STEREOTYPES OF THE TYPICAL AMERICAN

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Benoit had asked his cousin, a teenager with long, frizzy hair and braces, was asked before our arrival to buy something for us all to eat, should we have chosen to eat at Benoit’s instead of going out to a restaurant. She bought frozen pizzas and Coke.

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She was funny, and a prime example of the popularity and dangers of the American media. She was full of questions. A hardcore fan of Law and Order and its various imitations, she wondered if he often saw FBI and CIA agents walking the streets with smart suits, sunglasses, and guns. She also confessed that when she was little, she wanted to be in the FBI or CIA, and was crushed when her mother curtly informed her that she could do no such thing since she was French.

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She also wanted to know all about university life. A few of her questions:

• -Do you really live with random roommates you’ve never met before?
  
• -Do you really sleep 4 to a room?
  
• -Does everyone really party every single day?
  
• -Are there really parties with kegs and kegs of beer?
  
• -Are you in a fraternity/sorority?
  
• -Do all schools have computer labs for their students?
  

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I forget that our universities are so far beyond French ones as far as equipment and technology go. Not all French schools have computer labs for their students, and the ones that do have small, crowded labs with old computers that may or may not have Internet access. The idea of students getting their own computer, furnished by the school, to use for the four (or however many) years they attend that school is just unheard of.

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But let’s get back to Paris.

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Specifically, the Metro.

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