It's Saturday and I'm not afraid to let you know that I stayed in tonight with my new friend, Stanley the $6 bonsai tree. I was supposed to take part in round 2 of this weekend's Paris nightlife: the danceclub. After another really late Friday night out and a splitting afternoon headache -- due to my having had no water in about 48 hours and, I'll admit, the cup of Bartles & James-esque "wine" that I was half-forced to drink last night -- I decided to take a little time to pull myself together. Better to be fun every time you go out than to go out every time just to appear fun, right?
Big news today is that I got a cell phone! Yay. Looks like I'm going to have to learn to text message a little faster because buying minutes here is très cher. Although, the salesman didn't quite agree with me when I exclaimed that in the store. "C'est le prix (that's the price)," he said. I'm not sure what kind of argument c'est le prix is supposed to be. It may be the price, but it's still expensive. Anyway, I posted the number on the right so you'd have it in case you need it. Receiving calls is free so don't worry that you're putting me in the poor house minute by minute. I guess that won't exactly be so cheap for anyone of you either . . . so Skype's probably the best unless it's an emergency -- like someone is in the hospital or you can't decide which shoes to wear with your new dress.
Last night I went to a party in a real live Parisian apartment with real live Parisian people. I did a great job of practising my French in the beginning with an artist lady and a guy, who seems to have a complicated job because it took him about 3 minutes to explain it. Unfortunately, I didn't exactly understand what he was saying. Oops. I also think that the artist lady invited me to another party or concert soon. I'm going to have to follow up with the girl who threw the party to figure that one out. Maybe next weekend I will be wearing all black and philosophizing avec musicians and visionaries.
Today was filled with cell phone getting and a brief language lesson at Show Gourmand. I ordered my café au lait, which I've gathered is really called a café crème. I wanted it to go, and I tried to express that fact to the lady making the coffee. So I asked if I could have it "pour aller?" (my literal translation of "to go" -- thanks a lot google). From her look, I knew I wasn't even close. Then, a second lady says something to the first about language or lesson or, really, I have no idea. I then tried my own version of "paper cup." The first lady held up a napkin.
When they realized that I wasn't asking for a napkin, it prompted them to start guessing about my nationality. Vous êtes allemande (German), espagnole (Spanish)? Ah! No, "Je suis américaine." Now, where was I? I was totally thrown off course. Okay, let's try "I want to take it outside." "Oh, yes, you can take it outside." I looked to where she pointed and saw tables on the sidewalk behind me. Not quite there. "I want to take it outside and go away." I accompanied this statement with little walking fingers. "Oh, à emporter!" "Oui! À emporter!" At this exclamation, the two ladies looked very proud, as if they'd manage to drag me safely out of a terrible language swamp. Coffee went from porcelain to paper cup.
I've quickly come to realize how truly amazing communication, even on the most basic level, is. The French people have been so wonderful about teaching me how to parler. Rarely does anyone speak English to me and they are very patient in trying to understand what I'm attempting to say. And, each time I have a eureka! moment with someone, he or she seems genuinely pleased that I've learned to speak a little better.
Even people at the grocery store are helpful. For example, a man took it upon himself to explain to me that I didn't need to weigh a cucumber because cucumbers are sold by the piece. Thank goodness because there was not a picture of a cucumber anywhere on the scale, and I would have stood there for a long time trying to figure out what to do.
All of this helpfulness makes it easier to get along slowly but surely. I've dicovered that I have a million other cultural things to learn about my classmates as well. Swiss people get three kisses, while just about everyone else gets two. Greeks believe that if you drink the last of a botte of wine that you will have a good wedding. Asians don't usually appreciate you diving into personal questions after 5 minutes or, in some cases, ever. In China, it seems that chocolate pudding doesn't exist because my friend from Shanghai bought some thinking it was yogurt. When he discovered it wasn't, he put it on a salad assuming it was "salad sauce." The French take the word "hamburger" literally and sometimes make hamburgers out of ham. That was a rather unpleasant discovery. I also learned that I've been holding my chopsticks wrong for years and that in Japan you can hold your rice bowl off of the table, but in Korea people consider it rude.
Big news today is that I got a cell phone! Yay. Looks like I'm going to have to learn to text message a little faster because buying minutes here is très cher. Although, the salesman didn't quite agree with me when I exclaimed that in the store. "C'est le prix (that's the price)," he said. I'm not sure what kind of argument c'est le prix is supposed to be. It may be the price, but it's still expensive. Anyway, I posted the number on the right so you'd have it in case you need it. Receiving calls is free so don't worry that you're putting me in the poor house minute by minute. I guess that won't exactly be so cheap for anyone of you either . . . so Skype's probably the best unless it's an emergency -- like someone is in the hospital or you can't decide which shoes to wear with your new dress.
Last night I went to a party in a real live Parisian apartment with real live Parisian people. I did a great job of practising my French in the beginning with an artist lady and a guy, who seems to have a complicated job because it took him about 3 minutes to explain it. Unfortunately, I didn't exactly understand what he was saying. Oops. I also think that the artist lady invited me to another party or concert soon. I'm going to have to follow up with the girl who threw the party to figure that one out. Maybe next weekend I will be wearing all black and philosophizing avec musicians and visionaries.
Today was filled with cell phone getting and a brief language lesson at Show Gourmand. I ordered my café au lait, which I've gathered is really called a café crème. I wanted it to go, and I tried to express that fact to the lady making the coffee. So I asked if I could have it "pour aller?" (my literal translation of "to go" -- thanks a lot google). From her look, I knew I wasn't even close. Then, a second lady says something to the first about language or lesson or, really, I have no idea. I then tried my own version of "paper cup." The first lady held up a napkin.
When they realized that I wasn't asking for a napkin, it prompted them to start guessing about my nationality. Vous êtes allemande (German), espagnole (Spanish)? Ah! No, "Je suis américaine." Now, where was I? I was totally thrown off course. Okay, let's try "I want to take it outside." "Oh, yes, you can take it outside." I looked to where she pointed and saw tables on the sidewalk behind me. Not quite there. "I want to take it outside and go away." I accompanied this statement with little walking fingers. "Oh, à emporter!" "Oui! À emporter!" At this exclamation, the two ladies looked very proud, as if they'd manage to drag me safely out of a terrible language swamp. Coffee went from porcelain to paper cup.
I've quickly come to realize how truly amazing communication, even on the most basic level, is. The French people have been so wonderful about teaching me how to parler. Rarely does anyone speak English to me and they are very patient in trying to understand what I'm attempting to say. And, each time I have a eureka! moment with someone, he or she seems genuinely pleased that I've learned to speak a little better.
Even people at the grocery store are helpful. For example, a man took it upon himself to explain to me that I didn't need to weigh a cucumber because cucumbers are sold by the piece. Thank goodness because there was not a picture of a cucumber anywhere on the scale, and I would have stood there for a long time trying to figure out what to do.
All of this helpfulness makes it easier to get along slowly but surely. I've dicovered that I have a million other cultural things to learn about my classmates as well. Swiss people get three kisses, while just about everyone else gets two. Greeks believe that if you drink the last of a botte of wine that you will have a good wedding. Asians don't usually appreciate you diving into personal questions after 5 minutes or, in some cases, ever. In China, it seems that chocolate pudding doesn't exist because my friend from Shanghai bought some thinking it was yogurt. When he discovered it wasn't, he put it on a salad assuming it was "salad sauce." The French take the word "hamburger" literally and sometimes make hamburgers out of ham. That was a rather unpleasant discovery. I also learned that I've been holding my chopsticks wrong for years and that in Japan you can hold your rice bowl off of the table, but in Korea people consider it rude.
In return, I've tried to be a good ambassador for the South. About half of the class understands "y'all" now and I've promised them fried food, chess pie, tea punch and mint juleps before the year is up. I've also fielded some English language etiquette questions, and I talk very slowly. Just my way of giving back.
2 comments:
oh my you had me laughing outloud so much allie! love you!
I like your French poodle on the phone!
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