75 Things that I have learned to be true about Paris
1 – Everything is walkable. Seriously.
2 – Crepes are not just a breakfast food, and they are DEFINITELY not pancakes.
3 – There is an obscene variety of yogurt in the grocery stores.
4 – Parisians love to eat too, they’re not anorexic to be this skinny, they just move A LOT.
5 – Paris is the classic big city, with lots of diversity.
6 – A good majority of people are bilingual. The US needs to get it’s act together. It makes us seem conceited.
7 – Parisians have been really nice to me, not rude like some seem to expect, but at the same time not necessarily warm.
8 – Taxi drivers love to be tour guides/tell you about everything you drive past.
9 – The french have a very different idea of personal space and what is considered rude.
10 – Smoking is VERY popular here, but it’s not everyone…
11 – Everyone loves to people watch. Really, EVERYONE.
12 – Never have I "spooned", while standing, with 50 people at the same time until I rode the “13″ metro at rush hour.
13 – They complain about pollution here in Paris but it feels so much cleaner than NYC to me.
14 – No matter the weather that day, Paris is GORGEOUS and perfect at night when the lights come on.
15 – There is very little crime in the city in general, mainly just pick-pocketers.
16 – People let their dogs just go to the bathroom on the sidewalks. watch your step.
17 – Every morning sanitation crews go around the city and power-wash the sidewalks, and essentially vacuum the streets. It’s kinda crazy. Just don’t walk out your front door when the sprayer is going by… That may have happened to me...
18 – There are metro stops everywhere. Never fear, one is near.
19 – There actually are accordion players who play music on the metro.
20 – You will never get better fresh bread anywhere.
22 – Marche Franprix = Kroger
23 – There is a HUGE chocolate bar section in every grocery store, and it’s all amazing!
24 – The French Wineis all good. Seriously, even the wine that’s only like 3 euro is pretty darn good in my humble opinion.
25 – The french know how to do a hot dog right: crunchy baguette, cut lengthwise, stuffed with 2 dogs, topped with cheese, and toasted. YUM.
26 – The caramel here (salted or not) is phenomenal! I don’t really know why, but it is.
27 – Cheese is a separate course at dinner.
28 – We have fruit and/or yogurt for dessert.
29 – The french don’t worry about having everything on a plate. Oftentimes the surface of the table works just fine.
30 – The architecture here is amazing all over the city.
31 – French professors are not afraid to single out a student for being excellent or stupid, so you better study your butt off.
32 – There is a road that circles the city and that is what gives the city limits, so it can’t grow. That is why it is SO expensive to live here.
33 – There are no screens on windows. Every window has two french doorsand a railing essentially making it a balcony even if it’s not officially.
34 – The french often don’t use dryers. They just use washing machines and a drying rack.
35 – French showers are quite odd in a lot of apartments here. I’ll just leave it at that.
36 – Unlike many cities in the US where the suburbs house the wealthier/nicer neighborhoods, if you go outside of Paris to it’s suburbs you would be wise to hold on tight to your belongings.
37 – Cafe au lait here is AWESOME.
38 – Lunch, not dinner, is the main meal here.
39 – The Eiffel Toweris still beautiful every time you see it lit up, even when you’ve seen it quite a few times.
40 – People who come do fashion week here WORK IT. Everyone should see these people's clothing choices, you don’t even need to go IN the show.
41 – It is not uncommon for stores to be closed on both sundays and mondays.
42 – Some shop owners just close their store to go get lunch and are gone eating for hours. They really enjoy their long meals here.
43 – You never see people eating and walking at the same time.
44 – Making eye contact with a person of the opposite sex, and especially smiling at them, is taken as an invitation to engage, so watch out.
45 – Europeans in general are used to people coming from a certain area looking a specific way, so they jump to conclusions about a lot of Americans. People ask if I’m Swedish.
46 – It’s a myth that Parisians don’t wear bright colors.
47 – Little french children are officially the cutest thing ever.
48 – The metro is the perfect place to gather information on the broad range of fashion in the city. almost every social class is on there.
49 – They still love “Razor” scooters here. This is just like us 5 years ago, only it's for EVERY age here.
50 – The museums love their students, so you can get in most for free with your local school ID.
51 - I learn about as much french subconsciously and from my host family as I do in my class at the Catho, I just refine it there.
52 - They do not have peanut butter readily accessible here. It's borderline painful for me.
53 - The larger words in my vocabulary have started to disappear because I'm either struggling through expressing myself in french or speaking in simple english to avoid confusion through translation. I hope it comes back when I return home.
54 - My biggest fear is standing out, and guess what I DO. So I just have to get over it.
55 - There is so much history to the city, you cross something important on every walk you take. understanding the history makes you appreciate how beautiful the city is on a daily basis.
56 - If you want a history lesson ride the metro. Just look at all the names of the stops.
57 - You can never really comprehend how incredibly young the United States is until you visit somewhere this rich in history, and then even to compare it to Rome...
58 - Bottled water is cheaper than soda here. This is much different than in the US.
59 - Blonde hair and blue eyes are not very common here. That look attracts a bit of attention.
60 - Free Macaron day is the BEST DAY EVER.
61 - I'll never really be a local, no matter how hard I try.
62 - I don't need to be embarrassed about my American accent when speaking french, generally the french just think it's cute that I'm trying.
63 - Though I was a bit freaked out at first, I've decided I like bisous. We are so scared of invading personal space in the US, but why?
64 - Picnics in a public park are always a good idea and HIGHLY encouraged.
65 - Elementary schools have gym class at the Champ de Mars on nice days, where they run laps around the center grassy sections. How's that for a view during class?
66 - Most dogs here are trained well enough the owners don't use leashes.
67 - Everything is about the experience, whether it's a meal, a pastry, a day at the park...
68 - As a person living in the city you walk a lot on a daily basis, but you rarely notice because there is so much beauty to look at.
69 - The Parisians take pride in the shoes. They have to for all the walking they do.
70 - I find myself judging American tourists. There's something wrong with that.
71 - The French are very polite with always saying please and thank you. Most importantly they ALWAYS say hello when entering a store.
72 - Just like every big city Paris has various areas designated to a certain nationality or food type. Paris has it's own Chinatown.
73 - As long as I don't open my mouth on the metro I can be somewhat convincing.
74 - Everyone here is human, and a part of some kind of family. They’re really not that different than the rest of us. We’re all the same in the most basic and important ways.
75 - All my life I've lived in a safe comfortable environment that I had always known, and I needed to get out of my comfort zone. Every day here has held a new experience for me so I wrote out a quote and look at it everyday as I leave my room:
"Be willing to be uncomfortable. Be comfortable being uncomfortable. It may get tough, but it's a small price to pay for living a dream." - Peter McWilliams
