9/12-13/11

The past two days have been better for me. :] I am still a little in the difficult stages of my culture shock, but I have been trying really really hard to get better about it and I think it is working. So don’t worry everyone, I’m ok. :D

Yesterday it was incredibly nice to get back into the swing of things with professor Canovas. He took us on some more tours of the old renaissance parts of town. We got to see beautiful buildings and what used to be courtyards the people of the time all would come to be out of doors, get water, socialize, and relax. When I say ‘courtyard’ though, I’m using the term lightly. Its about a 20 by 20 ft square of cobblestone encased by 4 to 5 story tall buildings on every side. One of them he took us to was built by a famous renaissance architect that had studied the Greek and Roman style in Italy. The architecture was beautiful. It was commissioned by a very rich family at the time, but it now is used as government housing for people without a sufficient income.

Our tour was cut short however because we have a lot to do for insurance and all those other things we need to get done before school starts. Today we didn’t have anything because again, we were busy getting things done for our housing people. But we have a pretty exciting week planned. Tomorrow we are going to a preserved renaissance town in the outskirts of Lyon. I can’t wait to take a ton of pictures and see how beautiful it is! I’ve always wanted to go to a place like this! Thursday we were supposed to go to a museum, which is actually a preserved aristocrat’s house from the 17^th or 18^th century, along with a fabric museum full of dresses and traditional garb worn in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. But, sadly we have the last section of our comprehension test on Thursday so we might have to postpone it. :[ I’m really upset about that. And Friday, we leave for Germany! But this weekend is some other holiday in France and all the old public buildings usually closed to the public are opened for Saturday and Sunday. So hopefully when we get home from Germany I won’t be so tired I can’t go for a nice Sunday afternoon walk through the old opera house or town hall. I would love it. I wish we weren’t going to Germany now for all the cool things going on here and what a pocket book muncher it is turning out to be, but I already bought a ticket so I don’t have a choice now. Its ok. I’m sure Germany will be wonderful.

I’m trying SOOOOO hard to budget myself. I pulled out some cash today and I’m going to make it work for the rest of the month. Even if I have to just eat a spoon full of my nutella I have in my cupboard for every meal. At least I would come back skinny like a French girl.

Speaking of skinny French girls… I wanna go off on some useless tangent about the stereotypes we have about French people. First off. French people are very nice. I’ve only ever encountered two rude ones and both were working at a busy shop, and it was just due to bad communication. So, don’t believe that one. Other than that, I kinda think everything is true. Oh, no one wears berets. (spelling? Yeah?) :[ For some reason though, EVERYONE walks around with a baguette in their hand. When I buy food I go back to my dorm to put it away, but for some reason they like to carry their bread around with them. And sadly everyone here does smoke. But it is different from Americans smoking, the French usually roll their own cigarettes, so it is straight tobacco and not the nasty chemicals they have in American cigarettes. Still smells nasty and is a PAIN when you’re at a sidewalk café and all you smell is smoke, but it’s a heck of a lot better than sitting next to the nasty nast American smoldering death cylinders. I have seen quite a few people in stripped shirts, though that may just be the fashion at the moment, not the norm. I have yet to see an overweight person. They are all very pretty and skinny, but not too skinny. Jealous. Everyone (and I mean everyone, babies, kids, teens, adults, and all the sweet little old people) are incredibly fashionable, all care a great deal about their shoes, and have perfect posture. Its like walking through a magazine. One interesting thing that I thought people were just making up is men here actually do carry purses. Not big ones or anything. Very small. A lot like the one I have from India. So I got quite a few odd looks for carrying a man bag. I have an actual purse now. :]

A few things I really really do love about the people here… I adore the greeting. I met a french friend from the residence today on the street and he gave me and my friends the traditional kiss on each cheek. I love it. Its sweet, and fun, and completely diffuses the awkwardness when you see someone you know and you don’t know if you should wave, high five, or hug. Haha. Another thing is another stereotype I think we get wrong. I always thought French girls would dress kind of skimpy. Absolutely not the case. The girls will wear longer tops, and jeans or a skirt that hits just barely above their knees. (odd fashion tip from France, everyone here rolls up their jeans, everyone. And they don’t like socks) The dresses are always appropriate length and never show off too much. I want to steal their fashion. Its cute and playful but modest and sweet. I adore it. And also, the girls here only ware the bare essentials of makeup. They will put on maybe eyeliner and a bit of concealer. Or just mascara, but never the full blown paint-on-your-own-face like we do in the states. And no one cares about their hair. But in a pretty way. It will be in a messy braid or lazily swept up into a pony tail but usually just left down. I think its so incredibly beautiful. No fake tans, no dyed hair, just natural beauty. I wish America was like this.

There are a few things that always catch me off guard though. Me and the other girls are still trying to work our way through them. Everything in France is late and they take their sweet time doing whatever they are doing. Yet, the city is run on a very strict schedule. In the mornings, the bakeries (and newspaper/ magazine stores) open first and set out tables on the sidewalks. The rest of the stores will open at about 9 or 10. Everyone gets breakfast at a bakery and sits and eats then wanders off to work or whatever else it is they are doing. Lunch is complicated because not all restaurants will serve lunch. And all the shopping stores are open during the main part of the day and close sometime between 6 and 8 pm for dinner, the French just really love their food. haha. If you need something after 8 you’re in trouble. Restaurants will open at about 5 but won’t serve food til 7ish. If you get there at 5 you can order drinks and that’s it. The French way of having dinner is sit at table and have a coke or fruit juice usually, or alcohol if you do that, and talk for a few hours. Then the waitress will take your order at 7ish and you will get your food at 7:30-8 o’clock. They expect you to take a few hours to eat, so they won’t be back to take your plates unless you wave them down until about 10. Then they offer you coffee, cheese, or dessert. And even if you refuse, they will just leave you alone until about 11-midnight when most people would wave down the waiter for the check. It is a pretty crazy process. They will not by any means try to rush you like American waiters. They want you to stay. Eating is a huge cultural thing here and a lot of personal time with friends or family. Even if you leave, often times they won’t turn over your table and give it to a new group. This is still hard for us. We have only ever twice stayed from 5 until about 10. Mostly we will show up at 7 and leave at 8. Most waiters think we are crazy. Oh well. One of the weirdest things to me is it will be the whole family out past midnight for dinner every night. You would think just the adults and young people. Nope. Families with strollers, little kids, bring the dog along too a lot of the time, grandparents, all out past midnight. We always feel strange going back to our dorms at like 10:30-11 and all the little kids and grandparents will still be sitting at the dinner tables chatting away…

Well again. Not much to report. I’m nervous for my last bit of my comprehension test, but I’m really glad I’ve started to make French friends to practice my speaking with. The one I saw on the street today is really good about trying to help me speak French. When he speaks I understand him really well, which is a good sign. But I get nervous speaking back to him in French so I will usually just answer in English because he speaks English pretty well as well. But he has been trying to get me to speak French so I’m starting to break the shell. The other girls can speak with him pretty well. Well, I mean they will speak French to him. Not that we are that good yet, they just don’t mind talking to him in French. I’m the only one so far that is nervous about talking to someone in French. I guess we will see how it goes. Uhm… Everything is pretty good other than that. I’m still a little unhappy with things going on, but today was the best day yet so I think I’ll be ok very soon. Hopefully I’ll get to enjoy tomorrow fully. Well… yeah. I’m sleepy.

My French friends say that the French have an odd thing they do when they say goodbye. They will start out with a “Bon, booonnnn…” (good, goooood…) and then count to five and then say “bon soiree!/ bon journee!” etc. So. Bon bonnnn… (1,2,3,4,5) Bon soiree. Je t’aime.