Lesson 1 Week one in France

After having consistently berated those who make year abroad blogs, (why do I give a shit that the orange juice in cordoba is slightly more acidic than that found in tesco express) I was the other day convinced that in fact, writing some memoirs of this year would not be such a bad idea. Don't worry, I'm still not under the illusion that the whole world cares about what i'm doing abroad, but it shall make a nice self indulgent memoir for me about when I attempted to blend into another culture for another year.

For those that know me, please also realise that my attempted seemless transition into Parisian culture will fail. I'm not going to change my name to Claude, and buy an ornamental bird cage. I'm not going to attempt to grow a moustache and find a beautiful parisian girlfriend and speak in cliches for a year.

No, for those that don't know, my year will be spent in the ville rouges, so called because they are full of redbrick built social housing. Brick that was deemed too unsightly for the centre of paris, where only beautiful white brick is allowed.
I go to university in Saint denis, the town with the highest crime rate in France, and only 19% of crimes are ever solved due to the huge amount of gens sans papiers, making them virtually untracable. It also caused a rather awkward moment in the introductory lecture when a former student told us to "keep hold of our belongings" . I live in a place called Pantin, which is truly a place of bizarre contrasts where the charming old church faces two halal butchers who's owners seem to have not just a commercial rivalry but a strong dislike for each other and a beautiful park and canal adjoin a huge abandoned old factory. I'm only 10 minutes on the metro from the beaurgoise centre of Paris, however even this I believe will not allow me to integrate into a culture that shuns both Heinz Baked Beans and the drink of gods; Dr Pepper.

If you dont care about what ive done i recommend you scroll down a good few lines because for my loved ones...(hi mum and dad) heres a summary of my week.

-Went bowling.. won... standard
-Drank on some steps in front of a church.. classy
-Got all my uni stuff pretty much sorted for my first day of lessons on the 3rd.. difficult
-Got a job teaching kids english in after school sessions.. dollah
-Went to sacre coeur, notre damn, eiffel tower, champs elysee, invalides, pantheon... touristy
-Found a post it in my shoes.. bizarre
-Booked some concert tickets.. excitement :D


Its gonna be a good year, I'm mixing with people I would never usually meet and thats fantastic, it will hopefully broaden my mind in a way tourism never can. Did you know for instance that:

-Ruth's name means that shes sexually aroused in french
-In Spain, the heads of the table are called the brazilians
-In germany, they finish all lessons by everyone tapping on the table
-You can't buy blu tack in France
-Despite speaking the same language the accents and intenation of Portugese and Brazilians makes it almost impossible for them to understand each other
-If you are American, you need to have a chest X-ray to work in France

Just to finish, a couple of bits of advice for those leaving to go on years abroad over the next couple of weeks.

1. Your french is rubbish, misunderstanding is commonplace. You will nod like you've understood then think, crap, that could have been important. One such misunderstanding came about when I thought my flatmate asked me to empty the washing machine when in fact he was asking whether i liked rage against the machine.

2. Even if you understand words, loads have different meaning. I was a little bit creeped out when a guy I just met said en chante to me.. and retreated to my room. Only to find out that it just means nice to meet you, and does not have the romantic lets go out to dinner overtones that it does in English.

3.Bring blu tack.

4.Bring patience, paperwork in France is hell.


I will bore you again next week in a similar manner, heres one of the most exciting things I saw this week; an original street art piece by space invader. He is featured on banksys exit through the giftshop documentry :)








Tout a l'heure
Will x