awesome like that?

Wednesday JC was supposed to get his stitches out. He had to go to a hospital that was kinda far and since he can't really walk, our friends Yada and Yaki from the chinese church came and had lunch with us and then drove him and Gilles to the hospital and back. We had leftover pizza for lunch and then Yada brought "raspberry cheesecake" and cinnamon rolls. Of course, it didn't taste like the stuff in the US but it was really nice anyway. We even put the cinnamon rolls into the microwave to heat them a little. Not cinnabon, but still yummy nonetheless. Yada, Yaki, Gilles, and JC left for the hospital and Yadira and I went to Intermarché to "faire le course" for dinner. I had invited 5 Americans that I met at Calvary Chapel Paris for dinner, and I also was planning on making dinner. I wanted to make something "french" and Gilles suggested I make "crêpes au sarrasin" which is a kind of crêpe made from a black flour which is native to northern France, like, Normandy and the Bretagne region. The cool thing with crêpes is that they can serve as the main dish and the dessert. I decided I'd make half a batch of salmon crêpes, half beef filled, and then whatever was leftover would be for dessert. Yadira and I went shopping and let me say the whole process took about less than half the amount of time it usually takes me to buy the same amount of ingredients. Maybe because I had her to just tell me that the things I want don't exist here instead of me running up and down each aisle for every single thing I want hoping maybe it's just filed in another place or maybe I missed it. The only thing we couldn't find was cider, which goes better with crêpes than wine does, but Gilles went out and bought it later for us. We got home and honestly all I wanted to do was lie down, because my head was starting to hurt. Yadira and I watched Criminal Minds together and I really hoped that by the time it was over I'd feel better, but no such luck. I only felt worse and a lot more tired. But I had to start making the crêpes. JC and Gilles also came home and unfortunately JC needs to wait another week to get his stitches out.

Now because my head hurt, and I was tired, I was really cranky. I didn't want to make these crêpes because anytime I'd made them in the US, it was with crêpe mix and a crêpemaker machine. Now I was making them the old fashioned way, with french directions, in front of a bunch of people who make crêpes all the time. I was really scared of messing something up and having them judge me and then ruining dinner (even though I knew that wouldn't be true... but I was feeling yucky and therefore extra overdramatic). All three of them had offered to help me, saying, "If you want help, just ask." Anyone who knows me will be able to know that yes, I did really want help but no, I did not want to ask for it. The words, "Can you help me?" no matter in what language are almost impossible to come out of my mouth in that order. It's bad, I know. But one by one, they started coming in the kitchen to help me. Gilles started helping me fry the crêpes in the frying pan, and JC helped me assemble them with the salmon and the beef. There also ended up not being enough crêpes for dessert, so JC offered to make waffles for me. Yadira set the table and then went to the bus station to pick up my friends (although they came about an hour late and then it was close to another hour before we started eating (around 9pm at night) and only 2 of them ended up coming out of the five that I invited). I was very happy and relieved that my family helped me, but my pride was hurting almost as bad as my head was. I was bothered by the fact that I couldn't do it all myself and that my head hurt and that my family had to see me with a cranky attitude. Mais quand même, we all had a very nice time. Lindsay and Hannah (my two friends that I invited) were part of the missionary group that came here from Calvary Chapel Seattle and were doing the swing dancing/evangelizing. We all had lots of fun and good food and cider and good conversation and good company. But at the end of it all I hoped that a good night's sleep would make my headache go away.

It didn't, sadly, and Thursday basically all I did that was productive was watch "He's Just Not That Into You". It was a really funny movie, but on a whole, thursday was just a boring day. It's okay... that happens sometimes, even in France. I wanted to go to Zumba again but money is getting kind of tight so I decided I'd just wait til next week. Friday wasn't much more exciting. Our friend Samuel was having a surprise birthday party thrown by his sister Irénée and then they all went to play LaserTag afterwards. I was going to go but I got a terrible headache and ended up sleeping for over 12 hours. I guess both of those days I could have used to update my blog... oops..... and then Saturday I still had a headache but felt better. In the evening, Yadira and I went to the last Paris Go-Spell concert... this time it was a 5 man acapella group and they had no accents when they sang. It was SO cool and I'm really glad I went despite the headache. We ended up sitting in almost the last row but it was okay because the sound is what's important anyway. French people are OBSESSED with the song Oh Happy Day. It's basically synonymous with the word gospel. They can't get enough of the song. It's kind of funny. One notable thing that did happen though was that I needed to go to the bathroom so I went up to one of the men who was working the event to ask where the bathrooms were.... wow. See, a group of the people who organized Paris Go-Spell were Québécois from Canada. And WOW did this man have a Canadian accent like I'd never heard before! Gilles had been joking earlier in the week that when the Québécois were evangelizing, they needed to have translators because none of the french people could understand Canadian French. I understood that the man said, "Sorry Miss, there aren't any bathrooms open to the public" but wow! I could definitely understand how french people would indeed need translators.... their accent is so different! I didn't even notice it in the last french class I took where we spent a decent amount of time studying Canada and watching French Canadian films.... but wow. Talk about weird accents! Well, I guess it's normal for them, but it was very interesting for me to hear.

In other news, I'm watching a flip flop throwing competition on TV right now. Yup, these men literally have a competition where they run in flip flops and kick them off their feet, and then their partner has to catch them like a football. Some people have wayyyyyy to much time on their hands.

I guess for a whole lot of "nothing" I sure did have a lot to say about it. Yup, I'm pretty good at that.

Bonne fête du 14 juillet!

So Wednesday was Bastille Day, France's version of the 4th of July (except it's the 14th of July...). This day marks the end of monarchy and the beginning of the French Revolution. To give you a very brief history of what went down on this day.

Picture this: Paris, France- July 1789. Louis VXI rules over the country with Marie Antoinette as his queen. They are part of the Ancien Regime which had 3 parts: The First estate represented the Roman Catholic clergy, the Second estate which represented the nobility (and of course Louis XVI and his "court"), and finally, the Third estate which represented the rest of the population, the poorest and largest group of people. The wealthy and growing bourgeoisie (the middle-class, merchants and businessmen) were allowed no political input or power. The poor were in a bad situation and it was getting worse. The country was nearing bankruptcy. France had the largest population in Europe and not nearly enough food to feed it. As the cost of flour began to rise people were left to starve, unable to afford bread anymore. This ultimately became an important source of revolt as bread was and still remains the main item of every French grocery list. Some of you may be familiar with Marie Antoinette's words, "Let them eat cake." When I was little my mother got me a pajama set with this saying and a beautiful french pâtisserie looking cake on the shirt and shorts. This phrase tends to be over-glamourized sometimes in American culture because, well, it's talking about people eating cake. But in reality, this was Marie Antoinette's apathetic response to the cries of poor peasants of her country. They complained that there was no bread for them to eat, and Marie answered with "So let them eat cake," knowing full well that there was not enough nor would they be able to afford cake. Basically, the queen stated that she didn't care if the people of her country starved to death. There were also very few opportunities for the general population to ascend the social ladder as all privileges were determined by birth and not by talent. The right for social mobility could be bought but it was impossible for the poorest to afford them.

France was also inspired because they helped the United States with our revolution during the Revolutionary War and were a big reason why we were able to conquer the British. The sentiments of revolution lingered heavily over the air in France for the next 6 years (because our war ended in 1783, not 1776 like many Americans believe). Their involvement in the war was quite expensive, though, and on top of the cost of the war, Louis XIV raised taxes extremely high and spent most of the country's money on his extravagances for the court at Versailles. The third estate, aka the poorest people in the country, were the only ones who had to pay taxes, so the rich people who lived in Versailles basically lived and profited off of their work and they workers got to starve. This and other various continuing poor treatments from the monarchy pushed French citizens closer and closer to a monarch free life.

On May 5th, 1789, Louis XVI called for the "Estates General Meeting". This meeting hadn't been called for over 300 years and represented the last hope for the King to find a solution to the country's financial turmoil. The Estates General stemmed from a meeting that reunited an equal number of representatives from each Estate to solve this serious political crisis. Everyone met at the Palace of Versailles to debate some major problems. The Estates General meeting was a huge opportunity for the poorest people of the Third estate to finally be heard by the King. Everyone's basic complaints were that Parliament wanted the king to share his absolute powers with an oligarchic parliament, the priests and other low-level religious figures wanted more money, the nobles also wanted to share some of the king's power, the middle class wanted the right to own land and to vote, and the lower class were hostile toward everyone and farmers were angry about tithes and feodal rights. But, basically, nobody was happy and Louis XVI was never a very assertive or effective ruler (actually he was pretty wishy-washy and spineless), so he ended up canceling the meeting. A group of men from the third estate, including Maxmillien Robespierre (a very important figure in french history), created the National Assembly. It was aimed at representing the three Estates but without the supervision of the King. On June 20th, 1789 they created a constitution for France. The King was naturally opposed to this, and on July 13th, 1789 a rumor spread in the streets of Paris of a coming attack by the King's army to 'destabilize' the men of the National Assembly.

On the morning of July 14th, 1789, a group of craftsmen and salesmen decided to fight back and ran to Les Invalides (a hospital and retirement home for veterans) to steal some weapons. The mob stole 28,000 riffles there, however no powder was to be found. The crowd knew that a pile of powder was stocked in the Bastille, a prison that was a symbol of the King's absolute and arbitrary power. So they decided to attack it. At the time, the Bastille was only guarded by a few soldiers. Marquis Bernard-Rene de Launay was at the time governor of Les Invalides, and he was not too intimidated by the crowd. However, fearing a growing anger among the revolutionaries, the Marquis agreed to meet some of their representatives inside the prison. He hoped to buy time, as he was expecting a rescue team to arrive shortly and to help him secure his castle. The negotiations ended when a group of revolutionaries entered the Bastille. The guards were ordered to fire, killing hundreds of people. When the rescue team finally did show up, they decided not to fight against but with the mob. With their canons and their professional soldier skills, they brought victory to the people of France against Louis XVI's guards in a few hours. At 4pm, the Marquis de Launay surrendered and let the people enter the Bastille. The guards were violently killed and the Marquis de Launay was beheaded, with his head then put on a stake and carried all over the city as a sign of victory. That very night, 800 men began to destroy the Bastille.

This was hardly the end though. Rather, it was only the beginning, of many years of political instability, terrorism, corruption, and bloodshed. LOTS AND LOTS OF BLOODSHED. If you've never seen the film, "Danton", you should... it's like The Patriot except the French version. You will understand what I mean by BLOODSHED.

The National Guard was quickly formed, led by General Lafayette, who had commanded the French Armies during the American Revolutionary War. They adopted the colors Blue Red and White to represent their country, because blue and red are the colors of Paris and white is the color of royalty. When put on the French flag in 1794, the blue was the color for the Parisian bourgeoisie, the white was the color of the chiefs of army, and the red symbolized the blood poured during the wars. On August 26th, 1789 the National Assembly voted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, defining a set of individual and collective rights for all the people, regardless of their estate. The King had to sign this declaration which led to many further political and economic changes that heavily diminished his own powers. On October 5th, 1789 Louis XVI was forced by a group of 4,000 rioters, mostly hungry women, to move out of Versailles and to take residence under the revolutionaries watch at La Concierge (actually my favorite tourist place to go in all of Paris... you must go if you ever have the chance it's so cool!), in the heart of Paris. I think this is hilarious. Imagine, a riot of 4,000 angry, hungry women running at you. It's worse than Black Friday- you should have known better, Marie Antoinette. Never try and come between a woman and her cake. Blood will be shed. I'd be scared if I were you, Louie. I'd be scared.

Unwilling to stay prisoner of his own people in Paris, Louis XVI tried to flee to his wife's native country, Austria in June 1791. They and their children dressed as bakers and hit the road. But the rumors of the King's escape spread quickly across France and the royal refugees were recognized and captured few miles from the German border, in Varennes. When they were returned to Paris, the population was hardly sympathetic towards the traitors. Another important historical figure, Georges Jacques Danton launched a campaign to end the King's political power. They wanted to abolish the Constitutional Monarchy and start a new political era where all the power would be given to the Assembly. The people generally supported Danton, but the Assembly, especially Robespierre, considered that such a decision would put the revolution into peril and asked the National Guard to end this uprising. Lafayette and his men opened fire on the crowd and hundreds of people were killed. This event marked the first major discordance amongst the revolutionaries. Robespierre was accused by Lafayette of organizing this riot, so Robespierre resigned from his position as president of the Jacobins but gained a huge recognition from the French population.

In 1792, France entered into a war with Austria. It was then that Joseph Rouget de Lisle sang the Marseillaise (France's National Anthem) for the first time to encourage the French troops during the war. Lots of tensions from military losses pushed the parliament to propose some reforms but the King used the rest of his powers to veto some of them. People accused the King of willing to help his brother-in-law, the King of Germany, to defeat the French.

The tension was rising between the protectors of the king and the revolutionaries. In August 1792, Robespierre joined the "Commune de Paris", a strong revolutionary government formed after the storming of the Bastille. He presented a petition where he demanded that Lafayette should be dismissed and declared a traitor. The accusation started an exile in Eastern Europe. Then the "Sans-Culotte" (literally translated "without underpants, although I'm not sure why they would name themselves this), a group formed of Parisian rioters who wanted to protest against the aristocracy, helped by the newly formed "Commune insurrectionnelle de Paris", stormed La Concierge. After 800 years of reign, and in a bath of blood, the Capetian Monarchy ended. Three days later, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were officially arrested and sent to prison. The King and Queen had a trial in front of the Convention which decided to send them to the guillotine in January 1793, on the charges High Treason and Crimes against the State.

France, still at war against Austria, needed to find men to fight the enemy. The Convention, led by Danton, asked 300,000 men to join the French army. The first revolts bloomed in the country, especially in Vendee where the peasants denounced the authority of the Convention and the idea of the Revolution. They asked for the reestablishment of the Monarchy. A real civil war took place in the French countryside, between the people of Vendee and the republican guards. In April 1793 the Convention created the "Comite de Salut Public" (Committee of Public Safety) . This new government, led by Robespierre, took urgent measures to stop the Vendeen insurrection and the French military defeats in Belgium. A few weeks later, the Girondins (a group of people with a loose affiliation and clear ideology rather than a political party), were held responsible for the military crisis. 22 representatives of the Girondins were guillotined. As you can see, the original revolutionary system was breaking apart, and chaos and anarchy was invading the country.

The First Republic was established in September 1792. This period is known as the Reign of Terror. The leaders (like Robespierre) rejected the idea of federalism and enforced their own ideas upon the people. They held mass executions by guillotine, closed churches, and repressed religious freedoms among other things. They claimed their acts were justified because of the European monarchy allegiances just outside of France and the growing number of uprisings within the borders. But in reality, people were arrested and executed without trial if they were suspected of being enemies of the revolution. It is estimated that about 40,000 people died during this 15 month period. In the end, in an ironic twist of fate the leaders of The First Republic found themselves under the blade of the guillotine. Unfortunately, Georges Jacques Danton himself became the victim of the Terror. He was considered too moderate and then, arrested and executed on April 5th, 1794.

One of the darkest periods in French history soon ensued. The Great Terror began in June 1794. Robespierre tyrannised the Committee of Public Safety and the Convention. He was strongly supported by the Sans-Culottes. Robespierre was on a mission against the counter revolutionaries and against the Church. Thousands of people who were suspected to be anti-revolutionists were executed savagely and a campaign of dechristianization took place all over the country. In its place, the Assembly introduced the "Culte de l'Être Supreme" (The worship of The Supreme Being), as form of deism.

In July 1794, Robespierre was finally accused of dictatorship and tyranny and was evicted from the Convention. The members voted for his simultaneous eviction and execution, without allowing him to defend himself. The following day, Robespierre was beheaded to an ovation by the people of Paris. His death was the symbol of the Reign of Terror's end and the end of the democratic movement at the same time.

The Revolution came to an end in 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris and was crowned First Consul. In 1804 he took the title of emperor Napoleon I. He took the crown from the Pope and placed it on his head himself, thereby directly challenging the authority of the church. Napoleon created a powerful central administration, and engaged in many military campaigns that allowed him to expand his empire. Napoleon was, however, defeated in Russia in 1812 and then in Waterloo in 1815. Napoleon's reign was replaced by monarchy again, King Louis XVIII, who was then overthrown by Charles X. Charles' reign reminded people too much of the old regime, and this led to the July Revolution of 1830. The July Monarchy elected a king, Louis Philippe. His reign lasted 18 years (until 1848). In 1848, Louis Napoleon, the nephew of Napoleon I, was elected the first president of the Second Republic. He was then proclaimed Emperor Napoleon III in 1852. But following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Napoleon III was exiled. The Third Republic (the longest lasting regime in France's history) emerged in France in 1871, indicating the end of monarchy in France. Parliments and Assemblies (Including the Vichy Regime, which ruled during ruled over France during WWII and the Fourth Republic) until Charles De Gaulle (yes, who the airport was named after) became the first French President in 1959 and installed the French Fifth Republic, which we are currently living in now.

See, Madame Wixon, I did learn something in your French Civilization class =P.

I found on a website that:
"Bastille Day was proclaimed a national holiday in 1880 and in 1848 the motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" was reinstated. In France, most folks take Bastille Eve off and celebrate with festive balls and brilliant displays of fireworks. The day that follows is filled with parades, bands, dancing and general good times."

Unfortunately right now as I write this, it's raining cats and dogs outside. The streets are slightly flooded, so there is not too much outside celebration today. However, Yadira and I did wake up to Les Mirages, F16 planes flying all over the country with blue, white, and red smoke coming out of their tails and streaming the colors of the french flag across the sky of the nation. We also watched the parade down the Champs-Élysées. Basically every French military person in the entire nation marches down in front of the President Sarkozy, his wife La Premiére Dame Carla, and other various French officials. JC was surprised because we don't do that in the US. I mean, within towns and such there are parades and some of them involve soldiers or veterans, but there's not one huge national thing that gets done. I guess it's because France's "Independence Day" involves more fighting and bloodshed whereas ours (although yes there was the Revolutionary War) commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was really cool to see the pride on everyone's faces, I mean, real French pride which characterizes this nation so well, not just on July 14th, but everyday of the year. We were going to go a concert in the Parc Floral but decided to stay dry inside and watch "America's Sweethearts" with Julia Roberts instead. How patriotic.


Dinner was nice though. This time it was Gilles who did the cooking since JC is out of commission for the next week or so, but JC sat on a stool in the kitchen and supervised. It was funny to watch. Anyway, they made a menu like I had done for the 4th of July with traditional French Style writing. The appetizer was carrots, mushrooms, and what else but a flaky pastry, all seasoned with thyme. Then we had a nice glass of wine with our entrée, turkey breast with cibroulette and a cream sauce and rosemary potatoes. It was one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted. Usually I don't like white meat, but this was still moist so it still had flavor to it. I forgot to take a picture of it though; I could have kicked myself when I realized so. But anyway, in true French tradition, next came the cheese and bread. JC explained to me that in France, you're supposed to take a piece of bread and wipe up all the extra cream from your meal, and that shows whoever prepared the meal that you really really liked it and it's a huge compliment to them. When I did it, they all cheered for me being so French. I laughed because I thought they were being silly. Then I agreed to try the cheese, Le Petit Caprice. I'm not a fan of cheese normally, I mean, on pasta or pizza it's good but I don't just eat cheese by itself or on bread or anything, but I agreed to try it since they ate my American things for the 4th of July. They said I would like it because even the Chinese people who detest cheese would eat it. It wasn't terrible, but like I said, I'm not a big cheese person, so I wasn't crazy about it. At least I ate it. I did my patriotic duty towards France. Voila.


For dessert Gilles tried to make this thing that was like a cross between cherry pie and flan. That too wasn't terrible but........ well Gilles is a better cook than he is a baker haha. There was too much lemon in the filling part and personally I dont think lemon and cherry goes well together, and the crust had a weird consistency too. But it's okay. We all ate it anyway. After dinner, we watched a movie called, "Faubourg 36". It's a musical that takes place in WWII era France about a man who tries to get a music hall to be a success so he can get his son back. I really liked it a lot. It's not a musical like American musicals but it was still cool. American musicals tend to pause reality and break out into song and dance, then go back into reality, whereas the French musical makes the song and dance fit into reality, like having two boys play the accordion and sing on a street corner for money and showing the musical numbers that were put in the music hall. Definitely not hairspray, but still quite good.

And so my friends, I leave you with the sincerest of French patriotism, the national anthem, translated into english as well =)

I know I know it's been too long, I'm sorry!

Okkkkkkkkkkkk folks I'm sorry I'm sorry I know it's been an entire week since my last entry. But things are actually starting to pick up in my life right now and I'm finding I have less and less time to just sit down and write and reflect. I guess in some ways that's a good thing. But de toute façon, here I go with a week's worth of updates!

Thursday Silvia had an interview for a job so she couldn't babysit the boy she usually nannies for, so she brought him home for JC and I to watch. Nathan was fascinated by the gerbils, and, like any other 6 year old child, made every effort to terrorize the living daylights out of them. We let the gerbils out of the cage to roam around the living room, and Nathan was worse than a cat trying to chase them around. JC made us hamburgers and french fries (just like McDonalds, he says). Nathan was also super excited because he got to drink Coca Cola, which he's not allowed to have at home, and also cookies, which can't have at home. When Siliva left, I did the dishes while JC set up the hammock outside. The hammock turned into a space ship and in climbed Nathan. JC stayed outside as "Mission Command Base" and swung the hammock as Commander Nathan travelled to Mars. They did all the sounds and official lingo and I was cracking up the whole time. Nathan kept asking JC to swing him all the way around like a jump rope would. When Commander Nathan landed on Mars, JC became the martian. It was too too too too funny. After that we watched Richie Rich in French, and then JC went to take a nap and I played soccer with Nathan outside. JC had asked Nathan earlier if he wanted to play soccer, but Nathan told him he didn't want to play with him because, "You're too big, and too strong, and you're going to win," with a pout of his face. I clearly did not pose the same threat. Plus, when we were playing, I was only allowed to score a goal between the 2 foot wide gate door, while Nathan had the entire length of the house to score on me. Oh to be a kid again.....



Friday I spent the best part of the day doing job research. At one point I had 11 different pages open on my safari browser at the same time (and not a not a single one of them was facebook, email, or my blog) and on every single work abroad page, there were a million and 24 opportunities for foreigners to come to the US to work, and then maybe two or three options for going to Asia somewhere, but I had to do some serious digging and searching to find anything about opportunities for immigrants to work in France, and even at that I'd find like, one. See France? Why can't you be more like the United States? We're clearly so nice making it so easy for foreigners to come and get jobs and share in our American experience and have the chance to live out their dreams. You should learn from our example.

That was dripping with sarcasm by the way.

The sites also mentioned that it's hard for Americans to find work here because they have to compete with the entire European Union, not just French citizens. Any person that is a citizen of any country in the European Union can work in France without needing any visas or special papers or documentation. Therefore, Americans can only do jobs that they are thought to do better than French people, like teaching english. The only way I could get a job is if a European citizen was unable to do the job. Come on now! The US isn't that different from you guys (aside from reasonable grocery stores...)! It's not my fault the colonists decided to separate from Europe's rule and I wouldn't even be in this predicament right now if Georgie boy would have just given us some representation with our taxation! France you were the ones that helped us separate from Europe in the first place and our revolution inspired you to have your own and helped you gain your own independence from monarchies.... you owe us!!! Plus you've historically hated England and warred against them for literally over a thousand years (the Hundred Years War anyone??? Anyone??? Beuller????) So I think I deserve a little more consideration and that you should remember that it's partially your doing that my country wasn't invited to be part of your "super exclusive" trying-to-impress-the-cool-kids club you like to call the European Union and that 234 years ago you thought that was a good thing for us to be liberated. Therefore, since it's your fault, I demand you do more things to help me stay in your country. So there. You can even imagine me stamping my foot to emphasize my anger and seriousness in that last statement.

But, the general consensus on the websites I visited was that where there's a will, there's a way for an American to find work in France. Mais tu DOIS lutter. You HAVE to fight, and fight hard, and not give up. It's a long bloody battle, but if it's in God's will, I can emerge victorious with *hopefully* limited amounts of casualties.

I have to say though, I was really surprised at the amount of websites that encouraged Americans to flat out lie to the French government or do other illegal things in order to do things legally in the end. Like the ends justifies the means (except I wouldn't do that). But seriously, here are things I'm literally copying and pasting from the sites I visited....

" ...to get the visa, you need proof of "sufficient financial resources." That means someone has to give you a notarized statement swearing that they'll send you the equivalent of about $500 a month. Not enough money to meet "sufficient financial resources" requirement? Surely someone can write that notarized statement for you. If not, then either apply for some credit cards or use the ones you have. Use balance transfer checks to transfer credit card money into your bank account to meet the requirement--as of this writing, it should come to about $6,000 a year. Now ask your bank for a letter that says you have that in your account. A statement works as well as a letter, as long as it does not show that you put $6,000 in there all at once. Now, send the bank’s letter or statement along with your visa application as proof of financial resources. Voila"

And this one which REALLY shocked me:

"When you apply for your carte de séjour you must prove you have health insurance. If you don't have health insurance...can you have someone—anyone—send you a letter from America that says you have health insurance, stating the insurance company's name (use a real one), the policy number (make stuff up), and the "fact" that you are covered for the next year? As long as the letter is on good letterhead stationery, it will almost certainly be enough. This may be necessary even if you do have insurance because French authorities usually require you to show that you're covered for the entire time you'll be in France, and most American policies run from month to month."

Do people actually get away with this? Write a fake letter with a fake policy number for a real insurance company??? Now that is one way to become an international criminal wanted for illegal activity in TWO countries real quick!

Friday night I met my friend Melanie and we went for a nice stroll in the Bois de Vincennes. She's an American i met at the big fête we had at the Parc Trembley a few weeks ago. She's from Gettysburg but she goes to State College in PA and she's here doing an internship for the summer. She and I had quite a nice time, and I promised I'd quote her saying, "The French language is a lot like hair. You have bad hair days, well, you have bad french days too."

My sentiments exactly.

We left the Bois and decided to eat dinner at a cafe next to the métro stop. The waiter walked over to where we were sitting and stared at us. Literally, just stared at us for a few moments and then gave us a weird look and gestured with his hands like, "Well, what do you want?" Whoa not in Kansas City anymore Toto. I'm used to, "Hello how is everyone doing today? Welcome to TGIFridays my name is Gina and I'll be taking care of you today. Just to let you know our soup of the day is Chicken Corn Tortilla (it's a little spicy, you know, it's kinda got a kick to it) and we're also featuring $3 margaritas today. Can I get you all started off with something to drink?" with the biggest hugest cheesiest smile that made my cheeks hurt from keeping it on so long and a voice so sweet it was sickening. Yeah, no, not here. We had no menu or anything, we didn't know what there was to be ordered. I decided to play it safe. I asked for tap water. The man stuck his nose up and looked down at me and said, "J'ai pas compris" (I don't understand). I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that I both said the right words and pronounced them correctly. I repeated it twice, and he still just said, "J'ai pas compris". Sigh. So I said, "Fine, just give me whatever water you have." He brings back the most expensive water on the menu. We didn't actually get a menu until an english speaking server decided to come to our rescue. I was tellement upset at this. I'm perfectly capable of ordering in French off a French menu at a French Cafe. But no, we had to advertise to everyone in the area that we were english speaking Americans. I hate feeling different (in that sense)... hate publicly showing that I don't fit in. And I didn't take into account that this is France and not the US and you can't just sit down get your food eat and leave within 45 mins. We ended up being there for over 2 hours waiting to get our food and dessert (which came with Melanie's order) and get the check, so then I was late getting home (in my opinion I also spent entirely too much time sitting around waiting for the train and the bus to decide to come around). As I walked down my street I was thinking to myself, "Please, please don't let them have waited up for me. Please let them all (or most of them anyway) be in bed." But no such luck. Everyone stayed up late to wait up for me. La honte. I felt really bad but no one was mad at me. I apologized to Silvia but she said not to worry, they were just worried I might have gotten lost or something. Me? Get lost in Paris? After all that confidence Gilles and Yadira have shown in me? Whatever would have given them that idea? Maybe they've been reading my blog too much =X

At any rate, I have to say the steak almost made it worth it. It was REALLY REALLY good.

Saturday was the BBQ at our friend Clément's house. He lives kind of far away so we had friends come and pick us up. I have to say, I always get really intimidated and nervous when going to these functions just because there are so many people and hate being that "tag along" person, you know? And the fact that I get anxious about the enormous amounts of chinese accented french around me makes it even harder to speak. But, at the end of the day, I'm always so so so so happy I went because I have enormous amounts of fun. It's true, I stayed pretty quiet for the beginning part of the get together- my friends Yada, Belkacem, and Séverine asked me about how the job search was going and thankfully I was able to communicate with them with pretty decent grammar and without stumbling across too many words. Success. We ate lunch and then Clément's mother played the harp for us, had dessert, and then had a kind of small group about what protestantism is. Then the real fun started. We all went and taught the asians how to do a dance called "Chididi". It apparently comes from Angola but Yadira taught me how to do it and it's loads of fun. Then, Yadira spent hours (literally) teaching us bachata, merengue, and salsa dancing. I first danced with Daniel, who is an excellent dancer. It's funny, because if you look at him, he seems like the stereotypical extremely serious intelligent work/academic oriented geeky asian kid who plays piano and excels at everything he puts his hands to and that we all love to hate. When you get to know him, he's such a clown with an incredible sense of humor and loves to act and dance. Total opposite of what you would expect him to be. Anyway, I got to dance with him and we both picked things up quite quickly and everyone was jealous of us. We joked that we were ready to go pro haha. Daniel's really cool. I got to talk to him a little bit later and turns out, he's watched Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the film Top Hat! I get excited when foreign people can share in a part of my world, especially a part that isn't common even for Americans.

But then came the best part. I asked Yadira to put on the Cha Cha Slide. I yelled out the directions in french as DJ Casper says them but it was GREAT. Especially trying to show them how to do the Charlie Brown. Hahahahaha oh goodness gracious it was so much fun. We actually did it twice, once for them to get a feel for it and then again for us all to do it a little more full out hahaha. Oh it was too much fun. But it got better. David, the pastor's son, asked me if I knew something about "soldier boy." And so yes, my dear American friends, I thus ensued to teach the french chinese guys how to "crank that soulja boy" It was great and they were so into it. They were like, "Now wait, what was that part? Could you do that again facing us? " and we had the souja boy song blasting through the speakers in the backyard infiltrating the entire French neighborhood. Be proud of me Americans, I felt quite accomplished at the end of the night. Yadira and I didn't end up getting home until around 10pm and we hadn't even eaten dinner yet. We heated some leftovers up, sat down and watched a few episodes of Criminal Minds together, and then had some fun chit chat because Criminal Minds episodes don't exactly give you the nicest thought to have before going to bed.

Sunday I went to Calvary Chapel Paris. I went to a Calvary Chapel back in Quakertown so at least I'd be somewhat familiar with what would go down during the service. I was surprised to find that the services are held in a "Jews for Jesus" building. That's cool, I guess, but, like everything else here, it's really tiny. There were only 18 people (including the pastor and worship leaders) in the first service, yes I counted. Anyway, they have 2 services, one in French at 9:30 am and one in English at 3pm. They have lunch together in between the services. Both services started about a half hour late, but that's not uncommon for France. You could definitely tell the pastor, Mike Dente, comes from the west coast (I believe from Seattle). The message was on Malachi. He's a very happy man, huge cheesy smile never left his face. Which, I suppose, is a good thing. We didn't go verse by verse like we generally did in Quaketown, only he kinda gave an overview of what happens in the chapter pulled verses from chapter 3 then 1 then 2 to back up what he was saying. Again, not bad, but I do like the verse by verse because then you really get the context of what's being said in Scripture. I'm just used to Pastor Dave's "tell it like it is let's be real here people" messages that blow your mind and leave your jaw on the ground every Sunday. But, I suppose there can only be one Dave Cummings, and Quakertown PA is blessed enough to have him. There's always the internet.

I will say though, the one thing I find about Calvary Chapels across the globe (and I can say that because I've now been to Calvary Chapels in several states and 3 different countries) is that it always feels like a family right away. That's the big feeling I got, that this was just a solid church family. And right away, people were coming right and left to introduce themselves to me and get to know me since I was new. AND they each complimented me on how well I spoke french, and even said to each other, "Listen to her! Doesn't she speak French well?" Ka-chow. Merci Seigneur. I spent a decent amount of time talking with an elderly woman named Patricia who was one of the sweetest people I've ever met. Even the pastor came up to me and introduced himself, and when he found out I was American and not native to the area, the first words out of his mouth were, "Do you have a place to stay?" I also met a girl named Angelica who was from California and she immediately emailed me a web-site for a temp agency to help me find a job and told her if I ever needed anything at all to not hesitate in calling to ask her for help. Yes, generally kind and caring people these Calvary Chapel people are.

For the "lunch" in between services, we walked to a park nearby because the weather was so beautiful. Then we came back for the english service. Turns out, there's a group of missionaries from Seattle who were there with the church. They had started in Lyon, then went to Nice, and now are ending their missions trip in Paris. What they do is that they hold concerts in the street with praise and worship and get this... swing dancing. Yup, they swing dance in the streets and teach the french people who come to watch and then share the gospel with them. That's a pretty neat idea. The group led praise and worship and then Pastor Dente came up and announced that their pastor, Pastor Craig, who was supposed to give the message, had lost his voice and wouldn't be able to after all. So Pastor Dente just translated his notes from the French service into english, but you could tell he wasn't prepared to speak, but it's okay. It did make me feel better because I realized I had understood everything he had said in French and hadn't missed a thing when he repeated it all in english. Score for Gina. The strange thing though, was that I had spoke with Pastor Craig at the picnic we had just had in the park, and even though his voice was a little raspy I just assumed that's what his voice sounded like.. Oh well.

All in all, it was good service, and felt a lot more familiar than the other churches I've been to here. I would like to go again and see what a service without the missionaries is conducted like though. Although, I've made so many connections there already it's kind of hard not to go back. We'll see what happens, I'll keep you updated.

When I got home I made myself dinner (because it was kind of a fend for yourself night) and was watching TV with Yadira when Gilles got a phone call. JC was at the hospital getting stitches. He had been playing soccer (barefoot) in his friend's garden and slid to kick the ball and ended up cutting his foot on a broken glass bottle. He ended up needing to get 12 stitches. Ouch. It looks pretty nasty and he's got to be on crutches for 10 days before the stitches can come out. Interestingly, crutches here don't go under your arm, attach right under your elbow and you hold on to a piece that comes out for your hand. It seems harder to balance because the crutches are further away from your center of gravity, but oh well. He's also sleeping in my room until the stitches are out, since it's on the first floor, and I'm sleeping in Silvia's bed, since she's on vacation. Cool beans.

Monday was largely uneventful... I spent most of the day talking to my friend Sonya on skype and doing research about what to make for dinner tuesday and doing research on what natural/homeopathic remedies could be had for both JC and Silvia. Living with Ed and Jen, I learned all sorts of tricks of the trade when it comes to natural/homeopathic health care. In my opinion, it's better because it's natural and there's less chance of having nasty unforeseen side effects but to each his own. Anyway, I found that Arnica would be ideal (derived from the Arnica flower- it helps blood flow by dilating veins which helps to heal wounds quicker) for JC's foot, along with Calcium Sulfate (which speeds healing) and Vitamins C and E, and then get some essential oils for Silvia's feet (which have been extremely swollen and painful for a few weeks now). But, Monday night, we decided to have another "Movie Night" since Silvia was on vacation in the South of France. It turns out we have the same expression in english and french: "Lorsque le chat parte, les souris dansent" or "When the cat's away, the mice play (except they say dance in french but it's basically the same thing). And indeed we stayed up wayyyyyyyyyy past our "bedtime" to watch Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian (because none of them had seen it yet). Oh it was such a wonderful night. I love love love love love this family.

Tuesday night was sooooooooooo much fun! My friend Melanie and our two other friends Rachel and Nathan (who come from Angola) came over for dinner. I decided I was going to make baked ziti for dinner (in the cake pans that would fit in the toaster oven), garlic bread, an oreo "Cookies and Cream Freeze" (which is like a frozen cream cheese mixture with oreos), and deep fried oreos. Yup, deep fried oreos. No one here has ever heard of them. Haha oh this was an adventure. But let's start at the beginning, shall we?

Tuesday morning I checked the website for "Yes It's Here!" because the two boxes of oreos we'd had lasted about a week in this house between me and JC, so I'd need to buy more for dinner. I didn't want to go all the way to the store if they were out of them, and to order online it said they were out of double stuffed oreos. I decided I wouldn't take my chances and would check out the other American Store, Thanksgiving. But first I had to run some errands. I had my work cut out for me.

Off I went on my adventure. First I went to the bank so see if I could cash some checks. The bank was closed because tomorrow's a national holiday. I don't get it.... TOMORROW is the holiday. Why would you close today??? *sigh* well there's nothing I can do about it. There's got to be HSBC's in Paris though, and maybe they'd be open because it's a main city. I then walked to a store called, "Bio-Nature", which has all organic groceries in it and also some oils and creams and such. However, all the things I wanted to get and could find at Bio-Nature were in a locked cabinet, and I didn't want to have to ask someone to open it for me. I remembered that there was another store that had "Homéopathie" in it's name so I tried to look for it. On the way, I passed another store that sold cosmetics, dietary supplements, creams, soaps, etc.... and had the word "SOLDES" (sales) all over the display, so I decided to go in. I was able to get Arnica oil (a bigger bottle for cheaper than it would have been at the first store!), Arnica in a gel roll on form (because until the stitches come out JC's not supposed to get the stitches wet so at least he can use that and spread it on), and Vitamins C and E. Success.

I then got on the train to go to Thanksgiving Paris, the other American grocery store in Paris. Le sigh. Yup, nothing can be that easy. I mean, I got on and off the trains alright. The métro let me off facing the Rue de Rivoli, which I have now been down several times before. Unfortunately, the map wasn't very clear on the ratp (transportation) website and I went the wrong way down the street. Sigh. I did find another HSBC, actually, 2 HSBC banks. I went in the first one and proudly flashed my passport in front of the camera. The man behind the desk muffled something in the microphone and I put my ID closer to the camera. Finally, he asked "Ummmm what would you like to do?" in english. Sigh again. Oh well. It's not my fault I can't understand them half the time I dont understand english speaking people when they muffle their voices so quick into the microphone. Anyway, I responded in french that I'd like to deposit and cash some checks. The man let me in and there were two French women at the counter smiling at me as I walked in. I could feel my face getting red with embarrassment that they had to hear the man speak to me in english, and I determined not to speak a word of english to prove to them that I wasn't a dumb ignorant American and it's just the dumb french microphones which are the problem. I explained that I had an account in the United States and was wondering if I could cash and deposit American checks while I was here in Paris. The man was very nice but told me he didn't think it was possible. He went and asked his supervisor and the supervisor came and apologized to me but said that it's impossible and that I would have to send them back to the United States. Oh well. Nothing gained, only time lost. =/

I kept walking (in the wrong direction) down the Rue de Rivoli and when I got out of the 4th arrondissement and into the 1st, I knew I had gone too far, so I turned around. I walked alllllllllllllllllllll the way back to the métro stop and then in the other direction. I didn't realize that the part of this cobble stone street I was walking on was actually a bus lane that was separate from the (paved) part of the street the cars drive on, so I was walking down the street with a bus right behind me for I dont know how long but when I was finally rendered conscious of this fact and moved out of the way, I could see all the passengers giving me dirty looks through the windows for making their bus go so slow. I won't be making that mistake again.

The street I needed to turn down was less than 2 minutes from the métro stop in the right direction. I had originally walked about 20 mins down the Rue de Rivoli in the wrong direction. Sigh. At least I got to the store. I didn't think it was possible but it was actually smaller than the other one, however, it was set up like an old fashioned country general store and was soooooooo cute. The elderly gentleman who owned the store didn't speak to me in english like the man at the other store had, which I appreciated because it was like having the best of both world- cute country general store with people speaking french. My life in perfect harmony.

Anyway, I wanted to get two boxes of double stuffed oreos (one i'd use for desserts and one just for us to eat) but the man only had 2 boxes left (and they cost 11 euros each!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Imagine paying $14 US for a box of oreos!!!!!!!) and I felt bad because what if some other poor American girl starving and desperate for some small token of sweet deliciousness and comforting familiarity in the form of oreo cookies came to the store after I left and was left heartbroken and devastated after having made a long trek from hours away to the store like I would have been if I had got there and they didn't have oreos? I deeply pondered this while I picked up the pancake mix and ultimately decided.......... this is war in this country and it's every American for themselves. Sorry chick. I get all the oreos. I feel like the selfish englishman.


I paid for my things and went back home. I stopped in a boulangerie and got a baguette to make garlic bread. I walked home and unloaded what I had bought, then went to Intermarché for ziti, ground beef, tomato sauce, mozzarella, ricotta, and provolone. Ziti? check. Ground Beef? Check. Mozzarella? Check. Ricotta? I got the last 2 tubs, but check. Provolone? Womp Womp. Come on France is famous for cheese you've got to have provolone!!!!! I've got to have provolone!!! But sadly, there was no provolone to be had. I checked and rechecked every single label of cheese in the aisle (which is probably what they have the biggest selection of in the store) about 4 times, then literally just stood there for about 4 minutes staring with a pout on my face hoping desperately that provolone cheese would just magically appear. But alas, there was no provolone to be had. I paid for everything else and went back home, then asked Gilles if they have provolone in the marchés, and he said you need to go to a fromagier (a specialty cheeseshop) to get it. There were 2 that were about a 20 minute walk from the house, but Gilles went for me so I could start cooking. Thanks friend =) I made the oreo "cookies and cream freeze" first and got it into the freezer. Gilles came back and said that both fromagiers were closed when he got there, but he picked up something that was like it at the supermarché.

Melanie, Rachel, and Nathan all arrived and I got the baked ziti into the oven. JC and I had a little competition going because he told me his super secret recipe for "French Pancakes" was going to be the best pancakes I ever tasted in my life. He said, "See, that's what's lacking with all you American pancakes, the FRENCH touch." I laughed and told him I'm like Thomas, when I see it I'll believe it. While he was making the pancakes, he and Gilles were teasing me and making fun of Americans by speaking english with an overly dramatic french accent and making fun of the pronunciation of different words and saying that Americans don't know how to speak proper english because we don't pronounce anything the french way. It was one of the most hilarious conversations I've ever been in. The garlic bread, baked ziti, oreo frozen cake, and deep fried oreos were a hit and everyone loved them. Especially the deep fried oreos. Bwahahahaha. I've decided this is going to be my sweet sweet revenge on the country of France. You refuse to give me reasonable ingredients and normal foods in your supermarkets, I'm going to make it my life's mission (for the next few months anyway) to fatten up your country. HAHAHAHAHA. Soon your citizens will all be corrupted and have nonstop cravings for things deep fried and grease dripping, and you'll all be as obese as the characters in Wall-E and will need mobile chairs to get around. BWAHAHAHAHAHA revenge certainly will be SWEET (yes, pun intended =P)

The conversations at dinner contributed to me having one of the best times I've ever had in this country. I couldn't stop laughing. And surprisingly, JC's pancakes weren't that bad. They were a slightly different taste and texture than American pancakes but for never having eaten American pancakes (because he hasn't come to the US yet) it was pretty close, especially since he made them from scratch. I'd tip my hat if I had a hat to tip. Gilles and Melanie did the frying since JC can't be on his feet for too long, and they made me a special pancake in the shape of Mickey Mouse. After dinner, we played card games including "Bataille " which is the french name for Egyptian Rat Screw and then we played several rounds of UNO and a game called "President". All in all, it was QUITE the successful night.



Whew!!! This entry took quite a bit out of me. Bonne Nuit et à la prochaine everyone!

Proud to be une Américaine!

This was probably the most exciting weekend I've had since I got here! Well, Friday was really low key because I was home alone basically from 10am to 7ish pm, but I spent basically that entire time getting ready for the Fourth of July party I was planning. Actually, the majority of that time was spent making a playlist on Deezer.com, which made my computer run really REALLY slow. I wanted to make a playlist of American music to play for the day, so first tried out Pandora, but turns out you're not allowed to use their music outside of the US. Boo. Then I tried playlists.com, and got the same message, that the site is restricted and they can't allow access to people outside the US. What the heck. It's my own country and I can't listen to the music I want??? Oh well. Deezer is the website my friends here use, so I decided to check it out, and even though it was all in French, it sufficed. I ended up making a playlist over 3 hours long of songs ranging from the Star Spangled Banner and You're a Grand Ol' Flag to the 1812 Overture and Stars and Stripes Forever to the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B and New York New York to ROCK in the USA and Sweet Home Alabama. I also spent the day doing research and planning what decorations I could make (I only had colored pencils and printer paper so I had to get really creative), and making a list of what foods to eat and a shopping list of things to buy. Yadira came home around 7pm and we ended up having a really long heart to heart conversation (as in we were still talking when Gilles got home around 11:30!). I love that girl so much.

Saturday I woke up and it was POURING outside. It was actually really nice though, because my roof is frosted glass so I could look up and see the rain hitting and the puddles running down, and could hear the pitter patter of the drops. Gilles asked me for my ingredients shopping list, and when i mentionned that I'd need to again look for some kind of cream cheese substitute for cheesecake, he ran over to the computer and found the address for an American/British grocery store in Paris!!! He sent me their website and sure enough, they had REAL PHILADELPHIA CREAM CHEESE!!!! I almost cried. Gilles said we should go there together and check it out, but that we should leave ASAP because it would take a while to get there and we had a pretty full day as it was. Once again, my dear friend suggested we leave in about 10 minutes when I was still in pajamas, unshowered, sans makeup, hair in knots. Sigh. But I figured it's pouring/gross outside, and we're only going to one store then coming back, so I threw on an old pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and put my hair up. Yadira offered to let me borrow a pair of boots so my sneakers wouldn't get soaked, but her feet are slightly larger than mine. I still wore them, but my feet were sliding around a lot. Then she offered to let me wear a raincoat, but they were too big and she and Gilles made fun of me because they said I looked too ghetto, so I decided I'd just wear my hoodie and get wet lol. It's only water, it wont kill you it just leaves clean spots =P

We took off and when we got to the bus stop, Gilles asked me, "Do you want to just walk to the station instead?" It's pouring rain. I'm already quite wet, and it's kind of a long walk to the station. But, there goes my pride again. I didn't want him to think that I couldn't just suck it up and walk, after all, I did just say it was only water right? About 2 minutes after we started walking, though, I regretted not opening my mouth and saying something. By the time we got to the station, my hair was dripping even though I had been wearing a hood; my hood was wet enough that I had to wring it out and it got my hair wet enough to drip. And I was cold and my feet hurt because of the boot and..... well.... I should probably stop complaining because I did say I wanted to walk, and come on, I'm in France I should be grateful just to be here.

Anyways, the store wasn't very far from the métro stop. I was so excited to see what kind of goodies we'd find. Here's a picture of me pointing to the sign: The store is called "Yes, It's Here!" That phrase was like music to my ears haha. The store was REALLY REALLY small, I mean, at one point there were 5 customers in there including me and Gilles and we couldn't move without bumping into each other. But I didn't care. Oh la la all the wonderful American products they had!!!!! They had all sorts of candy bars, Kool Aid, Chips Ahoy, Nutter Butter, Graham Crackers, Goldfish, Oreos, Pop-Tarts, Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice, Root Beer, Dr Pepper, Ginger Ale, Mountain Dew, Nesquick, Coffee Mate, Bagels, Fruit Loops, Rice Krispies, Grape Nuts, Lucky Charms, Cheerios, Quaker Quick Grits, Reeses Puffs, Quaker Oatmeal, Jiffy Peanut Butter, Pudding, Cake Icing, Hellman's Mayonnaise, French's Mustard, Heinz Ketchup, Pickles, and Relish, Cranberry Sauce (for thanksgiving!), Various Salad dressings, A1 and Jack Daniels Steak Sauces, Lifesavers, Nerds, Marshmallow Fluff, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Kraft Easy Cheese, Chocolate Butterscotch and Peanut Butter chips (for baking), Jello, Aunt Jemima Cornbread and Pancake mix, Pam cooking spray, Crisco Shortening, Pumpkin Pie filling, Cream of Tarter, Baking Soda, Various Cake Cookie and Muffin Mixes, Aunt Jemima Maple Sypup, Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, Corn Syrup, Dark Brown Sugar, Baked Beans, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Microwave Popcorn, Beef Jerkey, BBQ sauce, "Burger King Onion Rings", Johnson&Johnson's Baby Oil and Listerine Mouthwash. I almost cried I was so happy. It was just like Christmas. I was finally able to show Gilles things like Jello and explain about the things I wanted/needed for baking and couldn't find equivalents here. It was too amazing.

The only thing was that they were out of Graham Crackers and wouldn't be getting more until Tuesday. Bummer. We asked the owner if he knew something else I could use as a substitute, and he said to use Digestive Biscuits, an English version of the Graham Cracker. The only thing I was worried about was that everything was so darn expensive!!! I mean, of course it all has to be imported but really??? I felt really bad for the things I had on my list, but Gilles told me not to worry because it was a one time thing and a party that I was throwing for them. When we left, I was extremely satisfied. We were on our way to having the most American faux-BBQ France has ever seen.

We still needed to get cheese for the burgers, lettuce, tomatoes, buns for the hot dogs and hamburgers, celery, corn on the cobb, tortilla chips and salsa, strawberries, orange juice, blueberries, marshmallows, french fries, cashews, and shredded coconut, but Gilles said we could get all these things at French grocery stores. But of course, my friends, that was only half true. We got back on the métro and headed back to Champigny and went to a Franprix first. We got most of what we needed but they didn't have corn on the cobb, hamburger buns, marshmallows, blueberries, or shredded coconut, and we forgot about the strawberries and french fries. Well, I mean, they had like, grated coconut, but not coconut flakes like I needed for my recipe. Oh wait, let me guess.... they don't exist in France. Womp Womp.

We went to a new store called Picard next and turns out they only sell frozen things. It's all frozen meals or frozen fruits and vegetables. We found the blueberries there because the guy at Franprix told us there wouldn't be any fresh blueberries anywhere we looked because they're not really native to France. Then we went to LeaderPrice and got the french fries but they didn't have corn on the cobb, hamburger buns, marshmallows, or shredded coconut either, and I forgot about the strawberries again. Sigh. Here we go again France. Will there ever be a day where I can walk into a grocery store and not want to throw a tantrum and tell this country to learn how to eat???

Gilles said we had to go home then, though, because he had to go out again and he needed to leave soon. We returned home semi-triumphant, but my work was no where near done. I set off on my own and went to Intermarché. I decided that the coconut flakes were a lost cause and I'd have to settle for the grated ones (we already had some at the house), but I did get to pick up the marshmallows, hamburger buns, and strawberries. I asked a guy who works there if they had corn on the cobb (I was quite proud of myself!) but he said they didn't. There were only two cashiers working and both had lines going all the way up the aisles, so for 3 items I had to wait about 10 minutes, but I didn't mind because there was an elderly French woman in front of me and she started talking to me. She told me how she had just recently retired and she was going to go on a long vacation for the first time in decades, and her vacation was a cruise to Bermuda and she was so excited. I'm telling you, this woman was so adorable. She wouldn't let me have a word in edge-wise, but I didnt mind so much and she had a huge smile that never left her face. I love it when you meet people like that- it just brightens up your whole day. I should try and be more like that lady.

There's one more supermarket on the corner of our street that I'd never been to before, Marche U, which I decided to try as a last effort to get corn on the cobb. They didn't have it either, so I just bought canned corn and figured that would have to suffice. Then I got home and got to baking. I tackled the cheesecake first. Turns out, we didn't buy enough cream cheese because i dont know how to add, but i wasn't too far off. I had also looked for the equivalent to sour cream here, but it wasn't quite right either... not the taste or the consistency. Nor were the Digestive Biscuits good enough for the crust, in my opinion. They crumble a lot a lot easier than Graham Crackers do, and didn't hold together very well even after I added butter and water and sugar. And when I put it in the oven, it actually started to overflow over the sides of the pan because it rose so much, and it had quite a few cracks along the edges (although none in the middle). Oh well. I mixed the frosting for the top and forgot to put in the French version of whipped cream. Oops. It actually was fine though. Then I took out the blueberries to place them on the cake to decorate it like the flag, and to my surprise, they were purple! All the blueberries were a very dark purple, almost black! What they heck France?!?!?! Can't you do anything right? They're called BLUEberries for a reason! But I didn't have any other option, so purple onto the flag it went. And yes, I did count out to make sure there were 50 "stars" and 13 "stripes" on my cake, like a good American.

Next I moved on to the edible bald eagles I was making. I had to melt white chocolate but had to do it twice because the first time it started to caramelize because i had the pot too hot. In the end, they turned out pretty well all things considered, and the grated coconut wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be. The potato salad was a cinch, and then I was going to make smoothies but I realized I had used up all the strawberries I bought for the cheescake decorations. Duh Gina, that was stupid. Oh well. Intermarché was open until 12:20 on Sundays (I made sure to look up the hours when I was there) so I figured I'd go the next morning and make the smoothies fresh. Finally, I started to move onto finishing my decorations but Gilles and Yadira were home by that time, and I didn't want them to see what I was doing because I wanted it to be a surprise. It was a little tough because all I had was printer paper and the back of an oversized calendar, so anything I wanted colored I had to hand color myself with colored pencils. And Yadira left her pencil sharpener at the church while she was working on decorations for their VBS, so once I used up the point on the red and blue pencils, I had to start getting creative. I stayed up well into the night finishing things and getting everything ready. I was almost too excited to go to sleep... it really was almost like Christmas Eve!

Sunday finally came and I was so excited!!! I actually woke up at 6am to start decorating because I wanted it to all be done as a surprise for my family when they came downstairs. Here are some pictures of my handiwork:














Gilles woke up before I was done (of course, he's always up at the crack of dawn), but the other two were quite surprised. When Yadira came to the top of the stairs, she yelled out, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh c'est trop marrant! (that's too funny!)" When she got down to the bottom of the stairs, where I had the Welcome to the US sign, Statue of Liberty drawing (which I made my finding a drawing of the Statue of Liberty online, enlarging it to fit my computer screen, and then lying a piece of paper on my screen and tracing it), and the Ellis Island sign, I pretended she was really entering the United States and proceeded to interrogate her with questions like, "May I see your passport? What is the purpose of your travel to the US? Are you currently carrying any guns, firearms, bombs, or any other weapon capable of terrorizing our nation?" and then "stamped" her passport and welcomed her to the United States of America. She was actually the one who gave me the maps of PA and NY, which she picked up when she was visiting me last summer. I also had my own "copy" of the Declaration of Independence, complete with everyone's signatures (even Mr. Button Gwinnet and Elbridge Gerry... who knew?), a list of the 50 states in the order they became states, the words to the Star Spangled Banner and The Pledge of Allegiance on the wall, as well as a map of the USA which I also traced off my computer and colored in (I know have that drawing and the giant flag hanging on my wall in my room. Go USA). And yes, that is real American $$$ on the wall because I figured 1) it's something reflective of our culture that's different than France's and 2) They have the pictures of various presidents on them so it's American History too. Gilles and Yadira left for church and I realized that I still needed to get the strawberries for the smoothies. There were so many things I still wanted to do, but just not enough time to do them. I quickly showered and got ready for church, went to Intermarché quickly, and then went off to church. On my way there, I passed JC, who was just coming back from church. He had spent the night at a friend's house and went to an African church that morning. I told him (jokingly) that I was offended he didn't invite me, and jealous that he got to go to a black church and all I got to do was go to an American one. He told me he was really excited for our "4th of July" party that night, and that he thought we should watch Independence Day with Will Smith and lots of aliens. Not exactly what I think of when I think of celebrating my country's history and fight for freedom but okay........

This Sunday I visited the American Church of Paris. I figured since it was the "American Church" maybe they'd do something special for the 4th of July. I got on the métro and switched trains where I needed to, however, the exit for the métro station didn't let me off on the same street it said that it would on the RATP (transportation system) website, so I had to wander around for a couple of minutes and get my bearings before I could figure out where I was and what direction I needed to be heading in. Turns out, it's right in the center of Paris. After walking about a block, I was right at Les Invalides, a museum which houses Napoleon's tomb and a lot of other famous French historical figures. I look up and there's the Eiffel Tower right in front of me. Oh, hey there Eiffel Tower. Sorry, you just don't make the cut today.... Lady Liberty gets all the respect and the fame.

I liked this church better than Trinity (which I had gone to last week). The worship was more in depth and the Pastor spoke with more conviction and preached out of the Bible instead of just a subject of christian living. They didn't do anything special for our holiday, but the message was on freedom and how that parallels with the freedom we've received through Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made for us. The only thing was that it still wasn't as in depth as I'm used to hearing at Calvary Chapel Quakertown, and the service was a little more old school than I'm used to. They have an earlier service which is traditional, and a later service which is contemporary... I went to the contemporary one but it was still a lot more traditional than the churches I've generally attended (just in the preaching style in general, having everyone recite the Lord's Prayer, having a call and response between the pastor and congregation etc....). None of these are bad things at all, just not what I'm used to. We'll see... there's still a bunch of other churches to check out!

I got home and JC was taking a nap. I continued to decorate until he woke up. When came downstairs, the first thing he said to me was, "Geez Gina, you don't do anything halfway do you?" Nope, Over The Top is my middle name. I just laughed and got really excited and began to explain to him the significance of everything I had done... from having the Statue of Liberty being the first thing they saw like it's the first thing the immigrants would see on the boats, to Ellis Island, to the fact that every public school recites the pledge of allegiance in the morning, to explaining the stars and stripes on the flag, and showing him where i lived/worked/went to church in PA, then showed him the map of the US and showed him where I'd travelled and things about different parts of the states. Then I showed him the menus I made, which I was so so proud of:


On our special All-American Celebration Star Spangled Menu, I featured:
-Paul Revere's Potato Salad: "Listen my children and you will hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere..." Paul couldn't have warned the colonists on an empty stomach... you better fill up, just in case!
-Remember the Alamo Tortilla Chips and Salsa: Yeehaw! Nothin' like a heap'o'corn (I had to explain to them what heap'o meant because they didn't get it) tortilla chips and spicy mexican salsa to remember this battle between Mexico and Texas!
-Uncle Sam Hamburger: You're a true blue Yankee Doodle Dandy (also had to explain what that phrase was) for choosing this American classic! Add cheese for just 50¢ (just kidding!)
-Harlem Renaissance Hot Dogs: Pay tribute to the origins of Jazz music and Tap dance with another American Favorite- a NY Style Ball Park Frank (or, at least it is if you use your imagination)
-Colonol Mustard's Corn: From the popular game CLUE® now it's your turn to figure out who-dun-it (again, needed an explanation) in what room with what weapon- while munching on some yummy corn, of course.
-Freedom Fries: The politically correct staple side dish for hot dogs and hamburgers that everyone loves, despite discrepancies about its origins.
-Lincoln's Lemonade: Honestly, nothing like a good old fashioned cold glass of country lemonade to hit the spot on a hot summer day.






And for the Fantastic Fireworks Desserts:
-Wave Your Flag Cheesecake: Show some patriotic pride by eating this favorite American dessert decorated with honor by like our country's beloved flag. Made with REAL Philadelphia Cream Cheese!
-Stonewall Jackson's Strawberry and Blueberry Parfait: Don't retreat from this delicious (and healthy!) red, white, and blue dessert- It's Parfait! (Get it? Parfait means Perfect in French... Hehehe)
-Edible Eagles: Gobble up these sweet treats and your taste buds will be soarin' with our national bird high above the clouds.




What American Summertime Celebration would be complete without watermelon??? But I didn't put it on the menu because I didn't want anyone else to get the impression that I was sharing hahaha. Nah, I'm just kidding I just forgot to write in on the menu because it wasn't something I "made", but I did end eating the majority of it myself anyway (JC said he was like Thomas and needed to see to believe that I could eat that much watermelon... and of course I was up for the challenge. I'm sure all of you back home find that really hard to believe). Everyone really loved the food and I enjoyed so much being able to make it. JC thought it was the most brilliant idea ever to make potato salad, which no one's ever heard of here. He was like, of course!!!! Why not??? A salad with potatoes!!!! It made me laugh. The hot dogs and hamburgers were good, except the hamburger buns were about twice the size of the burgers and the hot dog buns were about half the size of the hot dogs (go figure, France). JC helped me make the fries too because he has special oil to use for frying fries and a deep fryer. The only lemon-flavored drink they have here too is carbonated, so they were really surprised and really liked the lemonade from the States. As for the cheesecake, well, it still didn't taste right even with the Philadelphia cream cheese, and the Digestive Biscuits are in my opinion a very poor substitute for Graham Crackers because they are more bland and crumble very easily so the crust was more crumbly than solid. The consistency of the cheesecake was also more cake-like than custard like, which surprised me. Boo. But, once again, my family said that they loved it and that I could make it anytime I wanted and they'd love to eat it. The parfait and the eagles turned out great though- our only problem was that we were all so stuffed that we had a hard time finishing dinner, let alone dessert! Yadira and I ended up not even eating dessert because we felt like we were going to explode, and I had to put the rest of my hamburgers in the refrigerator for next day's lunch because I couldn't finish it. I also ate all the watermelon the next day too.

I had my playlist playing with all my Americans songs when Gilles suggested we go to the video store and rent an American Movie to watch. I thought this was a fabulous idea because it could then be like a movie night, perfect for family/friends celebrations. We walked to the store, Vidéofutur, and of course because I was all on American mode I expect to be walking into a Blockbuster type place. Reality Check Gina. This is France. Woops, thanks there real life, I almost got too carried away there. The store was immensely tiny. The did have quite a few American movies dubbed in French, but they were all somewhat new releases or things like, 13 going on 30, Transformers, The Devil Wears Prada, High School Musical 1 2 and 3, etc... I had kinda been unrealistically hoping that I could get an old Judy Garland movie or any black and white classic that had to do with America, like Babes on Broadway or Meet Me in St. Louis or Yankee Doodle Dandy or Mr. Smith Goes to Washington etc.... nope, no such luck. No movies older than 10 years in that store. So then I thought maybe something that was at least about American History, like The Patriot or Pearl Harbor or even Dances With Wolves. Nope, no such luck either. We ended up getting Gran Torino because that at least kinda had to do with overcoming racism/Clint Eastwood had been in the Korean War and that's American history. I also rented Dirty Dancing because it's a classic and it was the oldest movie I could find in the place. So after making all the food, we all came together and crowded around the TV and ate our food and watched movies until 1:30 am. It was so perfect, more than anything I could have asked for. Silvia (who was on vacation all weekend and therefore missed the party) asked me the next day how I had felt, and all I could think of was how proud I was. I'm the one who moved over to another culture and has been sharing in and learning new things about it... and now I finally had a chance to share with everyone else MY culture and history and traditions. And this family was just so awesome- I really enjoyed their company and the fact that they were willing and open minded to learn about my culture and the way I do things (for example, baking hot dogs in the toaster oven instead of boiling them in a pot of water). I had the BEST BEST BEST BEST time and so much fun with my family. I think the last time I had so much fun was back before all the 08-ers graduated from Muhlenberg and we'd all get together and have parties and such. I love my new family so much and I'm so grateful to have each one of them as a part of my life!




Monday JC invited me to a "taste testing". It's kind of a secret so I can't really talk much about it, but let me just say it was a really really cool experience to go into the kitchen of a real Parisian restaurant and taste food. They even have these really fancy ovens that cost like, 10,000 euros!!! There were only 7 of us there, so it felt like kind of an honor to be a part of it, although you could definitely tell I was the only non-French person. My tastes were very different than everyone else's... everything I liked they didn't, and the things that they liked, I didn't. I stuck out like a sore thumb. Oh well.

Nothing eventful happened on Tuesday except that I made a lemon garlic pasta with roasted veggies for dinner, but no one ate it because there's so many leftovers and we're trying to eat them all before they spoil. Today JC made chicken for us for lunch and it was AWESOME. He cooked it in a frying pan using duck fat instead of using oil, seasoned it, and then showed me how and let me light it en flambé, meaning he poured wine over it and we got to make the flames in the pan to give it that extra special taste. Then he cut the chicken and poured a little bit of white wine to make a sauce, and added cream and some vegetables to it, then let the chicken marinate in it until it was completely cooked. Oh la la this chicken was to die for. It was so good. I may not ever leave this house for the rest of my life just so I can keep eating the meals here =P.