Third Days

"I'm a new soul
I came to this strange world
Hoping I could learn a bit 'bout how to give and take
But since I came here, felt the joy and the fear
Finding myself making every possible mistake." ~Yael Naim


This blog entry is not going to be very funny. I'm in an inspirational, let-me-change-your-life kind of mood; Fair warning. It has come to my attention that today marks exactly one month of my stay in France. It really does feel like so much longer when I think about it day by day, but when I turn around and think about the trip as a whole, I swear it was only a few hours ago that I tearfully hugged my momma goodbye and went aboard a plane that would continue in the air for almost 15 hours. Looking out the window now, it's shocking to me how familiar everything is becoming. My schedule has started to become regiment, and my friends now accept me as one of their own. While my French is still not up to par with that of an infant just learning her first words, I no longer feel like an outsider and, therefore, am not treated like one.
While I know what I should be sharing with you, dear reader, is about the fantastic friends I have made, the courses I am taking, the family I am staying with, the sights, the food, etc. I have something more pressing in mind. It is something so frustrating and mind-boggling to me, that I need to rant about it right this instant, for everyone to read, even if it means going on a tangent or losing the interest of some of my faithful readers. THIS MATTERS TO ME.

What I would like to address today is the common misconception over the French people. I will try to be calm in my words and please no my intentions are pure. Here is the deal: contrary to popular belief, French people in general are not rude, cold, snobby or American-haters. Now deny it all you want but a portion (not all, not the majority) but a significant portion of Americans think contrary to this and plenty of them haven't even stepped half a foot into France itself. I was hit particularly hard with the blunt of this bias since I learned I would be traveling abroad to France nine months before I actually left and obviously, word got out; we can mostly thank my mother for that; Say me going to France was a contained, controlled signal fire. My mother was the tube of gasoline and suddenly buildings were being burnt down. Suddenly people I didn't even know were coming up to me and congratulating me, random people on the street were saying, "Wow, that's awesome, family I hadn't talked to in years were sending me messages via Facebook. This was all fine and good except along with the excitement, judgements and stereotypes spilled out fast as waterfalls, but unlike a waterfall, it was scaring me to death. I heard, "You are so brave. You know the French  really rude to Americans, right?" Or worse, "Oh, you better learn a lot of French because the won't even bother speaking to you unless you are fluent." It got so bad that anyone bringing up Europe within a mile radius and I would flee the opposite direction. I was petrified. I remember a particular boy, not more than 15, asking why I choose France of all places. Caught off guard, I told him the people since it was the first thing to come to mind. He cackled and replied, "If you are going there for the people, you are going for the wrong reasons."
I am not typing to make anyone wrong. I am not saying this out of spite. I simply would like to inform my readers that I have been treated with nothing but kindness and the utmost respect. I would like to say that when I tell my peers I live in the USA they ooh and aah and ask if the lockers are really as big as they are on Glee. I would like you to know that everyday I attempt to speak with my friends in their native tongue and it sounds about as much like French as English does to Russian and I have not been laughed at but applauded for my effort and than shown carefully the correct way to say it. I would like to say that there are wars going on and how can we expect any of that to change if we don't know who the people living on this planet with us are? And if you hold the opinion that ALL French people are ______ (fill in the blank), perhaps think back to your actual experience, if you have ever been. Did you try to speak French? Did you expect everyone to know English? It is funny because when I told my classmates I did not know Spanish, they asked what language I did know and when I told them I only know English, their mouths dropped to the floor. They could not believe I had not been required to take a second language starting at age 8, and I can't believe it either, in fact. I am a little ashamed of myself. You know, I am so glad I denied the fact that I was going to France the months before I left. I am so glad I didn't prepare in any way or think ahead. Because I had absolutely zero preconceptions. And thank God. THANK GOD! Because everything is exactly how it should be.