french guide: edition 2

After being in dear old France for nearly a month now, I've conquered steep alpine mountains, the Lyon metro system, some intense hamburger cravings and I've come across a few more funny little facts along the way.

Olivia, Annie, Ashleigh, and I about to chow down on some hamburgers at Nankasi's (think Para couches, Macados decor, and Bolyan burgers. yes.)

zee french guide, take two:

1. In France,  Coffee To-Go doesn’t really exist. Apparently coffee is more of a sit down and think about life kind of affair rather than an “oh crap, lets chug this on the way to class so I can stay awake” type of thing. Hahaa. On the other hand, footlong baguette sandwiches are often eaten while walking down the sidewalk.

2. Refrigeration. They don’t refrigerate eggs.  And milk is only refrigerated after you open the bottle!

3. SUVs do exist. Granted I’ve only seen like 3, but yeah, I saw three! And I saw a Ford the other day too, some American brands are kind of a novelty just because its really hard to get them here (I was told I could sell my Abercrombie and American Eagle shirts for pretty good money, haha)

4. The jazz scene in Lyon is surprisingly happenin’. Lots of college kids. Packed jazz bars. Sweet, who would have thought!?

5. Sadly its true, the french aren't really big fans of peanut butter. They just don't understand. :) however, you can find it, its just really expensive in comparison. Though i have to say, nutella is a good substitute.

Pen for scale. notice that the electronic price thingie says 6.45 euro, almost nine dollas!! yum yum!

6. So many people smoke. It you’re walking down the sidewalk and don’t smell tobacco, something is wrong. And its people of all ages.  After class, probably a third of the students go outside and smoke, just different.

7. Being young. If you’re between 18-25 years old in France, you've got it made.  We get all sorts of benefits…free entry to almost any museum (only one I had to pay for in Paris was Eiffel Tower), reduced train, metro, and opera tix, meal specials at restaurants…yes, fabulous.

8. Crème de Marrons.  Ever eaten a chestnut? We had a couple trees in my backyard growing up, haha I just remember the prickley shells getting stuck in my feet.  But along side the Nutella in the grocery store, they sell Crème des Marrons, which is a nutella/jam/I dunno type of spread that I thought I would try just for the heck of it. And its really funky, but kinda good! Haha. Acutally my host mom made a cake out of it! Mmmmmmm so good!

creme de marrons!

9. Speaking of cake, we almost never have dessert – or what I would consider in America to be dessert. The only time was for Steph’s birthday (the chestnut cake)! Instead after dinner, we always have either fruit, applesauce, or plain yogurt with lots of sugar on top.  Which I like a lot. But its just a little different from living in the Graham household where either Nana or Dad is encouraging you to eat pie and icecream after every meal. :-D

10. Hearing a French person say the word “brownie” is hilarious.  Ashleigh ordered one the other night and the waitress had no clue what she was asking for.  Hahaa.  I don’t know how to type phonetic spellings, but here’s my best attempt: “bruuuniee.”

11. Classes are really looooonnnnnnggggg. A typical 3 credit class at UVA meets three days a week for 50 minutes each. In France, they meet once a week for 3 hours. Hey, why not just get it all over with at once?

12. There is a candy store in the older part of town that has big wooden barrels filled with candy. It made me think of the one in Valley Crucis, NC! No worries though, the Valley Crucis one still wins. Stiff completion. But it was a good try. 

i think the cashier thought we were really weird. haha

13. French students are really bad about talking in class! In ALL my lectures last week there were groups of students chatting CONSTANTLY throughout the class! The prof in one class kept having to stop and sshhhh the class. So weird. and rather annoying.

14. There is NO SLICED BREAD in our kitchen. My host mom never buys it, always baguettes! :-D and they are so heavenly. But, they get hard and stale after about a day. So, she buys like 8 at a time and puts them in the freezer, then we just pull one out and thaw/microwave it when we wanna eat it!

15. A couple nights ago as I was walking home, a little bitty green European car with 3 students about my age, and the windows down blasting Shania Twain’s “Man I Feel like a Woman.” Hahaaaha. I was like YES.  Thank you US of A. It was great.