Oh la vache!

After a cancelled flight, a late night replacement flight, six hours of minimal leg room, and another passenger's on-flight medical emergency, speaking and understanding French were far from my realm of comprehension. But of course, that didn't stop anyone from spitting out sentences full of French expecting me to understand. Arriving at our hotel/hostel for the first days of orientation, a bed and shower were the only things I could focus on. You don't realize how much energy and brain power it takes to speak and understand a foreign language when you're so abruptly thrown into it. I'm pretty sure my brain hurt after completing one thought.

Aside from tackling the language, learning how to get around the city seemed to be of utmost priority (according to the program directors who disregarded our intense exhaustion). The metro is a piece of cake compared to the New York subway system and the buses are just as cramped with everyone pushing their way through the crowd, with bursts of excusez-moi and pardon (polite gestures being more common in Paris than in New York). Politeness and hospitality are crucial to a French lifestyle, and despite the typical French character stereotype of being aggressive and arrogant, I was determined to prove that wrong.

Then I was given an article titled Six Codes: Rudeness is in the Eye of the Beholder on how to live as a French person and the number one code reads: Do not Smile! I get it, I'm in France and the people aren't as friendly at first glance but this was très bizarre! I knew I couldn't last 10 minutes without laughing or flashing a smile and according to the article these actions would be seen as "taking a risk". To a certain extent the article was right in its warning because on a packed metro a group of obnoxiously loud smiling Americans was not well-accepted. Then again, smiling at a waiter resulted in a smile back making me feel like a happy person again. I may be trying to immerse in the French lifestyle, but I will not change my optimistic/nervous/awkward/happy smile. (Especially when I've had some amazingly delicious food and a few bottles of wine, that smile simply cannot be contained).

A word of advice for the future, literal translation isn't always the way to go. Clearly an important lesson I learned through experience (thankfully in the confines of a classroom). Refrain from saying : I am hot ≠ je suis chaud (instead this has a sexual connotation of "I am horny")
,I am full ≠ je suis pleine (useful if you are telling someone you are pregnant),preservatives ≠ preservatives (this is actually the term for the item you should've used if being "pleine" wasn't your goal).

Another word of advice, don't hate on New York drivers as often anymore because one cab ride here and you will definitely start to appreciate them as well as your life. I even have to admit that Brooklyn drivers might actually be a little less crazy on the road than the French and that obviously says a lot.

My fairy godmother who never disappoints in sprinkling fairy dust on me to ensure that I have the most random encounters, has surely followed me to Paris. I traveled across the ocean and still managed to be in the same program as a girl I had met once before not knowing we would ever see each other again, let alone be abroad together and I had the pleasure of bumping into a classmate from high school I haven't seen in 3 years. As my friend would say, Quoi en le monde?!

Highlight of a Saturday night out on the town: a French guy responding to us being New Yorkers with: "Oui, New York! Where concrete jungles are made of, New York!" Jay-Z has officially recreated the meaning of New York for the whole world. Bravo.

Clearly, with the help of some interesting American and French people, and very importantly Monsieur Vin Rouge (photo at right), these first days in the City of Lights have not been disappointing. Soon enough I'll be walking through the Champs Elysees, the Louvre, and the Arc de Triomphe as nonchalantly as passing by Times Square (though less nauseatingly I hope). J