Cake made by a fellow expat and good friend.July 4th is a special day for all of us Expats. We miss the bbq, the fireworks, the time spent with families, the day off work, etc. Usually we try to get together and have a picnic somewhere nice, like one of the many (although small) Parisian parks. Often there are several groups of Americans picnicing and it is a nice way to celebrate La Vie Americain in Paris. This year, we had a lot of Frenchies and Canadians who crashed our picnic, but the more the merrier, although at one point we (not me) and the Canadians did get into a bit of a pissing contest.
My friend Kally and I have spent the last three Independence days together. One of those years was in Romania (we were really creative with that cake, using flavored yogurt which resulted in a very pastel looking cake). Anyway, I realized how cool it is that although I've now spent 4 Independence days outside of the U.S., I've always managed to celebrate with cool people.
I hope everyone else got to celebrate with cool people, ate a lot and watched lots of fireworks.
9 comments:
Canadians are the worst.
What was the pissing contest about?
Canada is a country that depends on the USA more than any other nation(biggest exporter to us!) and yet always has opinions and criticisms of our country and the way we do things... People in Michigan don't travel to Canada as much as they used to... we just don't feel welcome. Glad to hear you celebrated as best you could!
That cake is awesome! What a creative flag you made. Scrummy! I'm an expat living in Saint Fargeau:)
Mark-The Canadians were insistent that their country was better than the U.S., which was weird because although none of us (Americans) engaged in the argument, they kept going. Might be changing my opinion about our 'friendly' neighbors to the north.
BD-Can't say as though I am dying to visit, but I have never encountered such unpleasant examples of Canadians. Hopefully they are not all like that.
Mary-Hi. Glad you dropped by. I wish I could take credit for the cake, but I didn't make it.
I am Canadian (should have used an emoticon or something on my previous post), and often embarrassed by my fellow citizens in how they carry on (your experience sounds sadly typical), but please, have some sympathy - if we didn't have you guys to talk about, we'd be stuck with talking about our snow. And then what we do for the remaining two months of the year?
Mark-I won't hold being Canadian against you;-)Seriously, I could say the same things about some Americans, French, Germans, etc. Can't throw out the whole bunch just because there are a few rotten ones. Honestly, I have never really had any negative experiences with Canadians. Your fellow compatriots weren't even annoying on the 4th, just strangely and loudly insistent.
I used to like Canada, and Canadians... Their outspoken criticisms, and outright dislike of Americans and our government's policies(which I have little say in!) changed me..You ought to see them flock to Florida in the winter- Snow birds that don't know how to tip, and yet they are welcome here in America...I once, on vacation, was up in the Sault St. Marie (U.S side)... ran into a couple of great guys from Canada in the motel lounge... They explained they crossed the border twice a week, paying the bridge toll- and buying American cigarettes at a huge savings, then reselling them to friends in Canada! Our neighbors to the North love the one way street to American bargains, but then repay us by sneering at our country. They recently placed stricter checks at the border based on terrorism..like anyone would care about blowing up something in Canada! Sorry, Anegela... you just accidentally pushed one of my hot buttons.... Off my soap box now, and lugging it to the next date!
As a French AND a Canadian, next time if I'm around, I'll try to crash the party.
Come to think of it, I already did, ten years ago in China. We traded: Americans invited us at the embassy in Beijing for ID and we invited them ten days later at the French embassy.
Great example of "coopération franco-américaine" :D
As a new Canadian, I can't say I hear much criticism towards the USA. I feel it's more a "big/ small brother" relationship... yeah sure we make fun of each other, but it's for fun.
Sound like a great series of 4th of July celebrations!!
Jules @ Lovely Las Vegas
P.S. I love Canada... no bad experiences with Canadians, either, so hope you can visit some day! I think there are probably peeps from every country that complain and can, unfortunately, taint others views of a nation's people.
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