La Sandwiche Américaine

Ya know, I had hoped that I wouldn't encounter negative stereotypes of Americans and the United States in general when I decided to travel abroad. And America's image has improved globally solely because of Barack Obama (the French REALLY like him...many, many, many people bring him up and he's always in their news), so I had high hopes...

But does THIS look like it POSITIVELY reflects American food?!

The picture's washed out because I accidentally messed up a camera setting, but it's a cheese steak with ketchup/mayo, lettuce, and FRIES. Oh and in attempt to be healthy, I got a few clementines hahaha ;)

Kate and I both got one and enjoyed them very much! There were 4 other French customers in the store with us...all of whom ordered the American Sandwich.

Were we proud of America? To be American citizens?
pshhh, why not, lol.


The French can have their fancy, historical architecture...I'm going to enjoy the sandwich more anyway.
(JUST KIDDING!)

Today I also did a little shopping and for just about $14 US (I'm estimating) I got...

About 10 apples, a sandwich, big carrots, multigrain nut bread, couscous, une baguette, and YUMMY CAMEMBERT CHEESE!

I saw someone eating this for lunch today and they let me try a little…it’s absolutely delicious, I had to limit myself to just one piece-of-bread’s worth of cheese.

I’m very excited to eat the rest.

Even though it’s not necessary that they feed me more than 5 dinners a week (Monday through Friday usually), my host mother offered to feed me all of this weekend. I showed her everything I bought and apologized because it took up a decent amount of space (the fridge is decent sized but the freezer takes up almost half of it so the actual fridge part isn’t as big as mine back home). She asked why I didn’t put it in the fridges at IES and I explained that I had bought it for weekend meals…and she was very confused by that because she assumed I knew that in the beginning of the program, when everything is still new, the students are almost expected to eat with their host families (what else are we going to do? We haven’t even found affordable restaurants yet). I’m very fortunate to have such a considerate and generous family.

It’s Friday and I’m so excited for a true break and SLEEEEEP! Tonight I’m going out with a few friends, one of whom has a friend that lives in Nantes (he was a “native speaker” at her school…annually, her school brings in native speakers from around the world to teach classes and she kept in touch with a French young man who happens to live in Nantes). We’re going to a bar where a band is going to play live music; it should be very fun!

The bar is located in “Bouffay,” the primary restaurant/bar/shopping district in Nantes. It’s very cute! I’m excited to see what the night-life is like! I’ll get back to you!

Tchao,

Monica