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.