Thoughts on France...

Settling in has just about finished. I think for the most part, our group has gotten over the hump of “oh-my-gosh-why-did-I-think-this-was-a-good-idea-I-can’t-even-speak-French-and-I’m-an-absolute-moron.” It sure takes a while though. Now that we’re settled in, we all pretty much love France and would prefer to never leave. Or at least import a few boulangeries to the U.S. when we come back.

A few things that still stump me:

-The lack of colors in wardrobe. Everything is brown, black, tan, white, gray, or navy, with a couple of wine or light blue shirts thrown in. Having on anything else stands way out. The thing that confuses me is, they sell colors. Every mannequin has on a fairly bright outfit. They just don’t buy colors. I don’t understand why yet.

-I’ve yet to see a girl with a bad hair day. Which is made even more irritating by the fact that I’ve had a continuous bad hair day since I got here. I think they may legitimately be immune to frizz. Whereas I have frizzy hair from heat-styling (when I haven’t even been blow-drying my hair or straightening it) and then I see these girls with artlessly done hair that just looks perfect anyway. I need to figure out how they do this.

-The weather. It can be absolutely infuriating. The forecast will be something like: sunny with a high of 75. What they forget to mention is that the high only occurs for about 10 minutes the whole day. The rest of the day will be chilly, windy, and foggy. I might be exaggerating a little, but not by much. It’s necessary to layer, even now when it’s still warm. Plus, the leaves have already somewhat started to fall, and it’s not nearly as beautiful as at Furman. It’s kind of dull looking, actually.

-They adore Abercrombie and Fitch. This is hilarious to me. Here, wearing A&F means that you are in the cool crowd. Our group hasn’t figured out a polite way to mention that A&F stopped being cool after middle school. But it sure is fun to watch some kid with the logo go swaggering by like he’s all that.

-They also love Keds. You know, the shoes that Americans don’t tend to wear after about the 5th grade. And Converses, but everyone wears those in the U.S. too. Literally everyone here has a pair of one of those. It’s insane.

-Really, what it comes down to is: France is insanely fashionable. And chic. I’ve seen a chic four-year-old (obviously dressed by her chic mom). I’ve seen a 12-year-old with better fashion sense than some grown women. But they have this weird obsession with things that Americans (much less fashionable) gave up years ago. It’s bizarre. And brings me to:

-Scooters. There are so many of these. I’m convinced that every other kid in France has one. Remember how every kid in America wanted one, got one, played with it for 10 minutes and now they’ve been gone for a couple of years? Still going strong in France. How odd.

On the other side, things I actually do miss, having been gone for three weeks:

-Family and friends. Obviously.

-Milk. It’s not pasteurized. Gross.

-Ice cubes. They only come in restaurants if you ask. And even then you only get two or three cubes unless you specifically ask for a lot. Definitely never at home.

-Diet Coke (and regular Coke). They have Coca Light here but it doesn’t taste the same. And Coke is pretty close (much more so than Diet Coke) but it’s still a little off.

-English. I know the whole point of being here is to learn better French, and we’re definitely doing that. But sometimes it would be really nice to be able to have a conversation with anyone I meet, not just the 8 people here with me.

-Weather that actually adheres to a weather forecast, or is at least somewhat consistent.

-My cat.

-Having more than 5 shirts to choose from in my wardrobe. Or not feeling like I’m always wearing the same thing but in different colors.

-Football. It’s easy to forget it’s going on when you’re being herded through yet another chateau early on a Saturday morning, but I do miss it. Boo.

-Having a dryer. Washing clothes here requires a bit of planning ahead. Otherwise I might find myself without any dry pants to wear to class. This has not yet happened, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it does at some point.

-Sleeping in a bed bigger than a twin.

I’m missing less than I thought I would. It’s all more of an adjustment than an actual loss or missing of something. It’s hard to be upset over the loss of Chick-fil-a when I have a great boulangerie at the end of my block. I’m even starting to make friends with the people who work there. Which is good, considering they’re going to see me every day for the next three months. :)

I need to go, since we have a visit to the Louvre today, and I need to catch the train. But rest assured, France is great. And I miss y'all. And the word y'all.