My host family and me
Love and miss everyone!
I leave Friday for Paris, which means that my stay in Tours is almost complete. This past weekend we had two Australians arrive and dinner has been more exciting since then. There is a lot more laughter and smiles as we all try to communicate and make blunders!
I feel comfortable here, for the most part. I have enjoyed my stay but I am excited for Paris, hopefully my bad luck will stay here. My headphones broke down the other day (of course on a Sunday, the ONLY day I cannot replace them.) So I made another trip to my best friend the FNAC (basically like a best buy..ish lots of technology but also a book section.) And while at the FNAC I realized that I was grateful that America had the market for technology. I know it sounds silly but no matter where you are, if you need something related to an IPOD or PC or whatever you are guaranteed to find it primarily in English, if not primarily there is still English on the box. So even though I'm learning a lot I still am thankful that America has done so well with areas like technology. So after finding a new pair of headphones I went to checkout. I finally made some kind of joke! I needed to pay with a credit card and mine always gives away the fact that I am American because in France you can't get pretty cards. So after my confusion with the machine (which is why she took my card) I decided to attempt the long running issue in America "Each machine is different!" She understood . It's those small things like knowing the difference between being asked if you have a card or if you want one, that makes it seem like I'm really getting it.
Lesson's learned thus far:
1. Always bring an umbrella
2. Bikes are dangerous if you are a pedestrian
3. You have about 20 seconds after the walk light says don't walk to get across, and most cars will wait for you if you make them
4. Australians don't have Thanksgiving (my most embarassing moment thus far, trying to explain the word Turkey by saying it's for Thanksgiving...DUHHHHHHH only Americans celebrate that..yikes! I felt stupid)
5. Je suis ca va is awful French! I also knew this and made this blunder shortly after the Thanksgiving mishap, I stopped talking after that
6. In bars, they play American music! It still makes me laugh
7. On television shows when music is needed, 80% of the music is in English
8. Gardens are often more beautiful than castles
9. The French really take good care of the landscaping! They rake leaves off of gravel pathways.
10. Not a lesson but a fact, there is now a homeless man permanently stationed outside of the park I walk through. It is odd! He's harmless but nonetheless I like to keep my distance...
So other than countless of mishaps with technology related items life is good. The food has been nice but strange. I have had escargot before, stuffed escargot etc, but I have never actually eaten the snail straight from the shell, until Sunday! I tried one bravely even though she had another option for me. After the first, though it wasn't fabulous, I decided to brave it and eat a few more. That surprised my host family of course who said that Americans usually can't eat it or don't like it. She also asked if I didn't like bread since I never eat more than a slice at dinner. I had to laugh because the only reason I don't eat much is because I could easily eat the whole loaf!
Class today was different. Our professor was trying to explain the reason for something not following the rule that we had been told and decided to use an equivelent of the problem in English. He then asked me for my response to this question: I really like chocolate, how about you? And knowing he wanted the response in English I couldn't come up with it, all I could think of was how to respond in French! I then said something stupid because all he wanted was "Me too" which apparantly is very grammatically incorrect but of course we accept it. So he was comparing the French response to me too...how interesting!
The weather is getting colder here. Everyone keeps saying it should be warmer. I guess I will need to buy some sweaters when I get to Paris! I am working on my travel arrangements trying to get to different parts of France and hopefully Germany too...we'll see how that one goes!
I feel comfortable here, for the most part. I have enjoyed my stay but I am excited for Paris, hopefully my bad luck will stay here. My headphones broke down the other day (of course on a Sunday, the ONLY day I cannot replace them.) So I made another trip to my best friend the FNAC (basically like a best buy..ish lots of technology but also a book section.) And while at the FNAC I realized that I was grateful that America had the market for technology. I know it sounds silly but no matter where you are, if you need something related to an IPOD or PC or whatever you are guaranteed to find it primarily in English, if not primarily there is still English on the box. So even though I'm learning a lot I still am thankful that America has done so well with areas like technology. So after finding a new pair of headphones I went to checkout. I finally made some kind of joke! I needed to pay with a credit card and mine always gives away the fact that I am American because in France you can't get pretty cards. So after my confusion with the machine (which is why she took my card) I decided to attempt the long running issue in America "Each machine is different!" She understood . It's those small things like knowing the difference between being asked if you have a card or if you want one, that makes it seem like I'm really getting it.
Lesson's learned thus far:
1. Always bring an umbrella
2. Bikes are dangerous if you are a pedestrian
3. You have about 20 seconds after the walk light says don't walk to get across, and most cars will wait for you if you make them
4. Australians don't have Thanksgiving (my most embarassing moment thus far, trying to explain the word Turkey by saying it's for Thanksgiving...DUHHHHHHH only Americans celebrate that..yikes! I felt stupid)
5. Je suis ca va is awful French! I also knew this and made this blunder shortly after the Thanksgiving mishap, I stopped talking after that
6. In bars, they play American music! It still makes me laugh
7. On television shows when music is needed, 80% of the music is in English
8. Gardens are often more beautiful than castles
9. The French really take good care of the landscaping! They rake leaves off of gravel pathways.
10. Not a lesson but a fact, there is now a homeless man permanently stationed outside of the park I walk through. It is odd! He's harmless but nonetheless I like to keep my distance...
So other than countless of mishaps with technology related items life is good. The food has been nice but strange. I have had escargot before, stuffed escargot etc, but I have never actually eaten the snail straight from the shell, until Sunday! I tried one bravely even though she had another option for me. After the first, though it wasn't fabulous, I decided to brave it and eat a few more. That surprised my host family of course who said that Americans usually can't eat it or don't like it. She also asked if I didn't like bread since I never eat more than a slice at dinner. I had to laugh because the only reason I don't eat much is because I could easily eat the whole loaf!
Class today was different. Our professor was trying to explain the reason for something not following the rule that we had been told and decided to use an equivelent of the problem in English. He then asked me for my response to this question: I really like chocolate, how about you? And knowing he wanted the response in English I couldn't come up with it, all I could think of was how to respond in French! I then said something stupid because all he wanted was "Me too" which apparantly is very grammatically incorrect but of course we accept it. So he was comparing the French response to me too...how interesting!
The weather is getting colder here. Everyone keeps saying it should be warmer. I guess I will need to buy some sweaters when I get to Paris! I am working on my travel arrangements trying to get to different parts of France and hopefully Germany too...we'll see how that one goes!
Pictures!
My bed/room:
Aki, myself, Casey (some friends from the institut)
Love and miss everyone!
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