REPORTING FROM STRAS <3
Salut à tout le monde! ça marche bien? *beams*
As you maaaybe remember, I've temporarily crossed the Alps to settle into Strasbourg, following my new year resolution. and since people keep getting it wrong: Strasbourg is in France, the one in Austria is called Salzburg!
To paraphrase Mrs. Palin: I can see Germany from my house!! Quite literally, since the border is like 2km away. As you can see from Google Maps, Stras is riiight in the heart of Europe (or "in the middle of nowhere", as they sometimes say), in a region that kept getting back and forth from France to Germany during the wars; that's why after all the ostilities settled it was chosen as the siege for the European Parliament. The EU Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe (plus another bunch of smaller institutions) are also located here. /history lesson
Dude, I can go everywhere from here! My Hetalia-infested mind is bursting with possibilities!! In a 500km radius one can find Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg (poor, neglected Lux), Belgium and the Netherlands XD too bad I don't have my car with me, but I can still travel by train ufufu˜
But to get back to the main topic; I'm staying here for this month in an apartment I share with 2 other people (a girl and a guy, luckily they're real nice to me). I hope to find some kind of job, any kind really, to stay longer, but it's proving to be more difficult than I thought. I guess I could have had more luck coming here in summer or before Christmas (what with all the shops needing extra help), but at the moment I can't find anything... *sighs* Well, at least I'm practising my French? T-they speak so fast "OTL but at least people understand me so I guess it's not that bad? Anyway, when I don't remember a word I just make it up from Italian and it usually works XD
And now some trivia:
O One of the most known dishes here is the tarte flambée: it's more or less like a pizza, but a bit thinner, only with typical cheese, onions and similar ingredients instead of tomato sauce and mozzarella. Can also be sweet (I ate some with apple and cinnamon *yum*).
O French people kiss a lot more than Italians do (or maybe it's just that us northerners are too cold ahah): I'm used to giving 2 kisses ot the cheeks actually in my city is 3 for luck 1) when you meet someone you already know and haven't seen in a while; 2) when you go away you also kiss goodbye to people that were introduced to you. Here instead (from my very limited experience) you kiss each other every time: coming back home, to greet people you don't know yet, etc. [obv. I'm talking about informal situations here, I don't think it also applies to work]. Actually, it also seems like these kisses are given left to right and I'm used to do it the other way around. So I might end up accidentally kissing some random stranger on the mouth one of these days XD;;
ETA: whassup, Italy? What happened these past 2 weeks? Did I miss something important?
As you maaaybe remember, I've temporarily crossed the Alps to settle into Strasbourg, following my new year resolution. and since people keep getting it wrong: Strasbourg is in France, the one in Austria is called Salzburg!
To paraphrase Mrs. Palin: I can see Germany from my house!! Quite literally, since the border is like 2km away. As you can see from Google Maps, Stras is riiight in the heart of Europe (or "in the middle of nowhere", as they sometimes say), in a region that kept getting back and forth from France to Germany during the wars; that's why after all the ostilities settled it was chosen as the siege for the European Parliament. The EU Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe (plus another bunch of smaller institutions) are also located here. /history lesson
Dude, I can go everywhere from here! My Hetalia-infested mind is bursting with possibilities!! In a 500km radius one can find Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg (poor, neglected Lux), Belgium and the Netherlands XD too bad I don't have my car with me, but I can still travel by train ufufu˜
But to get back to the main topic; I'm staying here for this month in an apartment I share with 2 other people (a girl and a guy, luckily they're real nice to me). I hope to find some kind of job, any kind really, to stay longer, but it's proving to be more difficult than I thought. I guess I could have had more luck coming here in summer or before Christmas (what with all the shops needing extra help), but at the moment I can't find anything... *sighs* Well, at least I'm practising my French? T-they speak so fast "OTL but at least people understand me so I guess it's not that bad? Anyway, when I don't remember a word I just make it up from Italian and it usually works XD
And now some trivia:
O One of the most known dishes here is the tarte flambée: it's more or less like a pizza, but a bit thinner, only with typical cheese, onions and similar ingredients instead of tomato sauce and mozzarella. Can also be sweet (I ate some with apple and cinnamon *yum*).
O French people kiss a lot more than Italians do (or maybe it's just that us northerners are too cold ahah): I'm used to giving 2 kisses ot the cheeks actually in my city is 3 for luck 1) when you meet someone you already know and haven't seen in a while; 2) when you go away you also kiss goodbye to people that were introduced to you. Here instead (from my very limited experience) you kiss each other every time: coming back home, to greet people you don't know yet, etc. [obv. I'm talking about informal situations here, I don't think it also applies to work]. Actually, it also seems like these kisses are given left to right and I'm used to do it the other way around. So I might end up accidentally kissing some random stranger on the mouth one of these days XD;;
ETA: whassup, Italy? What happened these past 2 weeks? Did I miss something important?