Firsts

This is my first time in Paris, but aside from that there have been a lot of firsts for me on this trip.  They include:


1. First macaron today! Vanilla.  Yummy.  Reeeeally big!

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, so I'm providing this photo instead.

2. First time ordering wine with dinner when underaged.

3. First time ordering wine with dinner when 21.

4. First time in Europe!

5. First time in a discotheque (or a club that wasn't having an 18 and over night).

6. First time eating pâte:

Ours was more cooked than this, but you get the idea.

7. First time being robbed (see Christine et Le Voleur)

8. First time First time eating kidneys (see Les Rognons) bleh!

9. Frist time taking all of my classes in another language.

10.  First time visiting a cemetery to take pictures of/with graves:

Molière et moi.

C'est une ville des morts!

The most popular kid in the cemetery: Oscar Wilde.

Ten is a good even number for this list, so I'm going to stop there.  I do have one or two things to add to my "A=Q, W=Z, and M is a Semicolon" list of things that make France different from America.

1. Starting with a slight repetition from the last list, I have still yet to see a French person with a poodle.  Instead they own dogs that they can fit in their purses and put stylish sweaters and raincoats on.  Thanks a heap 101 Dalmatians.

2. You are required by law to have a medical certificate that says you are approved to play a sport.  This includes signing up to take yoga classes at a gym.  If you want to play multiple sports, you must provide multiple certificates.  Also, students are required to have a medical exam by a French doctor upon arrival, otherwise we are considered to be here illegally.  Included in this medical exam is an obligatory chest x-ray.  Apparently these are part of every French person's regular check-up.

3. French people exaggerate everything.  If you don't like something, you use the verb detester, which means to hate.  If you think something is pretty bad, you use the word catastrophe.  It is important, though, to keep in mind that words in French are not always strict parallels of the English form of the word.  For example, to say that something is lamentable is the worst comment you could make about that something.  In English, to say something is lamentable, is more like saying, "Gosh, it's really too bad about that thing."  It's unfortunate, not deplorable and horrid.  One of the challenges in my translation class will be fishing out these "faux soeurs," or false sisters.

4. Table manners differ slightly from what I've been told to do all my life.  I remember very clearly when I was younger being told never to put my elbows on the table.  The safe alternative then became to place my free hand on my lap.  In France, this is considered the hight of rudeness.  Who knows what you could be doing with your hand under there?? You must place your hands on the table at all times, preferably with wrists resting on the edge of the table, putting you in what I think of as a position of readiness to pounce on whatever food comes your way.

5. Fur+Parisians=LOVE.  Paris loves a good fur coat, hat, pair of shoes, purse, whatever! Fake or real (but mostly real), if it is fur a Parisian will want it on their body.  In America, fur has become a major no-no ever since PETA reminded everyone that their warm mink once had big glossy eyes and a tiny thumping heart with hopes and dreams of its own.  Parisians do not bat an eyelash at that sob story.  There is a PETA France (with a website and everything), but it's pretty hard to compete with a long standing tradition of fur wearing.  The other night, I was walking home in my neighborhood of Neuilly--probably the most posh of all the Paris suburbs--and I saw a woman walking her (little) dog in white tennis shoes, jeans, and a beautiful brown fur coat.  Too legit to quit.

As you can tell, I'm becoming quite the observer! At our orientation (or at least the part of orientation that I made it to) they emphasized that we should observe and imitate in order to survive.  I'm certainly observing a lot, I just hope I'm doing a good job of imitating.  Wouldn't want to seem too different in a society ruled by the principle of assimilation.