Bonjour tout le monde!
Well, I can't promise to match the excitement or photographic content of the last couple of posts, but I'll share with you a couple of my fun French experiences and some notes on the culture I'm living in right now.
One of the subtle differences in France is the way one conducts oneself with salespeople. It is very rude to enter/exit a store without saying "bonjour" and "au revoir" and/or "bon journee". Not only that, but in many stores the salespeople are on the whole much more helpful and chatty. At home, generally my experience has been that a salesperson will have to be sought out for help, but here they are often happy for some conversation, giving advice, and helping you find what you need. Not only that, but the French are habitual people, going often to the same cafes and boulangeries, and the workers there tend to be full time so that you get to know them all a bit. There are one or two places here in Grenoble I frequent--a boulangerie/cafe, and a little pasta place, as well as a burger place--and there I always receive acknowledgement and chat a little with the salespeople/cashiers. Quite different from in the US, where one doesn't generally get to know the people at the local places, and we try to be as distant as possible from eachother.
Living with a French family, I get to see lots of little things that differentiate the way they function from the way I've grown up--there are plenty of similarities, too. Apparently in England there's a big hit book about how the French raise perfect children. This is not true. They raise normal children. They have the same punishments--no TV, bed early, no computer--and their kids, like anywhere else, are sometimes lovely and sometimes frustrating. They do have, however the benefit of no school on Wednesdays, which I wish I had in elementary school! And they still come home for lunch. Plus, this being Grenoble, the older girl has ski with her school on Fridays! Skiing! I never even had swim!
One thing that I do very much prefer back home is how university functions. BU is far more specific, organized, transparent, and challenging than anything at Stendhal. My professors are both very good, but are not teaching the most coherent courses, and don't even have syllabi. The classes are interesting, but disorganized, and I miss in class discussions and actual specific reading assignments--here students are just expected to read the material on their own time, and I'm never sure where I"m supposed to be in a book. Plus, I miss extracurriculars and student life! There are some clubs at the university but they are few and far between and poorly advertised. This is all, of course, probably also part of the fact that we pay 50,000 a year for BU and French students go for free.
Despite all that, I do enjoy my classes, and I am learning. My French has definitely improved, and I understand much more easily what is going on around me, and can speak more fluently.
Oh, and I have news for you all! Our spring break is coming up at the end of April---and I'll be going to Fez and Rabat, Morocco! So excited!
Bisous,
Miriam
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