You know what's difficult?
Trying to explain tiny aspects of American culture to a room of international students. You know, things like snow globes, Halloween and smores.
Today, I looked into an ocean of blank stares as I tried my best to explain smores as this "camping dessert", a sandwich of chocolate and marshmallows, without knowing the word for "graham cracker." (I couldn't find the word in my pocket dictionary, but according to the very credible website Free Translation, it's "graham bisquit sec" Though I'm wondering if such an animal even exists in France.) I think my tiny vocabulary is one of my biggest set backs when it comes to communicating with people.

I realized today how much I am going to miss Halloween. I'll probably still dress up and I imagine the other American students here will, too. But, there just won't be that same buzz in the air. There won't be any cider or candy. And most importantly, it will be a year without the "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," the Halloween episode of "My So Called Life" and horror movie marathons.

Yesterday, while I was walking home from school, I saw a french man "rocking out" to "Bootylicious" by Destiny's Child. He was really getting into the song, singing, shaking it in his seat and banging on the dashboard.
I'm pretty sure he was an employee for some sort of service industry and he was on the clock.
Yeah, it was hilarious and I laughed out loud as I passed, but I soon became confused. I'm sure he was just listening to a mix of songs from no specific time, just songs he liked, but "Bootylicious" was popular in 2001. I've heard a lot of "older" top 40 hits since I've been here-- some songs from the early 90s, that stupid song about the Apple Bottom Jeans and the boots with the fur, etc. I have always been under the impression that music becomes popular here before it comes to the states. I don't know. Maybe they play that music in the bars, at the discotheque, and they just play 90s/2000's hits on the radio. (Just like at home...)

The other night at dinner, Madame asked the American students about our favorite music, since the majority of the music played in France comes from our neck of the woods. Chris and I are both fans of Classic Rock, which took a little explaining. She wasn't sure what was and what was not classified into this category and so we started to name some of our favorites. After a moment, Madame's eyes lit up. "Tu aimes Queen?" (Do you like Queen?)
Well, the truth is, I don't think it's possible to NOT like Queen, regardless of preferred music genre, but we still yelled out in excitement. Madame jumped up out of her seat to go dig out an old Queen CASSETTE while the rest of us remained seated at the table, pounding out the beat to "We Will Rock You." ( It was hilarious to see what the Japanese students THOUGHT the words were!) It turns out Madame knew a lot of the lyrics, so we tried to explain what these words were in French. She also loves Simon and Garfunkel and knows a lot of their songs by heart.