In an attempt to get my angsty, "life is terrible" post off of the top of my blog, here is a small list of things that culture shocked me after 7 months in France:
1. The cars here are SO big! And they're all automatic transmission.
2. The roads are SO wide.
3. Houses actually have decent-sized lawns.
4. I can wear sweatpants and flip flops in public and not get stared at.
5. 8x11 paper is short and fat. Where's my A4 paper?!?
6. The "baguettes" in the grocery store are not baguettes. The French would be horrified, horrified, at what we classify as a "baguette." A baguette should NOT be hard as a rock.
7. The lack of international news coverage.
8. Eating dinner earlier than 7pm.
9. Having the waitress at restaurants constantly asking if they can get me anything else, or how my food tastes. Also, tipping.
10. American English. I've become a weird half-Francophone, half-Anglophone. But my English is split between American English and British English ("football" is "soccer" and "holiday" is "vacation" and "university" is "college").
3 comments:
hehehe! isn't that funny?! When i got home (mind you they spoke mostly english) i was amazing at how flat everything was, billboards were everywhere!, it was not normal to eat rice for breakfast, and it wasn't ok to drink everyday! oh and no more 'yeeeaaa'
Welcome home love!
the paper thing is going to kill me, strangely enough. i love A4, its ratio is more pleasing. the cars/roads are going to freak me out, i'm not going to drive myself anywhere for a while, i imagine. the lawns will make me happy, as will the lack of dog crap, but i'm totally going to miss SIDEWALKS and walkable towns. i can't think of any around where my parents live, in the 'burbs of columbus. not even columbus has walkable 'hoods.
the baguette thing, i will do my best to seek one, but i know exactly what you're talking about wheni think of the "baguettes" i've bought at like meijer or whatever in they're too...dense in the mie part, and get too crunchy too fast on the croûte.
i have 5 whole days left, i'm starting to not handle this well at all! it's sinking in!
i do love a4 paper as well. i was going to bring some back with me (i bought a pack since the effing copier was ALWAYS out when i needed it), but when i started ditching anything that wasn't absolutely necessary, it was the first to go.
and hawaii is kinda like a different country, especially compared to wisco.
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