The Norms of French Culture

Hey guys, sorry I haven't written anything in a while. I've been pretty busy and not a lot of post-worthy things have been happening. Anyway, I thought I'd bring up the subject of customs in the French culture. There's many things that are different than the customs of the U.S and some things I'm still sort of getting used to.

Faire la bise

As you can see there can be anywhere from 1-5 kisses (that's a lot!!)

Let's start off with greetings and goodbyes. As many of you know, the French have this thing called "la bise." It's pretty much where you air kiss one cheek then the other. In different regions it's a different amount of kisses, but where I am it's one kiss on each cheek. This usually only happens between girls and girls or a guy and a girl, and usually isn't in a romantic context. Occasionally two guys will "faire la bise" but that's only when they're family or very close. For men it is more common to see a handshake or a check (high five.) Even among teenagers a handshake is quite common and not considered formal. Handshakes and doing la bise happen when you first greet someone and when you're leaving. This has been one of the weirdest things I've had to adapt to, even after almost 3 months, I don't always know how I should approach greetings and goodbyes. (Also, hugs are super awkward for the French, unless you're really close with someone, they don't really happen.)

Let's move on to one of my favorite subjects, food*. So food is pretty important for the French. Except breakfast. Breakfast isn't very important and usually consists of some toast and a glass of orange juice. Lunch is kind of the primary meal of the day and is eaten right around noon. Although many kids eat at school, many kids go home to eat with their families. Dinner is eaten pretty late here, or at least for U.S standards (around 7:30.) It's not as big as lunch but still tasty. Both lunch and dinner consist of a meat and some sort of grain and possibly some vegetables. They both end with bread and cheese and/or yogurt.

I don't have much else for this post. Sorry it's so short but I felt the need to write something. Next time it will probably be longer! Anyway, before I go, what are some customs in your country that you feel are specific to where you are from? Leave a comment below! Thanks for reading, I'll be back soon!

*No but for real, food is delish and French Food, it's the bomb-diggity.

The ABC's of French School

Bonjour tout le monde! I hope everyone's week has been good so far. Today, like all Wednesdays, we had a half-day and finished school at 12pm. This might be one of the best things about French school. French school is very different from American schools in a lot of ways. For the most part I really like it.

In France I'm at Lycée Montchapet. It's a relatively big high school with +/- 1500 people. The layout is interesting. There is one large building (shown on the right in the picture) which has most of your classes. Then the main office where you would go if you're late is in a different building. This building is attached to the building where there are all the foreign languages. There is a building where there is an area where you can chill out, do work, hang out with friends or even get a snack at the cafe. Finally there is another building for the cafeteria.

I have French class*, math class, science, physics/chemistry, Gym class, FLE** and English class (literally so fun and easy although it's British English so I'm learning some little things which is cool.) I'm not sure why but I don't have history class, while all the French kids do. Also all the French kids take English and then Spanish or Italian, I don't have another language because I think they thought learning French was enough. (I agree!)

It's interesting in France because the schedule isn't the same every day. The earliest I have to get up at is 6:30am to start school at 8:00am although sometimes I don't have classes until after lunch. I then have an hour for lunch at 12:00pm. In the afternoon it also varies at what time I end school. Most days I will end school at either 16:00 or 17:00. Sometimes I will end as early as 14:00. And on Wednesdays, as I said, we always have a half day and end at 12:00. Also the weeks rotate so not only is your schedule different from day-to-day but from week-to-week as well. I know this isn't true for everyone, but at least at my school, some kids have to go to school on Saturday. I have to go to school for 2 hours for math class every other Saturday (c'est chiant!!)

If the teacher doesn't show up within about 15 minutes you don't have class. And unless the teacher is gone for 2+weeks you don't have a substitute. You have two weeks of vacation every +/- 7 weeks, which is really nice but throws you off a little bit.

At Montchapet, if you don't have a class, you can leave and go do whatever you want, for instance you could go shopping or get a coffee or do heroin***, whatever floats your boat. Also unlike in the US where all the teachers have a room that is theirs, here, the teachers change rooms as well, it isn't only the students who change for a class. The grading system is out of 20 not 100, in France. This has been really weird for me. 10/20 in the US would be 50/100 or an F. Here 10/20 isn't magnificent but it's not that bad. 14 or 15/20 is awesome and 18 or 19/20 is almost unheard of. Also I found it weird because there is a condom distributor in the school.  In the U.S I'm pretty sure if a teacher found a condom they would suspend you.

The lunch food here is also really different. I think that's all for now! I'll talk about food next time and include more about lunch food here. Have a good rest of the day or night, as the earth keeps spinning, a little dot in the vast universe, we can take a moment to appreciate the little things that happen every day. We know only where we are not where we will be in one year, one day or even one minute. And with that I would like to say, goodnight Internet, goodnight. +NightVale Podcasts
*Would be the equivalent of English class in the US.
**FLE= Français langue étranger or pretty much all the non French kids learning how to speak French. It's honestly pretty uninteresting but whatever.
***This is a joke, it's funny right? haha. People don't do heroin I'm sorry, I'm just trying to express myself :(