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So, sorry I suck. I haven't written in so long, that I forget what has even happened in my life. What has been so fun about keeping this blog is that I get to keep track of the little day-to-day things about my life in France, and now so many days are lost. Mais, pas de souci - on recommence maintanent.
Thinking about the fact that I'm leaving so soon makes me want to shut down and not write, because I won't even know where to begin. So I'm not thinking about it. Don't ask how I feel about leaving France, because I don't have the words, good or bad. All I have to share right now are my experiences. Donc, the highlights of my life as of late:
- Buying awesome gloves from the Rouen Christmas market
- Watching my first Marilyn Monroe movie ever in France: Some Like It Hot (Certains L'Aiment Chaud) with Luc and Tiffany
- Walking to school every day, and either being too hot or too cold the entire time
- Trying to make dinner for myself. It was a disaster involving trying to cook rice and lentils together. At the same time. In the same pot. Which was actually a pressure cooker.
- Taking with my host mom at dinner every night. I always go back up to my room in such a wonderful mood. Words can't express how happy I am to have moved here. (And now impossible it is going to be to leave).
- Spending an entire weekend with my Senegalese family. It's amazing and sad that I'm just getting to know them so well at the end of my trip.
Une petite histoire before I go:
Today, I took the bus coming home because it was late and I didn't feel like walking. I got on the bus, bought a ticket because I don't have a bus pass anymore, and the bus driver made a comment about my gloves, I told him I bought them at the Christmas market in town, and we started talking. He was really nice except for the fact that when I told him I was thinking about studying in Senegal in the future, he told me that I didn't want to do that because that country is really poor and there's nothing going on there. I said that I had, in fact, already been and I loved it. And then he offered up that he was from Algeria. Suddenly, it all made sense. There's this weird thing in France about race. Obviously this is a gross generalization, but here it is, simplified: The French are racist towards people from the Maghreb (c'est à dire, from Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco). They don't seem to have a problem with many from Sub-Saharan Africa (aka Senegalese). The Senegalese don't have a problem with anyone. And immigrants to France form the Maghreb don't like the French because of their racism, but don't like the black Africans just because. Now, this doesn't speak for everyone, but it's just a general sentiment that I've felt since I've been in France. The people I surround myself with obviously aren't blatantly racist, but just from what I've heard, seen, and experienced, there is an underlying racism of France towards immigrants from the Maghreb.
So anyway, we talked, he tried to figure out the name for Chat Roulette (which I couldn't remember until after I got off the bus), and he told be about how much he hated French people because of how racist they were. In his defense, he did have some pretty crazy stories about not being able to rent apartments, or people being hostile to him for no reason other than the fact that he is Algerian. But still - I'm not a fight fire with fire kind of person, so I was a little less than impressed. This is all while he was driving the bus in the darkness from Mont Saint Aignan to Rouen, but no big deal.
But as a bonus, he didn't realize I wasn't French until like half way through the conversation. Which. Is. Awesome. I'm making progrès :)
I promise to write more soon. Now, it's bed time!
Love, Josie
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