For the most part this week has been just more of the same- more sick, more cold/rain/clouds outside, and more and more homework. Part of my desire to leave France stems from my desire to be done with my classes here- Econ and French. Honestly, I can't see myself returning to either of these subjects, so it's hard to continue to work at this intense pace to learn the information. I'm ready to move on- I'm already getting into the Irish mindset. Yesterday I started reading one of the books for my Irish philosophy of literature class, and it is SO much more interesting than graphs or conjugations. That plus the Flogging Molly I listened to on the bus are just making these next few days feel like an eternity... sigh, I'm sure it's just overall exhaustion from being sick and working too much. The weekend was nice, though. Yesterday we went to the lake her in Angers, and that was great. We swam around, jumped off of the docks, and laid out in the grass. That was wonderful.
Friday and Saturday nights we went out to 2 different pubs to watch the World Cup games- France vs. Uruguay on Friday and US vs. England on Saturday. We weren't expecting to see excitement for Saturday's game of course, but we were expecting to see some excitement for Friday's game with France! This is a European country, and the World Cup, after all- how could there not be enthusiasm? Yes, there was a pub or two filled with people watching the game, but they were downright silent. There was no cheering, no yelling- a few times we heard disappointed sighs when a kick went wrong. That was it. When the game ended in a 0-0 tie, everyone walked home quietly. We had been expecting the stereotypical European football fans.
Here are a few stereotypes about the French that appear to be true (to our very limited observation and of course not applicable to all French):
Baguettes. According to our own supermarket observations, the French really do buy a lot of baguettes- at least 50% of the people we noticed were buying baguettes. The baguettes also appear to be larger here as well.
Horizontally-striped shirts. You know the cartoon image of a Frenchman standing at an easel with a beret and a horizontally-striped shirt? Well, the beret is of course ridiculous. The shirt, on the other hand.... so many people here where horizontally-striped shirts! You literally can't turn around without seeing another one. Perhaps it's a global fashion trend and we're just noticing it here...
Smoking. Yes, the French do smoke quite a bit more than the Americans, as long as we're making sweeping generalizations.
Last and most tricky to explain: rudeness. Of course, there are rude people everywhere. Of course, the vast majority of people here are extremely nice and helpful. But....
We get a general feeling of being judged wherever we walk here. There is a lot of staring. Even when we don't speak, we apparently wear giant signs declaring our nationality. Well, declaring our foreign-ness. One time some people complained about us being Spanish tourists... but usually the complaints are about Americans.
How do they know? Once Dana and I stood at the curb silently waiting to cross the street, and a teenager ran up, linked arms with Dana, and shouted into her face "HOW ARE YOU?" When we reacted, he ran away to his friends laughing and shouting back to us "I don't want to f*** you anyway".
One of the boys on our trip was walking alone- silently- wearing only clothes purchased in Europe- and women behind him complained about the "American". Seriously, how do they know? These are just two recent stories out of many, many similar incidences here in France.
What motivates these select few to be so obnoxious towards Americans, anyway? Some Americans may be rude to tourists in the US, but I can't imagine, for instance, a New Yorker grabbing a tourist and screaming in the tourist's native tongue. Sigh.
I know full well that these odd people do not represent the French as a whole. I've met many many polite and helpful French. The vast majority do in fact have common courtesy. It's just this small but vocal percentage that make us feel so unwelcome....
Oh well. On Friday I fly off to Italy, then it's Germany, and then the Emerald Isle. I'm excited to speak English without being judged. Well, at least if I'm judged it will only be for my accent, not the whole language.
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