You know you're in France when...

• You can buy a baguette on every corner.  
• Nothing is open on Sundays except the Boulangeries who sell baguettes.
• Cheese that is blue, green, black, brown, or even fuzzy is considered particularly good.  
• There is no ice in drinks...ever.
• 75% of the men you encounter are wearing man-purses (a.k.a. "man-sac," "murse.")
• You are a girl sitting a bar drinking a pint of beer and the group of guys next to you are drinking hot chocolates.
• Techno music is bumping from the speakers at most bars/clubs.
• "Tik Tok" and "I Gotta Feeling" are played on repeat. 
• You find a large cathedral in every town you visit.
• A shoes saleswoman tells you your feet are too big and she cannot help you.
• People stare at you funny when you exercise.  
• You can only get really really small cups of coffee.
• You have to watch your step at all times in order to prevent encountering dog poop mines.
• Wine really is cheaper than water.
• A beer is the same price as a Coca-Cola (sometimes cheaper!)
• The boys urinal and girls toilets are in the same bathroom!
• Dogs accompany their masters in restaurants, grocery stores, and shopping malls.
• You try to speak French and people speak English back to you.  Ouch.
• People cannot drink a beer straight--they will put peach or grenadine syrup in it called a "Demi-pêche" or a "Monaco"
• Mojitos are offered at almost every bar
• You can sit at a restaurant for 4 hours and no one will kick you out.
• It is considered pretty good service if you actually get water at a restaurant without asking.
• There is a large section at the grocery store dedicated solely to NUTELLA.  On the other hand, there is usually only 1-2 jars of peanut butter.
• Stores are closed between noon and 2pm...sometimes even restaurants!
• People iron their sheets...and jeans.

To be continued...

August in France

"juillet:" July
"août:" August
"congés:" time-off
"vacances:" vacation

France is an interesting place to be in during the month of August, and by "interesting" I mean slightly boring and very quiet. Unlike us perhaps work-a-holic Americans, the French take their vacation time very seriously. One might observe that the French may have a better "work-life" balance as opposed to Americans, a full-time work week being capped at 35 hours and a 5-week vacation allowance per year. On the other hand, they pay a lot of taxes for this. (Socialism?). Anywho, August is nationally recognized as holiday time in France, where almost everybody takes all or part of their 5 week vacation time all at once. While great for everyone taking vacation, not so great for the American interns who do not get to take an August holiday (that's me!).

This past week there were 5 interns and my boss in the office. It was a bit quiet. Also, our factory closes for all of August therefore there is no production during this month. This is obviously planned for in advance, as it happens every year. While I do not mind so much working in the quiet office, it does bode problems for me if I need to ask someone a question (and they are off on the beach somewhere!).

The really annoying part about staying in France in August is that everything else closes for vacation. Normally, in the U.S., if you work in a retail store for example, the employees will stagger their time off so that there is always someone available to work. Here, not so much. Stores, bars, restaurants just plain close for the month of August. Even my boulangerie (bakery) is closed for a whole month! I cannot get the good bread! You'd think that being an American and rarely eating baguettes at home would not affect me, however, after being here so long I have picked up the French habit of bread being a necessity and now it is TORTURE not to have it. We can buy some cheap bread from the supermarket but its just not the SAME!

I await the end of August where life comes back to normal in Clermont-Ferrand. For now, I suppose I should try to appreciate the quiet.

Uncomfortable or Uninformed?

La politique: politics
La guerre: war

As I have been in Europe for over 7 months, I have had a chance to interact with a lot of different people, from different nationalities, different races, different religions. One thing is almost always for sure is that because I am American, everyone wants to discuss the tough stuff. That is, the stuff that I normally avoid discussion about; politics, Bush, Obama, the war. Now, I can understand what America is an easy target. We are the richest, most powerful country (right now)…and this is not me bragging about my country, these are the facts. It is always easy to criticize the top. But dang, I really feel like when I get this criticism or “discussion” about what is going on in America, and especially with respect to the war, I am supposed to defend the country—its as many of the people (especially the French) are asking me to defend the government’s decisions. I’m just Michelle Majerle, 23 year old from Kansas; I am not the President, Congress, the 300 million-person population of America…

The French specifically love to discuss politics. It’s not a taboo subject, on the contrary, a subject you are likely to broach upon first meeting someone. For example, on my second day of work at my internship, I had to drive 2 hours to our factory with my boss, and in that conversation he asked me what I thought about Bush, Obama, the war, healthcare; what my family thought about all of the above, and if I thought America was protectionist. OK buddy, we just met. And then there is one of the other interns at work who enjoys pestering me everyday with questions like “Is Iraq going to be the 51st state?” Politics is just not personal information here, as in the U.S. I think in the U.S. we do not discuss these subjects so in depth for fear of offending people. Maybe we’re too sensitive? Perhaps it’s a good thing to be more open about it; all the questioning has made me realize just how little I know about U.S. politics and the war we find ourselves in. So is it that I feel uncomfortable discussing my person political views, or am I just plain uninformed?

As I start to think about it more, this whole fiasco with the building of a mosque in New York at Ground Zero comes to mind. Apparently everyone is getting all fired up about it, with such comments like, “We cannot let them win!” Who is them? Have I been gone so long that the “War on Terror” has now become the “War on Islam?” A mosque is like a church, a temple; a building where people go to pray. A mosque has nothing to do with “terrorists.” I may not know everything about the political environment, but I do know that these people are more uninformed than I am.

Customer Service? I don't think so.

Today's French experience:

Last Saturday, I bought two ethernet cables to use in our apartment (since we finally got internet after only 7 short months!). We ended up being able to set up the WiFi, so the cables were not necessary. As the packaging was undisturbed, I had the receipt in tact, and it had only been 3 days since I purchased the products, I assumed the return process would be quick and simple. The ideas "quick" and "simple" do not exist alone in France, let alone conjointly, so I am not sure what I was thinking!

I walked down to the "mall" which holds the store FNAC, a general equivalent to what we know as Best Buy at home. I walk in, looking for your typical customer service desk that handles returns. I approach a counter that ressembles what I know to be a customer service desk, but when I explained to the employee that I wanted to return the items, he told me he does not handle that at his counter. He pointed me to the security guard up front, and told me to tell them I needed to return something, and they would write me a ticket. OK. So I go to the front of the store and the security guard writes me a ticket with my name and the product information on it. THEN, she tells me to take it to a salesperson on the floor. OK. So I go up to a salesperson on the floor and tell him I am trying to return something. He determines that these cables are not in his department and refers me to another salesperson. I wait for a few minutes until this other salesperson returns, and tell her I would like to return something, and she types some stuff into her computer and prints off another ticket. Then she proceeds to tell me that I need to take the ticket to the cashier counter. OK. The cashier counter has a long zig-zag line, kind of like the lines you wait in at amusement parks to go on the really cool rollarcoasters. That's annoying.

As I was waiting in line I pondered striking up a conversation with the young guy in front me who was buying some vampire romance/horror flick--looked like a French "Twilight" if you ask me. Then I saw the man-sac and I just stayed quiet. The French aren't really keen on talking to strangers anyway.

Finally, I got to the register and received my 27.63 euro credit. It only took talking to 5 employees to get!

French (Corporate) Culture

Bonjour: Hello
Ça va?: How are you/how is it going?
Ça va, ça va: (response) it goes
Bon appetit: Eat well (“Bon app” for short)
Bon après-mid: Have a good afternoon (“Bon aprèm” for short)
Bonne soirée: Have a good night (“Bon soir” for short)
A tout à l’heure: See you later (“A tout” for short)
A plus tard: See you later (“A plus” for short)

I have now worked for a little over a month now, enabling me to become a bit acquainted with our office culture. As I have not had too much experience in offices in the States, I have little to compare to but I have found some aspects at work that I think may be different than our culture at home.

First of all, of course there is the difference of language. That comes with the territory, I suppose (no pun intended). I speak mostly French in the office with my co-workers. There is one women who works at my office who is Irish, so I get to sneak in some English with her every once and a while. The office is not very big--only about 15 people at most (with some leaving at the end of the summer), so I have a chance to talk to everybody a bit. However, as we handle a large export market, there remains the rest of the world to speak with. What is, pray tell, the international language of business? That’s right, good ‘ole English. Despite the unfortunate reality that many Americans will only ever learn one language, at least it’s a damn good practical one! We speak English with most of our clients, excluding perhaps Belgium and Luxembourg (French speaking), some of the French-speaking African nations, and some Spanish-speaking nations (as the family that owns the company all speak Spanish as well). The main part of my internship so far is working with the U.S. market, conveniently enough for me I speak good English.

The second thing I want to make mention of is the abundance of pleasantries exchanged throughout the day. I will be one of the first to say that I believe the French in general are much “colder” than we are in America; we who embrace foreigners with welcoming arms into our great melting pot. Yet, the French are all about their gestures and greetings. When I enter the office in the morning, I have to make my rounds to individually say “Bonjour” to everyone who is already there, maybe exchange a few ça va’s here and there. Then I make some coffee and go to my office, and everyone else that comes in after also makes rounds so you get a series of “Bonjours” for the first 15 minutes of so of the morning. If I encounter the President of the company or my boss, they will usually shake my hand. I do not give the kisses (“bises”) to anyone except sometimes the other interns, who are my age—although I feel like I get them whenever they feel like it because it’s not everyday. You’d think that after being here for 7 months I would know when to give/expect kisses, and when not to, but there’s just consistency here. I just don’t pucker my lips until there is a cheek right in front of them in the case of a forward motion being mistaken for a lean-in for the kiss. Miss-firing kisses is just embarrassing.
After morning “Bonjours,” there comes mid-day “Bon appetites” (or “Bon app” if you’re sly) in which you tell everyone between the hours of 12-2pm to have a good lunch even if they are not at the moment eating, even if they have already eaten, or even if they are just walking in the hall. If I leave the office for lunch, I make sure to do rounds again to wish everyone “good eating.” What happens after lunch, perhaps less formal, but there is the “Bon après-midi,” to wish your fellow colleagues a good afternoon. Whereas in English, our “Good Afternoon” I find to be more of a introductory greeting, here it is more of parting greeting-more so as “I hope you have a good afternoon” smooshed into two words or a quick “Bon aprèm.” (I have yet to try the cute shortcuts to these greetings for fear of sounding silly). When the day ends, there are the “Au revoirs” and “Bonne soirees” distributed, again another cycle of rounds to make sure you bid everyone adieu. That means no sneaking out early without everyone knowing—or, if you do without saying goodbye, you will likely be perceived as rude!

Finally, there is the “vous” and “tu” game. The lovely English language is fortunate enough to only use one form of the word “you” to everybody and anybody. In many other languages, however, there are two forms, an informal (tu) and a formal (vous). This complicates things because misuse is considered quite rude. The French are taught how to use these when they are young and learning the language, so I believe it comes naturally to them when to use “vous” and when to use “tu.” For me, however, I’m dropping tu’s when I should be dropping vous’s all the time, and vice versa. I especially had this problem when I started working because most of the people I have been speaking to in French are other students, so I was accustomed “tu.” (and therefore conjugating like so). When you meet someone for the first time, or they an “elder” (whatever that means), or in a position above, you should always use, “vous.” I use tu with anyone about my age or younger. With those you start using “vous” with, you have to wait for them to give you permission to use “tu.” (it’s actually a verb-“tutoyer”). I have had our marketing director tell me I can tutoyer him, an older woman who is probably around 60 tell me I can use “tu,” but I have been warned by my fellow interns to never-ever, not once use “tu” with the three brothers who run the business (despite one of them only being 25 years old). This makes sense; it is similar calling someone Mr./Mrs. instead of their first name—but in English you don’t usually slip their first name by accident as I have been doing with “tu.” Whoops. Oddly enough, however, I call them all by their first names, but use “vous.” Weird.

Fête de la Musique

“Fête:” Party
“Chanter” to sing
“Une Chanson:” a song

Every year in France, on the first day of summer (21st June), there is a huge music festival in every city called, “Fête de la Musique.” It does not matter what day of the week it falls on, or the weather circumstances; it will always be celebrated on the first day of summer. I’m not sure how this tradition started, but it now exists across the whole country. The idea is to celebrate summer by playing and enjoying music all of different genres. This year, the first day of summer happened to fall on a Monday, slightly unfortunate because I had to work the next day so could not stay out grooving all night long. However, I did get a couple of hours taste of the celebrations welcoming in the summer season.

At about 5pm, I could start hearing sounds off in the distance or instruments tuning, speakers being tested, and the carefree attitude of the night was already in the air. Ah, you have to love summertime. There we official lineups set up in the main squares of the town, also accompanied by informal groups set up in front off restaurants and cafés, parked in a corner playing whatever kind of music is theirs. I took a stroll through the main areas, first stopping for a few minutes to admire a blues/jazz group set up near the marché St. Pierre—a mix of old and young men with harmonica, drums, and brass to give the soothing element to the melody. Not but 10 feet away were another group of people literally shaking their booties to some funky tunes. I worked my way down the biggest square in town, Place Jaude, with the streets leading to it lined with vendors selling crepes, cotton candy, beer, and many other delights you could imagine. The first stop in Place Jaude was a turntable set up with two gigantic speakers on both sides, each adorned with a young lady dancing atop. After I could not handle the steady ear-ringing, techno “boom-boom,” I moved down the square to the main stage where I happened to catch the last few songs of a French rap act. While I do enjoy the occasional rap rhymes formed by some American “artists,” I cannot say these guys were really, “my cup ‘o tea.” I gave them a chance for a few songs, and then moved on.

Up the hill I walked to the second largest square, Place de la Victoire, where I found a big crowd surrounding a corner where noise was happening. The noise I found out was a head-banging, screaming-into-the-microphone, black-clad group of young men doing something very bad with what I consider as, “music.” An interesting sight, however, as people of the same genre formed a chain, arms spread over each other’s shoulders of head-banging. After awhile, I think you’d have to get a headache from doing this, “dancing.” On the main stage in Place de la Victoire, where I discovered a fabulous funk-hip hop group from Cincinnati. It was apparent from the few, “Mercis” that they did not speak much French, as well as the fact that all their songs were English. I enjoyed them very much, actually doing a little grooving and swaying myself. During the last song of their gig, they invited up some of the local break dancers who had been bustin’ a move in the front row—three of these boys, maybe 17 or 18 years old came up on stage dressed in the oh-so-not French young hipster baggy jeans and hoodies with flat-billed caps. When they finished up, I wandered over to a pub who had an Irish band tooting out some friendly melodies. About 15 people were in front doing some sort of line dancing that I did not know of, a mix of children, 20-somethings, and older. It was if they were some family-dancing group—quite entertaining to watch. Back in Place de la Victoire, a funk band from England was just revving up, their lead singer and curvy black woman with the greatest spirit you can ask for in a lead-singer. When she was not singing she was dancing all around the stage, she looked like she was having so much fun up there, I could not help but smile. The drummer and the guitar-player were accompanied by a line of additional musicians with a clarinet, saxophone, and trumpet. This was probably my favorite act of the whole evening.

Since it was a “school-night” (do we call that “work-night” now?) I had to head home before all of the festivities were over. On the way back, I caught the sounds of the a few bands along the way, some classic-rock covers and the like.

It was a really neat festival, that brought a lot of people out and about in Clermont. There is something about summer and music that just goes together so well.

OFFSIDES!

“Le Coupe du Monde:” World Cup
“Football” Soccer

A couple of weeks ago, I could not have told you what “offsides” meant, or the significance of yellow and red cards, penalty kicks, who Christiano Renaldo was, or any of the like. Now that the World Cup has begun, soccer is in full force all over the world, not excluding Clermont-Ferrand. I have never boasted to be a soccer fan (usually quite the contrary), but with 3 games a day, and little else entertainment, I now often watch a ball get kicked around for 90 minutes at a time.

While soccer has its certain followings in the U.S., it is a huge sport here in Europe. (They don’t know about baseball or basketball!). Since the World Cup has started, I have learned the essential rules of the game and discovered how the tournament works: 8 groups of 4 teams each play each other, the 2 top teams from each group go on to a 16 team single-elimination tournament. I have also learned who I am supposed to cheer for (Obviously go U.S.A!, Allez la France, boo England, and anyone else playing against those teams). However, I think the most important tidbit about soccer that I have come across in the last 2 weeks is the article I found online, “The Top 15 Sexiest Soccer Players in the World Cup.” Now, before each game, I check my list to see whom I should be watching on the field. Soccer players don’t wear masks or helmets, so it’s easy to get a good look at the boys too. Sweet deal!

I need to go look to see who’s playing today…