The transition
4 months into the french life : done ! I am in that phase where some of the french habits are fully back, some are in the process and some are just way too weird to be adopted again.
Let's dig a bit
Category 1 : transition done / back to normal
Walking. Gone is the time where I was walking everywhere like the first month. Now I have a nice balance between riding the bus/tram/metro and walking.
Pastries. I don't buy any single chocolate eclair anymore in fear of them being thrown away for not finding an owner. I can pass by a backery/pastry shop and not stare at the shop like a maniac.
Catergory 2 : not transitionned yet / still on american standards but it should come back soon
French food. I am still stuck with cheese, bread, ham, tartare, quiche etc … I could eat that for all 3 meals each day.
Lunch time. I love lunch time. Even though menus are more or less the same all the time, it makes me happy to have a pretty decent lunch for cheap without having to think about it.
School time. School did not start yet but I swear you can picture me jumping up and down to not have to put the kid in the bus at 7.08am.
Doctor cost. I am so happy to pay for the 30 euros for a doctor appoitment (yes this is the full price).
Vacation. I kind of got used to enjoy short vacation, half a day here, a day there so not having vacation over the summer has not been much trouble at all, plus our apartment still feels like a hotel for us. Nevertheless I believe that it won't take much time for me to go back to the 'normal' french standard : '1 week to disconnect, 1 week to enjoy, 1 week to relax and be ready to come back'. It is funny because when you hear people saying that, it sounds like if it was a real rule, like the one and only truth that just cannot be questionned.
Junk food. Shame on me but I did not cut coca cola, fries and ketchup. I did not try though.Plus as I started running, I felt that cutting that might have been too much change.
My french. Omg my french is aweful. I cannot say that I ever got a high level in french but I am reaching rock bottom. I am at the point where I prefer to speak in English at work… yes, it is weird.
The french geography. France, country with the size of Texas, is cut into 90+ departments and 13 regions. Guess what, I don't know them. 3 reasons - (1) I am from the deep south with a small family all located there : why would we ever go north/to the cold ? - (2) we like to travel and we don't have a car so we tend to fly outside of France for vacation and (3) I have not learnt them. Action plan : I will get myself a puzzle for my coming birthday and pretend that I teach the kid.
Category 3 : transition not done / poor chance to happen
The kiss on the cheekck at work. Now I understand how awkward it is for americans. Why french people don't just nod the head, wave or ignore people in the morning at work ? By the way, this kissing thing is just for women : who came up with that ? For the sake of equality, I think this rule should be trashed once for good.
The nice clothes. Parisians are so stylish. I feel pretty bad with my clothes and I renew most of my wardrobe for work. But for the week end, let's be honest for a second, yoga pants and random clothes are much more confortable that parisian week end clothes...
Automatic vs manual gearbox. Can you tell me why is there still any manual cars ? Like really : why ?
So based on that
Ready for september !