Hellooooo

Hey there, again it's been a while. I feel like I say that a lot, but apparently this is my seventeenth post in 24 or so weeks, so I've been doing a lot better than one might think. Anyway, I feel like I am starting to get a better understanding of the French than I first had. I admit, it took me a while to get over the "honey-moon" stage of being in Paris. I don't love Paris or the French any less than I did during that stage, but I feel like I'm gaining a more complete understanding of why things are the way that they are. First of all, I attribute a lot of this understanding to Gertrude Stein's Paris France. I don't think the ending of the book is very well written, and of course the book is kind of dated (it was first published in 1940) but it gives insight into the Parisian psyche that I think still holds true today. Anybody who is planning a trip to Paris or who simply wants to better understand Parisians should read it. It's not long (only 120 or so pages) and is a quick read.

Anyway, I think that Parisians are very logical. They often don't like new things because to them, the old things made sense so why would you try something new that may not work. They are very judgemental, and as a result are very worried about being judged themselves. They pride themselves on their knowledge, particularly of history, and even more particularly of French history. These are just a few observations and unfortunately I am running too short on time to provide examples to support these observations. I will try to remember to give you some examples in my next update, which I hope will be next week.

Now to me; I have finals coming up. I had my last phonetics class today; next Friday I have two final exams, one next Saturday, and my last one on the 21st. Then I come home on the 25th. And let's not forget my birthday on the 23rd. I don't expect you to send gifts, you can just hold onto them until I get home.

It's freezing cold in Paris right now. Today's high was 27 but with the wind it felt like 12, tomorrow we hope to get up to 28. That's according to http://www.weather.com/. Next weekend it might get up to 40 I hear. It doesn't snow much here, but when it does, watch out. The Parisans have no idea what to do when it snows. Yesterday for example, there was maybe 2 inches of accumulated snow on the ground and it caused the buses to run 20 minutes late. Nobody owns a snow shovel (or a shovel at all apparently) so they sweep the snow off of the sidewalk. Everybody throws ice on the sidewalk, and if it gets any colder, or warmer, or darker, or sunnier, or later in the day, they put more on for good measure. It's pretty entertaining coming from Colorado where when you get 2 inches, your reaction is "That's it? Really?"

Anyway, I have to go, I have 18 minutes before the cafeteria stops serving dinner. Adios!