Cultural Curiosities:
- things closing. Literally, things close at the craziest times here! I knew pretty much all shops close on Sundays in France, so I was prepared for this and bought milk etc. on Saturday ready, but have been caught out many other times with the weird opening hours of other places. For example, I went to the bank a total of 3 times to try and get my bank card, and discovered not only is it closed on Sundays, but also Saturday afternoons AND all day Monday too. Now Saturday I can vaguely understand, but Monday?! What is going on. Some places also close on Friday afternoons, such as the department secretary's office at uni...so basically, the French have a 3.5 day working week it seems
- Freshers, and student life in general. This is a pretty big difference, and mostly stems from the fact that most French students don't move away from home to go to uni, and so student life is much more like school. People go to uni in the day, and many go home to their parents in the evening: when I tell French students that I live with my friends at uni, and my parents live two and a half hours away, they find it really weird. Students just don't have the same expectations of uni here: they seem to see it mainly as simply a continuation of their education, whereas for us it's a chance to move away and gain independence, and a completely different way of life. This is probably most obvious in the lack of societies and events at French unis compared to British ones, and just the fact that life is a lot more 'normal' here when you're a student, as opposed to the all-consuming, once-in-a-lifetime, emotional roller coaster experience that I have experienced. I have to say, studying somewhere else has made me realise why so many foreign students come to Britain to study: British unis really are the best. They just are. I take pride in wearing my Exeter hoody round campus every once in a while, just to feel extra patriotic
- weighing vegetables. In supermarkets here you have to weigh your vegetables yourself on a little scale, and then stick the price on the bag before taking it to the till. This caught me out first time I did it, and I had to walk back down the queue with my head down all the way back to the fruit and veg section so I could weigh my 2 carrots
PS Last time I wrote about the curiosity of pedestrian crossings here, and how I had stopped thanking drivers when I crossed because no one else did. I thought you would all be pleased to know, I have now started doing it again, because I just think it's nice. I'm waving my little Union Jack as I cross the road (metaphorically, obviously) and trying to change the world, one wave at a time
- prayer words. Praying in another language is something I hadn't really thought about before I came to France, but it's quite difficult! Mostly because we tend to speak slightly differently when we're praying, which is hard to replicate in a second language, and also because I realised I didn't know a lot of key prayer words! But having done some vocab research, listened lots to other people praying in French, and done some practise myself, I think I'm improving...my prayers don't consist of me repeating the same few words and phrases again and again at least!
- my conversation is definitely better already: I can slip in to speaking French much more easily, and am now much better at small talk and just generally chatting in French. I was very pleased when 3 people commented one Sunday at church on how good my French was! I also find it easier to think in French, and do that sort of 'running commentary' thing we do when we are doing something with other people...although I definitely still need some practise at that!
- understanding passers-by. I always used to find it really hard to understand snippets of conversation in French when I was back in the UK, but now that I'm here and so used to hearing French being spoken I've found that I'm sort of 'tuned in' all the time, and so can pick up phrases without really listening or intending to like I can in English, which is very exciting!
Things I'm grateful for:
- church. My church here has just been fantastic: everyone has been so friendly and welcoming, and I already feel really at home there. I'm so grateful for people's openness and willingness to chat, my life group, lots of French practise, and also lots of English speakers for a bit of a break! They're quite simply brilliant, and probably my biggest answer to prayer.
- printing. Some of you may know that printers and keys are my two arch nemeses (is that the plural of nemesis? nemeses?), but in the last couple of weeks I have discovered not just how to print on the initially insanely complicated uni printers, but also how to scan and print, AND how to scan and then email a document! I literally never thought I would ever learn how to do these things, and had seriously started planning how I was going to cope writing everything out by hand and then having to send it all by post, so I'm so happy I somehow managed to do it!
- letters. I have received a few letters in the last couple of weeks, and they're just such massive encouragements: looking in our postbox and seeing a letter or finding one on our kitchen table with 'Miss Katie Watson' written on the envelope, just completely brightens up my day! And I love having a legitimate reason to write to people and use my sealing wax and stamp, so that's a bonus. Hint hint people.
