Peeps at Work

Thanks to a birthday box from a friend and our annual Easter package from my mom, I found myself with three packages of Peeps this year. Peeps always make me smile, make me think of Easter and springtime. I set aside the pink box for Vincent and Jeanne's kids, and decided to take the other two to work.

One thing I love about living in France is the little culture exchanges we encounter. When I placed the box of Peeps on my desk, my desk neighbor and co-worker immediately picked it up curiously. He asked "C'est quoi, ca?" (what is this?) and gingerly poked a Peep in the nose through the plastic. It was so cute.

A few hours after lunch, around that lazy mid-afternoon snack time, I opened the packages and started playing Easter Bunny (or Easter Bell, as the French would have it). I did this last year as well, when my group was smaller and I only had one package. But this year my group has expanded, and we sit with bunch of designers now, so I had more people with whom to share the love. And the sugar.

As I started pulling the gooey little chicks apart and handing them out, I found myself explaining Peeps:
This is a typical American candy we have at Easter. Although now they make them for all holidays, but Easter was the first. The traditional shape is a chick - you see, this is a little chicken - and the traditional color is yellow. They also make bunnies - no the bunnies aren't gray - they're blue or pink or yellow like the chicks.

I realized that I reminded myself of my colleague Hervé, giving me French cuisine lessons in the canteen, or Iñigo, piling my plate with "typically Spanish" food: I was teaching them about American food. I fretted a little bit that I was giving them the wrong idea of traditional American food. But what else could I tell them about? Hot dogs? Kraft macaroni and cheese? A Peep is as good a place to start as any.

So each colleague took a Peep, squeezed it cautiously between their fingers, and tentatively took a bite. They made faces and giggled and stuck out their tongues to show who had eaten the blue ones. And always the same wide-eyed proclamation: "It's all sugar!"