S’habituer à: To get used to/become accustomed to/habituated to

Je m’habitue à beaucoup de choses à Tours.

Living in a foreign country, as I’ve learned, means that you’ll have to get accustomed to a lot.  Beaucoup de choses.  (Beaucoup BEAUCOUP.)  Especially if you’ve never really lived abroad before, and haven’t visited many places.  It’s quite an adventure, really.  So many things are different, including a lot of things I suppose people don’t ordinarily think about, or realize that they could exist in different forms.  And the fact that something requires habituation doesn’t automatically make it bad; it’s just different.

Some things I’ve had to get accustomed to in Tours:

·       Being in a place where I’m at a linguistic disadvantage; it’s a little strange not being able to completely understand what the vast majority of people around me are saying.  It makes you sympathize grandly with foreign visitors to the US, I think.  And it makes the little accomplishments (like having a successful, coherent conversation with un français ou une française) so much more meaningful.

·       Les panneau.  The street signs and traffic signs are a little bit confusing at first, and the stoplights are in odd places, and it takes a bit to get used to.  The proliferation of bus lanes, bike lanes, one-way streets, and cobblestone lanes that you think are pedestrian-only but really aren’t can be challenging for those unfamiliar with them, at first.  But so far there haven’t been any accidents in our group…it might be because several host families have repeated “Faites attention à la circulation!”, haha.  I watched the teenage boy in my host family take online practice tests for his “permit de conduire” and I am very glad that I don’t have to drive in France.

·       The plumbing.  I don’t think you really realize just how many ways of flushing toilets, turning on faucets, and taking showers exist until you go abroad.

·       Having to turn the key twice to lock and unlock doors.  Although that might just be my room.

·       The weather.  The first days we were here, it was almost sweltering.  Très chaud.  The next few days it was freezing.  Très froid.  And then there are some days where it’s freezing in the morning, and then warm in the afternoon. Actually, I shouldn’t really have to get accustomed to this, since it’s just like in South Carolina…I just don’t want to get used to it, haha.

·       The odd eating times.  We usually eat late at home too, so it shouldn’t be that big of an adjustment, but at home I usually have snacks…here, it’s a little more difficult to procure snacks. I tend to get hungry at awkward times (around 5:00-6:00), and I don’t want to end up spending all of my money on ice cream or croissants or pain chocolate, or eating my host family out of house and home.  Or maybe I’m just hungry all the time because the food is so good.

·       How much food is given to us…my host family always asks me “Tu as assez mangé? Tu voudrais un morceau de pain, un peu de fromage?”  

·       How small the cars are.  And the lack of pickup trucks.

·       How the sun rises super-early and sets super-late.  It’s kind of strange being able to walk around at 10:00 at night when it’s still light outside.  But actually pretty cool, even if it does mess with your sense of time.

·       The food.  I feel like everyone who goes to France always goes on and on and on about how good the food is.  There is a reason for this, I’ve discovered.  For a person rather enamored with carbs, cheese, dessert, fresh fruit, and other things like that, it’s amazing.  I have a ton of bread pretty much every day and I don’t get tired of it, which is strange.  And I like American food, I love my family’s cooking—it’s just different here, and quite the gustatory experience.  Mmm.  Flan.  Chocolate.  Bread.  More flan.  Ice cream.  Cheese.  Flan again.  Even their simple sandwiches are delicious…I think it’s because they make them on actual baguettes, maybe?  Or because they use so much butter? 

·       Texting without a QWERTY keyboard.  I have been spoiled by my phone in the US with its fancy QWERTY-style keyboard, and my phone in France is decidedly non-fancy.  However, I have now learned how to text, despite the fact that it has the French equivalent of T9!  Yay!  Is it sad that I can text better with T9 in French than in English?  I could never get the hang of using it on my old American phone, or on my sister’s phone either.

·       Notebooks with grids instead of lines.

·       Old-school stamps that aren’t already sticky on the back.

·       Longer school days.  I would have thought that getting out of class at 5:30 was terrible (at home it would be) but here, it’s not so bad.  Maybe because the sun doesn’t set until after 10:00, and people tend to eat dinner at 8:00, so everything feels earlier.

·       The lack of water fountains and other public facilities, and how water is so expensive, just as much as Orangina or soda.  Europeans must be like camels…I hardly see any of them with water bottles.  Tours isn’t quite as bad as Paris, though, where I felt like I was perpetually dehydrated, thirsty, chapped, or in need of a bathroom.

·       The different electrical outlets.

·       How old everything is.  And how every little detail seems important.

·       How it seems that nearly everyone smokes.  And yet somehow manage be very health-conscious at the same time.

·       The taste of alcohol.  I don’t really drink, and I don't really like alcohol, which is unfortunate since people here seem to take such pride in their regional beverages, particularly their wine.  I’ve been trying to gradually acclimate myself to the taste of alcohol by having little sips of various drinks, or a little bit of wine watered down with a lot of water, though I still don’t like it very much.  My host mother gave me a little bit of vodka the other day and after seeing the face I unintentionally made after drinking it, promptly declared “C’est trop fort pour Kali”.  C’était très amusant.  So far the only thing I’ve actually enjoyed was something called “un Monaco”, which is pretty much just a little bit of cherry liqueur with lemonade. A good starter drink.  The drinking culture is much different here, however; despite the vast proliferation of alcohol, there aren’t as many drunk people wandering around as you would expect.  There are some, of course, though not as much as in the US, I feel.  It seems as though most people go to a café, have a drink or two with friends, stay around talking forever, then go home.  Drinking seems to be more of a social activity than one in which the purpose is to get completely wasted, which is nice.

·       How people seem to go out every single night—the cafés and such are crowded every single day, quite unlike the Friday-Saturday rush in the US.

·       Not saying “bless you” after people sneeze; apparently it isn’t done here very much.

·       European mannerisms regarding eye contact and personal space.

·       Saying “ouai” instead of “oui” in conversations.

·       Drinking tea for breakfast in the morning.  Every morning.  Drinking very good tea on a daily basis is probably not a good thing for someone trying to limit their caffeine intake. Although it is delicious.

·       Using old-school clothespins.

·       Various different appliances.

·       The exchange rate.  It’s rather disappointing.

·       T-shirts and signs with misspelled or nonsensical English wordage…I’m not exactly sure what the “Rusty Board Naval Serious School” is, or why someone would wear that logo on a preppy t-shirt, and I’m pretty confident that no American gangster would be caught wearing a shirt that said “Ghetto Fabulous Gang” in pseudo-tough-looking pink font, haha.  Additionally, the place that sells “Cheesburger” and the “Sherlok Holmes Pub” are both amusing.

·       The enormous number of men who wear scarves.  And how people seem to look classy or stylish without any effort.

What exactly is a Naval Serious School?  And would you really want to go there?  This makes me wonder what all of those shirts in the US with French, Italian, or Japanese text on them really say...

Despite all of these differences, however, there are still a lot of things in common between Tours and the US.  People are people, regardless of nationality and culture.  Kids here behave just as the ones in America do, I think.  The vast majority of people here are so nice and friendly, and understanding of the fact that we are foreign students, just as I would hope people at home would be.  And I’ve discovered that along with death and taxes, there is another universal truth: construction.  I feel as if there is construction everywhere I go.  There’s construction near my house for a road-widening project, there was construction work in London, there was construction work in Paris, and now there’s construction work in Tours.  They’re trying to build a tramway or trolley through Tours, and right now it’s a nightmare for drivers, though not so bad for pedestrians.

So far, we’ve had the typical lives of students à l’etranger.  Classes have started now, and we have actual assignments, though they aren’t really as time-consuming or difficult as I suppose assignments in ordinary classes would.  I think it’s because they also want you to culturally explore France, rather than spending all of your time studying it.  The oral comprehension and production classes are particularly interesting—we’ve had role-playing activities, assignments where we’ve been “radio broadcasters”, and debates, though the debates aren’t as fun as the other activities.  Then again, I never liked them in English anyway.  Il y a quelques personnes qui sont un peu agressives et opinées dans notre classe, hahaha.

We’ve also gone to a few activities planned by the Institut.  The Café des Langues was especially interesting—Faustine, the animatrice (or person who organizes a lot of activities), took a large group of us to the Gangette for a sort of conversation hour with actual French people.  It was slightly awkward, at first, for all parties involved, but once the conversation began it was really quite fun.  Both of the people we spoke to were very friendly, and encouraged us to practice French among ourselves for the most immersion possible.  You never really realize, I think, how little you know of another language until you talk to a native speaker.  It’s humbling but also motivating, and makes you want to strive for a higher level.

La Gangette--not a very good picture of it, since it was dark, but it all looked really cool like this.

On Thursday, we didn’t have class because it was Ascension Day (hurray for European holidays!), and our program leader decided to plan an excursion for our group of fifteen to the town of Amboise, which contains a renowned chateau (the home of Francois II, I think) as well as the Leonardo da Vinci museum, which ranks among the coolest places I’ve ever been to.  They had a fabulous garden with tons of little daisies and full-scale replicas of the machines he designed, as well as the house he lived in and an exhibit of more models.  Hands-on exhibits are probably the best invention known to man, I think.  So much fun!  Even if I probably did look a little silly trying to drive the precursor to the modern tank with a couple small children, hahaha.  Several da Vinci quotes were displayed around the house too—Leonardo was very quotable, in addition to being such a genius.  We had a delicious lunch and wandered around the town of Amboise, and picked flowers (or at least I did…) and sat on the sandy banks of the Loire; it was awesome.  It was absolutely gorgeous, though probably a bit too windy for the dress I was wearing, haha (thank goodness for tights).  By far one of the most fun days ever.  And it was made better by the awesome dinner we had—since my host family had left for the beach for the long holiday weekend, Shakhlan, Mark and I made dinner together at the apartment.  It was delicious: spaghetti with a white wine garlic cream sauce and toasted bread with cheese.  And eggs.  We’re probably all going to have heart attacks with the amount of butter we used, but it was worth it.  So delicious!  We somehow managed to make a good meal with French ingredients (sometimes they’re quite different than American products) and French appliances, and without burning the house down or making an irreparable giant mess.  Success!

Our group, in front of the Loire River.

Leonardo da Vinci's tomb, in a chapel at the chateau.  For all the people crowded around the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, there were relatively few people around this.  It was almost kind of sad.

Chateau d'Amboise.  Pretty Epic.

One of the many photos I took of Amboise from the castle.

Just chillin' in da Vinci's garden.

The Loire is so pretty!!!

Mes amis!  With a castle in the background!

Chefs extraordinaire.

I only had one class in the morning today, so we had a lot of downtime; after class we bought writing supplies (awesome pens and notebooks), and then had lunch by the river.  I think we stayed there for over two hours under a lovely shade tree, watching the ducks swim back and forth.  It was so beautiful!  And so nice outside, very much like Maine in the summer.  I wonder if people in Tours realize how lucky they are, to live right next door to an absolutely gorgeous river.  And to be so close to so many things—Paris, for one, and about half a gazillion chateaux.  French schoolchildren are in general very lucky, being so close to so many to many historically important and/or awesome places.  It’s not just anyone that can take a day trip to the Louvre, for example, or visit a castle.

Tomorrow with the Institut we’re going on a day trip to Mont-St.-Michel, which will hopefully be incredibly amazing.  So excited!  Even if we do have to wake up outrageously early, haha.

Bisous!  J