Looking Back

I have been looking back on all my posts tagged FRANCE.  Some of them were about experiences I wanted to have or opinions I thought in the first few weeks of being here. Today is the last day for our journal entries before we hand them in to our professors and I thought a reflection post would be most appropriate.

I still have one more week in France left and I want to make the most of it. Over the past few months I've felt much frustration as equally as euphoria. I've learned that French people don't spice their food very much at all and though they can be pretty stoic and intimidating at first, the French are great!

I wanted to write a reflection for this last post, but I realize now that I won't feel the full effect of this experience until later whether later be stuck in EL hating the midwestern winter and thinking back to this wonderful summer or in middle age when my own children will be of the age when they start exploring the world and meeting all different kinds of people just as I am now.

Like I've said in a previous post I'd like to come back to France because I have yet to feel satisfied with both my competency in French and the number of my experiences here. I know of some people doing a program in France in which they will recieve a small stipend to work with adolescents here in French schools for nine months. I would like to try to get into that program and so maybe next year I will be writing new blogs posts again from France. til then salut! à bientot!!!

La Musique

One of the most interesting things I've noticed here in France is how much American music is played. It boggled my mind at first why people would care to listen to music they understood only in varying degrees and the answer I got from the French people I asked responded "we listen for the beat."

That's all well and good but you miss something I feel but by not fully comprehending the lyrics you're missing something great... that soaring feeling you get when you connect with a song on that lyrical level.

However, it makes sense economically for bands to sing in English. The United States is I believe the third largest country in the world with 300 million people combined with the anglophones living in Canada, Australia and of course Great Britain make the English speaking audiences the ones you want to target for the most bang for the buck.

I've been listening to Phoenix a lot this past week because their songs are good summer songs, light qnd qiry anot not too serious... plus they're French so I feel an added sense of approval for listening to them. Anyway I found an interview where the band discusses its motivations for singing in English, you can watch it down below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=y3QGd1EW2Lw&feature=fvw

I'm really impressed by Phoenix songs. Their lyrics show a pretty intimate knowledge of the English language in terms of slang and the way the construct sentences even. When I first heard of them I'm pretty sure I didn't realize they were French. My friends and I met some really cool French kids our age and we were talking about French bands and one of the boys asked if they sung with an accent andf I told him no because the only way I could tell they're French is by their accent when they talk not sing. Very interesting

On the Front Page of Le Monde

Image, Le Monde

This morning at breakfast I was skimming the July 15 Le Monde and the front page above the fold article was the following:

Le Sénat américain ouvre la voie à la réforme de Wall Street

It made me think about two things 1. how incredible the coverage of the United States is in Le Monde and how it is not reciprocal in the United States and 2. what life would be like as an expat

A lot of the stereotypes pertaining to Americains not knowing anything about other countries while other countries know about us has some legitimacy. While I was skimming the article I kept thinking that it is so weird to be learning about this important political news from my country first from a French newspaper. It made me think about how I would feel and be different if I were to live in France for more than two months...

It was very interesting to go to Poland this summer with my dad. I expected him to rave about Poland the whole time and talked about how he missed it but instead he compared everything to the United States and how it was better there. I think the only thing connecting him to Poland is the family he still has there in essence. Sure he loves Polish food and music a lot, but 30 years in the US has definitely made its mark on him... it is an interesting thing to ponder - notions of identity and nationality.

Turn the summer into dust

I only have two and a half more weeks left in France! I don't want to leave!

I feel like I haven't accomplished something, like I feel like there is some goal or feat inside me and I haven't mastered it.

And in two and a half weeks the summer will be one giant step closer to turning into dust and I'll evaluate all my experiences and lessons and frustrations of the past two months.

Then I'll go back to East Lansing, finish up school, and figure out my next step and I hope that will involve traveling.

Traveling is such an immense experience especially if you venture to a foreign country for more than a week and I hope I'll get the opportunity soon to meet new people and hear their stories and ideas.

The French, Chicago, and Al Capone

Everytime I tell people here in France that my family lives in the Chicago they frequently mention Al Capone.... and sometimes Michael Jordan.

......Seriously? Those people out of everything and everybody else? No mention of Barack Obama?!! lol It is good to know that Chicago has such a nice reputation abroad! haha C'est drôle.

Well Marion Cotillard did star in Public Enemies with Jonny Depp and both of them live in France so maybe this just compounded Chi Town's reputation in France.

Paris, Je T'aime

Following excerpt written from a Parisien café from my molskein cahier

There have already been several times when I have been flustered while speaking French. You know how they say you can smell fear? well you can also smell a flustered foreigner butchering the French language. Right now I'm sitting in a café/brasserie in Montparnasse in the 14e arrondissement. I'm staring up at the lone gratte-ciel skyscraper in Montparnasse waiting for my friend's train to arrive from Bruxelles. My impressions of Paris have so far been positive. My train got in from Tours à 15h30 and I've been walking around for the past 5 hours. While crossing a street I glanced over my shoulder and saw the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was incredible incroyable.  I just kept staring at it and thought - wow I'm really in Paris, aren't I? I began walking towards it hoping it was maybe close enough that I could get a good view without getting lost. On the way I stopped by a confisserie and bought French candies and the proprietor even gave me a free framboise bon-bon because I waited  longtemps while the guy in before me stocked up on sweets. I was as giddy as a child in the shop looking at all the different candies that I have never seen in the U.S. and the fancy paper that wrapped them. I also stopped at a 19th century cathedral as my pursuit of the Eiffel Tower became a lost cause and lit a candle for my parents as is becoming customary for me to do as I visit many old churches in France. I love going to old cathedrals and seeing the different types of architecture and art. This particular church had one of the most beautiful artistic works I have ever seen. It was a white statue of the Mary under who billowing carved stone clouds eneveloped her and her traditional globe and snake motif. From her paintings of gold sunrays spread out. This work of art stood in an enclave where several pews stood so that people could gaze at her and prayer to her for guidance and assistance.

*more to come!

New Month's Resolutions

So I have four more weeks in France left and i want to try to make the most of it.

I need to get over being shy when I speak French. The perfectionist in me wants to speak perfectuly at all times with as little an accent as possible. Thus with this sensibility, I have struck out many times in conversation because of my timidity to make mistakes.

I hit a rough patch emotionally about a week and a half ago. It was a day that I had to go to a lot of different stores to buy things for my upcoming week vacation from classes.I went to about 5 places and looked like an idiot/ didn't understand what was being said to me. I felt so incredibly frustrated like the French were personally out to make me feel miserable.

I then proceeded to rage and complain to Kaitie and Mary as well as to the internetosphere on facebook and twitter. From that frustration and overall miserableness I learned two things: A/ If anyone complains of people not speaking English in America I'm going to give them a piece of my mind because chances are they have no fucking clue what it's like to be learning a new language in a foreign country and B/ I'm going to have to get over my timidity if I'm ever going to truly progress further.

On the day I left for vacation to Poland, I got my first chance at this kind of redemption.

I was sitting in the train station waiting for a train to take me to Charles de Gaulle when a man passes by me and sits down on my bench. I thought this was weird because there were plenty of open benches in the station and my bench wasn't situated in front of the schedules or anything of importance like that. Then after a little bit he says something, but I figure to just ignore it since I couldn't understand what he saying in the first place and wasn't sure if his words were even directed at me. However, he says something different in a louder tone closer to my face, and I turn and the conversation begins.

And I had an interesting conversation with him. At first I couldn't understand what he was talking about, if he wanted to ask me for directions or what but after I asked him to speak "plus lentement" (more slowly) I understood. I explained to him that I was American and studying at the Institute and I guess he understood what I was saying even though he had somewhat of a blank look upon his face because he asked me in which part of the city I lived. I responded "avant le jardin" and he asked me which one. I told him I didn't know, which was the truth, but nevertheless I don't know if I would have felt comfortable telling him which garden.

You know it's weird. I read in my French culture book that when meeting new people the French rarely exchange first names, yet this guy asks me where I live? French people don't you think that where a person lives is more private than their first name? The whole public/private thing boggle my mind sometimes in France, and I'll speak about it more when I write my massive treastie on Muslims in France soon.

Anyway he asked me where I was going and I told him Charles de Gaulle. Then he asked if I was going back to America and I said no I was going to visit my father in Poland for vacation. Then he said "oh your father lives in Poland and your mother in the U.S." and I told him that my father's family lives in Poland and that both of my parents live in America. Then he said "Those Poles sure do love Americans" and I responded that I guess it's true (Poland's foreign policy is very Pro-American).

From there we got to the subject of politics and I asked him if he liked Nicolas Sarkozy and he laughed and said no. He then said he judged the United States for electing Bush, but conceded that the same could be said for France's election of Sarkozy, which I thought was very interesting.

So all in all I had a pretty nice conversation with this guy. I wasn't really nervous because he wasn't cute and was about a decade older than me. Since he initiated the conversation I felt more comfortable asking him to speak slower and also in talking myself because I didn't care how competent or cool I came off as.

Here's to hoping more of these situations arise in the next four weeks!