In A State Of Surprise: 3.0

And more important things that need to be pointed out:

Less emphasis on exercise

-This is not a derogitory statement: I don't mean to say that there's actually a smaller quantity of exercise here. What I mean is that we've got TV ads telling us to get up and play, and Nike billboards everywhere telling us to just do it. It's less of a publicly emphasized thing here (maybe because it's already ingrained into society as an obligation, without a need for these kinds of things; have I mentioned enough times that French peoples as a whole are fit.)

Fruit soup (instead of fruit salad)

-Cafes label little containers of fruit as soup des frites, and that just put half a cup of water in there with it. I did, however, see a labeled "fruit salad" this week for the first time here- so it does exist.

Courtesy to store employees, attention to customers

-It's super awkward to go into a store to just look because the employees never let someone enter without talking to them. Also, whenever you enter, you shout BONJOUR and leaving you say AUREVOIR MERCI. If you want them to speak English with you, say bonjour in a bad accent, but if you speak French 💁🏼 say bonjour with a French accent and they'll assume you're fluent. People just really act like they owe employees something's here, as opposed to America where it's the other way around and people act like employees live to serve them.

Soldes

-Twice a year (winter and summer (the 4 weeks I'm here conveniently)) there are massive sales called soldes where everything is around 80% off. I keep getting things for 3€ and that makes me happy.

Effeminate men (They're gosh dang attractive, too)

-Man purses. Pink. Styled hair. Dress shoes. It's everyone here. And back home we'd call these men "effeminate". Why? Why is this not just common in the U.S. too?

Cleanliness 

-I don't know how to put this one into words. Just trust me. Cleanliness is real. Street cleaners, sponges, vacumes, oh my!

Superior porta potties 

-On the same note, what is wrong with America and porta potties. Here they are extremely high tech and clean and omg. On the ther hand, public (indoor) restrooms are not really a thing here. On that note- when there are public restrooms (McDonald's, l'institut catholique, ect.), the two genders are always together. There might be one stall for women and one stall for men, but the sinks and hand dryers are always shared. This is nice because, for instance, I can roll up and talk to my homeboy while I fix my hair in the mirror; the intense privacy of gender-bounded bathroom sinks is vanquished, most amusingly.

THE TOILET PAPER

-Sorry this post took a weird turn but just- pink scented toilet paper ok

 

Smoking 

-The smoking problem? Not a joke. Running in the park? Inhaling smoke. Open my window when there's a party downstairs? Room fills with smoke. So many people, so much smoking. But today I heard a classmate tell someone something along the lines of that "the commonality of smoking here has taught me that I can respect a person who smokes, despite the fact that the person is a smoker. Before, I would see someone smokes and immediately loose respect for him or her as a person. Now I see that the person that someone is, is not inherently less valuable because they smoke. This being said, I will never smoke and hope that no one close to me ever will either. I don't condone smoking of course. I just have realized that it's not what I'd always made it out to be." (okay, I might have altered the quote enormously, but I'm going to leave it in quotations anyways.) I agree with this, man. 

Coins

-America does one dollar bills predominately, while Europe does 1 and 2 dollar coins. Lots of change in my life. ;)

English/foreign languages as a whole

-A bit sickened with the American school systems' addressing of languages. Everyone here speaks English, my host family speaks better English than me (joking... but only sort of), and there are even Mexicans here in another French program that I'm friends with who speak to me in ENGLISH instead of French because they're fluent in English anyway. WHY WAS I NOT TAUGHT A BUNCH OF LANGUAGES FROM BIRTH TOO? I'm angsty about this.

Sundays

- All the stores (excluding reateraunts) are closed. Just because it's Sunday. It's like a country of chickfila.

Formality in general

- if I could describe my experience this far in one word, I would use "formality". From the culture to the structure of the language, it's just a lot more formal than I'm used to. We eat at set tables and avoid sweatpants. If someone asks "whose cat?" can't say the equivalent of "her's" because I have to say "it's the cat of her" or "she has the cat" or something other thing that feels wildly convoluted. So much formality. All the time. It amazes me.