French School

This is a repost from my other blog Oct 12:

French school in Paris provides an opportunity to put yourself into a global community. In my french class on M/TU/TH there are currently three other Americans, a Brazilian, a German, a Cambodian, a New Zealander and a Bulgarian. It was observed by an American and the Brazilian that a lot of the people that they hang out with speak english making it harder to learn French.

Two weeks ago I was walking down the street with a friend and we were speaking english. A woman pushing a stroller with a baby in it stopped next to us and asked in a semi frantic voice with metropolitan American english, “excuse me, have you seen a pink shoe?” The child in the stroller was missing a small pink shoe. My friend apologised and said that we hadn’t then stopped as it was sitting on a pile of leaves in the gutter in front of us.

A couple of days ago I walked by an older American couple in the metro discussing directions to Boulevard Montparnasse with an American english speaking student. They were looking at a map thirty seconds later. I was next to the map and assured them that they were waiting for the right train in my best American english.
In many ways Paris is the New York of France. By this I mean that there is a Parisian attitude toward life that everyone has. In New York City there is a distinct attitude toward life that everyone seems to share. It is something that can be felt as soon as you reach customs in the airport or when you step off the Chinesse Bus on East Broadway or leave the platform of Grand Central Station. In Washington D.C. this type of attitude isn’t as palpable because a lot of the people who are there, at least in the city center, are there on their way toward somewhere else. They are working for an interest group with the hope of working for an international interest group or heading up an interest group in some other part of the country. The attitude is one of transience. Paris has an attitude of being “a la mode.” When you are in Paris you become Parisian no matter where you are from. It is an attitude of refined simplicity. There are many other elements but I am still trying to figure them out.