An American Girl in Avignon

Here’s some culture shock:
Okay, so one of the first things I noticed about Europe was how the people dress. It’s so chic. Especially the boys here. It’s like endless eye candy with the overload of metros in sweaters and scarves. I feel like everywhere I turn I am looking at the cover of GQ. I’m not going to lie, it’s kinda nice. The “scenery” never gets old…
The way of dress and the way of life over here is so inspiring and fascinating, or as Sakinah would say, “c’est chouette!” That’s just one of our many phrases we have adapted for this trip along with my favorites,”Qu’est-ce que f***?!” “Qu’est-ce que f***” is an example of one of the many words part of a language I like to call frang-lais. It’s a mix of English (the French word is anglais) and French (francais). I apologize if I bust out in some random streams of frang-lais on this blog, because all of this French is getting to my brain très vite (I mean, very quickly). See what I mean.
Another thing I noticed, no one stops for you in the street. Kyle, Sakinah, and I have almost gotten murdered by leather-jacket sporting moped riders. Also, some sidewalks may actually be streets. We learned this the hard way when Kyle was almost pancaked by a bus in the “sidewalk” by our hostel.
Breakfast here is just sad. It’s a piece of crusty bread or a croissant with café au lait and jam and butter. I am starving like 20 minutes later. I miss Cheerios…
There are also masses pigeons everywhere here, and since Sakinah is deathly afraid of the things, it makes walking places always entertaining.
As for bathrooms, the showerheads have to be held with one hand, so you can wash with the other, the toilet paper is pink, and the “flusher” is either on top of the commode or on the wall and has to be pushed in. Europe is truly a foreign country!! Sorry, enough about culture shock, and more about my second day…
So we attempted to buy SIM cards at the French Orange store for our cells today, and of course, mine doesn’t work. Just my luck. Thankfully, I had Rachel with me, whose French is outstanding, to help me figure out what to say to the store owner. But the others got their foreign phones working and started texting away…I can’t wait to get mine. I feel so disconnected without the internet of the phone. Sad, but true.
After some café au lait (I was in dire need of caffeine) at our decided favorite local joint after being there for two days, Rachel and I went to a French department store to buy a hair straighter that would work in the European outlets (her converter fried hers). The department store had everything one could ever think of under one roof. I’d like to go back there on my return trip to Paris in April.
Today, instead of trying to walk to the Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Elysees (because that failed), we decided to buy day passes for the metro and get around that way. It was honestly the best decisions we made in Paris. Going places and doing things suddenly became so much easier! Bonne idée!
We walked on the Champs-Elysees while humming the infamous tune and stopped in Louis Vuitton on the way to l’arc de triomphe (where we drooled over clothes that only 4 years worth of OU tuition could buy). After seeing the infamous arc, we stopped at a French fast food restaurant called Quick, and it was excellent! So cheap, and so good! Honestly, the best fast food I think I have ever had. What is it that the French put in their food to make it soo good? C’est un mystère à moi!
After that I wanted to stop in Virgin records and buy the Daft Punk record in French…they are French after all!! No such luck with the cd, but we stumbled upon a free concert. A free METRO STATION concert!!! Who would have thought that we would be in Paris at the same time and place as them? Life is funny like that. It’s full of surprises.
Since Kyle lost his ticket for the metro, we went to another station to replace it before going to the top of the Eiffel Tower…make that walking. We paid to walk the first two levels because it was cheaper and quicker. I think we made the right choice, but man, those 668 steep steps up were killer! My legs hurt for two days after that, and it was cold and windy, but hey, we can say we walked it now!
The view from above was breathtaking, and Adam had several goals for the summit. Since he wanted to light a cigarette at the top (just because he could), he and Rachel pulled out a pack of Black cloves and lit up on Paris’s most famous monument. We also all had the goal of kissing someone on top of the tower, and since Kyle stayed on the second level with Katie, Adam was the only boy getting pecks from us girls in the city of love. Haha…I know, we are ridiculous.
By the time we reached the bottom, the tour was lit up and was absolutely beautiful. After all that walking, we were starving, so we bought chocolate and banana crepes to ease our hungers pains. Man, were they good too!
Funny story: while Rachel and I were using the bathroom, Sakinah was talking to Adam about how hot some foreign guy she was sitting on a bench next to was, thinking he didn’t speak English. She wanted to crawl under a hole when we asked him to take a photo for us in French, and he replied he spoke English in a perfect American accent. Ooops.
After that embarrassing moment, we all decided to try the Scottish pub by our hotel. Hey, we’re legal. The server asks us if we are 18 before ordering, and we all reply yes. (he didn’t even ID us). I ordered some vin (wine) rosé and enjoyed the pleasures of French wine. But since I don’t drink in the US, it was probably too strong to start out with. I enjoyed the white one much better, but the rosé was still good.
The quaint bar was so cozy, and the bartenders and owners even started talking to us. They gave us advice, and we got macadamia flavored vodka shots on the house. After talking some more with them (and finding out important information such as which discotheque we should go to our last night in Paris), we returned to the hotel to rest up for the day ahead. It was very, very late, but Sakinah was not tired at all…and having a little too much fun. She insisted on brushing Kyle’s hair, but in order to save him from some misery (haha), I offered to let her French braid mine. Let’s just say I had the most interesting French braids I have ever seen. I hope Katie still has that picture.
Oh, I love France! More attempts at catch up tomorrow…I have my first day of classes tomorrow in France. Pray for me. Il faut que je dorme maintenant. À demain !