Parlez-vous Franglais?

One week in France!
A really fun week (no classes or any obligations, which was a great break from my usual Notre Dame schedule haha). It was great getting to know everyone in my group (called "SUNDEF 44"--Notre Dame's program here in Angers that is in its 44th year!). There are 16 of us for spring semester and 7 or 8 who are here the whole year. We had a lot of late-night bonding and it was a lot of fun, learning more about everyone and finding that many of my initial stereotypes were totally wrong. People are so complex and interesting--a valuable lesson in not believing first impressions.
I really like the number thing I've been doing, so I'm just going to keep on doing it even though there's really no rhyme or reason; more discoveries and adventures!

1)There's an odd mix of English and French in written and spoken language. For example, in many magazines and advertisements, English phrases will be used, without quotations, interspersed with French. It's quite bizarre, and I think I would be kinda pissed off if, for example, I was reading an English newspaper and random Italian or Spanish phrases were in it. It's like French people are EXPECTED to know English. And French youth here know some American music better than I do--learning the lyrics to songs even if they have no clue what it means. It's kind of funny because sometimes I don't even know what the words are to lots of rap songs, and I'll have some of the French people I met asking me what the lyrics to some Lil Wayne songs mean. When I meet other French college students, we often speak a mix of the two languages--they want to practice their English and I want to practice my French. I find it a little bit annoying, however, when I try to speak French and the person won't even attempt to humor me. I'm waiting for the day when they won't be able to tell :)

2) This week is going to be "classes shopping week." We get a week to go to as many classes we want and try them out, and then make our final class selections next monday. Kind cool if you ask me.

3) It's hard remembering to talk French to my fellow Domers. Sometimes we'll start out speaking French and then you'll have something exciting to say and the native tongue returns. BUT I did have a dream in French a couple nights ago...progress!

4) I LOVE discovering cool words in French. It's really just a fun language. Two of my favorites are pamplemousse (grapefruit) and hippopotame (take a wild guess...and it's pronounced "ee-po-po-tahm"). (side note: if you want to see the CUTEST YOUTUBE VIDEO EVERRRRR, GO HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miv-ZEmwtVg) The French language is funny in that sometimes they borrow English and turn it into something French-esque, sometimes they use English words (all the youth say "cool"), and sometimes they completely make up a new word, for various reasons (there is no "computer" because part of it is a French swear word, so they use "ordinateur" instead).

5) My group is deciding where to go for our 2 week long spring break in the middle of april. Suggestions welcome. Right now we're thinking austria, croatia, greece, and turkey.

6) Energy is really expensive in France, so my family keeps the house pretty chilly, and we shut the doors to our bedrooms to keep warm air in. The cold hallways are one way of waking yourself up in the morning. Lights are NEVER kept on when not in use, and appliances are unplugged. All of this makes me realize how wasteful we are in the U.S. This is going to sound weird, but I wish our dirty energy sources would be taxed more to make people conserve more, and then the government could use the money to invest in clean and renewable energy. ok sorry for that, back to French-related stuff now :)

7)I had a French doctor appointment because I had hurt my left foot in NYC a bit. It was quite different than in the U.S. The doctor's office was in a residential apartment. His name was Dr. English, even though HE DIDN'T SPEAK ENGLISH. sorry. rant. Anyways, he checked out my foot, and gave me a couple prescriptions and I was out the door. When I came in, they didn't need any of my info. no forms to fill out at all. The whole appointment took 10 minutes. I paid 20 euro for it. French citizens carry a "health card" that digitally carries all of their information on it--which prescriptions you're taking and who it's prescribed by, your insurance info, health history, etc. I think it's a really great idea--no arriving 15 minutes early to fill out all your info, and it would be a lot harder for people to shop around for prescription painkillers and the like because it would show on your card. Which brings me to number 8:

8) I finally talked politics/world events with my family, which I found to be incredibly fascinating (I AM a polisci/european studies major...). I asked what they thought about Obama: they mostly liked him, they disliked Bush, but they aren't obsessed with Obama like literally all Europeans are...I'm not kidding. Lots of people ask me about Obama, and there were Obama t-shirts at some of the stores here! My host mother did share with me that she found Mr. Obama to be very, very, very attractive haha. Alain and Chantal (my host parents) labelled themselves as right-wing--Sarkozy is ehh, they didn't really like Chirac that much, they would never vote for LePen, an extremist right wing politician. Alain, who owns his own shipping business, didn't like the constraints of the socialist system (French people are limited to a 35 hour work week and copious vacation time)and the very high taxes. Alain dislikes the U.S. financial system for the recession, and both are worried about China's dominance in the world.
The political dialogue is very very different in France--things that are important in American politics ("moral issues" like abortion, gay marriage, or even religion itself are almost never present in politics. Religion is a private thing, and one would never use religious arguments in the public square). France has a multi-party system with a complete political spectrum (everywhere from politicians advocating a communist uprising to LePen, who advocated throwing out of France anyone who wasn't of basically pure-French blood and having very high tariffs to protect the French identity). Both Alain and Chantal agreed that American politicians weren't at all that different. I asked them what they thought of their healthcare system, and they like it and said they think Americans are stupid for not having universal healthcare, which I thought was interesting since they said they both consider themselves right-wing. Chantal said that doctors are "very, very well paid" and that their quality of care is good.

9)The family is VERY well-travelled and it's really interesting to hear their stories. One of their sons took a year and biked around the world with a friend and made a movie/documentary about it. He biked across Europe, then Turkey, then through Iran, and THE HIMALAYAS (!!!), Nepal, Pakistan, India, Thailand, China, then to South America, and on and on. Apparently they would just knock on doors and ask if they could sleep at people's houses! Incredible. It makes me wonder what I'm doing with my life ;)

10) The farmer's markets are unbelievable--every single day there's one, all year round. The biggest was on Saturday, and we got there towards the end of it but the farmer's market was about as big as entire city block; you could find every kind of food there (4 different stands for just honey!). The French place such importance on fresh, unprocessed food(don't even think about day-old bread!). It gives farmers a better price for their goods too. Another, related, thing about Angers is its uniqueness. There are a few chain grocery stores, but the most part, independent business abound--stylish little boutiques, bookstores, tons of bread stores, on and on. So refreshing compared to the big-box stores in America.

11) There is an absurd ratio of pastry shops and chocolateries to people in Angers. For a population of 150,000, there are like 10 exclusively chocolate shops I've seen, in addition to COUNTLESS pastry shops, bread stores, and cheese shops. Is this heaven? No, it's France.

Tomorrow's the first day of class, so bon soiree!
Bisous,
Claire