When you are living in a new country, a new environment, or just having new experiences in general, it’s pretty much guaranteed that you are going to have to adjust.
I have made some adjustments to this experience that I have attributed to living in France/Europe, living in a city, and things where I think, “no, that’s just me.”
To explain, I have divided the categories as such.
Living In France
First off, the obvious: hearing and speaking French most of the time (unless you are me and are taking all of your courses in English, so maybe half the time)
Measurements – a category by itself
- Say goodbye to thinking in pounds, ounces, inches, feet, miles, Fahrenheit, the 12-hour clock, and American Dollars for 4 and a half months.
- Familiarize yourself with these: grams, liters, meters, Celsius, 24h, and of course, Euros. You now weigh a certain number of kilograms, your beer is in centiliters, and the table is meters, not feet, away. I pride myself that the first three are getting easy and the 24h time and Euros are now second nature, though I still need a calculator for the Euro to Dollar conversion and vice versa. Thinking in Celsius still gives me trouble. It’s 11˚ C? Nope, still doesn’t register right away.
- Also! Slide in the ground floor (le rez-de-chaussée) under the first floor. Floors are called des étages. For example, I live on the 6eme étage.
Bureaucracy
Parisians do not seem to have a law about picking up after their dogs. Ahem.
You cannot walk on the grass, unless you are in a park and the area is specifically marked.
There is a distinct lack of color
Kissing cheeks when greeting and departing - left, then right.
Wearing Scarves all of the time
French police sirens
Saying “Pardon” for everything
Street signs (I believe I explained this in an earlier post)
Spacing in phone numbers – there are still ten digits, but they are spaced differently, i.e. U.S.: XXX-XXX-XXXX FR: XX XX XX XX XX
Actually, numbers in general. Decimals are now commas and commas are now decimals. Don’t confuse them. U.S.: $2,000.00 FR: 2.000,00€ (and of course, the two do not equate. $2,000 US dollars is about 1.433,58€, according to the online calculator I use. Spend money responsibly.)
Keyboards – bring your own computer, it’s hard enough to remember where the accent shortcuts are on the American keyboard when typing in French.
Paper is slightly longer. Random, but I guess it has something to do with being measured in centimeters and not inches.
Hors Service means that the device you are trying to use is Out of Order.
Libre Service at the Laundromat (la laverie) does not mean that the laundry service is free. Self Service. You are free to do it yourself.
Everyone apart from you seems to live off of bottled water, even though the tap water is perfectly potable.
The Monoprix is not open on Sunday. (why, why, why??)
Living in a City
Riding the metro and walking everywhere
Pigeons
Traffic and crosswalks – the lights are more like guidelines: If no cars are in sight, book it across the street. The little green neon walking man won’t necessarily prevent that car from slowing down in time, so take notice of your surroundings.
Cigarettes
Never seeing the stars
A tiny apartment without an elevator
Quiet hours; your neighbors can hear you.
Surrounded by people all of the time
Seeing homeless people or des S.D.F., (sans domicile fixe, meaning without a fixed residence) as they are called here.
Just Me
Being of legal drinking age – It took me a couple of weeks to be comfortable with buying alcoholic beverages, not to mention that no one has once asked to see my I.D. That will surely change when I get home.
Leather boots are now your everyday shoes – and mine won’t. stop. squeaking. I now think twice about crossing my ankles in class, but occasionally it is still wince-worthy.
Not wearing a stitch of denim for 4 and a half months. At least my wardrobe was already significantly black.
A low-standing mattress that is not much more than a futon pad, and scratchy blankets. The sheets are nice enough. I brought my own set as well and a homemade blanket too, but I can’t wait to get back to memory foam.
Limited dishes. I have what I need, but for the most part only one or two of each thing. I am washing dishes constantly.
I don’t think I need to further discuss my hot plate issues.
My wifi is not my default connection. I need to connect to the Internet every time I turn my computer on or wake it up. I know, this is a small thing to think about, and there may be a simple way to fix this, but I am not technologically savvy.
Filing a police report for my stolen skis (Yeahhh didn’t mention that in the skiing post. It was awful, I had just left them on the ground for a few minutes while we were preparing to leave, turned around and they were gone. The police station wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined at least. The officer even said my French was far better than his English.)
On that note, having a ski goggle tan hasn’t been a piece of cake either – having a cherry red nose and a tan face below the line under my cheekbones for a few weeks hasn’t amused me much. It is fading though.
Now, you must not think that I am complaining. Goodness no. It has just been a lot to take on. Although there are things that have been difficult to adjust to, there are many more things about France that I will miss.
Food. Great goodness the food. Crêpes and pita grec of course, French mayonnaise, the hot chocolate I buy, authentic baguettes, chèvre, and wine, and the chocolate is much tastier here.
Going to the market every Sunday morning
Being surrounded by architecture and historical landmarks
There is a “spirit” to this city that is nearly tangible, and on my best days, I feel it resonating in me. I will miss that.
Of course, I will have a better idea what I will miss once I have actually left, I am much too close to all of this now; I suppose I take it for granted sometimes.
Hope this makes up for not writing for a while. I am going to start making dinner soon, a bit early for France, but oh well. I have plans to mix a Swiss dish with an Irish accompaniment: a Raclette dinner with potatoes, sausage, and bread (Raclette is a type of cheese you melt and pour over your meal, usually the sort of food I described), and a Guinness. To my friends and family back home in the U.S., Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
À Bientôt!
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