Jennie en France

Learning & Teaching Languages, with a Focus on French

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All Things American

September 20th, 2008 · View Comments

Mom just sent a package of things that David & I have been missing lately. Now that it’s almost fall, I’m really getting nostalgic for America… and Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas. Apparently as soon as the temperature drops, I lump all of those holidays together. Luckily I should only have to work until noon on Thanksgiving this year and for once I have the day after off! We’re staying in France for Christmas, but David claims we’re going to have an American style dinner (turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie) in addition to the gross sea food. Though I’m still thinking about heading to Europa Park near Freiburg since Germans are as crazy about Christmas as Americans are.

Anyway, here’s what mom sent us:

Root Beer
(for the non-North Americans, this is actually pop, not beer)

Lemonade mix

Easy Cheese, because it’s REAL cheese (ha!)

Big Red gum
(Has anyone been able to find cinnamon-flavored gum in France?)

My kind of macaroni & cheese – and my kind of cooking!

Spiral notebook with LINED paper!

Guess who was the first one guzzling down the Root Beer and spraying Easy Cheese on crackers? (Hint: it wasn’t me.) I also got a 4GB flashdrive and real Chapstick. If only donuts could be sent this way… I did buy some donuts at Auchan last week, but they just weren’t the same. Nobody beats VG’s donuts.

I figured out that in order to send this same package to my parents from France, it would cost three times as much with La Poste. Mom spent $52.50 on 6-10 day shipping because it was 10 pounds, whereas I would have to spend about 110 € for the really slow économique shipping or 150 € for the regular, but yet still slow, shipping. In case you’re wondering why you may be getting feathers for Christmas, that’s why…

Note to mom: we’re running low on peanut butter now that someone likes to eat it with apples even though he originally thought that was disgusting. He’s so Americanized!

P.S. Happy Oktoberfest, Bavaria!

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Tags: North American Culture · Random

  • What a great package! Although I'm not sure how cheese whiz would taste after all these years! lol
    My dad brings cinnamon gum too, and big jars of Jif. I can buy Skippy here, but it's a tiny jar for about 5 euros!
    I get a fix of Dr Pepper when I go to Paris and eat at Breakfast in America. You can get shakes and malts there too. Not sure if they rootbeer floats though!
  • Zhu
    I did think that Root Beer was alcohol when I firs saw it in Canada!

    Cinnamon isn't big in France. I actually hate the fact people put it in everything here, like pastries... or gums!

    As for the paper, I got used to lines but I also miss the French "petits carreaux". Reminds me of school.

    I won't comment on the cheese in a can :lol:

    Zhus last blog post..Chinglish
  • WHAT IS IT WITH THE NOTEBOOKS HERE!? I thought maybe I stumbled onto the wrong aisle, they have about a hundred lines on a page, how in the heck can you write on those? I am so jealous of the normal notebooks, I'm going to stock up on my next visit, or maybe request some from home. I need them to practice all my French that I am trying to learn!!

    Oh, and that organic pb just isn't the same to me. I wish I liked it, but I need me some chemicals to really enjoy a good pb&j.

    Susans last blog post..Long French Lunch...
  • Russell
    Jennie,
    you can get some pretty good peanut butter from the organic shop on Avenue de France. It costs a bit but if you like peanut butter, you gotta do what you gotta do. :-)
  • Mom
    I saw Christmas dishes displayed for sale today at Walgreen's. I wasn't prepared for that. The clerks were stocking the shelves with Halloween candy in the next aisle.
  • Hi Jennie...

    I was sooooo feeling the Halloween spirit a few days ago... It really feels like fall here now.. Something that I'd start noticing around Halloween time in So. Cal... I really MISS Halolween candy! Not that I'd eat it, just seeing that MASSIVE stockload of bags and bags of candy at the supermarkets around this time of year... And yes.. I clump all the holidays together, too.. Halloween, T-day, Christmas, AND New Years... I wanted to take Alex to NY for two weeks at Christmas as his Christmas/B-day present/shopping spree for me... cuz I found a flight on AF for $188 both ways.. so one ticket cost under $500US and the taxes cost more than the actual ticket so the price for one ticket is almost 1K!! YIKKEESS!!!
    I LOVE Orbit gum in sticks (same size as Trident) but you cant find it here so my step mom sends a big box from Costco as part of our
    "care package." Along with bags (yes bags now) of refriend beans, trader joes fruit bars, and my order of English books from Amazon.com It cost about $50 US to send me 20 lbs of stuff in the flate rate box from the post office and I recieved it in only 5 days!!! It's supposed to take at least 10-14 days!!
    You can find peanut butter - jiffy at the stores.. but the good stuff is Trader Joes or Laura Scudder's crunchy! Crunch p-nut butter doesn't exist here, I think... Try the bio stores.. They usually sell all of the nut butters.....
    I'm organizing a trip to D-land for Halloweeen.. You guys can come if you can make it over to Paris... We also celebrate Turkey Day here. Last year we had 30 guests (we had it at our friend's house).
    Take care and enjoy your goodies...
    Leesa : )

    Leesas last blog post..Blog Award!
  • It's so funny to me how French men with American women are so Americanized. How does that happen?
    I find myself having the same kind of nostalgia as the weather changes here. Care packages are the best - I'm adding lined-notebooks to my next request! Enjoy your familiar goodies!

    Sarahs last blog post..I hope you're happy, mom & Gui!
  • Wow... all of that looks awesome! Did all of that not fit in the prepaid first class boxes? My mom uses those and they are a standard $36 regardless of weight... or at least I think so, I never have to send things here ;-) And four weeks for 150€ is just not worth it!

    I have chapstick and Kraft Mac and Cheese coming in my next box... hehe

    I am really proud of David!

    Justins last blog post..Le Tigre...
  • I just bought a 2 liter of A&W to drink up before I leave on Monday! Stocking up on lined spiral bound notebooks is a really great idea, I should get some of those.

    au soleil levants last blog post..Packing up
  • So you can totally find Big Red in Germany!! I was really surprised to see Wrigley gum products when I was in Nurnberg :)

    And don't they have imported American peanut butter in all the supermarches?!

    Moniques last blog post..Hunt for the post-season
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