Peanut Butter Jelly Time

Today was the Journée Internationale and it was a blast! Our group of Americans had been meeting on Thursdays during lunch for several weeks planning for this day and it was a huge success. No countries were allowed to use flags (apparently the Chinese students get very offended when the Taiwanese students try to bring out their flag), but we could decorate with red, white and blue; in fact, we borrowed France's decorations. We had a slideshow going with pictures of the entire US and music playing from a stereo, also borrowed from the French.

One of my friends located some good peanut butter and strawberry jam so we made a bunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for our food item. It was so simple, yet sooo delicious. The hardest part was not eating the sandwiches after they were made because all of us hadn't had a PB & J in sooo long! Plus the sandwiches were perfect because people here really don't know what they're all about. At first, they were weirded out by the peanut butter, looked at it as if it were poison and said things like, "Peanut butter? What?" But usually after tasting it their skepticism faded and they were saying, "Wow this is SO good!" And we were like, "We know!"

One French girl liked PB & J so much she came running up to our table, dragging her friends behind her and started jumping up and down she was so excited. She made all her friends try the sandwiches and then if they didn't like it, she'd eat it for them. She came back after every class period for more. Her enthousiasm for peanut butter was awesome, and very contagious. By the time I finally ate a sandwich, I was hopping up and down too. I hope that I will never again take peanut butter for granted. I just feel bad that the girl couldn't try American peanut butter. If I ever find out who she is I'll have to send her a jar of Skippy or Jif.

The other food was great too. I love trying new things and it was so much fun going from station to station, eating the food and looking at the other countries' costumes and decorations. The countries represented were France, Poland, Vietnam, Japan, China, Korea, Holland, Mexico and the US. The Vietnamese girls donned these beautiful dresses and served shrimp flavored rice cake things along with sausage and sticky rice. Poland served some carmel candies and bread (I think babka piaskowa) and danced around to Polka music.

The Japanese and Korean girls wore their kimonos and made this cabbage cake from Japan called okonomi-yaki and these delicious Korean noodles. They were also writing peoples names in characters so I had my name written in Korean and three different ways in Japanese.

There were two French booths, one with Angers specialties like chocolates filled with Cointreau jelly and Quernons d’Ardoise (nougat coated in blue chocolate), and the other with pate du foie gras, roquefort cheese, and le petit-suisse on a baguette along with rice pudding and madeleines. Mexico made guacamole with chips (another food I'd been craving) and this chocolate and chile thing that was really interesting, but very good. They had a lot of decorations from Mexico, including a neato boxing mask.

I helped Laura and Isabel make their vlaflip (plain yogurt mixed with vanilla yogurt) and took over for them when they wanted to try some things. I had to explain to people who came up that I wasn’t actually from Holland, but that the wooden shoes are called klompen and that there are lots of cows, windmills and tulips there. It was fun pretending to be Dutch and funnier still when Moe joined me behind the table. I'm pretty sure they knew she wasn't Dutch.

But the best part of the whole thing was the fact that us Americans taught the other students how to line dance. We taught them the Cupid Shuffle, Electric Slide, Hand Jive, Macarena (I hope Mexico was cool with that), Soulja Boy, Cotton Eyed Joe and the Cha Cha Slide. We played songs from the Beach Boys, YMCA, Don't Stop Believin', Grease, Party in the USA, Thriller (one girl knew the entire dance), and Single Ladies (another girl danced this exactly like Beyonce and put the rest of us to shame). Everytime there was a break for class we’d start dancing in the hallway and have passerbys join us. It was like High School Musical ... but in college and in France. Everyone had such a great time. And better yet, I jokingly asked my my socio-culturelle teacher if we could get extra credit for putting this on and she said yes! This is perfect considering her mid-term is going to be a monster.

Bye, Au revoir, Do widzenia, Tạm biệt, Sayonara, Zài jiàn, To boayo, Dag, Adiós!

Heidi

Picture of me and my langue prof, Mme Billette! (And yes in one of the pictures, I'm the only one with my eyes closed.)

Musique Pour Tous

For only three euros, I was able to attend a concert entitled “Jazz Pour Tous” (Jazz for all) at the Grand Theatre d’Angers. The theater was smaller than I thought it would be, but it was very beautiful and ornate. The light cast by the chandelier glittered on the ceiling and bounced off the gilded walls, creating a magical atmosphere. The concert was an hour and a half and it was really good, though the only piece I recognized was George Gershwin’s “Soon.” The Joe Cohn-Dimitri Baevsky Quartet was comprised of a guitarist from New York, a bassist from France, a saxophonist from Russia and a drummer from I don’t know where. It was really wonderful, except jazz always makes me feel like dancing and you can’t exactly dance in your seat. I hope the people behind me weren’t annoyed that I was swaying side to side. Grandma and Grandpa, you would have loved it.

I also saw my first film in France a bit ago. It was about the life of Serge Gainsbourg. I didn’t have a clue who he was because I know almost zero French musicians. Luckily, the French girl sitting next to me was able to tell me a lot before the film started. Gainsbourg was a famous/infamous singer-songwriter who led a rather sordid and worldly life during the sexual revolution of the 1960/70s. “Sex, drugs and rock and roll” describes him perfectly; he’s not someone I’d call a good role model. The funny thing is I watched an episode of the new 90210 last Tuesday and in the background of one of the scenes I heard a Gainsbourg song playing. I honestly couldn’t believe it. I would have never guessed I’d be hearing a French song on 90210. It was so bizarre, but pretty cool that I was able to recognize it. I give whoever found that song major props because it fit the scene perfectly. I doubt very many people watch the show, but in case you want to look it up, it was in Season 2, Episode 14 with Jasper and Annie.

This brings me to the subject of French music. I hadn’t been exposed to much French music in the States other than famous pieces like Bizet’s Carmen, Debussy’s “Le Claire De Lune,” Edith Piaf’s “La Vie en Rose,” Joe Dassin’s “Aux Champs Elysee,” “La Marseillaise” and “Frère Jacques” so I was hoping to learn a bunch more. I knew a little about Claude François, who I really like despite the fact that he earned his living ripping off other people’s songs, but that was the extent of my musical knowledge. (Claude François was famous for doing covers of Motown music by the likes of The Four Tops, Herman’s Hermits, The Beatles, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, Creedence Clearwater, Barry Manilow, and Don Mclean. His one original work was “Comme d’habitude” the original version of “My Way” which was made famous by Frank Sinatra. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Fran%C3%A7ois)

I quickly found that today’s French music is completely dominated by the American music industry, with the exception of French house/techno artists like Daft Punk, Bob Sinclair and David Guetta. Within a half hour of listening to the radio, I heard The Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Owl City, Taylor Swift and Elvis—all on the same station. So if you listen to KIISFM back home, you’ll feel right at home. However, if you’re more like me and like a wider variety of music that spans the decades, or just want to expand your musical knowledge, popular French stations just aren’t going to cut it. I’m going to have to ask Madame what stations play the Breton music she’s always listening to, or just resort to youtube.

The cool thing about music is that it transcends language barriers. Music connects all sorts of people because you don’t need words to express yourself, just a beat or a rhythm.

A plus!

Heidi

P.S. See if you recognize this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWRVpiXHl0Q