Ma Vie in France

I'm now in the always dreary and often stressful process of renewing my residence card here in France. I have to renew it every year, as this is one of the policies for non-European residents. A familiar scene happened the other day when I began to search for some answers to questions about my particular case, which requires changing the status of my residence card. My first technique was to call directly the administrative office where I would submit my application (called the préfecture ). I got no answer, even after calling four different numbers, several times. The line answering machine, however, suggested a general number, which I called promptly.  First thing after calling, it was announced that I would pay 15 cents/minute for the call, and that my waiting time was under 2 minutes. When I finally got to talk to a person, I realized that this is a general number for all of France, and not specific to my region (where procedures can be a little different...

What do you wear to go the gym/to work out? Do you care about having the latest fancy adapted workout clothes (special bike shorts? running pants?), fix your hair, put on makeup? Or are you like me, and sometimes make an effort, but also sometimes just throw on an old faded t-shirt and pants and are ready to go? This question has sparked a small debate in my household and opens up discussions of clothes in general in France. My significant other, who is French, is very interested in dressing well in general (and he does!). The gym is no exception - he will style his hair and would probably avoid wearing sneakers that were somehow not coordinated with his clothes. My argument : Who cares? This is one place where how I'm dressed doesn't matter, I'm just going to sweat anyway. His argument: There are other people there, therefore it is important! This small example, while maybe not the same across the board for everyone, illustrates a larger issue of appea...

The title of this post Simple comme bonjour (literally 'easy as hello') is a French expression used to mean that something is easy, roughly the equivalent of 'easy as pie' in English.  There are certain things that you need to know in order to function in society in France, and especially, in order to be treated like a normal human being by others. One of these is the importance of greetings and closings, or more specifically, the use of hello and goodbye. This may sound silly, but don’t be fooled.   It is, in my opinion, one of the most important social cues in France. And without prior cultural knowledge, there's nothing simple about it.  Hello and goodbye (bonjour and au revoir) structure your interaction with just about anyone in France.  When I get onto an elevator with a stranger, I say hello and goodbye. When I enter a store, the clerk and I both say ‘hello’ and make eye contact. And obviously, when I meet up with friends or family, I will also ...

I’ve already commented on French presidents in another post. This post, however, is going to be about my reaction to a video I saw of President Obama. Here’s a link : http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/18e820ec3f/between-two-ferns-with-zach-galifianakis-president-barack-obama In a short recap, the video is part of a series called Between Two Ferns that the actor/comedian Zack Galifianakis hosts, usually with celebrities, where he literally sits between two ferns and conducts ridiculous interviews, making fun of himself and his guest/s. The website’s major demographic is 18-34 year-old males [1] and it functions on a system of votes : once a video is posted, viewers vote whether a video is funny or not. I was shocked to see a short clip from the series with President Obama as a guest. It was shocking I suppose because I’ve been in France for a while where I’m used to seeing the president solely as a political figure. But also because the video blurs the lin...