January 17, 2014
Bonjour!
Do I look French yet? Non? Like a creepy man? Ok...
Miss you guys!!
My room in the hostel, shared with 3 other NYU students. I'll take pictures of the current room I'm staying in soon. The décor is rather interesting...
This past week, I’ve learned
-Saying bonjour is a must upon entering a store
-Say bonsoir to greet people at night
-Say bonsoir to greet people at night
-I have the French speaking abilities of a hearing-impaired
three year old (since I have to ask everyone to repeat everything about 3
times, and by then, they usually just switch to English...I can speak even less than I can understand)
-How to properly cut my food (flip the fork over and down;
don’t rest the knife completely across the plate)
-The English (and I guess Americans) talk about the weather; the French talk about food
-America truly reigns as technology king. To quote an orientation
leader, “The French are about 80 years behind, technologically,” and apparently
google.fr is lacking compared regular google.
-Most universities here don’t have campuses (but some try)
-University
of Paris 7 used to be an old flour factory
-Food is so much fresher
-Dogs are allowed in stores and everywhere
-The métro runs quickly, smoothly, and quietly, but there
are times when it completely stops and an announcement blares, telling everyone
to get off
-When English is announced, it’s with a British accent
-New York is 50 x easier to navigate than France. The
streets are winding and form circles. Paris is shaped like a spiral snail shell made up of arrondissements.
“Pardon” (necessary to get off the métro)
It gets this crowded. Also the doors are not automatic. To get on or off, you have to turn a lever.
“Accueil” (still can’t pronounce correctly)- reception
Other random pictures that I didn't know where else to put in this post:
View before getting onto the métro at Passy (school)
University of Paris 7
Ahhh! This is so insanely awesome! (Do you mind if I comment on EVERY post? Hehe.) My favorite parts:
ReplyDelete"The English (and I guess Americans) talk about the weather; the French talk about food"
This reminds me of the part in Eat Pray Love where Gilbert is trying to figure out each country/region's "word."
"The French are not afraid to immediately share their political views. I watched a segment of a satire about François Hollande last night with my host mom."
You're hilarious. Yey, indoctrination! Hehe. They sound great, though.
"Dogs are allowed in stores and everywhere."
GET ME TO FRANCE ASAP.
The pastries. Period.
Also you need to post that creepy-French-man picture on your resume or something. It's too perfect. Profile picture for every social media site. Ever.
Of course not! Please do! I love reading the comments!
ReplyDeleteYes! I don't know what word to assign to Paris yet, but NYC probably gets something like money/capitalism/flashy/loud...that was a lot of words. I need to think some more. A reassuring thing about Paris is that the main crime is pick-pocketing, unlike NY where it's probably homicide. Have you seen the art/graphics books NY vs. Paris? I got a small copy for Christmas last year, and I'm appreciating it more and more.
She followed her political criticism with, "We are not socialists."
They're cute, but I did see one pee on the floor of a bakery. I also saw a guy shove his dog into his motorcycle jacket, shift so his dog could stick his head out, and then bike away.
Yes. I will take pictures as soon as I get my hands on some. Need macarons! NOW!