Trying my best to stay positive while the French bureaucracy continuously runs my emotions into the ground, I'll give you some examples of cool French people who make me smile. (They exist.)
1. The other day I skipped lunch at school, trying to wait it out til I got home to save money. I got into gare du nord and saw the first Subway I've seen in Paris across the street - nope couldn't wait. So I went in, and following a British couple who blatantly spoke no French at all, ordered everything in French (except for cucumbers, which I didn't realize were concombres). Anyway, the worker understood me and everything, and I think she mostly was just happy to hear someone try to speak her language, so she said to me "vous parlez bien le francais." (you speak French well). This of course made me respond in sentences, which is not as easy for me to fake as simply as words like sandwich du jambon et dinde). But it was still nice to have someone compliment my attempt, let alone humor me.
2. Another day this week, I was on the metro during a rather crowded time, and a lady behind me tried to "pardon" her way out of the train at her stop. As I was in her way, I stepped out onto the platform to let her through, and she stared at me in amazement, like she was shocked to see someone do a considerate thing. She recovered, looked me straight in the eye, and said "merci!" Hmmm...maybe I'm the nice French person in this situation?
3. Today I was waiting for the bus outside my school and a girl came up to me asking if the 3010 had already gone by. Again, the sentences and I - it just doesn't work. I tried to spit out some explanation like "no it's coming in just a few minutes" but it didn't happen. The point of the story is there were five other French people around us and this girl took the time to deal with my slow comprehension and even slower response times instead of doing something much more French, which is staring incredously at you for a half second, then moving to the next person, not wanting to wait for you to figure anything out. I'm learning here in France that I really have to appreciate the small things in life.
4. The German assistant at my school, Tanja, is well aware of my debacle with the stupid bank and has been asking me all week how things were going. (Long story short, the bank took two months to "regularize" my account b/c I had to prove I lived in Paris, meaning I haven't been able to take any money out of my account, ie. pay rent. Finally we got the address thing settled and the banker says, ok should be good to go. Then last week he says they need my residency card, which I don't have yet, due to the runaround I faced for that and now the wait time for its issue. So I gave them the receipt proving I'm just waiting for one - which I know for a fact has been fine for other assistants at other BNP's but no, this bank has apparently decided not to deal with me anymore. The director actually told me "Comme vous avez le droit, nous avons le droit a choisir"- Just like you have the right, we have the right to choose. So I had to withdraw my cash and now I'm starting the process all over again.) SOOOO anyhow, Tanja knows of this, and today at school, she offered to come into Paris and go with me to find a bank as moral (and language) support. I realize Tanja is German and therefore shouldn't necessarily count as one of those nice French people, but I met her in France and we communicate in French, so that's that.
And 5. Today I completely went to the wrong room for my first class, didn't realize it, and started trying to unlock the door. It opened from the inside and - whoops, I interrupted an entire class. I didn't recognize any faces, but as soon as the teacher opened the door (who I also didn't recognize) I heard a chorus of (in English): "Hello!" "Hi Sara!" "Good morning!"
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