Notez Les Différences!

silly french word of the day: une outre = a goatskin flask

First, may I just say that the fact that my mère d'accueil (host mom) keeps huge bowls of fruit in the kitchen for me is a wonderful thing. I may just turn into a mandarin orange, hopefully a tiny cute one without a mushy rotten spot if I'm lucky. Anywho, I think I've consummed about 2 bags of those little suckers since I've been here. So good! And my latest fruit discovery is litchis! I've always been a little put off by the canned ones in the states... but I cracked open a few of the prickly creatures that I bought at Monoprix the other day, and I have to say, they're purdy good. I plan to attack a number of the little fruit and veggies markets while I'm here. Round up as many stickers as I can for my dad's sticker collection -- I've already got the orange, apple, kiwi, and papaya stickers, lol.

That aside, the first day of orientation, the president of the program kept stressing to us "Notez les différences!" between the U.S. and France, between our home cities and Paris. I thought it was a good point, but after he repeated it like twenty times, I was like, alright! There are other things to do here too! But I can't help but note every day how many differences there are! I keep trying to figure out what my purpose in being here reallllly is. I mean of course, it's paris! The food, the wine, the art, the monuments, the language. There's plenty of purpose in being here. But I'm trying to figure out what it is outside that that makes my being here purposeful. I know there's something, it's going to be the something that makes this semester amazing, but I have to figure out what it is first. And I keep thinking that maybe that point he was making is a big part of it. Noting the differences between a culture that I'm learning is more foreign than I had imagined and my own. And so I commence:

Big difference #1:
The U.S. is as we like to say, a melting pot. We love looking at ourselves as a big mix of cultures -- our college campus loves hosting "multicultural" events, its all about "awareness" and sharing in other cultures. In middle and high school we had "diversity fairs" and in girls scouts we were in an "Around the World" parade where I donned my scottish garb, and everyone else their own cultural skirts and beads and whatnot. Sometimes its awkward or showy, but for the most part, I like it that way, more than I'd realized before.
Here, the goal is total integration, everyone blending in. I don't think that's a particularly successful goal...as they have the same racial issues as we do, and at the same time it seems (whether to solve that or not) like their trying to suppress immigrant cultures to promote French pride...as if the French dont already have enough of that...
This also mixes into their big focus on "laicité" which basically translates to secularism. There's such a huge focus on leaving religion out of public life, which is surprising to me. I obviously didn't know all that much about French politics and culture when I came here as a lot of these things I'm just realizing. Anyways, the basic idea is you keep your religion inside your own house and your church. No one says a word. Keep it out of your schools, out of the government, out of your daily lives away from home. Head garments and any sort of religious jewelry(crosses and the like) are banned from schools. While this is all still a controversial topic in the U.S. too, It make me glad that our constitution is set up the way it is to allow religious freedom and freedom of speech. Come to think of it, I think it may have been a bit awkward when I mentioned that I was Christian to my host...(telling her about the church i visited here)...hmm.

I know I'll have many more big differences to note in the future(probably not in France's favor) so here are a few little one's just to make this country seem a little better through my eyes.

1) Metro - If it weren't for the constant fear of strikes, I'd say the system were a miracle. For now while the workers are reasonably peaceful, I must say its brilliant. I hop on Line 4 at Vavin, and I'm anywhere I want to be in Paris in 30-ish minutes. Perfect reading time~ (I'm currently working on Ishmael Beah's "Le Chemin Parcouru" - or "A Long Way Gone" in english.)

2) Pain Aux Amandes or Chocolat Amandes - best pastry ever. horrible for you. basically a croissant(or pain au chocolat) smooshed down, filled with almond cream and topped with some almonds and baked again till crispy around the edges and soft in the middle. haha, delicious.

3) Cheese - I must proclaim my new-found intense love of goat cheese. With apples, amazing. In salad, amazing. With sautéed eggplant, amazing. There is no end.

4) Mache - amazing salad green. amazing.

Basically I really like the food.... but what else is new.

A few random dislikes:
1) Smoking....I hope to never again live with a smoker. With my door shut and her on the other side of the apartment with the window open, I can tell when she is smoking...the lovely odor sneaks underneath my door =_=

2) The price of floss....lol,i was telling my dad before i left that i'd heard it was near impossible to get floss here. now i understand why....its like 6 euro!!! who can pay that much for waxed string?!

3) A baguette as a meal... I see them hanging out of people's pockets all the time. I still fail to understand how a huge stick of white bread can really serve as a (healthy) meal. Yet my host mom says she's always baffled that american girls never seem to want to eat baguettes at dinner.