A couple weeks ago I went to the Festival Acadiens and Creoles in Lafayette to listen to some cajun music and Zydeco and eat good cajun and creole food. Lovely afternoon.
For those who don't know, who are the Cajuns?
"Acadians, or Cajuns as they are now called, were exiled from Nova
Scotia in 1755. They carried away a
rich cultural heritage, which included a blend of French, Celtic,
Scots-Irish and Native American influences. This mixture is evident in a
rich oral tradition and repertoire of songs and dances. By the turn of
the twentieth century, increasing homogenization of the United States
threatened to doom the French language to obscurity. Early versions of
the Louisiana constitution made valiant attempts to legitimize the use
of French, but America charged on with the nationalism movement. The
approach of World War I induced a quest for national unity, which
suppressed regional diversity. In 1916, mandatory English language education was made
available to the rest of Louisiana and was imposed in the South. French
was trampled in a frontal assault on illiteracy. Several generations of
Cajuns and Créoles were eventually convinced that speaking french was a
sign of cultural illegitimacy. In the late 1940's the tide seemed to
turn. Soldiers in France during World War II discovered that the
language and culture they had been told to forget made them invaluable
as interpreters and made surviving generally easier. After the war,
returning GI's immersed themselves in their own culture. Dance halls
throughout South Louisiana once again blared the familiar and comforting
sounds of homemade music. In 1968, the State of Louisiana officially recognized the Cajun cultural
revival by creating the Council for the Development of French in
Louisiana (CODOFIL). CODOFIL
began its efforts on political, psychological and educational fronts to
erase the stigma Louisianans had long attached to the French language
and culture. In addition to creating French classes in elementary
schools, CODOFIL organized the first Tribute to Cajun Music Festival in
1974."
My own video didn't want to load, so I am showing here a video found online from a previous year. I chose it because you can hear them talk and sing in French. A very particular kind of French obviously. It is almost impossible for me to understand anything when they sing it...
Zydeco dancing:
You think those two are happy to dance?
Bringing your own couch to the event seem to be the thing to do
Little girl playing in the mud
Of course the best local restaurants and caterers prepare their specialties. You can go from one booth to another and taste all those yummy local dishes:
Soft-shell crab - crab cooked when it's molting. Its shell isn't hard, so you can it it all.
Boudin - Cajun boudin is a sausage stuffed with porc, rice, a mix of onion, bellpeppers, celeri and spices. Nothing to do with our french boudin (blood sausage).
Crawfish étouffée
Corn and
crab bisque - Creamy soup with crab, corn,
onions, celeri and garlic.
Meat pies - Little pies stuffed with ground beef, porc, onions, garlic, peppers and cayenne pepper.
Catfish courtbouillon - Catfish stew
Alligator sausage poboy
Shrimp jambalaya
Craklins - fried porc rind
Oddly I'm getting hungry now. After five years in this country I surprisingly haven't gained any weight, but if that changes you'll know why...
The beginning of the fall has a special feel on this side of the Atlantic... I don't know if I'm the only one who have this impression? Perhaps it's because in the two cities I've lived in, Sacramento and now Baton Rouge, we appreciate the end of oppressive summers? Here in Louisiana, instead of the average 90-95 degrees, it finally got down to 70ish, so inevitably, we feel like we can finally breath...
Or, and most importantly, it's because the mood warms up before the festivities to come... Halloween and Thanksgiving... The natural light kinda changes, everything turns to orange, pumpkins are everywhere! Anyway, for me, it means I'm done with the AC, I can open my windows for the first time in 5 months, I can go outside with something else on my feet than flip flops, and I even start to glance at my boots that haven't seen the light since last February. Finally a little bit of class! I can't wait! I would have never thought that one day I'd be so excited to see Fall coming.
Here in Louisiana foliage hasn't turned yellow, orange and red yet. I guess it's still too warm for that... After all, just a few weeks ago we were still at the beach... So I find other ways to get in the mood: buying squashes and gourds at the supermarket, throwing a pine cone wreath together, and lighting my pumpkin scent candle in the living room. The choice of pumpkins in stores is quite impressive! Some of those I have never seen in France. So pretty. They'll end up becoming soups (yum), pumpkin pies (I still can't eat that shit), or outside on the porch for Halloween.
Fall in the USA seems to be a real business, (like everything, really). Of course, Halloween explains that, I'll talk about it later. But from looking at the stores shelves, I still feel like the change of season itself is downright a pretext to redecorate the whole house and garden!
From a neighborhood to the other, people are more or less obsessed: fall foliage wreath, pumpkins on the door steps, smiley faces scarecrows, baskets filled with corn cobs and all sort of squashes, etc... a true celebration! Actually, though I sound critical, I love it. I think that just wandering around and seeing all the decorated porches and beautiful colors warms the heart.
So now I just need to get to work. I still have a Halloween costume to put together, pumpkins to carve, and a warm spiced cider recipe to master...
I might be disappointing but I haven't given into crazy decoration outside my place. Not yet. However, the mild temperatures and the thought of not having sweat running down the back had me setting a foot outside and re-exploring my garden. And there was a bunch of simple pretty things:
Pretty mushrooms:
Little white balls breaking out of their shells, colorful Lantanas:
Two pretty flowers growing out of nowhere, and my pepper, growing at a good pace and soon ready for a home made Tabasco experience!:
I'm also a little excited to be able to sit on my porch again, swinging on my rocking chair, sipping a glass of wine, watching the squirrels running and jumping from a tree to another, without sweating, and without even being eaten alive by mosquitos. I wanna say: Long live the fall!
Here we are, in the middle of football season... a religion in Baton Rouge. Between the LSU Tigers, and the New Orleans Saints, it's quite a big deal. People don't joke around with this around here! Guys, girls, young, old, families, everybody gets together and join the fun. Nothing like the rather masculin crowd of our football in France (which we'll call soccer to avoid any confusion). Clearly the atmosphere is not the same, and this is for the best.
Both teams are very much objects of pride. Between the college games and the professional games, there are, basically, from September to February, games going on every weeks. For the professional teams, the season ends with the famous Superbowl.
Football is the favorite activity around here (along with fishing and duck hunting...), so that means there's always something to do during the week end. Unfortunately when you have friends that are borderline fanatics, you don't do anything else anymore. And this is downright damn irritating. Watching a game on TV every week, hummmmm, no thanks. Once in a while, when it comes with a good boozy BBQ... Ok. Because I need to point out that a game last easily 3 hours or more. And as if that was not enough, like every american televised show, it is interrupted with commercials every 5 minutes (LITTERALLY, every 5, or 10 minutes) - a torture. And since in reality, I still really have a hard time to follow a game... it is out of the question to subject myself to this without a little bit of entertainment.
Luckily, I'm exaggerating a bit. I have friends whose interests rise a little bit higher than football, fishing and duck hunting, so I do not suffer every week end from this prevailing madness.
Though when there's a home game for the LSU Tigers we usually join the festivities before the game. It is tradition to party everywhere on the campus around the stadium. And Baton Rouge is nationally well-known to be VERY VERY good at it! So, run down of a game day:
The "tailgate"
A tailgate party is when the spectators party on and around parking lots of a stadium before a game starts, kinda like a warm up. Cars and pick up's trunks are open (hence the word tailgate, which, in english, describe that rear end of a car), every body has food out, drinks, usually there's always a few that crank up the music, most have their camping chairs out with their TVs plugged to a generator to watch the afternoon games taking place in other cities, or to follow the evening game when they don't have a ticket to get in the stadium. In Baton Rouge, most people set up their camps on the campus lawns, so it looks a little bit like that:
A good tailgate entails having a nice supply of hotdogs, burgers, chips/salsa, all kind of stuff to grill... And especially a big supply of drinks, primarily beer, generally the whole keg, and Jell'O shots (mix of gelatin and alcohol to gulp down to the rules of the art... terribly gross when you can't stand gelatin). The main activities for any good self-respecting student, consist, of course, in being the least sober before to go to the game: Beer Pong and Flip Cup are the two main games. The goal of Beer Pong is to throw a ping pong ball in the cups, filled with a little bit of beer, of the team accross the table. If you aim well and make your ball land in one of your opponent's cups, this guy must drink this cup in one go. Then it's his turn to throw the ball. The player who is the first one to finish drinking all his cups loses.
Beer Pong
Flip Cup
This game can gather a larger group of players, as long as the number is even and as long as everybody can stand side by side along a table. This time, each person has a cup in front of them, filled, also, with a little bit of beer. Team A is on one side of the table, and Team B on the other side, each player face to face. The two players standing at one end of the table toast then drink the content of their cup. Once empty, they must lay the cup flat on the table edge and flip it with only one finger. The second player in line can do the same with his own cup only once the guy before succeeded in flipping his cup. The team that finishes flipping all its cups first wins.
I'll point out that you find those games at numerous other occasions. Also notice the huge red plastic cups. It's the standard here in supermarkets for disposable cups. Once again... another world.
As for fashion, of course, everybody is dressed with the team colors. And sometimes rivalries are clearly displayed...:
Sometimes, even the beer cans match:
Finally, when the game is about to start, everybody walks towards the stadium. In Baton Rouge, the stadium can sit about 92 000 people. Might as well say that the surroundings are crawling with people.
The fanfare Before the game, it's nice to see the fanfare walking down towards the stadium. You'll see the Golden Girls, who lead the cortege, the cheerleaders, followed by the brass band. The tune that's played in the second part of the video is LSU anthem. Here, in my opinion, you really feel like you are in America. Those Americans really put all into it... for a simple game that takes place every week! Amaaaazing!
The game
Getting into the LSU stadium for the first time is pretty impressive. It made quite an impression on me, especially because everybody is in purple and gold, since most of the stadium is filled with LSU fans. On the picture below, you can distinguish a tiny square of fans from the opposing team, in red, in a corner of the stadium. It gives you an idea. Kind of overwhelming for them I would say. In short, 92,542 seats, it makes for a good crowd. And they are at the moment starting work to add to that. Soon there will be almost 100,000 seats, which will make Baton Rouge one of the biggest college stadium in the USA.
So I'm not gonna try to explain the rules, because like I said earlier, I'm still a little clueless. But the atmosphere alone is worth the trip. LSU fans are so loud that the stadium is well-known to have the best atmosphere of all college games, but also, and for the same reasons, to be the most difficult place for a visiting team to play.
The brass bands of both teams are in the stands, in their own space, accross from each other. And throughout the game, they play in turns, either their teams' anthems or short popular music pieces to motivate everybody. Sometimes one band starts playing while the other one is still playing, but louder, it's like a battle, and it's pretty cool.
At half time the two bands walk down on the field and they each perform their show, about 10 minutes each. Lots of people leave their seats at that time to go fill up with junk food. As far as I'm concerned, I was waiting for this for an hour and a half, so I'm staying.
Half time show
I almost forgot the mascot: Mike the Tiger!... who hop up and down around the field once in a while.
Here is the plush version...
And there, the real one...
Mike
the Tiger (Mike VI because it's the sixth) lives in its habitat next to the stadium. You can see it there, but when it's game day he is out on the field! Yes, a real tiger... I didn't lie when I said Americans spare no expense...
There you go, now you have a better feel for the football spirit in Baton Rouge... Personally, it gives me the impression that it's almost like if the soccer world cup was happening every week end. You understand a little better where the American federative/team spirit, and patriotism come from. Imagine if, in France, the effect of the 1998 world cup victory went on even only one time a year... (from seeing how crazy people are here about the annual Superbowl, it seems to me like it's almost its equivalent when it comes to that level of popular jubilation): Everybody was happy, partying together, it was a marvellous world where we all had good intentions... Wouldn't we become some kind of Disneyland too?
It's been almost five years since I moved in the US. I spent four years in California and one year in Louisiana, two very different States... It's fair to say I got over the culture shock stage quite a while ago. I've been so many times shocked, surprised, astonished, impressed, misunderstood, outraged, admirative, dismayed, vexed... In short, being French in the US is mentally not restful. And I love it! But it never occurred to me to write all that somewhere to share it. Actually, it did, but first off, writing a blog seemed to be more work than I wanted to handle, and secondly, there are already so many blogs written by expatriates like me that...well... I didn't feel like creating another one. And now, as I am realizing that everything that seemed crazy, enormous or super weird to me a few years ago, is now part of my daily routine, that I don't raise my eyes anymore when a giant pick up truck drives by me, that I tip normally without flinching, that I don't eyeball American girls in their Saturday night outfits anymore, I am telling myself that it would be stupid to not keep all those expatriate experiences and thoughts on "paper", before everything seems just... normal. And on top of that, it won't hurt my brain to express itself in my native french language (the original blog is in french) once in a while... Nothing worse than not being able to find my words when I have to get back into French mode for my occasional skype sessions. So here I am! I am getting down to it. Not sure where it will take us, but it's worth the try!
