Je saurai faire des vrais hommes de vous

I am about 99% sure I have seen every Disney film at some point in my life, but that does not mean I remember any of them.
Take Hercules, for example. I was browsing tumblr when I happened upon a .gif of a scene in Hercules, one that I do not remember at all. It was something about love and Meg and whatnot. So, I go to YouTube and type in "Hercules", not knowing what song to search for. Having my computer in French, though, it came up with: De Zéro en Héros, Le Gospel Pur, among others. Well, being the French snob I am, I start watching them, kicking off a two-hour time-wasting marathon. But, not the point. I finally come across the song I was looking for, and, yup, I cannot remember it.

So that means that there are some Disney songs that I only know in French. Sweet!

UPDATE: Alyssa "loves how frenchy" I am now... that was until I showed her this video (which I much prefer in French). To which she said: "okay...now you have crossed the line from acceptable frenchy to so frenchy you are practically covered in esargot." Thank you, Alyssa.

Recipe: A Classy, French Night

Ingredients:

• Cheese (2-3 options)
• For best results, use a decent cheese. Emmental, Gruyère, Camembert, and Gorgonzola are all good options
• Expand your options, using the 'regular' cheeses all the time is fine and good, but can be repetitive. Branch out! I found a great cheese, super delicious, form Italy - Percino di Vino. Excellent flavour, aged in red wine.
• Never use cheap, American cheese. Like Cheddar.
• Wine (red yields preferred results)
• A decent $5-10 wine will work. Sometimes wines priced $2-3 can be good; sources vary.
• Baguette (must have a crunchy crust)
• Wine glasses
• A must-have with wine. Regular glasses scream college-student. We are trying to break that image.
• Fruit
• Some fruit is almost a necessity. Berries and grapes work best and compliment all the flavours of the evening.
• Raspberries, grapes, blackberries, and even apples/pears are your best bet.
• Chocolate
• Optional
• Never cheap, American chocolate. Swiss and Belgian is best.
• Speakers or computer
• French or "classy" music
• Nice, semi-formal attire
• Cutting board and knife
• Add your own flare
• I brought some cornichons because I love them and miss them, and they rocked.

Steps:

1. Bring out the cutting board and knife. With the cheese selections, cut enough pieces from the harder cheeses for at least enough to fill the face of the board. Keep cheeses separated. Nine times out of ten, people do not know their cheeses.
2. Open the bottle of wine. Better to do this ahead of time, because, as you are a university student, you may not have a corkscrew (it happens to the best of us), so some decent thudding against a wall might be in order to de-cork that bottle of wine. There are some decent screw-top wines, but the choices are limited.
3. Break off two to three, but no more, pieces of the baguette. It is better (and more French; remember the purpose of this evening) to have the person break off their own piece from the baguette.
4. Set up the speaker and/or computer. This step is critical: the night might be decent, but without the proper mood-setting music, it will just feel like nearly every other university room-gathering.  Below are some recommended artists or albums to work from.
1. Michael Bublé (sets a great, recognizable mood)
2. Julie & Julia - Various Artists (great mix of French tunes)
3. Jacques Brel (who could be more French)
4. Les Champs-Elysées - Joe Dessin (play only once the wine has started to set in. Leads to communal chanting of "Ohh Champs-Elysées ba-da ba-da-bum")
5. Le Tango des Gens - Sanseverino (great French album)
6. Nora Jones and Joni Mitchell (both artists set a great, soft mood)
7. Ratatouille - Michael Giacchino and Various Artists (so many people now know Ratatouille. The soundtrack is very French and fun)
8. Tortilla Soup - Various Artists (this is iffy. It is latin music, not really giving the French vibe, but a great album with wonderful sounds)
5. Make sure to be in your nice clothes. Anything older, or giving off the older vibe, is recommended (1950's, 40's are great). Just look nice, like formal nice.
6. Invite friends
7. Live life.

Of note: to increase class, light candles. It is also great to take the used wine bottle and convert it to a candle holder. It looks great, and it is an awesome use of the empty wine bottle.

UPDATE:
Images from 'Classy Night':

Please ignore the dying fern.

Muggle Quidditch

Today's two-hour practise was intense! From beater drills to the extremely muddy field, it was great.

I am not going to go into details, but I will leave you with these:

Muddy legs and shoes. Those shoes looked new[ish] going into today's practise.

We even broke our first broom today. Good on Omar!

Afterwards, we decided the broom was eerily similar to the broken sword (Narsil) in Lord of the Rings. It was joked that we should mend it for the Quidditch World Cup.

Omar had a great face.

I think the broken broom is a sign that we are ready for the game against University of Victoria on 4 February! Also, there is a 50/50 chance that our jerseys will come in on time for the game. Here is the logo:

My jersey will say "Danos θ" (or if we need real numbers, I will be "Danos 72").

Also, we gathered together, and, in trying to figure out what to shout out on three, I say "Thunderbolts" thinking it might be our team name (our team name is, duh, the Thunderbirds). But, we may use Thunderbolts as our broom stick names, which would rock.

And and and we are starting to get broom blisters.

And... for the game, Erica and I are first string beaters! (Even though our, what, 4 beaters [if that] are all pretty darn good, and we all are getting better!)

Also! Here are the beginnings of a Beater drill infograph that I am trying to make:

I have a new title

Formerly known as "An Ex-Pat in the Making", my blog is now:
A European American Living in Canada


I feel as though it is a much more positive title. Although I most definitely have my gripes with the States (this election is not making things better... oh, it certainly is not), the U.S. does have some very bright parts to it. And, yes, I am actively seeking dual with Hungary* and the States and plan to live in Europe and other parts of the globe the rest of my life, it is not me escaping the States [entirely], it is me exploring parts of the world that I would like to see.

So, yes, I thought I would be an Ex-Patriot, but I guess that is not happening any longer.

America: you have many, many, many, low points, but parts of you stand tall and proud *coughNewYorkCitycough*.


* I will explain later.

UPDATE: Just kidding, that 'later' became a 'now'.

Time to explain the new title!

So, growing up, I lived with my mum, my grandma, and my grandpa. My grandpa was Hungarian, my grandma was Belgian, and both were like free day care for my mum, meaning that when I was super little, 2/3 of my time was with them. Both have super heavy accents, and so when they taught me English, they taught be Hungarian and Belgian-French English. When I was small, I actually had a bizarre accent mix and would say my sentences 'backwards'. I would speak very different (no conjunctions [Hu], describe nouns with adjectives backwards like the 'ball red' instead of the 'red ball' [Fr], etc.). Also, being in that household, I became accustomed to a specific way to do things. I learned fast how to properly eat at a dinner table, our lunches were an endless supply of cold cuts and cheeses, and I would go 'zeezee', not 'peepee'. In a way, I grew up European... in Southern California, and I would not have it any other way. It was like I was raised to move away from the States.

So, there we go: I am, for all intents and purposes, a European, born and raised in Southern California, going to university in Vancouver, Canada.

Oh, and the Hungarian thing... Several months back, I was browsing citizenship requirements and came across Hungary's: no need to live there, close blood tie, and that is all. The forms just need to be in Hungarian, but big whoop. So, this got me thinking that I could be a dual with US/Hungary (both allow it), meaning I have been looking into this like no other. At the moment, I am getting together all the paperwork I need to get my grandfather's birth certificate and his parents' marriage certificate. It is exciting, I will be an EU/US citizen! (hopefully - I am giving it some time to sink in and see where the situation in Hungary is going)

Quidditch Drills

I am not the most sporty person ever, quite far from it, really. The most I have ever done, team sport-wise, is a little tennis is grade 10 and some football (not American football) in grade 8. In fact, I am very new to the whole team sport world. Quidditch is a team sport, and I cannot be happier to be on that team. Our group is starting to grow closer than ever. But, this is not a story about team spirit or the lasting friendships this will build, no, I am going to talk about the day when chasing Canadian geese became a drill.

On Wednesday 25 January, I got to the pitch for practice like normal. It being only 17:00, there were not many people there yet, so we started to play dodgeball, our "drill" for beaters. It went all well and good, nothing major happened until we regrouped after the game. A couple of us turned around to the usual flock of geese only to see it grew in berth, just a little. And by little I mean there might have been 200 geese. So, then, I asked if anyone wanted to chase them...


Two teammates and myself mount our brooms and start charging the gaggle. At first, I am pretty sure none of the geese had any clue of what was going on; rather than run, they just kind of waddled away from us. I swear, I could have picked one up.  But, the faster we ran and the longer we kept at it, the more they realised that they needed to move, fast. Suddenly, A huge group of them began to take to the skies and start honking. It went like this: *waddle waddle* *waddle waddle* *waddle waddle* *run* honk honk honk HONK! honkhonkhonkhonkhonkhonkhonk *fly away*.

Now, we got most of them up off "our turf", but there was still one group, so, Michelle and I charge them, her coming from behind, me coming from the front. They begin their routine of honking and flying, but then they notice me and flip out. In that moment of panic, the gaggle of flying geese begin to shit at me. Try to picture the situation: Michelle running full blown at the geese, me as well, but the geese start flying at me, to which I slow down a little. Then, they begin to start bombing me with shit, to which I start running away.

Once the geese were properly distributed, we limped back, in stitches from laughter, victoriously, to our waiting teammates. Chasing geese is quite a work out.

P.S. I did not get any goose shit on me, and later in the practice I actually came up with quite a decent beater drill that was more than just a round of dodgeball.

Since I have not posted in a long time...

...I will start small: the abnormal contents of a fridge of a university student.

At the moment, I have:

• Nine different types of cheese (one is American *shudder*)
• Two bags of grapes
• A half a container of raspberries
• Two oranges
• A bottle of green tea with pomegranate
• Orange Juice
• Apple Juice
• Cornichons
• Two AA batteries from my Econ professor

It is quite an assortment...I am really proud of it.

That is all for now. I will update on the Christmas break later (probably not), on recent events around campus (possibly), and my wine and cheese party (there is a slightly better chance)...