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!"
30 November 2007
21 November 2007
Not sure why so many of my posts are about the metro, but here's another.
Today, I am so overwhelmed with frustration for France and its worthless runaround bureaucracy, and basically feel like the thing that's keeping me from calling it quits, jumping on a plane, and going back to Colorado to get a dog is this ridiculous cold/flu thing I have, that I think I'm going to skip filling you in on the angst I'm feeling right now and go straight for a funny story:
So the other day I was leisurely riding the metro (way before the silly strike, since then I'd say I just shove and push my way onto the metro and somehow sometimes I get where I want to go) to meet some friends downtown, and suddenly two guys jump on board and declare "nous avons une programme pour vous!" They have the essentials - one with a microphone and a speaker, and the other with a saxophone. And they began playing, very well in fact, this timeless classic:
I tried so hard to keep from laughing, but I couldn't help it. It was the funniest thing I'd seen in awhile, and for that, these guys were the first metro performers I gave money to.
So the other day I was leisurely riding the metro (way before the silly strike, since then I'd say I just shove and push my way onto the metro and somehow sometimes I get where I want to go) to meet some friends downtown, and suddenly two guys jump on board and declare "nous avons une programme pour vous!" They have the essentials - one with a microphone and a speaker, and the other with a saxophone. And they began playing, very well in fact, this timeless classic:
I tried so hard to keep from laughing, but I couldn't help it. It was the funniest thing I'd seen in awhile, and for that, these guys were the first metro performers I gave money to.
08 November 2007
Le métro
So D and I had a little complaining session tonight. Both of us are just overwhelmed with the price of plane tickets, the plummeting dollar value, the amount of cat puke at N's, and the lack of organization at my school, and the French. We were feeling pretty down and out about living in Paris. I left N's apartment (where D has to say to care for aforementioned puking kitties) at 11:30. Suddenly, my feelings for Paris were completely changed.
I made it to the métro station right when the train was there. I heard it as I was trying to push my way through the turnstile and figured my luck was not good today and I probably would miss it by seconds. So I didn't really hurry down the stairs. But as I reached the third to last stair, I heard the buzzing sound that announces the doors are about to close so I picked up my pace. I jumped onto the platform just as the train doors closed - but only halfway. (The métro doors here shut about halfway and then all the way, all of this in matter of a second or two, so when the doors start to close I usually don't risk my life.) But this night, the doors stayed open halfway for a good three seconds. So I jumped in and right after I was through, the doors shut the whole way. Ok so this turned into a real deep explanation of the door closing process which I'm sure isn't the most interesting read, but I was amazed - I really think the train driver saw me and kept the doors open for me. They have mirrors that reflect the whole platform. Then two stops later, almost the same thing happened for another guy. But every other station, the doors closed much faster. So, my deduction is that this was the perfect time for a Frenchman (or woman) to be nice. Whoever it was completely restored my faith in France and the Parisians.
After that, on my way home, I passed an ultra busy bar playing some Spanish music, which typically puts me in a good mood, and then I looked down the hill over a clear sky and saw Paris lit up in all its "city of lights" glory.
For me, alot of the time Paris can be too much, with its size and smells and amount of French people, but some times it's very easy to remember why Paris is such a great city to live in.
I made it to the métro station right when the train was there. I heard it as I was trying to push my way through the turnstile and figured my luck was not good today and I probably would miss it by seconds. So I didn't really hurry down the stairs. But as I reached the third to last stair, I heard the buzzing sound that announces the doors are about to close so I picked up my pace. I jumped onto the platform just as the train doors closed - but only halfway. (The métro doors here shut about halfway and then all the way, all of this in matter of a second or two, so when the doors start to close I usually don't risk my life.) But this night, the doors stayed open halfway for a good three seconds. So I jumped in and right after I was through, the doors shut the whole way. Ok so this turned into a real deep explanation of the door closing process which I'm sure isn't the most interesting read, but I was amazed - I really think the train driver saw me and kept the doors open for me. They have mirrors that reflect the whole platform. Then two stops later, almost the same thing happened for another guy. But every other station, the doors closed much faster. So, my deduction is that this was the perfect time for a Frenchman (or woman) to be nice. Whoever it was completely restored my faith in France and the Parisians.
After that, on my way home, I passed an ultra busy bar playing some Spanish music, which typically puts me in a good mood, and then I looked down the hill over a clear sky and saw Paris lit up in all its "city of lights" glory.
For me, alot of the time Paris can be too much, with its size and smells and amount of French people, but some times it's very easy to remember why Paris is such a great city to live in.
06 November 2007
05 November 2007
Chocolat chaud avec une francaise
Today I took a big step in possibly furthering my miniscule knowledge of this stupid language. I met a language exchange partner. She just got back a few months ago from living in Seattle for two years. So she speaks English pretty well but is still really patient when I try to speak French. So that's good I think.
The end of the Toussaints break is Wednesday and sadly I didn't really do anything special the whole time. I did make myself a lot more social though so that's a plus. I went to an assistant's "flat party"on Friday, which was bizarre. When I first got there, it was just a few friends I knew (very chic friends, the type who dress nice and speak French really well and eat fancy food) and then a French guy, an Italian girl, and an Indian girl, all of whom spoke at least two languages fluently which in my mind automatically makes them ten times more sophisticated than me. I was feeling very out of place with this small group of 6 or 7 fancy people until pockets of 3 or 4 American/Canadian/British assistants started showing up, most of them with two or three bottles of wine in tow, and suddenly this gathering went from sophisticated dinner gathering to full fledged Erasmus style wine induced party. It was pretty overwhelming. But not as overwhelming as when all 30 of us made our way to the metro to go to a bar downtown. Luckily I instantly made a friend when this girl announced she wanted to go to a bar near Pigalle (ie. near me!) so I went with her and a few others. This girl turned out to be from Tucson, a graduate of Colorado College, and a friend of a friend of mine from CU. So, small world. But you all should be proud of me because I made an attempt to be social and it sort of worked, as I came out of it with a handful of new friends. And one more funny story - this girl Ernestine was visting my friend Becca and so she had plenty of American money on her and the Italian girl noticed this and was purely amazed to be seeing an American dollar. Ernestine gave her a dollar (since it's hardly worth anything anyway here, especially) and the French guy, the Indian girl, and the Italian girl exclaimed over it for about 10 minutes, gawking at how much it reminded them of Monopoly money. Which makes no sense, b/c Monopoly money is multicolored, and so is the euro, not the dollar. So, foreigners are kinda dumb. :-)
Also, Devon and I went to a tennis tournament on Wednesday and got to see him really close:
Sadly my camera is relatively worthless in this age of digital greatness so poor Marcos Baghdatis is very blurry. We also got to see my other favorite, Novak Djokovic, and then a handful of other cool people like Roger Federer, James Blake, and Rafa Nadal. We sat in on a doubles match and after that match they brought on some players to practice. We were almost out the door when I saw on the other side of the court a yellow racket - Rafa! So that was cool since we actually missed his match.
Anyhow what else. Ate lamb last night at a friend's house. It was really good. And her apartment is pretty cool b/c it's right off the Boulevard de Grandes Armées (c'est à dire, in between the Grande Arche and the Arc de Triomphe.) So it was a pretty cool walk at night with both arches lit up. And I really miss my cat. Not to be the crazy cat lady but I found this video on my computer and I think it's really funny and I'm also very proud of the fact I've discovered how to post things in my blog. So here is my cat watching herself on video. (At the bottom of the tv screen you'll see two little cat ears.) That's all for now.
The end of the Toussaints break is Wednesday and sadly I didn't really do anything special the whole time. I did make myself a lot more social though so that's a plus. I went to an assistant's "flat party"on Friday, which was bizarre. When I first got there, it was just a few friends I knew (very chic friends, the type who dress nice and speak French really well and eat fancy food) and then a French guy, an Italian girl, and an Indian girl, all of whom spoke at least two languages fluently which in my mind automatically makes them ten times more sophisticated than me. I was feeling very out of place with this small group of 6 or 7 fancy people until pockets of 3 or 4 American/Canadian/British assistants started showing up, most of them with two or three bottles of wine in tow, and suddenly this gathering went from sophisticated dinner gathering to full fledged Erasmus style wine induced party. It was pretty overwhelming. But not as overwhelming as when all 30 of us made our way to the metro to go to a bar downtown. Luckily I instantly made a friend when this girl announced she wanted to go to a bar near Pigalle (ie. near me!) so I went with her and a few others. This girl turned out to be from Tucson, a graduate of Colorado College, and a friend of a friend of mine from CU. So, small world. But you all should be proud of me because I made an attempt to be social and it sort of worked, as I came out of it with a handful of new friends. And one more funny story - this girl Ernestine was visting my friend Becca and so she had plenty of American money on her and the Italian girl noticed this and was purely amazed to be seeing an American dollar. Ernestine gave her a dollar (since it's hardly worth anything anyway here, especially) and the French guy, the Indian girl, and the Italian girl exclaimed over it for about 10 minutes, gawking at how much it reminded them of Monopoly money. Which makes no sense, b/c Monopoly money is multicolored, and so is the euro, not the dollar. So, foreigners are kinda dumb. :-)
Also, Devon and I went to a tennis tournament on Wednesday and got to see him really close:
Sadly my camera is relatively worthless in this age of digital greatness so poor Marcos Baghdatis is very blurry. We also got to see my other favorite, Novak Djokovic, and then a handful of other cool people like Roger Federer, James Blake, and Rafa Nadal. We sat in on a doubles match and after that match they brought on some players to practice. We were almost out the door when I saw on the other side of the court a yellow racket - Rafa! So that was cool since we actually missed his match.
Anyhow what else. Ate lamb last night at a friend's house. It was really good. And her apartment is pretty cool b/c it's right off the Boulevard de Grandes Armées (c'est à dire, in between the Grande Arche and the Arc de Triomphe.) So it was a pretty cool walk at night with both arches lit up. And I really miss my cat. Not to be the crazy cat lady but I found this video on my computer and I think it's really funny and I'm also very proud of the fact I've discovered how to post things in my blog. So here is my cat watching herself on video. (At the bottom of the tv screen you'll see two little cat ears.) That's all for now.
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