After about a month in France, I've figured out a few things that make me stick out like a sore thumb. I've tried very hard to blend in (I even found myself carrying around a baguette one morning, very French), with slight to moderate success and I'll keep working on it. Some of the difficultely comes from 21 years of American social interaction.
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Lesson 1- Never smile.
To be more specific, never smile at people you don't know. This is a dead-giveaway of a foreigner. My friend, Megan, and I noticed this when we were walking around a particularly touristy city in Normandy and people would give little smiles as we passed. This noticeably stood out after riding the métro every day for 4 weeks with dozens and dozens of neutral faces.
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Lesson 2-Careful with the eye contact.
Apparently, making eye contact is one of those subtle French signals that invites flirtation. This can be harmless and fun or annoying, depending if you're late for class or not.
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Lesson 3-Scarves for everyone!
I swear that people here must have at least a baker's dozen's worth of them, in all lengths, colors and fabric. No neck will catch a chill in this country. Due to the alarming peer pressure, I've started my own collection of scarves (2 and counting). I must be blending in, or else I wouldn't get questions about where stuff is. Too bad I give the game away when try to mumble that I, in fact, have no idea where anything is located.
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Lesson 4 (for students)-Make sure and have at least 20 different highlighters.
All the students here have little sacks for carrting around their 20 different highlighters, 13 colored pens, white out, 2 pencils, and one giant eraser. I haven't figured it out yet, but apparently they turn a textbook into a "paint by numbers" masterpiece. I have 1 pink highlighter and 1 blue pen. I'm so behind in the game.
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Lesson 5-Dry-humping is not out of the ordinary.
So Megan and I were walking around the main park in Rennes, when we stumble onto a happy couple (I can only assume happy by the way she was straddling him on the park bench) grinding away. This, of course, was not the first excessive PDA moment and I think that the colder months will only push them indoors.
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That's all I can think of right now for the subtle/not-so-subtle differences.
Ciao et bises!
So Megan and I were walking around the main park in Rennes, when we stumble onto a happy couple (I can only assume happy by the way she was straddling him on the park bench) grinding away. This, of course, was not the first excessive PDA moment and I think that the colder months will only push them indoors.
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That's all I can think of right now for the subtle/not-so-subtle differences.
Ciao et bises!
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