McDonalds

I am going to note that I am now in McDonalds by the Sorbonne. Just got back from a brewery where I had a sweet but dark beer on local tap. A taste of the UK in France…Anyway enough about my alcoholic ways. Here are some little observations on French life: Some things that I found really interesting was that every time you enter a French store or restaurant you are greeted with a Bonjour. This is a necessity. If you do not reciprocate then you will probably get a weird look and terrible service to follow. Also when you leave you must say au revoir because for many people their stores are extensions of their houses and to not acknowledge the patron before leaving is considered very offensive. Other things that I found interesting and that I have read about are the different notions of what is private and public. Yesterday while enjoying a half-pint of 1664 I noticed a couple just stop in the middle of a street and while they were waiting for the cars to pass would just make out in pure view. We have public affection in America as well, but not as bad also I saw on a bridge on the Seine where as a couple was sitting in a position where one was straddling the other…Bizarre…to do this in public. Anyway perfect strangers will invite you to their house for dinner, wine and what not and can go the whole night without asking your name. When Americans meet people we usually get the name and occupation out of the way immediately. It is not the same with the French and to ask for one’s occupation is considered impolite. With alcohol in public, it is allowed unlike in most states in US but it is severely looked down upon because only the homeless are the ones who have open bottles. It is obviously perfectly normal to enjoy a beverage while sitting in an outside café, but once you get up from sitting down from the meal and you still drink, you are an alcoholic. Most of the French’s drinking is done in the home during the meals. So far I have not had a dinner without at least wine. In Paris which is considered the northern part of France, they drink both beer and wine whereas in the South/Italy is purely wine. I guess the close proximity of Britain has that effect on the North. The World Cup of Rugby is going on in Paris so they are actually constructing and renovating all of the bars in the districts close to Sciences Po. Not that they don’t have them a few steps from where my apartment is, it just would be nice to go to an Irish or English pub and speak English after using French all day. I actually have been waking up in the morning speaking French to myself. Tonight the girl who will be sharing the apartment is arriving and she doesn’t speak a word of French so to play a joke on her I am not going to speak any English until a random time. She actually is from Chicago so I am sure she will feel a lot more comfortable. All of my classes went well this week. My French class has a hilarious professor who makes fun of people but in a typical French way. Today I had a EU economics class with an Italian professor who is actually going to be the administrator for the Northwestern students. Was fun but is going to be consisting of mainly just debates and discussions with 50 people so it will be hard. My other two classes are EU laws and policy decision making and the last is France’s role in the EU. This is for the parents: I studied last night and actually went to bed at a reasonable time. There are rules in the house so I will be well cared for. Well my battery is running out, if I haven’t contacted you yet its because there has been not much time and I don’t have access to internet on a regular basis for a few more days. Cheers, Jean-Christophe.