Hi again!
Possibly the last post from me a little bit – I have my oral
defense of my memoir next week so I really need to start focusing on that and
writing my memoir. I’ll update when I can, but no promises.
Anyways, something I’ve been thinking about a lot have been
the expectations I had had for Paris before coming here, and how they’ve
changed after living here for 3 months (which, let’s be honest, is crazy to
think about). I’ve realized that I had a lot of stereotypes in mind before
travelling, and that looking back now there are also some things that I wouldn’t
have expected.
1, The French are rude: While yes, this is generally true, I’ve come
across people who have genuinely surprised me. When I first got to Paris and
had to buy my metro pass, the lady at the metro station walked me through the
whole process and made sure I understood everything. After work one day, I went
to my favorite chocolatier (which also sells macarons), and when I asked one of
the sales people if I could sample a broken macaron (technically you can’t sell
a broken one), she gave me a perfect macaron of her favorite flavor and smiled
at me. Last week, I had the opportunity
to go to an art exposition inauguration (no big deal, right?) at the Institut
du Monde Arabe, which has one of the best rooftop views of Paris. While I didn’t
have an invitation to the inauguration party, the man at the entrance told me
how to get to the terrace on the roof. From there the guard manning the terrace
entrance let me go out there for a few minutes despite not being a paying
customer at the café or being part of the party. So really, not all Parisians
are that bad – sometimes you just need to ask for help.
2, I would travel all the time: Before leaving the States, I
had a big picture idea of what my semester would be like. I would take classes,
then intern, and over the weekend I would jet off to different cities in
different countries just because I could. As of this weekend, it’s been a month
since I’ve left Paris. As much as I’d like to travel, I just don’t have the
time and energy that I thought I would. During
the week, I’m at the office about 8 hours a day, plus our weekly seminar after
work. By the time I get home, it’s usually almost time for dinner and then I
get a few hours to myself before going to bed. When the weekend comes around,
all I want to do is sleep or run the errands I forgot to do during the week.
Plus if I really wanted to take advantage of visiting a new city, I would have
to leave early Saturday and come back late Sunday, which to me is rather crazy.
And I’m glad it’s worked out this way. I’m still getting chances to travel, but
I’m also getting to see more of Paris, and the less touristy side of things.
Every day I fall more and more in love with this city, and I can’t even think
about leaving it now (we’ll worry about that later).
3, I would only have French friends: This one was a stretch,
but I was really hoping to meet French people my age to get to know and to talk
with in French. Unfortunately, my foyer is full of international students,
which makes it harder to meet French people. And even when I meet French
people, sometimes they want to speak in English as to improve their language
skills. Even though I haven’t met the people I thought I would, I’ve made some
good friends here and I’m still grateful for that.
I’ll probably add to this list soon, but those were the big
ones I could think of at the moment. But in other news, today was 70+ degrees (Fahrenheit)
and absolutely wonderful. We sat by the Seine for hours just enjoying the
weather and the people around us. Paris never ceases to amaze me.
Dana
P.S. anyone get the title reference?
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