It's hard for me to believe it's been an entire week since I left the United States. I honestly feel like I've been here for months. Everything is so much more laid back here and time passes so slowly! Bon, maybe that will change once I get a job, but we'll see. It's interesting because Gilles and Yadira are still finishing up their school years at Université de la Sorbonne and have been in at least two weeks of final exams! (Once again, as much as I complained when I was there, thank you Muhlenberg for not subjecting me to that!). Gilles only works 3 days a week, JC only works at nights and not every day of the week either, Silvia just had her last day, and the only place Yadira needs to go is for her exams right now, so basically everyone is home all day long. That's really weird for me because usually everyone is out during the day in the US, and even if you aren't working, you're out going places or doing things at least once a day. We all just basically putz around on computers all day long, with alternating spanish/french/english music playing in the CD player and from time to time enter into a conversation about n'importe quoi (whatever). Breakfast and lunch are both "self serve" so you basically fend for your self. Yes, this is what I was looking for when I decided to come here- a change of life from the fast paced, always on the go, overloaded United States, but I had no idea that not having to run around from place to place and never taking a break would need some getting used to!
So, as I've spent most of my time just lying around for the past few days, or only going on small excursions, I'll leave you with a small list of differences/interesting yet useless pieces of information about life in France:
-No one curbs their dog here. Watch where you step.
-No one keeps their dog on a leash either.
- Milk comes in a rectangular box, not a plastic carton, and neither milk nor eggs are refrigerated at the supermarket.
-You have to bring your own bags to the supermarket or they charge you to use theirs
-They don't use preservatives on the fruit (or maybe just not as many as the US), which is healthier, but the fruits dont last very long at all and it makes buying them kind of difficult. Both cartons of strawberries I bought for the strawberry pretzel salad had moldy strawberries on the bottom of the carton.
-There are lots of stray cats that like to sunbath on the roofs all day long. There's a black and white one named Sylvestre that likes to lay and walk all over the roof of my room. I'm currently saying in the veranda of the house, so the roof is frosted glass and you can see/hear Sylvestre walking around/stretching out, jumping off the roof (which freaks me out!) all day long.
-As I've mentioned before, most apartments here don't have real ovens, only toaster ovens. Real ovens do exist (I saw them went Gilles and I went to Ikea the other day) but most apartments dont have them. They like everything small and compact, and an oven takes up too much space.
-Also, most French homes don't have drying machines either. Thankfully, my family does, but it's very very rare. They still leave their clothes out on the line and let them air dry.
-We don't eat dinner until much later here. People generally grab a snack somewhere between 5 or 6, and then we have dinner around 8ish.
-The French take their cuisine VERY seriously. JC tells me it's not because the food is that great, but because French chefs are the most intelligent in the world and take pieces from every culture around the world. They're well educated and know what they're doing, and that's what makes french cuisine so famous and popular.
-They have these "sirops", which are like thick, sugary, flavored syrups, that they add to water and that's the general drink of choice here. They have flavors in most fruit flavors like orange, apple, grape, to more exotic like kiwi, peach tea, grapefruit, a mix of all citrus fruits, etc...
-Again, as I've mentioned, everything is specialized. You can't just get flour, cheese, or cream- you have to specify which kind you want for what purpose.
- You have to either pay a euro or buy a plastic chip for 10 cents to get a shopping cart at the store.
- People really do carry baguettes under their arms and just chomp directly on them like Bugs Bunny does with carrots.
- It's general table etiquette here to keep both hands showing at all times while eating a meal at the dinner table. If you have one hand hidden, it's like you're doing something to manipulate or hide the food, implying the host did not do a good job preparing the meal. This is one that's hard for me because I find it's natural for me to keep my free hand in my lap, and I look around and everyone else at the table has both hands visible.
-Americans use their knives about a quarter as much as the French do.
- You can always tell which are the tourists because the French generally wear dark colored clothing. Anything bright or colorful is on a tourist.
-You can only stay here 10 years before you have to become a citizen.
-There are no screens on the windows, which are generally open all day long, so lots of bugs get in.
-I read this on Michelle's blog and tomorrow I'm going to see how true it is. They have this interesting unspoken code on public transportation. It seems that when you're ready to get up for your stop, you simply make a "getting ready" move, like tugging at your handbag straps or something, and everyone around you just senses that you're get up and they turn their bodies so that they're out of your way. Not a single word is uttered during this process but it happens everytime.
-Also from Michelle's blog, the lights are on when the switch is down, not up.
-Public restrooms cost between 30-40 cents
-Motorcycles apparently dont have to abide by the same traffic laws as everyone else and pretty much do whatever they want.
- The streets are really really narrow so most cars have to park on the sidewalk.
That's all for now. I have to get up early tomorrow to go with Silvia to see about getting papers to be a resident who can live and work here. Pray for me and wish me bon courage!
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so I am just getting to read all of these now...but I've noticed much of those same things here in Germany
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