American – Page 6 of 8 – Rasmenian Detritus

France: The Land of Haute & Hilarious Cuisine

March 5, 2010 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

When I first moved to France a little over 4 years ago, I was immediately enamored with the food. I'm sure that's hardly a surprise. I mean, this is the country that invented haute cuisine, chefs, bistros & the words "restaurant" & "gourmet".French dishes from various regions are known far & wide outside of France's borders: foie gras, escargot, cassoulet, bouillabaisse, crepes & croque monsieur.Everyone knows about Brie & Bleu Cheese. Grocery stores in the U.S. sell Herbes de Provence. Any idiot knows what a croissant is.The point is, these people are not fucking around when it comes to the food. It's an art; it's one of life's greatest pleasures & should be enjoyed. It isn't just a means of survival or fuel - it's a way of life.However, while America eats itself to death, it's only natural for the fat of that land to spread. Little bits of American culture can be seen everywhere & France is no exception. ...

There & Back Again, Part 4 – Bathrooms, Burritos & Beheadings

February 10, 2010February 10, 2010 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

So, there we were, a frozen December night in Tulsa, with our faces pressed against the cold, dirty glass, staring at our empty bus. The Greyhound station was small. The movies had gotten worse - instead of Billy Bob Thornton, we were now trying to avoid looking at the screen as an estrogen-soaked Lifetime movie cackled in the background.Olivier & I went outside while I shivered & cursed. The Greyhound employee inside had informed us that we would be stranded until 3:30am, when the next bus for Amarillo, TX was due to arrive. If we could get a seat on that bus. We tried to come up with some sort of plan to get ourselves out of Tulsa. What we came up with was... jack shit.We went back inside & ran into the kid with the Hari Krishna hair. "I saw a bar down the street," he said. "I really like beer. I make my own brews at home."Olivier &...

There & Back Again, Part 1 – Paris to Pennsylvania

January 13, 2010February 18, 2019 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

It's all quite blurry now, but what I remember of it all is full of various landscapes, faces and suitcases. There was eating, drinking, merriment and... mucous. Fucking holiday travel. It's always a lot of planning and stress, but we had a plan. A simple plan. There was no way it could fail. We had a direct flight from Paris to Pittsburgh, PA. We would rent a car, then drive 3 hours to a tiny, rural town just outside the middle-of-freaking-nowhere. After 1 week, we would board a Greyhound bus to Colorado. Another week there and we would fly from Denver back to Paris. There were various parties, reunions and get-togethers planned in several different locations with dozens of people. Okay, so it wasn't really such a simple plan. Maybe we'd hit a snag here or there; 1 or 2 little things could go wrong. Or... everything could go wrong. Olivier and I woke up at 4:30am on December 20th. I stared at the wall with...

You Can Go Home Again… For a Price

December 17, 2009November 30, 2020 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

“There are things you just can't do in life. You can't beat the phone company, you can't make a waiter see you until he's ready to see you, and you can't go home again.” -Bill Bryson "You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood ... back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame ... back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time — back home to the escapes of Time and Memory." -Thomas Wolfe, You Can't Go Home Again "America is my country and Paris is my hometown." -Gertrude Stein ◊ There is something that happens to someone when they live abroad. It doesn't matter where they live, or for how long; spending an extended period of time living in a country that is not your own will affect anyone who tries it. If you've...

Leaving for Paris

December 10, 2009December 1, 2020 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

Four years ago, I was in the midst of disassembling my life in Colorado. This is the only way to build a new one. There in my apartment, which was rapidly becoming a large empty space, I stared at the packed boxes. There were more and more of them every day.There were times when the packing and planning was exhausting. It was easier to chain smoke in the dark with several pints of Guinness and a blank page while listening to Rufus Wainwright. Of course, one song that I played over and over again was "Leaving for Paris."httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djpWPhv1tPU&feature=PlayList&p=6FD35315AB3D3572&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1It seemed so appropriate since that is exactly what I was doing. It had occurred to me that I might actually be out of my goddamn mind. Then again, this thought has crossed my mind several times throughout my life and has never really been a point of major concern. But, packing up my life to move to another country to marry a man who I...

Annoying Americans, Volume 4 – Expat Bloggers

October 30, 2009November 23, 2020 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

American expat bloggers... well, yeah - it's true that with my little blue passport, Wordpress account & carte de séjour, I meet all of the criteria. But, just wait... hold back your fist-pumping, cries of "hypocrite!" for just a moment. I might get around to making a point... eventually. Before I moved to France, I spent a great deal of time scouring the internet for information on the place that was to be my new home. It was a big move, going from Loveland, Colorado to Paris, France. I was planning to get married to a French man soon after my arrival - I was nervous, excited, stressed-out & elated. I was doing this alone, with only my faithful feline sidekick.Even though I had already been to France a couple of times already, I wanted to find as much information as I could, so that I could get a clearer picture of what in the hell I was getting myself into. Some...