Party Pumpernickel

I had two very cultural moments this weekend during or surrounding my roommate's birthday in the village where her parents live.

1) One of my roommate's neighbors from when she lived in LA came all the way to France for this party. Whenever they said his name, I couldn't imagine what it would be in English. The way I heard it in French was Eeroueen, I thought his name might be Heroin, but that seemed too ridiculous to be true. Turns out it was Irwin. Anyways the American cultural moment was this. Irwin was telling me about his three daughters, about how well they got along, how old they were, their relationship status etc. Then he asked me, "would you like to see a picture of my pride and joy?" I answered sure, and he pulls out a laminated photo of a bottle of pride laundry detergent and a bottle of joy dish soap.

2) On the train on the way back to Paris, I was sitting across the aisle from a mother and her daughter. The little girl was about 4 and very chatty, the mother seemed a bit tired by the constant chatter from her daughter, and answered her sort of exasperatedly. Getting off the train, the mother told the daughter they should just wait until everyone got off, that they were in no hurry and that she didn't want to get crushed by the crowd. The little girl responded "maman, t'es un amour de maman, et je ne veux pas que tu sois coincé par ces gens' (you're a love of a mother, and I don't want you to be crushed by these people). Then she continued, "Maman, t'es un amour de maman et tu vas me manquer." (you're a love of a mother and I'm going to miss you.) Her mom was confused by this and said that they were going to get off together and that she was not leaving her, and the little girl answered "tu vas me manquer quand je serais adulte et quand je quittera la maison pour habiter avec Alexandre" (I'm going to miss you when I'm an adult and I leave home to live with Alexander). Her mom laughed and said that she was sure she still had a bit of time left before that happened.