Bonjour à tous!

So far, my study abroad has been a very eye opening experience, and I have already learned several new things about the French and all their silly little querks.  But I'll get to that later, to start, I should tell you about my last couple days, since I believe my last blog entry left off on a rather frustrated ending.  But I can most definitely say that my life since then has been much better, and I'm starting to adjust somewhat to living in Paris, aside from the ever-continuing, mostly minor culture shocks.  The past couple days have, yet again, been filled with sight-seeing, and since the weather has been really nice for this time of year, walking.  In fact, it has been in the 50s and sunny a lot this week, which is EXTREMELY unusual for Paris at this time of year.  The other day, me and a friend walked from the arc de triomphe, down the champs-élysées, through the tuileries and all the way to Notre-Dame.  Now, for those of you who don't know, let me tell you that is QUITE a distance, and I was, to say the least, exhausted after.  Yesterday, me and this girl hannah went and walked around the Place des invalides and made the necessary journey to the eiffel tower, and spent some time walking in the parks next to it.  There was this really cool monument to peace near there, that, if I had had my camera with me, I would've taken the most phenomenal picture of the eiffel tower from there.   It's so weird to think how different it is to actually be LIVING here, than to just be a tourist...to see the eiffel tower everyday almost, just wandering the streets, it's so surreal...I keep thinking someone put up a blue screen or it's all just a dream and I'm going to wake up one day and it will have all disappeared. 

Anyays, to get more to the point, here are some things I've learned about France:

The word for maple syrup here is "sirop d'érable".  If you're wondering why it is necessary that I know this, it is because I have been craving french toast like none other lately, and I think tonight I will be making myself a good old american breakfast for dinner, since my hostess has patients to see tonight.  Anyways, maple syrup here is very difficult to find, kind of like peanut butter, but in the end I succeeded.  And apparently it comes from Canada, because when I asked a store owner for it, that was where he thought I was from.

And another thing, french toast.  It's not french.  I kinda thought that before, but now I really know for sure.  I don't actually know here it comes from, but have you noticed that the word "french" gets put before a lot of food stuffs?  You know, french toast, french fries?  Is that supposed to make the food sound more sophisticated or something?  None of the other countries get that honor...for example, no one ever says, I think I want Italian pizza, you know?  Not unless they mean they actually want to go to Italy to get it. 

Also, peanut butter lovers beware, you won't find any value-siwed jars of peanut butter here.  If you find it at all, you are more than likely to find a teeny itty bitty jar of crunchy peanut butter that costs about 6 USD.  I think I'll try to wean myself off that addiction here...

And the last thing I have to say about the food is...I left the land of beef to enter the land of pork, and both are equally unlikeable in my opinion...I mean, no wonder arabs have trouble culturally acclimatising here, they can't eat pork, and sometimes it's hard to find other meat here.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not a vegetarien by any means, but maaan, if you saw the butcher shops, you'd understand...and also, they have entire shops entirely devoted to pig products.  My hostess loves to try to get me to eat sausage too...she doesn't understand that I'm not a big fan.  But the gross thing is, sausage actually LOOKS like the pig intestine here...and I tried to eat just a little bit the other day so I wouldn't offend the watchful eye of the french mom, and I thought I was going to be sick, all I could think about was where it came from, WHAT it was....

The French are a funny people, who like to pretend certain things in life don't exist.  For example, sneezing is practically taboo here, and they sound like mice when they finally absolutely HAVE to let themselves sneeze.  But unlike in the states where there's a rush to see who can win the "bless you" award first, the french do NOT say anything...they all just pretend like it didn't happen...THe other day, I was dining with another american exchange student and his french host family, when the hostess sneezed...This boy made the mistake of saying "à tes souhaites" which means "bless you".  But, mistaking their silence and ignoring of the situation for having not heard, he said it again, and louder!  It seems funny when you read about it, and it is rather silly, but in the moment, it's almost scary.  The French never really reprimand or yell when something rude or disturbing has taken place, but instead they use the more subtle approach which I like to call the nostril flare.  That, and the wide eyes, shocked, look.  It's kind of funny actually, because you could pretty much get away with murder and they wouldn't say anything, but at the same time, you definitely know you've done something wrong, but it's hard to tell what when they won't tell you and you don't understand the culture.

The French love to people watch, yet another slightly obvious and kind of amusing aspect of their characters.  But the minute that you look at them, their eyes dart away like scared mouse, and I've heard it's not a good idea to make eye contact. 

In terms of fashion, everyone here, in Paris, wears black.  It seems to be the only color most people know, though touches of red and darker purple seem to be very fashionable as well...and the other day, I actually saw purple boots!  The only place those might not earn you horrible ridicule in the states would be TCU because it's the school color, but even then I think you'd be taking a risk!  Also, French girls LOOOOVEE their heels.  I don't even get how they do it, and in stilettos too.  Personally, I walk at least a couple miles a day, and always at the end of it, my feet are killing me.  But here, they walk in stilettos over cobblestones, uneven roads and for miles like it's no big deal, like heels are fuzzy, cushy slippers or something.  So I tried to discover their secret.  Surely I could wear heels too, right?  Oh my god, I was so wrong.  The day I wore heels was when I rolled my ankle really bad and then that night my feet were swollen like a fat, pregnant lady's.

Basically, I think that's more than enough for now, and I'm sure most of you stopped reading about 5 paragraphs ago and are just wondering where the pictures are.  Well, the pictures are still on my camera, since uploading them onto the internet would mean that I would have to lug my laptop all the way to my school center to use the wireless, and that takes more effort than I'm willing to exert right now.

I haven't started classes yet, except for my 2 hour a day grammar class.  But classes start at the end of this week and the beginning of next so I will be sure to let you know when I do how they go.  I also think I might start taking a yoga class here, because students get a reduced rate.

Anyhoo, à bientôt mes cheries!