Observations: life in Paris, the French way
Tuesday, 09 September 2008

• One feels most authoritative in Paris when carrying a stack of books in one arm and a baguette under the other.  Especially if one is stopped and asked for directions.
• Should you ever find yourself in Paris the first weekend of September (the first weekend after la rentrée, when everyone returns to the city after their August vacation), avoid Saint-Michel at all costs.  It's one of Paris's main shopping areas, and is also an area filled with and frequented by students.  There are dozens of book stores and supply shops, which is precisely what everyone is shopping for the first weekend after school begins.  I could barely navigate the sidewalks.
  
• The French are very traditional when it comes to school.  As a student, one should never do any of the following in the classroom: wear a hat, chew gum, drink coffee (or any other beverage, for that matter), or eat food.  The French are also very strict about punctuality.  There is no wandering in five minutes late, arriving halfway through class.  When you are late or absent, expect to be asked directly about it in front of the entire class.  Mme. Berthelier isn't harsh, but she does inquire.
• The French deserve more credit for their patience and toleration.  Despite a trifle of grammatical errors each time I open my mouth, I can usually make myself understood. Sometimes I require repetition for comprehension, and often I lack specific vocabulary to properly communicate.  However, rarely has it been my experience that the French refuse to converse with me as I butcher their language.  My pronunciation is relatively good, though my cadences still reflect the fact that I'm an English-speaker.  Before leaving the States, I was warned repeatedly that "studying French in Paris will be hard!  Don't let them speak English to you!"  On the contrary, I've had to use my French every time I go out.  And for the most part everyone I've conversed with has been extremely patient and accommodating, and without speaking to me in English.  It's possible that this is partially due to the fact that tourist season is over, but more likely the French have this reputation of impatience because English-speakers exaggerate their experiences; when fumbling around with a new language, one often feels much more stupid and ridiculed than is actually the case.  At least that's my two cents.  If the French speak English, it's probably simply that they can't understand you; I'm learning in phonetics class that being understood has as much to do with cadence and rapid pronunciation as it does with saying vowel combinations correctly.
• I was informed by a classmate that, in Paris, instead of someone asking for your telephone number, they'll ask for your "06."  Instead of Avez-vous un portable? the hip French kids will ask Avez-vous un zero-six?  All phone numbers in Paris begin with 06.
• The same classmate told me that Saint-Michel is often called Saint-Mich by the same hip French kids.  Any other local Parisian expressions you know of that I can toss into the mix?
  

11:24 PM            comments (2)           filed under: observations

Observations: Club Erasmus
Friday, 05 September 2008

Club Erasmus is a Thursday night club that's free for international (non-French) students who show their passports, and €12 for French students. 



Observations:

• European men dance.  Or perhaps they DANCE.  Any American bro, particularly those from the University of Alabama, would look at a crowd like the one at Erasmus, and think it was a gay club.
• Bottles of water at Parisian clubs go for about €5 a pop.
• Clubs in Paris play what I consider dance party classics, such as "Sweet Dreams," "Tainted Love," "Thriller," "Billy Jean," etc.
• At Erasmus, the DJs take breaks by playing Tetris on a giant pixelated wall.
• If you suddenly find that Eurotrash has attached itself to you, a polite phrase to mutter is "Casse-toi, si te plaît," which translates to "get lost, please."  The literal translation goes something like, "break yourself, please," which I think I prefer.  I've not yet had the occasion to learn or utter the more vulgar French phrases, fortunately.
• German dudes and Brazilian dudes generally are respectful of dance-space, at least two or three gentleman of those nationalities were this evening.
• Finding a gay friend is still the best dance strategy.  I look forward to my hag days ahead.

It's almost three, I'm exhausted, my feet hurt, and I have an orientation meeting at the American University early tomorrow.  That is, in a few hours.  Bonsoir, mes amis.

2:29 AM                    filed under: observations

A few observations
Wednesday, 03 September 2008

I'm pressed for time these first few days in Paris, since I'm still learning the names of other students studying with my program, taking placement tests, seeing the city, grocery shopping, and scouring the stores for all the little things I neglected (or didn't have room) to pack.  I'm lucky to get a few hours of down time each day, which I use to cook meals, nap, and generally recover. 

I begin French classes tomorrow à la Sorbonne, and Friday I have orientation at the American University.  Tomorrow evening there's a social event with French students and other international kids, where I'm sure we'll be mixing wine with dancing and a little franglais.  Keeping up with folks back home (and not to mention the internet) is a little difficult so far, but I suspect after a week or two of settling into a school schedule, things will be a little less crazy around here. 

The amount of information thrown in my general direction has become overwhelming.  In my few days here I have accumulated piles of little booklets and brochures with maps, lists of activities, and I've made dozens of little notes to myself about which market is where, which stores carry what, and which metro lines or bus stops will take me where I need to go.  Add this to finding ATMs, keeping up with money, setting up a monthly metro pass with an ID photo, and things like buying a bag of groceries become large ordeals. 

It probably goes without saying that, despite having a brain full of rusty French, I am still confronting a language barrier.  I know enough to read and comprehend, and am able to speak well enough to sound like a blathering idiot, or perhaps a robot that strings words and phrases together into incomplete sentences.  "Excuse me, there are two things of pine nuts and cinnamon here.  I have bought each.  Just one.  See?  I would like some money."  "I would like here.  Do you have here?  For fifteen euro?  What?  I don't understand.  Yes.  I pay with paper."  Me Tarzan.  You Jane.  Me want hair dryer.

Because I didn't receive keys to my apartment until tonight, I've been attached at the hip with my room mate, who does not speak or read a lick of French.  She's Jewish and just spent three months completing a music internship in Israel.  On our shopping adventures today, we stumbled through Chinatown and bought what we could find, speaking Hebrew, Arabic, and what French I could muster.

Some observations, until I can write a better recount of the events in Paris so far:

• Everything is half as big and twice as expensive here.  Juice and milk is most often sold in liter bottles.  After two mornings of cereal for my room mate and I, we're out of milk.  I go through almost an entire liter carton of apple juice a day.
• Shampoo and conditioner are also sold in tiny quantities.  The bottles here are about half as large, and very expensive.  One bottle is about three euro.  Even produce seems small.  Toilet paper, too, is smaller and there is less on a roll.  Does this mean that Europeans who visit Sam's Club feel they have found paradise?  I'm already anticipating how huge everything in America will seem when I return for the holidays.
• In Paris you can buy weekly or monthly passes on the metro.  They are rechargable "NaviGO" cards with small chips in them, and you're required to fix an ID photo to the card as well.  A monthly pass for the two main metro zones of Paris (which pretty much gets you everywhere except EuroDisney) is €55.10.  Many metro stops have photo booths where, for €4, you can take four large ID photos, or sixteen small ID photos (about thumbprint size).  I took some of the latter for my NaviGo card, and it looks like the photo machine automatically airbrushes your skin and makes you look a little peachy.  I don't have a scanner with me, but perhaps I'll find a way to show you.
• The French recently changed the school schedules for highschool students and younger.  Now French children only attend school on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, for six hours a day.  Previously, they attended Monday-Tuesday, and Thursday-Saturday.  Sundays and Wednesdays have always been weekly school holidays.
• The Eiffel Tower is now lit up with blue lights and has a circle of stars on the front.  I haven't seen it after dusk yet, so I'm not sure if it's still yellow at night with sparkling lights on the hour.
• Even the French "general" stores like Monoprix don't have everything you might expect.  Though they come close, the French haven't mastered the concept of "one stop shopping," perhaps to their credit.  I know that Carrefour achieves this, but it's much farther away from my neighborhood than any of the Monoprix, which are just a few metro stops away.  Monoprix offers clothing, accessories and general apparel, then has another floor with a pharmacie (shampoo, medicines, perfume) and a grocery store.  However, there are no home appliances, furniture, or home goods.  They do not sell hair dryers, curling irons, electric tea kettles, pillows, towels, etc.  Electronic stores offer any home goods that plug in: washing machines, refrigerators, tea kettles, toaster ovens, hair dryers, televisions, digital cameras, etc. but nothing else.  Still on the look out for a card reader.
  

That's all I can muster for now.  I'll tell you about my apartment and my neighborhood soon enough, and I'll have plenty to report tomorrow after I attend my first class at the Sorbonne.  I'm already exhausted and can't wait for the weekend.

(Pssst....could someone throw in a test comment here?  I'm still concerned they're not working properly.)

10:26 PM            comments (6)           filed under: daily