Dégustation de fromages

What trip to France would be complete without some cheese tasting? In all reality, I knew the French were fanatics about their fromage, but I didn't realize how fanatical it actually was. Someone indicated to me that there are over 300 different types of cheese in France. Imagine walking into the grocery section at Wal-Mart and seeing 300 different types of cheese to pick from. So far, I've tried Beaufort (made in the Savoie region), Saint-Nectaire (made in Auvergne region), Tomme de Savoie (also from the Savoie region), and many others that I'm not able to remember. I'm not much for the strong cheese flavor, but Beaufort and Saint-Nectaire have been among my favorites.

My host family asked me the other day what kinds of cheese we eat in the United States. I sort of drew a blank, with only cheddar, Swiss, and Colby-Jack coming to mind. I did mention to them about Kraft Easy Cheese that comes in the easy-to-use spray can. I even showed them a picture (below) of the product, prominently displaying four different flavors: Cheddar, Sharp Cheddar, American, and my favorite, Cheddar and Bacon. I still laugh every time I replay their reaction in my head.

Perhaps there is a market for spray cheese here in France. Maybe I could start a business here manufacturing Roquefort in an easy-to-use, 1/2 liter size spray bottle. Maybe some Brie as well. The cans could be sold right along side the baguettes, with the slogan "bringing France into the 21st century, one cheese at a time." I think I'm on to something here...

Vehicular Variations

Americans love their cars. We love our cars so much that we drive them everywhere. We use them to drive to our neighbor's house for dinner, or to a store that is easily manageable on foot. We use our cars as status symbols of our wealth and prosperity. We all gawk at the gigantic Hummers that take up nearly two parking spaces. And we all cry when gas prices surge two-cents higher. Thanks to President Eisenhower, our country has an extensive Interstate Highway system that makes cross-country travel easier, quicker, and more efficient than had ever been thought possible (which, by the way, was borrowed from the German Autobahn system).

Accompanying our adoration of cars, us Americans hate certain things about other drivers and driving. We all hate those people who are delayed in accelerating after a light turns green. We also detest roundabouts and swear under our breath when trying to navigate them. We also seem to think that we are always doing the "right thing"and everyone else on the road is doing the wrong thing. When we find ourselves in the middle lane of an Interstate, we always think that the people in the right lane are moving too slow and the people in the left lane are moving too fast. As George Carlin so aptly put it, "why is it that anyone driving slower than you is a moron and anyone driving faster than you is an A--hole?"

Given all of this information about American's and their driving habits, let me make this one assumption: Americans would hate driving in Europe (myself included). I find that Europeans are absolutely crazy drivers. In the US, we usually tend to follow speed limits within 5 to 10 mph (or at least we know that we run the risk of a ticket if we go faster than that). In Europe, I'm convinced that speed limit signs are merely "advised speed limits," like the ones we find underneath sharp curve signs, indicating the recommended speed for that curve. Us Americans typically tend to stay in our lane, unless passing another car or avoiding some object in the road. In Europe, lane divider lines seem to provide a suggestion of where a car could travel, at best. And for those of you who adore your gas-guzzling, flame-shooting, space-hogging, think-your-so-cool, hot-rod of a car, you'd really hate it. Cars in Europe are clearly not used as a social status indicator. You rarely find overly sporty cars roaming the streets of Paris, Berlin, or any other European city. Nor do you find shirtless college students out on a sunny day cleaning and waxing their cars like some obsessive-compulsives do in the US. It just doesn't happen.

Additionally, the French love roundabouts. They put them nearly everywhere that us Americans would normally have an intersection with a traffic light. In the US, roundabouts are used, but often loathed by many. We often consider them confusing and unsafe. Little do we know, roundabouts are actually safer than normal intersections, resulting in 40% fewer vehicle collisions, 80% fewer injuries, and 90% fewer fatalities as a result of collisions (see Status Report). This still does not mean that they are not confusing...because they can be in my opinion.

Continuing on this tirade, the streets in Europe tend to go in every-which direction. There is no easy-to-follow system of grid-like streets and avenues, in which case your GPS tells you politely to "turn left" or "turn right." If I used my GPS in France, it would probably tell me things like "veer slightly right" or "turn sharp left." Take a look at the maps below as visual examples:



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ABOVE: New York City with it's grid-like street pattern.


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ABOVE: Paris with it's not-so-grid-like street pattern.


One last thing about the Europeans and their cars. Automatic transmission is a luxury here. Most Europeans drive manual transmission cars. Then there's me--the token American who has only driven a manual transmission car twice in his life...and who would be pretty shaky behind the wheel of one if it ever became necessary.

Rain, rain, rain

Rain can certainly ruin a good weekend, can't it? The school had an excursion planned to Mont Blanc and Chamonix, which I really wanted to attend. It ended up being canceled because of the weather. My host family is talking about taking me there on a nicer day, so it might work out.

I have signed up to do a day trip to Geneva on June 13. Long story short: it better not rain. This trip is scheduled to make a visit to the United Nations building, which evidently only allows admittance for pre-arranged groups and not individuals. If the trip were to be canceled, that means no United Nations visit for me.

No worries, it's supposed to be nice for the majority of next week.

As I say in Michigan, days like today are just one day closer to winter.

Language Differences and Perceptions

It's interesting to hear what other people have to say about a given language, especially those who have no comprehension of that given language. Today, I indicated to a girl from Spain that I can only decipher the rolled 'r' when people speak Spanish. For the record, she wasn't offended, but rather laughed like she had heard that before. However, I'm sure after class she immediately got on the phone with her family to tell them about this rude American.

With my curiosity getting the best of me, I asked a girl from Japan (who speaks no English) what she hears when she listens to people speaking English. She proceeded to make some sounds involving 'er' and 'reh.' I then asked our professor the same question. She proceeded to plug her nose and make the 'r' sound, in addition to some 'uh' and 'ae' sounds.

Even if we don't have any knowledge of a given language, we all tend to develop general ideas of what we think that language sounds like. For example, I know all of you think that German sounds like people hocking and spitting all the time--and that the French 'r' sounds like a cat with a hairball in the back of its throat. Despite these ideas, the language sounds nothing like this to native speakers. How many of you native English speakers would have described English sounds by plugging your nose?

What I'm trying to get at here is the shear craziness of language. What sounds like random nasal 'er' 'uh' and 'ae' sounds to one person, actually has meaning to another. Similarly, when I hear the rolled Spanish 'r,' people who understand Spanish hear much more, and can actually associate meaning, derive emotions, and communicate back. How amazing is that?

First day of classes

Today was my first day of classes. We started at 9am with a placement test. We also had an oral interview. It was fairly low key, but eye opening. The written test went alright, though it did get a little messy near the end. The oral interview also went well. The women who interviewed me was very nice and just asked me general questions about my life as a student in the United States.

I was also able to meet students from all corners of the world, from various cultural upbringings. It's amazing how so many students come together from all corners of the world...but still speak English. I just have to keep in mind that I'm here to learn French!

Tomorrow, it's off to class at 1:30.

Cultural Differences

It's very interesting to have a conversation with someone of a different culture and see the reactions of various people when you tell them about some typical aspect of your own culture. The French, for example, are always very surprised to hear that it's not uncommon for us Americans to eat dinner at 5pm--and that 8-9pm is considered a little late for dinner (which is about the normal time for dinner in France). Similarly, I conversed with a girl from Sweden today who was absolutely surprised that there is a 6 hour time difference between France and where I live in the US--and that the United States has several different time zones. Above all, I've realized that it's very difficult for people of other cultures (except people from China and Russia) to comprehend the size of the United States. In France, it takes one hour to cross the entire country by plane, and maybe 10 hours by car. For us, 10 hours doesn't even get us to New York City, or Washington, D.C., and not even anywhere near Los Angeles. This is something that is just mind blowing for someone living in Europe.

Americans, however, would probably be surprised by the little things we do in the US that are unheard of here in France. Shower curtains, for one, are among these "amenities." It takes some serious diligence for me to ensure that there isn't a puddle of water outside of the shower when I get out. Also, good luck finding a hotel with a shower in which you can stand up. Most have a little hand-held nozzle that requires one to either sit, or risk spraying large amounts of water on the floor, or potentially your clean clothes for that day. Showers in general are somewhat of a luxury in other countries too. And for all of you crazy-long shower takers (me being one of them), you won't find people doing that here in France.

One thing I do enjoy here are the bathroom facilities at businesses, schools, and restaurants. When you use a stall, you actually close a *real* door with *real* walls around them. The walls even go from the floor to the ceiling. It's like your own private office for the time you are using it. When will we Americans wise up and install real walls and doors around our bathroom stalls instead of the fake, junky, often graffiti-ridden, sorry-excuse-for-privacy walls that are in our public facilities.

I really do enjoy seeing the differences between my culture and another. It's something important that everyone needs to do at least once in his or her life. It definitely allows for a greater understanding of why people do the things that they do. And as the American author Henry Ward Beecher once said "[t]hat is true culture which helps us to work for the social betterment of all."

New pictures and videos posted

I have posted some new pictures taken from my stay so far in Annecy. I have also posted some videos on YouTube from a few places in Paris. The links for the videos are located on the right, below my photo links. New photos and videos will come shortly.