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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Closeness?! You mean it's okay to touch people where you are?! I knew I liked the French. I have to say, it sounds like you've adapted pretty well. (Not that anyone around here was worried about that.) How is it having school practically all day? What do teenagers do if they want to play sports or I dunno, join a comic book club? Do you get a long time for lunch in which you can relax with all your cool French friends, talking about awesome French things while eating French food? And I envy you and your gorgeous French women... the two hottest females I've ever seen I saw in Paris.
ReplyDeleteEt parce que j'ai commence mon classe de français vendredi dernier, je crois que je devrais parler en français un peu. La vie au South Eugene High School est stressant, mais pas mauvais que j'ai pensé qu'il serait. Halle et moi sommes commencees "Fencing Lessons" jeudi dernier... Nous l'adorons! Jason est bien aussi, il a coupé ses cheveux! (He looks totally hot. And older.)
You'd have been in mine and Dylan's 1st period French, by the way, sitting DIRECTLY NEXT TO ME. And my IHS, too, I keep having to tell teachers you're in France for a year and to scratch your name off the attendance list.
It's good to hear you're doing so well. Please pardon my horrible French, je ne parle pas francais. :)
Alice
Very interesting post.
ReplyDeleteI've heard it said that most of the world's cultures (especially Europeans) consider Americans to be prudes. I can see why!
Now, in my case, I happen to be very sophisticated, urbane, worldly and unflappable, so I'm, of course, totally an exception to the typical American prude — ahem — but OMG! I'd TOTALLY FREAK if anyone WALKED IN ON ME IN THE SHOWER!!!!! Aaaaarrrrrgggghh! ;D
Keep up the interesting observations, and post 'em whenever you get a chance!
Sara