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French-American Center Newsletter

American life, Clarified

As a true américaine from this Center chock full of English speakers from all the other Anglophone origins I feel it is my duty to help faithfully represent the A of this FAC. I don't know what your impression of we Americans is, but franchement, I'm rather scared to know.

In other words, I realize that my culture to you may seem.....bizarre, quoi. And I understand. Yet, we're not all that fou, I promise you.

We have the ditzy blond cheerleader pompom girls at the football games that men seem to go absolutely crazy over....and I do mean both the girls and the game. I may even go as far as to say that American football fans may be, at times, crazier and more dedicated than rugby or soccer fans here in Europe...yet of course that's open to opinion. But this fan support just makes American life that much more exciting and entertaining- we have the Super Bowl football game in November after all the autumn season games, the Major League baseball games and final in June, the university basketball game series called March Madness (which my fac got second place in this year, thank you very much), all calling for television watching parties and celebrations. Along with these too comes a fun tradition called 'tailgating', where everyone enjoys food together (barbeque, hot dogs, beer...) cooked in the back of and around their cars in the parking lots of the stadiums before going to watch the sporting events. Check out tailgating.com for more weird explanations of this, and of course recipes.

We have coffee....good coffee, I swear.....that comes in huge covered plastic cups that you can take OUT of the store and enjoy elsewhere. Even if that means you drink it in the car, spilling it all over your lap on your rush to work, or at your desk at the office during your 30 minute lunch 'pause'. I must say, I'm still intrigued at how a Français can make a .4ml cup of café last for over 40 minutes. Impressive, folks.

We have 6 fast food restaurants in a row on your typical city street, each specializing in 1348 types of donuts, 31 flavors of ice cream, Mexican tacos, and huge triple stacked cheeseburgers for under a dollar....and the overly large people to demonstrate why these restaurants are so popular. But really, we're not all like that. I know non-Americans all think that we're all obese fast food consuming types, clueless about quality cuisine, but I promise you, a large percentage of us do have self control and extensive international cookbook collections.

While you can enjoy a different type of cheese every single day of the year, we Americans generally enjoy 3 types of cheese- the Yellow kinds, Cheddar or 'American', for the hamburgers and grilled cheese sandwiches, or the White kind, mozzarella, for pizza and all things Italian. Sadly enough, we even have squirtable cheese in a can. Sure we experiment with the occasional Brie and Babybell, but I must say the real good stuff that's quotidian here can only be found with difficulty in the 'Foreign' and 'Imported' food aisles in the grocery store.

And our grocery stores! Yes, we have large food stores that are open 24 hours a day, 6 to 7 days a week! No, I'm not joking. I'll admit that one thing I'm looking forward to once I go back home is going to a grocery store at 3 in the morning just because I CAN. Another thing about our food stores is that there is always someone extra at the cash register that puts what you bought in bags for you. It's a typical job to have during your years in the lycée.

I could go on forever...it's true, we have a lot of 'perks'....or 'quirks'...that make us different. But hey, in American's eyes, the French have just as many. It's all about acceptance. Now I'm off to the épicerie before it closes at 18h to buy some Brie and a baguette, and then watch a rugby game before meeting up with a friend for a delicious tiny Lavazza at a café!

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