Friday, December 23, 2011

Joyeuses Fêtes!

Since it's the holiday season in France, there have been lots of celebrations to attend and lots of cultural differences to observe. Last Tuesday at school we had a Christmas potluck lunch. There was a ton of food (especially cheese and wine, of course) and I brought a typically American artichoke and spinach dip. I wasn't sure everyone would like it, but I figured it was a safe bet. To begin with, the French teachers were utterly confused by what it was. I tried explaining to them that it was a dip, and it was an American staple, but got no reactions. So, I sat back and enjoyed my Coulommiers cheese (which is produced close to my school and brought by a teacher straight from Coulommiers). All the teachers were insistent that I tried it because "it doesn't get any better than this". It was my first taste of Coulommiers, which I realized is exactly what you think of when you envision French cheese. Smelly, gooey, highly regarded by the French. It takes an adventurous taste to try it after putting it under your nose, but in the end it was worth it. Later on at the party, after I got to know more of the teachers who I don't work with on a regular basis, some of the teachers came up to me to specifically tell me how much they enjoyed my "salad". I was confused at first, but realized that they were eating the Artichoke Spinach dip as a salad! Yikes!

Then on Friday, my 1L students (juniors in high school focusing on Literature studies) had a party for the Australian exchange student who is returning to Australia after break. Everyone tried to make something for her that was very Anglo. One of the girls made cookies, and burnt them. Another girl made cupcakes, but they were with a ganache frosting. There were also pancakes and marshmallows. Apparently Anglophones only eat things loaded with sugar. But, we played charades in English and one of the students showed us his new magic tricks, which were extremely impressive. The students got the Australian girl a few presents to symbolize her time in France and there were a few tears shed by everyone.

After school, I was invited to my landlady's birthday party. She's Vietnamese, incredibly sweet, and wanted a mix of nationalities there. I arrived with one of my friends and there was an INCREDIBLE spread of all home made Vietnamese food. Spring rolls, egg rolls, noodles, everything you could imagine. It was all so delicious! The entertainment was a karaoke duet of her husband who is French and her brother who was playing guitar. At one point, I was convinced to karaoke "Stand by me" because it's in my mother language. I'm pretty sure I mortified the friend who was in attendance with me, but it was amusing to say the least.

Since Hanukkah started this week and one of my friends is Jewish, we celebrated on Monday. We made latkes with homemade apple sauce, pear, walnut, and blue cheese salad (Grandma would be proud!), green beans, bought a roast chicken from a boucherie, I picked up some challah from a Jewish bakery in le Marais along with a traditional fried Jewish pastry with honey. Yummy! And I learned to play dreidel with m&ms!

Though I'm celebrating Christmas away from my family, my friends and I are going to try to keep on with our family traditions and make some new ones too! I'll post about that later, but Happy Holidays, everyone!

FWOTD: nourriture (n.): food

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