Culture Shock & La Vie Simple!

Hello all!

Today has been a very exciting and satisfying day as I have purchased a bike! I’m very proud of how simply I’ve been living since I’ve arrived in France. I estimate that in the past week I have walked between 2 and 3 hours a day! Now that I have a bike I can get to campus in about fifteen minutes and I love that I have an economical way to travel around the city and get some exercise. The bus passes are quite a bit more expensive here than in Waterloo and the buses run even less infrequently so I want to take advantage of my new bike for as long as the weather holds out!

I’ve been really surprised by how much English music is played in France! I think I had this sort of romantic notion of leisurely French music in a café so I was a tad shocked to turn on the radio and hear the likes of “Call Me Maybe.” I was also surprised to hear that there are French people who actually enjoy listening to Nickelback. Quel horreur! Nevertheless, I walk everywhere with my Ipod and try to listen to as much French radio as possible to improve my comprehension. Unfortunately every time I try to speak French I get responses in English so I really need to try harder.

What I find the most difficult is time and numbers. I find it challenging to translate and calculate numbers on the spot. Once you get past soixante (60) it involves both mathematics and language. For example, quatre-vingt dix-huit would be four 20s plus 18, so 98. Never mind trying to say dates and such (this shall make studying history rather interesting and frustrating, I think). French is a very fast language and I don’t think my mental processes are quick enough yet to keep up. Also, the twenty-four hour clock definitely takes some getting used so my sense of time is rather muddled. Time is even harder to grasp in the sense that everything closes for about two hours at lunchtime! I don’t have a regular lunch, eating when I feel hungry, and I think most people in Canada eat lunch as an on-the-go meal, at their desks and such. So my concept of lunch is largely incompatible here, as it’s logistically impossible to run errands at midday.

On the note of cultural similarities and differences, I definitely find the French “bisous” or cheek kisses quite bizarre. In all facets of life here I have observed that the French have a largely disparate sense of space than North Americans do. Their hotel rooms are less spacious, their cars are more compact…everything seems smaller.  So I think personal sense of space is also a part of that, as a kiss would be a very intimate greeting in North America.

I can’t begin to explain my obsession with pain au chocolat. It has become my breakfast ritual to devour…err….multiple…chocolate croissants slathered with Nutella (why? because I can).  To buy a pastry in Canada is an extra special treat, so the abundance of boulangeries and pâtisseries on every street corner is like living in a miraculous wonderland. It is the prospect of inhabiting a world where baseball ceases to exist that reminds me why I could never live here permanently ;).  That said, there are so many things I miss about my ‘home and native land’ and I will certainly have so much more appreciation for Canada upon my return!

Z <3