Surprises, French, and the French

So just a quick little entry. Not much has been going on in the past couple of days, mostly school, a little bit of sightseeing (Pantheon, the Memorial to the Deported from WWII, St. Etienne du Mont) and a good amount of shopping. Went to the most FABULOUS epicerie (grocery store) here (Le Grande Epicerie of Bon Marche), but that's about it. So I thought this entry could be about things that I didn't expect when I came to Paris.

In general, I consider myself to be a pretty well informed person. Before I came I read tons of guide books, learned a little French, read about proper tourist protocol, and talked to a lot of people about what to expect. I also feel like a blase attitude was essential for surviving. It's summed up in the statement, "What happens, happens." I tried not to expect anything, and in turn, I wasn't too phased when things went wrong.

I think the worse piece of information I recieved was from a friend who said, "Oh don't worry about not speaking French, everyone there speaks English anyways, you'll get by just fine." In his defense, a lot of my friends complain that no one will speak to them in French, they all want to speak English to them. In my case, however, this was very untrue. I can count on one hand the amount of times people have spoken English to me (these being people who aren't in the program and who aren't Americans, British people, etc.). Most of the time, people start speaking French to me, I look confused and say something like "Je ne sais pas" or "Je ne comprar pas" (I don't know, and I don't understand, respectively) and they continue to speak to me in French. Sometimes I even speak English to them, and they continue in French. Maybe I look too French, or more likely, like an idiot French person. On the positive side, I have become an expert at reading what people are telling me from their expressions, hand movements, and tone of voice. Most of the time, I think I'm correct, at least by the fact that whenever I do what they want, they look satisfied.

So yes, the language barrier is an adventure everyday. It's not that bad, as most of the time I can sound out the words of what I want. Everytime I order something in a restaurant in French and the waiter understands is a little triumph. It gets better everyday.

As for the weather, from what I had heard about weather in France, I had only heard about the heat waves that Paris went through a couple of summers ago when everyone died. I was worried about the fact that our apartment had no air conditioner when I arrived. My fears were unjustified though. It is almost unchangeably cold, rainy, and windy. Most days the temperature does not go above 75 degrees F. The temperature today was around 55 as the low. Although it is cold, it wouldn't be so bad if not for the wind. Some days we have 30 mph winds! I was not prepared for that. I had no pants when I got here, only skirts and dresses. Now I have one pair of pants, and a couple of sweaters. I only had one jacket when I arrived, which, luckily, my mom insisted on me taking as I was walking out of the door in Tallahassee. I see it as an excuse to go shopping, if nothing else. At the end of July, the government opens the plages of Paris, where they turn the banks of the Seine into beaches with imported sand and everything. Hopefully, it will be warm by then and I will actually get to take advantage of them!

Not really something I didn't expect, but something that's funny anyways is this special insurance I had to sign up for when I got here. Basically, France has no fault personal insurance. What this means is that if you accidently knock over an old lady when you are running to catch a metro and she breaks a hip, she can't sue you and all of your descendants for all you're worth. As long as it was an accident! This cuts down on a lot of the lawsuits of that kind that we have in America. My friends and I joke that if someone is annoying us, we can "accidently" push them down. Well, that sounds cruel, but you get the point.

That's about all I can think of right now. I think we are all adjusting quite well here. Today my roommate Andrea was excited because someone on the subway thought she was a Parisian today. I am no longer convinced that I will starve on Sundays when everything is closed, and I know how to get around on the Metro or the RER (high speed train) like the back of my hand. In general, things are good!

Thanks for all the emails. Send any questions my way. I will try to respond in a timely fashion!
Love to all, Em