So it’s been a while since I last updated, but better late than never?
“Francsgiving”
After teaching many of my classes about Thanksgiving, there was no way that I was going to not celebrate Turkey Day. So along with two other American assistants (Melissa and Erin) and the German assistant (Yvonne—it was her first Thanksgiving), we decided to have our own version of Thanksgiving. We knew that it wouldn’t be different since we don’t have an oven, but we were determined to make it work.
Our “Francsgiving” was a success! We went grocery shopping together to get all the ingredients and then cooked it all together Thursday after we were all done teaching. We had to use 3 different kitchens since each kitchen was small and only had 2 burners each. We made it work! Our menu consisted of stuffing, green beans, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes – all made from scratch! And of course, turkey. Well since we don’t have an oven, our turkey was just turkey breasts and we ended up buying some pastries from the local patisserie instead of having pumpkin pie. Our dinner definitely tasted like Thanksgiving! We had a good time having dinner and spending time together. We definitely have to do our “family dinners” every week.
Stéréotypes
I’ve been doing a little lesson on stereotypes in my classes, and for the most part, the students seem to enjoy it and like listing all the American stereotypes that they’ve heard or seen from movies and TV show. I have them list both American and French stereotypes, but they don’t seem to have as much fun with the French ones, except saying that all French people are beautiful. I’ve been showing this cute video of French stereotypes:
Here are some interesting American stereotypes that one of my classes came up with…
All Americans…
- were in fraternities in college
- eat burgers and drink soda
- drink beer
- are fat
- girls wear a lot of makeup, wear heels, and are superficial
- have a lot of money, big cars, and big houses
- boys are cool and beautiful
- are vain
- have a lot of shops
- have better movies (Hollywood)
- girls were cheerleaders in college
- guys were the quarterback in college and got all the girls
- stars are beautiful millionaires, are attacked in magazines/tabloids, and do drugs and are alcoholics
- play sports
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Anyways, I can’t believe that it’s already December. Despite the somewhat colder weather (it’s been raining too), the Christmas market, lights, and music, it doesn’t feel like the holiday season. Maybe it’s because I don’t have any Christmas decorations in my studio or maybe because for the past four years, I would be studying for finals at this time. It will be weird not being at home for Christmas, but at least I’ll be with family! I bought my train and bus tickets, so I’m all set to spend Christmas break in London and Brighton!
ALSO, I tried escargots for the first time last week… and they were actually pretty good! I guess I still have to try rabbit and/or horse…
À bientôt
