Quickie: I Made Lasagna, Too.

 Bonsoir!

Two posts in one day??
Yep. I made dinner. I'll give you guys a play-by-play.

Soaked the pasta in hot water

Makin' sauce. The red one is tomato sauce with ground beef. The other pot is just melted butter, but it was the base of a bechamel sauce. Basically it's the think, creamy goodness that goes in between the pasta and meat sauce layers in the lasagna.

Then I took out the pasta (my host mum took this one)...

...layered everything together...

...popped it in the oven...

BAM DELICIOUSNESS.

This post is just for more cooking photos. Nothing significant. Just photos of the meal I cooked. I love cooking with my new family and was really excited that I got to make dinner and then eat my muffins for dessert. It really makes me feel like a part of the family.

Alright, I leave you with this photo of my host dad and I.

Bonne nuit!
~Effy

Effy in the Kitchen

Bon Après-midi!

Today I have a special blog post! I will be doing a documentation of my first baking experience in France, along with some tips for cooking in another country (believe me, these tips are worth noting).

To start off, I'd like to point out that baking in a new place is hard. New kitchen, new ingredients, new tools, etc. As someone who is quite familiar with the kitchen, I was ready for the challenge. I figured that I could problem solve if I really needed to (and believe me, I really needed to). So if you're someone, say, and exchange student, who is not too experienced in the kitchen and wants the low-down, this is the place for you!

Today's experiment: Chocolate Chip Muffeleins.

I'd like to consider this an Effy Akamian special. Bet you've never had a Muffelein before.

  My real mum makes the absolute best muffins I've ever had, so I wanted to try to make some. They're faily easy and I was certain that we already had most of the things I needed to make it. The recipe she sent me was a muffin recipe that called for blueberries and orange zest for falvour, but I decided to use chocolate chips instead  to make them more suitable for dessert. I'm gonna give you guys some photos to show my process, along with some cliff notes to inform you of my mistakes and quick fixes.

Step 1: Convert your measurements (Optional, if you are not American)

This was where I ran into my first problem. Not only do tablespoons and teaspoons not exist here, but I had to convert some things to liters and some things to grams, and it depended on WHAT I was measuring (for example, flour and sugar do not measure the same), as seen in this photo:

As you can see, there's grids that mark what you're measuring. 100 grams of flour measures differently than 100g of sugar, hence why it was so complicated for me.

As for the tablespoons and teaspoons, I eyeballed it. Tablespoons are easy to guess because they're the same amount as a normal sized spoon. The teaspoons were tricky, but I think I did alright!

Step 2: Gather your ingredients.

Luckily, this recipe was fairly easy. I didn't even need butter or some fancy flavour extract. However, every country is different when it comes to cooking and baking. I realised this when I asked if my host mum had any baking soda. I tried to translate it into French, and she had no idea what I was talking about. I tried to translate baking powder to see if it was the same thing (and because the recipe called for baking powder, as well) but it was something different. Luckily, we had the baking powder, but she still had no idea what baking soda was. So the chemistry nerd inside of me translated "sodium bicarbonate" into French, which confused her even more. She then asked me if it was the same thing that you "brush you teeth with"....
At this point, I had to resort to Google to make sure I wasn't the only person who had this problem. According to the many threads of cooking questions that I read, baking soda doesn't exist here. It's considered an "old fashioned" way of baking. As I said before, baking and cooking is different in every country. Another way to get the same effect as baking soda is to whip egg whites and fold them into your batter (also a very French style of baking, same method used in making macarons). But because I didn't know how much egg whites I would need, I ended up using this:

  Yep. It's teeth whitener. Sodium bicarbonate is an active ingredient in toothpaste. It's the magical stuff that makes your teeth white when you buy your favourite super mega ultra pearly white toothpaste. 

You may be wondering why the hell I decided to use teeth whitener in my muffin recipe. My host mum wondered the same thing, telling me that it probably wasn't an important ingredient. But baking soda is a very very important thing, as it is the raising agent when you bake things. Also a very important reason why you should never confuse or substitute baking powder for baking soda. 
Aside from the slightly minty smell, it really didn't make that much of a difference in the overall flavour of the batter, so  I went with it. Gotta do what ya gotta do. There's no way I could have successfully made these muffins without it.

Anyways, back to baking!

Step 3: Put dat stuff together.

As you can see, this was where I ran into another problem: I didn't have a muffin pan....
My host sister said that her grandmother had one, but at this point it was too late and I had already been improvising. So I decided to use Madeleine pans!

Being someone who was already familiar with Madeleines, as they were a childhood favourite and still are, let me give you the low-down on what they are; they're French ass cookies that are a tad tricky to make right because of the pan. I recall my mum telling me that the tricky thing about making Madeleines and all their deliciousness is baking them correctly. So doing this right took a few tries. I decided to bake the pans one at a time as a sort of trial and error and take photos along the way.

As you can see in this photo, the first ones were pretty full, and the second I put them in the oven, I was afraid they wouldn't work.

The problem was that I filled them completely. I took into consideration how much muffins usually rise and got worried. But I had already taken so many risks, I thought I might give it a chance.

Here was the result of batch one:

As you can see, they did exactly what I thought they would. The centers of the little guys rose really high, and the middle started oozing out. But they baked thoroughly had a rather nice bronze edge.
Result: not a total failure!





Second batch, I decided not to fill them as much and reduce the baking time:

And here was the result:

Yep, turned out pretty nice! Not too brown, less dry in the middle, and I even got that pretty shell shape. Pretty good, huh?
To give you more of an idea of the difference from the first batch, here's a comparison: 

As you can see, they baked much more evenly and turned out a lot more moist and less browned. Overall, I was pretty happy with how they turned out. Took a few times to get them just right, but like I said, wasn't a total failure! They might even whiten your teeth!
*The recipe made 10 muffins, which ended up being 4 batches with these Madeleine pans, a total of

So, what have we learned today? Here are the three things I took away from today's experiment:
1) Convert your ingredients thoroughly.
2) Make sure all of the ingredients you need are available to you.
3) Take risks!

I hope you guys learned something from today. And if cooking isn't your thing, I hope this was entertaining! I cook a lot with this host family, so I'll most likely be writing about more cooking experiences in the near future (or at least posting photos).

Until next time, bon appétit!

~Effy

Quickie: Vlogs?

Hello, all!

I'm going to start doing more short posts as I feel I don't update my blog as much as I should. I don't always have a lot of things to write about, so I'm going to start doing "quickies"!

Since my blog has been getting a lot of attention, which makes me VERY happy, I've finally decided to commit to video blogging as well!

If my blog recieved over 3,000 views within the next few weeks, I will start making video blogs as well as my usual text posts.

This was something that I had planned on doing in the beginning but I never had time to do it. But now, seeing how many of you read my posts, I'm ready to start doing it.

BUT I NEED YOUR HELP!

I really love hearing feeback from people. If you guys could tell me what kind of things you would like to see, I'll try my best to make it happen. I'm not going to start doing these videos without some suggestion because it's a lot of effort for something that people won't enjoy as much. But I've gotten so many requests for more photos that I decided it was a good idea.

So please, COMMENT.

Tell me what you guys wanna see!

A bientot!
~Effy

Making Yourself At Home

Bonne apres-midi!

I feel like a topic that we (exchange students) don't go very in depth-with is our living situations. So today I'd like to talk about what it's like living with a host family.

First of all, I'd like to mention that not all exchange students stay with families. Rotary does this because we are high school students and are obviously not capable of living on our own on exchange, as we do not do that at home, either. I cannot speak for people that live in college dorms and such. It's a much different experience.
Second, the way host families works with Rotary is that you usually have three throughout your stay. I know this differs depending on where you go or where you're from (I know Aussis and Kiwis have more than 3 because they're here for a lot longer). It also depends on what the club sets up for you. My district has had a problem with not having enough people wanting to host.

My situation is that I have three families. My first and third families live right next door, but all three live right by my high school. It's about a 5 minute walk to school from each home. I'm incredibly lucky because I know some people who have to take 40 minute bus rides to get to school. I'm with my first family until mid-November, and I move to my third family in April. It's roughly 3 months for each.

However, I can say that I would much prefer (at this point in time) to stay with a host family. Maybe I'll feel differently when I go on exchange in college, but for now, it's really nice.
Although, at first, it is a little hard to make yourself at home in someone's home that you've never been in before. It's hard to learn the little everyday things that they do in the kitchen, living room, how to set the table for dinner, how to clean up....you get the picture. It's especially hard to learn these things when they're explained to you in another language. After two months of being here, I still have a lot of trouble understanding when my host mum asks me to do little things.
*Tip: Translate little words like "wet", "dry", "hot", "cold", "open", "close", "clean", "dirty"...it makes a big difference when you're trying to explain things!

Though it is good to spend time and talk with your family, it's always okay to have some alone time! I find myself lounging in my bedroom reading or playing games on my phone when I need a break. I also take naps pretty frequently, but that's just from being exhausted from speaking all day. It's also important to mention that sometimes in the beginning you get a little overwhelmed or homesick at really random moments. Times like this are good opportunities to take some time for yourself. Don't worry, no one expects 100% from you all the time!

The other neat thing about living with a host family is just getting to know them. It's such a change when you're living in a house with new people because there's SO much to talk about. You live completely different lives and you've just stepped into theirs....so talk! It is really difficult to have conversations sometimes, but there's no such thing as too much practice when it comes to language. It's a little exhausting, but it's worth it! Not to mention how many new words you learn every day!

Overall, living with families is a really good experience. There's so much I could talk about that it's making my brain go blank, so I'll leave it up to you guys to ask the things you wanna know!
I can't even begin to imagine how my high school and college exchanges will differ purely from the living situations. It'll be an interesting contrast. 

Welp, that's all I've got to share right now. Like I said; ask question! I'll do a Q&A post if I get enough feedback from people.

A bientot!

~Effy

"Good" Americans

Bonjour!

Today, I want to talk about something that's been on my mind a lot this week. I'd LOVE to update you all with what I've been up to, as well, but honestly it's just been school and sleep. I'm way too exhausted  from speaking French all day to go do anything and I still don't have a phone number here, which makes it difficult to go out. So I thought I'd keep the blog fresh with some discussion!

As a lot of you may have seen, I made a post on Facebook recently about American stereotypes. For those of you who didn't see it, it went something along the lines of this:

"One stereotype that I do not like about Americans is that we're all extremely patriotic and narrow minded. Unfortunately, sometimes it's VERY true.I've found that a lot of people in the states do not know a lot about foreign affairs, where traditions and holidays originate from, other types of government, and so on.
I do not find myself a very patriotic person whatsoever. It's not that I hate the U.S. (although, with all of this government drama, I'm liking it a tad less...), but rather than I'm more curious about the rest of the world. I prefer to embrace all cultures rather than just my own. I want to put myself in other people's worlds. Having a broad perspective about the world genuinely makes you a more accepting person. That's one of the most important lessons that Rotary has taught me so far; you can learn a lot more from someone else's shoes than just your own.
I really hope that more people my age, and younger, are getting the word about Rotary Youth Exchange program. I'm learning very important skills and lessons that cannot be taught by textbooks, lectures, or classes. Hopefully one day, this stereotype will be proven wrong with the help of the American youth."

Now, after posting this, I got a lot of praise from friends and family, but mostly other exchange students. At first, I was a little surprised by this. My Brazilian and Aussi friends were talking to me about how happy and relieved they were to hear this sort of thing from an American. But after a lot of thought, I realised that I kind of answered my own question by referring back to the post; I'm the exact opposite of the stereotypes.

It's a really nice feeling when people tell you that you're a "good" American. They're not necessarily saying that Americans are bad, but if you Google "stereotypes of Americans", you'll get a good idea of why I'm a little embarrassed of what people think about us. Take a look at this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypes_of_Americans

I know Wikipedia is not exactly the most accurate source of information, but I figured using something broad and public was a good way to get the idea across. Wikipedia is a website used and edited by millions to get a general idea of subjects, and if this is the general idea of Americans, then I'm very dissapointed.

There are pros and cons on this list. In my opinion, I think the pros are fairly accurate; generous, hardworking, and optimistic. We are a society based around the idea that anyone can make it and be the person they want to be if you're willing to work hard for it.

However, it also states that we're "materialistic, extreme capitalists, lacking education and gullible, ignorant, obese, racist, gun-loving and violent, environmentally unconscious, arrogant, and boastful".

I know that these things do not apply to a lot of people that I know. Maybe the reason for that is because I come from a VERY smart and open-minded family, I associate with Rotarians and Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) students, and I take advanced courses in school. Maybe I am a "good" example of an American because I'm surrounded with a generally smart and accepting environment. Not to mention I'm from a very liberal and wacky city where we encourage each other to be weird, hence our motto "Keep Portland Weird". But that doesn't change the fact that these things are being stated about the general public.

Some of these things I understand. The obesity rate is a numerical fact, so I can't really support that with an argument. I also hate the fast food industry so you got me there, Wikipedia. Racism most likely comes from the slavery issues we had, as that is a major part of American history (in fact, a friend from school told me that they study slavery the same way we study the Holocaust). Also, consider the fact that if the entire country was racist, why would we elect a black president?
*Cliff note: Europe loves Obama. One of my friends said that electing a black president made the U.S. look REALLY good. We really need to work on this racism nonsense.

But for the non-Americans who are reading this, let me inform you on what is NOT true (things might start to get a tad sarcastic at this point):
-Gun-Loving. If you haven't heard of the Gun Control debates and arguments, go look that up now. This statement does NOT apply to everyone.
-Capitalism. The U.S. is not 100% capitalist. We are a mixed economy, despite being one of the most capitalist governments in the world. For a better explination for those who are unfimiliar, check out this link:
http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/united-states-pure-capitalism
-Environmentally unconscious. This might be a biased opinion, considering I come from Portland and it kills me when people don't recycle or compost. But compare us to a country like China, where factories pollute the sky for miles. I don't think that this statement should be said about the U.S. because this is not a major issue here as it is in other parts of the world.

Now for being uneducated and arrogant, that's something I cannot argue. To support this statement, I'd like to let you guys know that one of my best friends, Reilly King, who is currently studying in Austria, had many people ask her why she was learning German to go to Australia. Then they proceeded to ask what the difference between Austria and Australia was.
There's also many late night talk show hosts who have done comedic bits where they ask strangers on the streets historical or geographical questions about the world and are given nothing less than ridiculous, dull answers.

Such things are what gives us such an unintelligent name. I'm not saying that Fallon and Kimmel need to start asking people in other countries random questions to make them look stupid. I'm not suggesting that we give every high school a lesson in geography. But maybe we should focus more on the good aspects of the good ol' U. S. of A..

We are a society based on individuality. People will fight for your right to be who you are. There thousands of people who are out there who do amazing things for human rights and social accaptance; people who fight for same-sex marriage, people passionate about sex education, rape culture and body image activists, people who fight racism, feminists, and every other controversial topic with a battle. That's the wonderful thing about our country, we love to be who we are. The American youth and young adults are incredibly driven to fight for things that we have our rights to. Because why fight for something that you already have? Our generation is seen as modern and welcoming for a reason.

So, to wrap this up, I'd like to give you guys some life tips so you too can be a "good" American:
Be open-minded. Learn new things every single say. Take another language just for fun. Travel. Read books. Study other religions. Watch Travel Channel. Try food you've never had before. Educate yourself. Take world history classes. Read the newspaper. Be aware. Watch BBC news (it's wonderful for world news). Compare things, absorb things, and most importantly, don't be a citizen of (insert home country here), be a citizen of the earth.

I feel like I'm really doing my job here. I feel like I'm a good example of what it means to be an ambassador for you country because that's what I am. That's one of the things that people lose touch with when they go on exchange: you're representing your home country. You're here with a mission to break stereotypes and to make the world a smaller place. We connect and network through exposure and immersion.

Welp, that's all I've got to say, but I would love to hear what you guys think! Leave me a comment on my blog or on Facebook with your responses, feedback, and thoughts. I love hearing other perspectives on this topic.


A bientot!

~Effy