Many random thoughts about the French

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It’s Wednesday night and I am tired after long days at school. It’s hard to fall asleep though, because every few minutes the street erupts with cheers and cars honking their horns. France is playing Cyprus in “football” and every male in Paris over the age of two is watching this match. I’m sure that about half of them at least are watching on the TV in the bar about a block down, so I might as well be watching too. In fact, during dinner tonight the table suddenly started shaking and there was pounding overhead; at this point, I thought maybe there was an earthquake but Victor informed us about the game and grabbed his plate to go sit in front of the TV. So now it France 3, Cypress 0 and the renowned French pride in soccer skills will be extremely apparent tomorrow on the face of anyone who watches soccer.
It’s so exciting to live in a place where people have so much pride and love for their country (no “what about how they never want to protect their country” comments, please!) and so much is centered around this idea of “le patrie,” or the homeland. Soccer is just one example, but it is also so interesting to see how many cultural and social events are designed around the history of the country and how history lives in so many ways. Even the streets are named after notable French (and some foreigners such as President Wilson) and you will never find Center St here! Most street signs actually tell you who the street is named after, when they lived, and what they did to merit a street sign. That’s pretty cool! A history lesson every time I walk down the street! Even more interesting, the way French people relate to each other has everything to do with history. Eating dinner, for example, still contains elements of century-old traditions that really make no sense to anyone, but they are continued for the sake of preserving history. (Singing and dancing in the street right now by many drunken men… France just scored another goal!) Conversations are centered around family history and lineage- you can sometimes tell where a person is from exactly and what social class they belong to simply by knowing the last name! They can trace their family lineage through centuries and they know general history as well, so there are often references to places, people or events that are important but that I don’t understand at all. Which is fine, because then I ask and learn something new. It’s a very different type of situation and context than in the US, where everything is linked to current events or celebrities. Not that it’s any better, just a totally different way of having a conversation and living life. Sometimes that might seen like they are stuck in the past, but history really applies even to things that happen today and serves as a great example. Perhaps best of all is that I get to actually visit these places, see the art that was produced by and for these powerful and wealthy people and even live in a quarter that has been inhabited by the working class for several hundred years. I could go on and on and on about how thrilled I am to be living in a place like this, or I could go to bed…since the game is over and France won.

PS: I talked to my sisters this morning for the first time since I’ve been here!!! Short conversation but it made me feel so much better! I didn’t realize how much I miss them : )

Oh, and here’s a quick list of silly, odd or unique things that I’ve noticed while in France:

Ham for every single meal- ham with cheese, ham with spinach, ham with bread, etc, but ham every day!
Just because I have the little green “walk” man to cross the street doesn’t mean that any of the cars will stop for me or politely wave when they nearly run me over.
Never put your bread on your plate- only on the table to the left of it.
It’s perfectly polite and actually shows your interest in a conversation to cut someone off in the middle of a sentence, quickly fit in your opinion and then keep listening since the other person never stopped talking.
For whatever reason, Parisians will often try to speak to us in English if they notice our accents. Meanwhile, he’s actually speaking a little German as well to try to explain and we understood him in French anyway.
The toilet is always separate from the room with the shower and sink, which is actually very convenient.
The shower head does not hang on the wall, but instead extends from a flexible pipe by the bath faucet. This basically means that since I am so tall showering is a considerable challenge. But I adapt… at least my family invested in a shower curtain!
Every morning you must open the windows to circulate the air. It’s almost a death wish if you don’t.
I have not seen one Frenchman wearing a beret.
I have not heard one Frenchman say, “Huh huh!” in a deep French accent as if he were trying to laugh, even though my multi-lingual father claims this is constantly occurring all over, and maybe I’m just not hearing it?

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Comments

[Manda]

yes,
our multilingual father...so, i take it you haven't encountered any french donkeys then?

[Travis]

hey
I didn't even know this existed until today when Leticia showed me. But I just wanted to say that I hope that your having a lot of fun. I'm doing pretty good in school. It's way better than high school, it seems easier because you dont have all of the other bull crap to deal with. So have you put in any good words for me on some fench girls. haha. Well talk to you later. P.s. It's not them same around here without you.