So the French are basically just foreign Americans
Okay, so this is a little after the fact, but here's a doozy of an entry for you. As a person recap (a la Lindsey), I am in France, living in Orleans, teaching children, though the teaching part doesn't start until next week. I've been hanging out, meeting people, and just getting myself organized and situated. So far in my apartment complex I've met two Romains, one Virginie, and one Sara. All French. All super nice. I've hung out with the Romains and Sara. Romain 1 took me out Friday night, and here's the account, because I think it's pretty amazing:
Okay, so it was my third night in Orleans, Romain invited me out with his friends, and trying to meet people I agreed to go with him. He explained on the way that he came to Orleans not knowing anyone, so he knew how hard it could be. The party we were going to was with a bunch of his civil engineering friends from school.
We arrived and were put straight to work. I sat with Antoine and we buttered bread while Romain did the dishes, Sophie and Nicholas cooked, and a girl whose name I don’t remember but think it was something like Annelise sliced cheese. Antoine explained that he had spent a year in Rhode Island, and his English was amazing. He mentioned that he had been to Boston a couple of times, and I asked him if he knew where Salem was, he said yes and I told him I was from right next to there. This perked both him and Romain up, because they both knew about the Salem witches, and I had to explain what exactly that meant. Romain thought that there were women who lived there pretending to be witches. They both got a kick out of the story of people accusing others of being witches and hanging them, but I think it was more like a “crazy Americans” kind of amusing.
We were then put to work assembling the Croque Monsieur’s (it's a sandwich), and I had tomato duty. So Romain would put the parmesan on a piece of buttered bread, I would spread the tomatoes, and Antoine would put on the mozzarella, and Annelise would pour on some olive oil and top it off with another buttered bread. Sophie and Nicolas would then cook them. I felt a little out of place in the kitchen, so I went into the living room, where people were just talking and smoking and listening to music.
As the night progressed, more people showed up and the music became more and more ridiculous. At one point, the theme song to Fresh Prince of Bel Aire came on, much to my amusement and to every else’s amusement when I told them that I knew the words to the song. They then used me to clear up some lyrics that none of them could figure out, which was also pretty hilarious (what is "Boogie?"). Also debating whether the lyrics “I’ve been thinking about what you’ve done to me,” were sexual in nature. Then they made fun of me for my American pronunciation of my r’s.
One of the boys, David, took a shining to me and decided to harass me for the rest of the night. At one point, while he forced me to dance with him, Sophie assured me that he was “beau” and a “musician connu d’Orleans.” That was good because I was then able to pawn him off on Sophie. But whenever I would sit down, here came David to put his legs up on me or put his watch on me or ask to sleep with me that night. I finally negotiated him down to meeting him the next day through telepathy. I also had to ward off his insistent offers of rum. “Charlotte, tu veux du rum?” “Non, merci David.” “Charlotte, rum?” “Non.” “Rum?” “Non!” “Rum?” “David! Arrette! Je ne veux pas du rum!” “Rum?” etc.
As the boys got drunker, they danced more. It’s so fun to live in a culture where the taboos of male sexuality don’t apply. So they danced, they sat on each other, they bissou-ed (kissed cheeks). It was funny. I especially liked just listening to their conversations, and every once in a while someone would sit with me and explain what the topic exactly was. Depending on the person, this explanation would be either in French that they would slow down a little, or broken English supplemented with French. At some point, Antoine abandoned English altogether, but he spoke clearly enough for me to understand.
Matthieu, who when he came in was introduced to me as the “vomiteur,” was sick on wine after an hour, and he hid out in the bathroom for the next two hours or so. Gerard did not get tired of harassing him, and decided to give him a good ol’ American drunk test. So he told Mattieu to stand on one leg and stretch out his arms and touch his nose with his pointer finger. So Mattieu does this, but he only touches his nose with one hand, so Gerard tells him, no, you have to switch arms. Instead, Mattieu continues to touch his nose with the same finger while switching legs.
When the food came out, it was amazing. I had a piece of cheese tart, a Croque Monsieur, and a sandwich that resembled a C.M. but definitely wasn’t. For dessert they made these amazing sandwiches that were sugared bread with Nutella and almonds inside that were fried up. Oh man, if I can figure out how to make those I will be a happy woman. And of course the wine that flowed pretty freely. And I had to get new glasses every time David would attack me to dance and would drop some of the ash from his cigarette in my cup. So when he was done dancing, someone would grab a clean cup and I would have my glass refilled.
Towards the end of the night, the boys found a new game, which was throwing each other’s shoes out the window. It started with David’s shoes being thrown, and him stealing Pierre’s shoes to retrieve them, and then coming back in and throwing those shoes out. But Pierre made David go retrieve his shoes, and while David was doing so, they tried to pour water on him out of the window. A girl, whose name I think was Etienne, and I sat and laughed at them and talked about how French people are crazy, but then so are Americans. She was especially nice and we talked for a long time. Astrid was another woman with whom I spoke, and she was very excited to practice her English with me, which was fun, too.
Finally, at around 1:30am, I told everyone that I was tired and was going to return to my place to sleep, sans David. Then came the awkward bissou stage, where David made the goodbye especially awkward, and then I bissoued Etienne, but other than that I just waved and they all laughed at me for being American and only hugging goodbye.
So as you can see, I'm doing well, and this place is agreeing with me. I'll try to keep this this updated, so if you want to know what's going on, just check here.
Okay, so it was my third night in Orleans, Romain invited me out with his friends, and trying to meet people I agreed to go with him. He explained on the way that he came to Orleans not knowing anyone, so he knew how hard it could be. The party we were going to was with a bunch of his civil engineering friends from school.
We arrived and were put straight to work. I sat with Antoine and we buttered bread while Romain did the dishes, Sophie and Nicholas cooked, and a girl whose name I don’t remember but think it was something like Annelise sliced cheese. Antoine explained that he had spent a year in Rhode Island, and his English was amazing. He mentioned that he had been to Boston a couple of times, and I asked him if he knew where Salem was, he said yes and I told him I was from right next to there. This perked both him and Romain up, because they both knew about the Salem witches, and I had to explain what exactly that meant. Romain thought that there were women who lived there pretending to be witches. They both got a kick out of the story of people accusing others of being witches and hanging them, but I think it was more like a “crazy Americans” kind of amusing.
We were then put to work assembling the Croque Monsieur’s (it's a sandwich), and I had tomato duty. So Romain would put the parmesan on a piece of buttered bread, I would spread the tomatoes, and Antoine would put on the mozzarella, and Annelise would pour on some olive oil and top it off with another buttered bread. Sophie and Nicolas would then cook them. I felt a little out of place in the kitchen, so I went into the living room, where people were just talking and smoking and listening to music.
As the night progressed, more people showed up and the music became more and more ridiculous. At one point, the theme song to Fresh Prince of Bel Aire came on, much to my amusement and to every else’s amusement when I told them that I knew the words to the song. They then used me to clear up some lyrics that none of them could figure out, which was also pretty hilarious (what is "Boogie?"). Also debating whether the lyrics “I’ve been thinking about what you’ve done to me,” were sexual in nature. Then they made fun of me for my American pronunciation of my r’s.
One of the boys, David, took a shining to me and decided to harass me for the rest of the night. At one point, while he forced me to dance with him, Sophie assured me that he was “beau” and a “musician connu d’Orleans.” That was good because I was then able to pawn him off on Sophie. But whenever I would sit down, here came David to put his legs up on me or put his watch on me or ask to sleep with me that night. I finally negotiated him down to meeting him the next day through telepathy. I also had to ward off his insistent offers of rum. “Charlotte, tu veux du rum?” “Non, merci David.” “Charlotte, rum?” “Non.” “Rum?” “Non!” “Rum?” “David! Arrette! Je ne veux pas du rum!” “Rum?” etc.
As the boys got drunker, they danced more. It’s so fun to live in a culture where the taboos of male sexuality don’t apply. So they danced, they sat on each other, they bissou-ed (kissed cheeks). It was funny. I especially liked just listening to their conversations, and every once in a while someone would sit with me and explain what the topic exactly was. Depending on the person, this explanation would be either in French that they would slow down a little, or broken English supplemented with French. At some point, Antoine abandoned English altogether, but he spoke clearly enough for me to understand.
Matthieu, who when he came in was introduced to me as the “vomiteur,” was sick on wine after an hour, and he hid out in the bathroom for the next two hours or so. Gerard did not get tired of harassing him, and decided to give him a good ol’ American drunk test. So he told Mattieu to stand on one leg and stretch out his arms and touch his nose with his pointer finger. So Mattieu does this, but he only touches his nose with one hand, so Gerard tells him, no, you have to switch arms. Instead, Mattieu continues to touch his nose with the same finger while switching legs.
When the food came out, it was amazing. I had a piece of cheese tart, a Croque Monsieur, and a sandwich that resembled a C.M. but definitely wasn’t. For dessert they made these amazing sandwiches that were sugared bread with Nutella and almonds inside that were fried up. Oh man, if I can figure out how to make those I will be a happy woman. And of course the wine that flowed pretty freely. And I had to get new glasses every time David would attack me to dance and would drop some of the ash from his cigarette in my cup. So when he was done dancing, someone would grab a clean cup and I would have my glass refilled.
Towards the end of the night, the boys found a new game, which was throwing each other’s shoes out the window. It started with David’s shoes being thrown, and him stealing Pierre’s shoes to retrieve them, and then coming back in and throwing those shoes out. But Pierre made David go retrieve his shoes, and while David was doing so, they tried to pour water on him out of the window. A girl, whose name I think was Etienne, and I sat and laughed at them and talked about how French people are crazy, but then so are Americans. She was especially nice and we talked for a long time. Astrid was another woman with whom I spoke, and she was very excited to practice her English with me, which was fun, too.
Finally, at around 1:30am, I told everyone that I was tired and was going to return to my place to sleep, sans David. Then came the awkward bissou stage, where David made the goodbye especially awkward, and then I bissoued Etienne, but other than that I just waved and they all laughed at me for being American and only hugging goodbye.
So as you can see, I'm doing well, and this place is agreeing with me. I'll try to keep this this updated, so if you want to know what's going on, just check here.