Le Bon et Le Mal

Wow, i feel like i haven't written in some time...a good two weeks i suppose. i've gotten to the point now where i hate english. and i'm still frustrated. it's funny, the only thing i'm frustrated with is my speaking...everything else is alright, it's gettin' there. i feel like there is no one (meaning friends wise) who is patient enough to speak STRICTLY french with me. and i think in english. i think allll the time, so i've been trying to think in french...sometimes it works but eventually i go back to my racing english-thoughts. sighhhhh. i've been here for 6 weeks now (only been in school for 2) but godddd damn, i don't see a significant improvement in my speaking...well at least not one comparable to my oral comprehension and writing skills...whatever, i could go on and cry about this more and mention other depressing things, but i'll just ask you (whoever reads this...so i'll just assume i'm talking to myself), what should i do?! yes, i watch french films, yes i listen to french music, yes i read french things...but that doesnt help speaking...i guess i need to find someone who can practice with me? i have half a mind to ask my landlady...but nah, i'd feel silly. any advice anyone? (and don't say "practice, practice, practice," cuz i know that, duh.)

Anyway, on a slightly different thought, i've been noticing little differences between french culture and american culture that some would probably find unimportant, but it matters to me, so i'm going to mention them:

French Culture Positive Things

* La Mode-fashion-the boys here dress significantly better (no, not in a gay way) as well as the girls. it inspires me to step up and look fashionable too, a thing i like to do. i appreciate a good outfit, something i feel like is only important in New York or L.A. back home. in Asheville i felt overdressed sometimes, compared to the dirty hippies everywhere who think it's ok to wear a knee-length skirt over baggy, ripped jeans complete with socks and sandals...or crocs. ewwww, don't even want to think about that.

* The street cleanliness- there is barely any trash anywhere on the streets, something you don't realize unless you think about it....plus the buildings are beautiful as well, everything here is beautiful.

* The food- sure, i can't get a $1 taco the size of my arm at 2 am here, but everything is better quality. even things like mayonnaise are amazing...i've been slathering it on thick (dylan would be so proud!). their vegetables are soooo good, and cheap. they have the juiciest tomatoes ever, the sweetest cantaloupes, which are only about the size of a grapefruit for some reason, and cornichons! omg, i've developed a gross habit of eating half a jar in one night...they're like mini pickles but better...a bit more tangy and have more of a vinegary bite, and they throw in mini onions sometimes too! so good! apparently they're called gherkins in english, but i never noticed them until i got here...and people eat them allll the time here with their meals...or for me, it IS my meal. don't even get me started on the pastries...ok, maybe just a bit. me and suz went to a bakery the other day and got a small pastry or tartelette, a cake-ish/cookie-ish crust topped with the most fluffy, creamy, perfectly rich crême, which was topped with fresh strawberries in some kind of syrup. oh dear god, i could've eaten every single one in bakery and then told the lady to go in the back and make 10 more. i think the key is the "whipped cream." i feel ashamed calling it that because those stupid english words do no justice to this creamy dollop of cloud nine. but, since i lack all culinary vocabulary, that was the first thing that popped into my mind. anyway, it's the key. it's extremely fluffy, but thick, but not too thick, and is light but rich and perfectly sweetened. and then the fresh strawberries. jesus, i've never tasted a strawberry so juicy before. i ate it in about a minute, walking down the street with stuff all over my face. it was awesome.

* public transportation/being green- why aren't we funding awesome public transportation? there's buses all the time (except after 8ish), taxis, trains, cheap flights...it's a walkable town for the most part...and they're more green than here. a lot of people recycle, god forbid you leave a light on if you're not in that particular room, heat is only used when it's necessary, and and if you have a dryer, you only dry your socks and undies and maybe a tank top or two and hang up the rest; so many people just ride bikes to get to places...there are literally no SUVs anywhere, and if there is, it sticks out like a sore thumb and can barely navigate the skinny roads. america is just fat and greedy...quel dommage!

* nature! there are so many beautiful parks here and fountains and just cool areas to hang out...i can't really think of any place like that except, duh, the beach...and in asheville, the blue ridge parkway, duh. everything is sooo pretty here, even the cobblestone roads.

Things I Miss/Don't like

* i miss not having to do mental math every time i buy something...1.46 that's the exchange rate now...thanks Bush...and merril lynch, banks, and all those other people who already have millions of dollars but received bonuses anyway..and i'm countin' pennies, AWESOME!

* i miss pooper scoopers. not joking. people don't pick up their dog crap...who crap on the sidewalk, so i'm always aware of where i step...it's ironic that there's no trash in the streets/sidewalks, but yeah, there's gonna be poop.

* i miss good store hours. i miss 24 hours grocery stores...i miss stores being open until 9 or 10. i miss stores that don't take a 2-3 hour lunch break. i DONT miss fast food.

* i miss good southern hospitality. i know i've complained about this before, but people just are not polite about giving you room to walk on the sidewalk, or giving you room to get through a crowd of drunk people well all you have to do is pee...and some people think it's UNACCEPTABLE when they hear english...they'll glare or mutter something...very condescending and unsympathetic to someone who's trying to learn...but then, when you ARE speaking french, they'll just make fun of your accent. some people are such assholes.

* Fashion--ok what's up with girls wearing nude colored panty-hose under shorts, and even jeans??? something i just don't understand and will NEVER do. and guys wearing "decorative" scarfs...i'm not sure how i feel about this...but, there are so many attractive guys here that i guess i don't really give a damn about a stupid scarf.

* i miss vegetarian restaurants. i miss greenlife. i miss fresh market. it's kind of a struggle, well maybe not a struggle really, but it's definitely annoying, to find vegetarian food if i don't want to cook (thats right, i cook now, i sort of have to).

*ok the BIGGEST inconvience, PUBLIC TOILETS! they are soooo effing gross here. and of course, there are no "rest stops" or gas stations where you can go in and pee real fast. you either have to go to a bar/restaurant and order something (some places actually have someone regulating this) and even when you do order something, the bathroom is sooo gross! sometimes there's not even a seat on the toilet, or no toilet paper, or no soap. and they have port-o-potty looking things placed randomly downtown but you have to PAY 20 cintieme to use it, and it's disgusting. so, let's just say, i've seen a lot of boys peeing in the streets, bushes, behind cars, on walls, etc. and i know girls who have had to suffer and go squat somewhere because they can't hold it any longer. i would say that's a violation of a human right. we should be able to have FREE public restrooms, i mean DAMN!

All in all, i don't want to come home (well, to visit, yes, i miss everyone!). it's starting to become an obsession. i have to become better and better before i leave, well i'm staying another semester, i think, but only because i know i would be that much better. i've become accustomed to this place and usually don't really miss the U.S. (as a country, but i miss the people). the thought of coming back to the states seems weird to me and it hasnt even been two months! and writing this much in english isn't helping...by the way, i've noticed i've been making more mistakes in english too, esp. with spelling...awesome, i suck at both languages now! I'm going to a concert tomorrow night in Nantes to see Phoenix, a french band, but they sing in english (unfortunately) , and they're AWESOME!! I'm sooo excited! A bientôt!

I'm Riding this One Out...

I think i might be finally getting over my horrible frenchie cold, so i felt like writing a bit. I just started a new program for exchange students called CIDEF, so every student enrolled knows french as a second or third language. so, the profs speak slower and their sentence structures are simpler. i'm acutally really excited to learn and go to class and learn new things. we have a required "langue" class, which, based on the level you tested into (i acutally did really good thank you very much), teaches grammar, culture, oral skills, etc. i must admit, i feel awesome when i'm sitting in my seat and i understand pretty much everything that she's saying. Mme. Cocton is very animated, a cute younger woman i'd say in her early 30's, with cute black rimmed glasses and a pixie cut. She jokes a lot and yes, ahem, I CAN LAUGH. and you know WHY i can laugh? because i understand what she's saying. i get it. that's right, i'm a little bit awesome. sometimes, i'll confess, i might laugh a little too loud, but i just want everyone to know I GET IT. i'll be taking all kinds of classes like oral expression, art history, translation, a writing course, a phonetics course...and even though some of them are at 8 am, i'm ready to learn, though, try to tell me that at 7 am, and i'll tell you to go to hell. it's so weird to have an overwhelming sense of knowledge at your finger tips and not know what to do with it. i don't know where to start. sometimes i just look at my 501 french verbs book (by barron's, it's a bible) and just don't even know what to do. because i'm at that level where i'm just soaking up everything. everything, all the time, and later, it's quite possible that my head will explode.

But, you know, i've thought a lot about this anxious feeling, this overwhelming sense of AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. i can't let it back me down. i've started to realize this is probably my only opportunity to do something like this. to learn this much language and culture and i don't want to give it up. i want to stay as long as i can. i want to be here until june. though i'm overwhelmed, my heart, my gut is telling me, "casey, girl, look at how much you've improved already, how much you've learned already. you have to stay. you must stay. you belong here...." and, though it's only the beginning of october, i know if this feeling is already this strong, it's only going to become stronger, and it will fall into place because it's meant to happen. sure, my speaking isn't that great, i'd say i've progressed from an 8 year old to the bigger 10 year old, but i've personally noticed a difference in my oral comprehension. i can understand what people say to me, most of the time, and if i dont at first, just give me a couple seconds and it'll click. i've almost completely stopped staring at people like a weirdo and have been able to respond. like last night, i was out with friends, and we were doing the english/french thing, and someone teased me about being flirty or something, and i gave them a playful punch, and they looked at me and said, oh, cool you understood that? and even a couple people have told me they didn't realize my level of speaking is where it is. so, i think my nervousness has started to wear away a little, though a cocktail does speed this process up, i must admit (i'm NOT an alchy, ok?). And i know once i get into the flow of school and my classes, i will improve that much faster. sure, occasionally my american culture bumps head with the french culture, (some french ppl are acutally quite rude and cut and dry; it pisssses me off, man, GOD) but i get over it. i've always had respect for people who are bilingual, i think it's a very cool and practical and honorable skill; and to think that i might be able to be like that, (2 languages in one head, how can you live at that speed?! eddie izzard, anyone?) well, it makes me want to work harder. i don't know what the future will bring, even within these next couple months. but, nothing is forever, as much as we don't want to admit sometimes, and i've started to realize that. i've started to see i can't still live in the past while trying to build a future. all i can do is live for the present, for tomorrow and aspire to become the person i want to be, to gain the skills i know i can obtain and let the universe take care of the rest. Well, i'm off to nantes for the weekend to see a friend....À bientôt!

Very Heavy, Man

So, life can't be good all the time. Ever. It's only a matter of time before some bullshit happens that makes you yearn for the happier, fun times. Yes, even when you are in a beautiful foreign country you cannot escape immoral, ignorant and just plain cruel people. That being said, let me tell you about last night.

My group of friends, about maybe seven of us, were walking downtown to a bar. Every one was a little tipsy already, from our homemade concoctions we had been sipping earlier in the street. So, there is a joyous feel, people laughing, people flirting, people talkin, everyone ready for a shot or two. We are walking two by two because construction in this part of le centre-ville had closed off most of the road and sidewalk. BAM! I don't even know what i was doing or saying at the moment, but i just felt a stinging, burning pain on my neck. Suprised as hell, my hand shot up to the right side of my neck, looking at my hand i see a yellowish, clear slime, as i watch a shell drop to the ground. Yep, some asshole had DROPPED A MOTHER FUCKING EGG FROM ABOUT TWO OR THREE STORIES UP AND IT HIT ME!!!! Then, i begin to cry. A little because of the pain, a little because of the fact that my cute sweater and tank top and purse are now slimey and gross, but mainly, i was crying at my bad luck. why did it have to hit me? Then, i got mad and started yelling shit and wanted to go find the motherfucker who is so fucked up in the head that he thinks dropping random eggs on people is FUN. eventually, i cleaned myself up and didn't let it get the best of me and had a good rest of the night with my girls. So, that was number 1 of the night.

Number 2 and 3 happened one right after another. Suz, Camille and I are walking back to either Camille's place or Suz's place, we are kind of debating about this because Suz wants to go home and sleep in her own bed, so i was going to walk with her there and crash in her bed. Camille is adamant about all of us either staying at her place or at Suz's. Then Suz decides she wants to go home alone so she can Skype with her friends. I understand, so i say i'll just stay at camille's. But Camille will not let Suz walk alone and insists if she wants to go home alone, she must take a taxi. In the middle of this seemingly silly conversation, a couple is walking down the sidewalk across the street. The girl is pretty and blonde, wearing cute white pants, heels and an awesome Chanel purse. The man is tall, looks fit, has a crew cut and looks very military. All of the sudden she is pushed onto a nearby hood of a car, for a split second i thought he would lay of top of her and kiss her or something...but no. She struggles back up and pushes him away as they yell back and forth to each other. She starts to walk away and he catches her a few seconds later, pushing her harder and grabbing her. She gets away and enters a building i can only assume is her apartment. It is then he realizes we're watching with astonishment and anger. he yells at us in french, too fast for me and suz to understand of course, but camille is calm and tells him we're just waiting for a taxi. he yells some other stuff and then, unfortunately, goes into the same building the girl entered about 30 seconds before. Damn. i was hoping the door would've been locked. I couldn't help thinking as we crossed the street and walked the block to the train station where all the taxis wait, that she was getting the shit beaten out of her and there was nothing we could do.

Then, approaching the station, we see a trash can on fire. It was actually for recycling i think because it was only filled with paper. Camille knocks it to the ground so it wouldn't spread to the other cans close by. She tries to spread it out and stomp some out, but its no use. So she calls the fire station and we stand there waiting, watching the plastic can melt into a pile. The police arrive first and take her name, birthday and address and we leave, after putting Suz in a taxi, of course. For me and Suz, it was a realization that Angers is only safe to a certain degree. That Camille being persistent about her taking a taxi and not walking home alone was not for paranoid reasons. It was for real reasons and how naive were we to think we knew better than her...i guess the universe wanted to prove to us that Camille knew what the hell she was talking about. That she knew there were shitty people every where, even in a nice city like Angers. Talking about this later, Camille explained to me why she doesn't like those "type of people." By this she meant North Africans i.e. people from Algeria, Morocco, etc. whose cultures are similar to those of the Middle East in their views of women and power. She tells me she's not racist, though most French people would think she was, but she explained very clearly to me that the only reason she doesn't like people from that area is because they claim to be French, yet do not follow French ideals and values, instead, enforce their own and talk shit when people think they're crazy (like us). This all made sense to me as to why she was saying this after she told me that what he was angry about was because his girlfriend talked to another man. TALKED, not kissed, not slept with, not touched, TALKED. He also threatened us, saying if any of us were alone, he would've crossed the street and beaten us....soooo.....that's fun. I do understand where she is coming from. I don't think she is racist. She has a very French point of view. A universalistic view. That if you are living in a country, or even just visiting, you should accept their culture and their values and try to live like that. That when you are in a country where women are respected (more so than in countries like Algeria and the Middle East), you have no right to infringe on those values. And if you don't accept these values, then don't be in France. It was a very serious moment. Some would call it a buzz kill, but i would call it a realization. Camille actually said she was ashamed of her country because of that guy and the other "rebellious" asshole who started the fire. She then said she should've done something. She started to take the blame because she didn't try to help the girl. She said she would've rather died trying to help that girl than live with fact that the woman probably had a fat lip by now or was unconscious... i tried to convince her that he probably either had a knife or gun on him already or could've killed her or all three of us and the other girl with his bare hands. She was being stubborn though and let it get to her. So, we just decided to go to sleep and "sleep on it," as they say.

I was surrounded by awesome people last night, people who like me and care for me, and who i really liked as well. I believe they are all good people, or try to be, at least. Yet, in our little happy "partying" world, three cruel and immoral people penetrated our lives with their evil. Yes, even dropping an egg on random people is evil, it's downright mean and uncaring. There are still people in every country, every city, who are insecure or unhappy or just insane and they take it out on innocent people. As pessimistic as this sounds, the world will never find peace because of people like this. People who are close-minded and selfish...who can't even love themselves. Peace is a nice thought, a positive hope, but it's not realistic. What can we do? There's a sense of powerlessness when people do things like this. We could've called the cops on the wife-beater, but by the time they got there it would've been too late. And for the pyro, the crime was done and he got away without being seen...same for the stupid kid who threw the egg...because no one was REALLY hurt (me), the cops can't do anything. I guess all we can do is try our best to keep the scummy people out of our lives and try to find happiness between the shadows of immorality and inhumanity.