Thinking about Home!

Frankly I don't want to have to think about home just yet. I have had the best semester of my life, meeting new people and enjoying all that Paris and Europe has to offer. Thinking about home makes me miss my family but thinking that I have to board a plane to get home makes me want to unleash the waterworks. I love Paris and France like I haven't loved anything else. Living here has given me a new perspective on so many aspects in my life. Living in Paris for more than a month has been a dream come true. I will miss everything from walking around in the evening passing by Notre Dame or sitting on Pont des Arts with a baguette and cheese.
I have traveled a lot throughout Europe and one thing remains, Paris holds a special charm that no other city holds. Everything is bundled up to make this fantasyland for a fanatic of French culture like myself. Every place I have visited, I end up saying I miss home, Paris.
The people and the culture has touched me in a way that I never thought I would be touched by somewhere other than my hometown of San Diego. Even though I have no close family here, I have felt more at home than anywhere else. Even with the restricting accommodations of small showers, small rooms, and crappy beds, I had the most amazing time with my roommate and in that "petit chambre."
My life in SD will be very different from the one I lived in Paris. It's amazing to me that it can be such a drastic change of way of living. I will have to adapt to using my car again and hopefully finding more opportunities to take some nice walks around the picturesque sides of SD. I will miss walking through the Latin Quarter through an alley and having Notre Dame be the first thing I see when the alley opens up. I will miss sitting with a large amount of people on a bridge just relaxing and eating and listening to musicians. I will miss being able to travel to new and exciting places for great prices and discovering new countries so close to me. I will miss the stinky metro that I love so much. I will miss the falafels in the Jewish quarter. I will miss walking from the Champs-Elycee to the Louvre through the Jardin des Tuileries. All of these things are special things that I hold close to my heart.
I can't wait to plan to come back very soon. My goal is UNESCO Paris.


The city of lights will always hold a special place in my <3

Stereotypes

Being that this is the the third time that I have visited Paris, I already knew what I was getting myself into when I signed up to study abroad in Paris. The people, the culture, and the place have proven to be an enchanting package of magic that has enticed me over and over. I just can't get enough.

However, when I first came to Paris 7 years ago I definitely had a lot of worry and stereotypes in my head about the French. I had heard horrid stories about the French hating America and Americans in general, that they were stinky, and that they were rude. Although, I have experienced some truth to each of these stereotypes, I have also experienced the greater part of the French culture and people. While in Paris the past 2 times, I enjoyed the wonderful weather of July in one of the most romantic cities in the world: Paris. Although the weather resembled San Diego weather of beautiful days and the warm sun, the metro and the intimate spaces between people made the city smell an awkward and horrid smell of body odor. Sweating was a big factor in this smell and because I was not used to having my personal space violated like in the metro in the summer, the myth about the bad odor turned out to be true. Now having experienced Paris in the winter, I realize that body sweat is a large part of the city's odor. Sweat plus the various smells of the metro can provoke a person to try and hold their breath for a long time.

The other stereotypes was about the French people's demeanor towards Americans and towards foreigners. While it's true that Parisians are very busy, often times to say excuse me or to lend a helping hand, I have also learned that Parisians aren't true French. They are a special kind of breed of human species that are unlike anybody else. They are fashionistas who are always on the go. My first trip to Paris was surprisingly good but that had to do a lot with the fact that the whole trip was already taken cared of by a tour guide. The second time I arrived in Paris, I reserved a shuttle to take me to my residence on rue de condé because I was studying in the Institut Catholique for the month of July in 2007. I was on my own while roaming the streets of Paris, here to fend for myself. It was a growing experience that taught me the ways of the French. At first and even now, if they don't understand my French I tend to speak in Spanish because for some odd reason they love Mexicans. So while I'm here I embrace my ethnicity and use it to my advantage. I tend to notice that they will react nicer and more attentive, for example at a restaurant.

While the rudeness continues to be a part of the French culture I have come to understand it and embrace it as their way of being. It has also been countered by some great acts of thoughtfulness and helpfulness of complete strangers. Like for example when I took my luggage on the metro. A man offered to take up the stairs and up the stairs at one of my connections. I found that refreshing and it made me smile.

Every time I come to this magical place where Parisians live I am faced with all kinds of people that surprise me. I love this city with such a passion that I have come to accept that even though Parisians aren't "les vrai francais" they also possess a unique charm on top of their stereotypes.

Culture 3: Something that wouldn’t be in San Diego

Something I have come to love and admire from the French is that they stand up to what they believe in and what they feel to be unjust. Whatever the problem may be, the French, Parisians in particular, will march down the roads with microphones chanting and trying to make a stand. It is such a common thing here in France and Paris that our professor has even referred to it as a regional sport.

Les greves, as they call them in French, are common events in Paris. There are strikes for everything: the metro (transportation), the big companies such as TOTAL (the big oil company), and even teacher's strikes. Nowadays in San Diego or anywhere in CA, teachers would be scared to strike in fear of being another statistic in the unemployment sector. Yes, it's true we do have strikes and protests but nothing comes close to the ones held here in Paris.

Our strikes in California are most commonly referred to the ones we are most used to, the supermarket strikes for unjust treatment and benefits. As for the teachers of CA, they have suffered quite a bit in the last few years because of budget cuts and we often see these protests happen after many teachers get let go.
Like in Paris, these strikes are also organized but not nearly as elaborate as the ones in Paris. For one thing the strikes in CA don't usually involve a large number of people. The ones I am used to seeing are the supermarket strikes that are held outside the big food chains such as Ralph's and Vons. The workers congregate together to accumulate a total of maybe 10 to 30 workers max and hold signs putting shame on the supermarket. They do this to try to ward off business from the supermarket, passing out flyers, holding big banners, and chanting slogans.

Never have I ever seen such a demonstration like the ones in Paris for a strike. It was a normal day on a Tuesday not to long ago, I went to school hearing the slogans and chanting in the background and when I returned back to my residence, 5 hours later, the people were still marching down Avenue Daumesnil. My roommate and I decided to go see the commotion and found so many young people joining in on the cause. This particular strike had to do with the recent government decisions about school and work conditions. I started to think about SDSU's increase of tuition and chuckled because the French (Parisians) would never allow that to happen.

I was really surprised at the organization and the extent of the strike. It ran from La Nation to La Republique. I found out that that was a popular and symbolic road to march on. We went to go see a real Parisian strike. The whole thing resembled more of a parade than anything else. It was crowded with people exercising their right of freedom of speech. The roads were closed and so there were traffic jams before getting to those blocked roads. It was chaos at those intersections because there were very little police trying to block the cars.

The march had cars with speakers and people chanting with microphones hooked up to the speakers. They had balloons, signs, flyers, and banners. There were people of all ages, men with their children strapped on their chest, little kids walking alongside their parents, teenagers "sticking it to the man." It was entertaining to see all of these people congregate together to speak up against the government.

Since I have been here, I have heard of maybe 7 strikes that have occurred in Paris, most of which have not affected me in any way. Les greves in Paris are part of their culture and will probably remain. It's definitely something to experience while staying in Paris.