First week in France - 10 Things of Note

I’m sorry, I lied. I will not be translating my blog entries into French. At the beginning, I had all this free time and became very ambitious. Now, between classes, church activities and hanging out with assistants and friends from the foyer, I barely have time to plan lessons (you know, my actual job). I hope no one is disappointed.

So, I’ve got some posts from past activities. My first two weeks in France I spent a lot of time noticing or remembering differences between France and the States or just things unique to France. I share the first ten…

10 things about France - 1st Set

1- Cafeteria food - So in the U.S., school cafeteria food is usually synonymous with garbage. I ate it as a student, but I think about it and uck! Here, as a teacher, 2,50€ gets me a delicious, full meal. By full meal I mean entrée*, salad, main dish, cheese, dessert and the requisite hunk of baguette. And by delicious I mean good, quality food. The pork I had yesterday was moist, pull-apart good and better than what I've had at most restaurants. Vive la France!

2- Vending machine food - A lot of it's the same, candies and snack and such. But there are always surprises. At a train station in Brussels I saw a vending machine with beer. I'm sure there is one someplace with wine. One day (and this is so unglamorous) I ended up returning to the hostel late (and by late I mean like 8, 8h30) and making dinner out of a loaf of bread from the only place open. Even the supermarché had closed. So I had this hunk of bread and no cheese :( . The vending machine in the hostel had espresso, hot chocolate and soup. And for vending machine soup, it was pretty good; even had adorable little croutons. The French take their food seriously.

3- Greetings & Farewells – In the states we have “hello”, “good morning”, “good afternoon” or “have a good day”, “have a good evening”. French greetings are similar (“bonjour”, “bon soir”), but the farewells go above and beyond. There’s the usual “bonne journée” or “bonne soirée” but you also have:
Bon courage- if they are working
Bon après-midi (bon aprem)– “Have a good afternoon”
Bon retour- If they are heading back someplace
Bonne rentrée- If they are returning home
Bonne continuation- No good translation, kinda like “have a good time continuing to do what you’re doing right now”
There are more that I can’t think of right now. But basically the French will find a way to wish you well in whatever you are specifically doing.

4- Greetings continued- Along with verbal greetings you have the physical ones. If you are good acquaintances (or sometimes just meeting someone) you will “faire la bise.” This is usually between girls or between girls and boys. Usually, guys shake hands (though in some regions or with very close friends some guys will “faire la bise” as well). You can’t get away with a quick wave and shout as you speed walk past (unless you’re legitimately late or very rude). Instead you need to stop your rushing and take a moment to acknowledge the other person.
It’s cool to observe this custom, especially seeing teenage boys do what, in the states, is a rather formal thing. As cool as it is to observe, it can be hard to actually participate. I’m often unsure whether or not to “faire la bise” and risk seeming impolite as I keep my distance. However, as a foreigner I think I get off a bit easier on such things.

5- Bon appétit - Along with greetings, the French have their “bon appétit” which English speakers know well as a stereotypical phrase. And this one is well used. As I eat often in a cafeteria setting (at school as well as the foyer) I see a lot of the greetings. Anytime a new person comes to a table, or an acquaintance walks by with their tray, there is the requisite “bon appétit” given by one person or another. I’m not sure if there is a certain protocol (e.g. the person already eating says it to the person about to eat or visa-versa), basically, I just say it right away to be polite.

6- Traffic lights in the middle of traffic circles - I mean really, that seems overkill.

7- Traffic in general- Not even considering the fact that the cars are all manuals, I am grateful to not have to drive in France. The road signs are all so different and I can't tell where cars are allowed to be and where they're not. A one way street doesn't look that different from a two way street and sometimes I think the direction depends on who's driving down it. Some streets are one way from one side and the other way from the other side until the two one way streets meet and everyone has to turn. That's not even mentioning French drivers. I swear sometimes that as I step into a crosswalk (making sure that any vehicles are far, far away) I can hear the car speeding up to see if maybe, just maybe they can hit me.

8- Paper size - Why? Why? So standard American is 8.5 by 11 inches (this is the North American standard and is interestingly enough also used in the Philippines and Chile). Pretty much everywhere else the "International" standard is 8.27 X 11.69 (which reads better in metric). I guess we've got our own measurement system so why not our own paper size? But really, my pages are too wide and my portfolios for holding papers are too short.

9- Tiny cars - The cars here are tiny! Apart from delivery/professional vehicles, the occasional mini-van or van is such an oddity with all the tiny little cars around. This is done to economize gasoline, so I'm a fan, but it's still so different from America, the land of the SUV's. I guess French guys don't feel a need to compensate.

10- Tiny streets - Even though the cars are tiny, I feel like the streets are too tiny. As my mentor drove me through Orléans for the first time there were many streets that I was sure were one-way until I saw a car coming from the opposite direction. "Oh no" I thought, "maybe we could squeeze by, but there are cars parked on either side!" Then, whoosh, the cars would whiz by and I would wonder how on earth they fit.
The truth is that everything here is tiny : apartments are small and so everything to fit inside is tiny: fridge, oven, stove, washing machine, shower.


*The American "entrée" is actually a faux amis. Ironic, since the word is a direct pull from French. In the states an entrée means the main dish, but in France the "entrée" is just that, a small introduction or "entrance" to the meal.