Just a few reflections

I started carrying around a little pocket journal everywhere I go for things like phone numbers and addresses, but it has become something I don't leave the home without now. And what's funny is that almost all the exchange students I know do the same thing. It is just a little journal that I write things in that I don't want to forget at that moment. (I seem to be forgetting a lot of things lately, primarily how to speak English) So I will share with you some of the things I have picked up on since living in France. And I will add more as I figure them out.

In Paris...
-the sidewalk shakes when the metro goes underneath
-im not sure if taking leftovers home from a restaurant is acceptable

In Aix:
-woke up to a street performer outside my window, it was quite pleasant

-I eat a baguette a day, the way I see it, if I don't half of it will go bad by tomorrow

-phonetics class is pointless

-I feel dumb because I only know English, everyone else here knows at least two languages plus french

-french people insert "en fait" (in fact) into sentences all the time. It is similar to "like" and does not make much sense. I picked up on it when french people speaking english insert "in fact" into their english sentences. Even the teachers say it and it is very distracting.

-driving is stupidly expensive

-faire la bise....
   - the kiss: everyone knows french people kiss cheeks as a greeting, but it is so much more complicated than that. The number changes, which cheek you start with changes, who you do it to changes, and when it is appropriate. They are teaching us what to do in school so we dont look so dumb. In the south, it is two kisses, starting with the left cheek, given every time you arrive at a party or among a group of friends. It is acceptable with older people but not teachers, ex: Ok with my landlady and her husband, but not with my neighbor... also, men give each other la bise in the south. It is rare in other parts of france but here, men give each other kisses if it is family or friends. I went to a house party the other night and there must have been 15 people, half girls. Whenever a new guy arrived, he kissed each girl twice, even if he didnt know them (me), kissed the guys he knew, and shook hands with the guys he didnt. It is very confusing...

- boys call each other "poulet" which means chicken. It is a friendly term like "mate", but usually given at the beginning or end of a conversation.

-it is rare to find a bathroom that has 1)a toilet seat and 2) toilet paper. If you find them both in one stall, you win... our school for example has one bathroom with 4 stalls, coed, and only 2 toilets have seats. They also only stock toilet paper on the weekends so by tuesday afternoon you are screwed. I had the great idea to use the door handle to help me squat instead of wasting energy actually holding myself up, only to realize that the door didnt lock either and opened inwards... next thing I knew I was halfway in the toilet with my pants around my knees with the door open inwards, the guy washing his hands was modest enough to just walk away....

- teachers dont care if they keep you late, you can be in class with one teacher for 3 hours and when it finally comes time to leave, they conveniently are unable to hear the many chimes of the massive clocktowers outside...

- the national symbol of France is the coq (rooster), im not sure why. But in france, roosters dont say "cock a doodle doo!", they say "co co ri co!" It is common to hear people chanting this at games because it symbolizes "vive la france!" also, dogs dont say "woof" they say "whoa  whoa whoa" (im serious Brooke)