3 Things Never Change

Nutella, School and my Bed

I have been in France for about a month, and I think that I have found a rhythm. Every weekday I wake up at 6:15 to get ready for school. For breakfast it is always bread (always wonderful) with nutella, or peanut butter or if I REALLY feeling like putting on weight that day, bread with nutella and peanut butter. Then it’s a quick car ride to the bus stop (which is just down the street), and then it’s a 5 minute ride in a bus which I call “the airplane.” Not because it goes into the sky, but because it is huge. One day it was a double-decker bus. After I get off the airplane it’s about 15-20 of hangout time or as I call it “ca va? Ca va” time, but then it’s class. My classes are different everyday, but the style of teaching is the same. Sit down, take notes and don’t talk. Or when I don’t have class, one goes to permanence or as I say “prison.” It is a giant room filled with desks in long rows, in which everyone sits (one per table), while the stroll about and kindly remind people of the rules, such as that I must wait until the end of class the throw away my used tissue. The best example of this was when I quietly turned to the cute girl behind me to get some help with my history class work: My “favorite” permanence lady walked over to me from across the room and said some quick, angry whispering French to me, to which I replied “Je ne compris pas que tu as dis, et je suis american.” Here’s a little hint for anyone who might be coming to France: If they have more power than you, use “VOUS” unless told not to. As a result, she told me to, “shut-up!” and then asked, “you understand that don’t you?” Needless to say, our styles collide from time to time.

After school which gets out (for me) at 5:25 Monday, 12:00 on Wednesday, and at 4:25 Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. I go home (usually by airplane) and have gouter, which I call second breakfast due to the fact that one eats the same things, only finishing this time with dessert. Once second breakfast is over, I usually “do my French homework,” which is just my way of saying “to take a nap.” After my first week and a half of school, everyone knew what doing my French homework meant.

For dinner it’s never the same (that’s a good thing), but it’s usually something light (for an American). Like a very moderate amount of rice and duck, or couscous and small (almost) sausages. Then I sleep. In the United States I thought that I was going to bed early on a school night if it was before midnight. Here it’s late if it’s past 10:00.

What Was I Expecting?

First post in Franc: Little by little we all inch closer.

The first thing I saw after I got off the plane was the swarm of Rotary people waiting to greet us all, and after a quick hello to everyone I was off. Not much happened the first day, I met the Lefranques (second host familly) and the TILLYs (I'm living with them), but one really can't do much after traveling for almost 24 hours.

In the first week I didn't do anything OMG exciting, just the (French) baisics. I saw the a Lille football game (Lorsc), my familly loves Lille football, and that stuff runs pretty deep. I also went to Lille. Beautiful women.... and the town pretty good looking too.

To wrap up this tiny blog entry, and to give you some French culture, I need two words words: COME CLOSER. With everything. It's almost as if second to football the French national sport in coming as close to people as you can. I went through my first couple days at school saying "Sorry, oh sorry there, horribly sorry" (but of corse in French). But now I realize that saying "Sorry ect..." when you pass along bump in one of the classic American things. Here it is not a bad thing to get close with your body, I mean if you knock someone so they have to catch themselfes it's a bit different. You say Pardon me. But just get close is the main thing, for example my Australian friend (Rotary) told me that the house maid has walked in on him while he was taking a shower.

All in all I love it, not exactly the maid in the shower room though. But the idea that being close is NOT A BAD THING, and neither is the body here. I.E. At school on the television I have seen things that could almost be soft-pornography (if seen through a concervitive lends). And no one cares, the idea is that it's a body and everyone has one, so how is weird to see another?

Or at least that's what I have taken away from it so far, so who knows, I might way off.

Last note: School starts everyday at 7:45 or 7h 45 and gets out at 5:25 or 17h 25. So free time is few and far between (hence the fact that this is my first entry).

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T minus.....

It is 12:30 PM and I am sitting in my kitchen recalling how the countdown for leaving to France had began with X number of months, which eventually rolled around to X number of weeks, which led to X number of days, and recently it had turned to corner to X number of hours (5). At this point everything I could do to prepare had been done (I.E. email, language, luggage etc.), and the only thing left for me to do in the United States is to say a few last goodbyes and board three planes (Eugene to Portland, Portland to Minneapolis and then Minneapolis to Paris).