4.6.09

First few days with my host family...


When I arrived at my host family house, my first experience was lugging my suitcase up the few stairs into the complex after the taxi driver broke my suitcase. When I got inside a sister of the family buzzed me in and led me upstairs to meet the older sister. Apparently the parents were out of town for the weekend and wouldn’t be back for a few days. I had no idea I would be living in a flat basically with two other girls. This abrupt change in my mind led me to think that this apartment situation was going to change my experience drastically, but after a few days, I have come to realize that I think it will really help me adapt to being in the French culture. I have to learn to adjust to things and learn to do things without necessarily the help of others, but by watching them.

Until today, I thought that I was living with two sisters in the Remouit family, but I finally met the second girl who lives in the apartment. She is a French student from a city in southern France and is staying here until she finishes her studies. While my host parents and sister don’t speak or understand a word of English…this student wants to practice her English. It was so strange to enter with the mindset of being another person in the household to being in a flat with two French girls. I like the independence, but I have started making an effort to go out into the kitchen when I hear one of them so that we can have some kind of conversation. As I told the other boarder (I don’t know her name :/ ), being in the metro alone is a totally different experience than when you are with friends. It seems as though the French are always staring straight or glaring when they look around. She isn’t from Paris and she said that she is always interested to see what other people think of the attitudes of the people in Paris. I have a feeling we will be discussing our impressions of the culture in future conversations…I am definitely looking forward to that.

1 comment:

Susan said...

Glad you're slowly meeting everyone in your rather unorthodox household. Glad too that you are willing to look at this from an adventurous standpoint, an opportunity to push yourself, etc. Start giving us more cohesive thoughts in your next posts - try to tie things in your family or at the Sorbonne, or out and about, together - why are they like that? or if you don't know the reasons, try to contrast with how things are in the US, think about the reasons behind those customs, and maybe you'll be able to see potential reasons behind the French ones in return...