Living Thriftily and Simply: Differences Living Here Vs. Being at Home in the US

This post is kind of jumbled and lazy. What can I say, it's been a long couple of days.

Friday evening, I wound up going to a festival with some other people from the ISEP program. It was lovely, and I'll have to upload the pictures I took. The festival lasts throughout the summer and just ended the night that we went. There was a vendor there who spoke English. He was really nice, and some of the girls bought bracelets from him. He even gave them a discount just because. I got a delicious Nutella crepe from another vendor. Mom and Dad, the recipe I managed to find and use at home does a pretty good job!

Life would be perfect if I could eat crepes every morning.

Saturday and Sunday were spent pulling myself together and brainstorming (mostly about my wardrobe, or current lack thereof). I grocery shopped at the Shopi, which I mentioned in my last post. I did something really funny there. We have to get ID photos for all of the paperwork we're handing in, and there's a photo booth at the Shopi, so the first thing I did when I got there was hop into the booth. I pulled out my wallet, opened the change compartment, then stopped and rooted through my bag to find something else. Well, because of how I shifted my legs to dig into my bag, my wallet tilted just enough to send all of my change (and, for good measure, my Beloit College student ID) tumbling all over the floor of the booth. And, of course, the floor of the booth had to, it just HAD TO, be metal. Imagine the uproarious cacophony of about 20+ coins beating against metal right near the registers and entrance of a bustling grocery store.

All I could do was freeze up and squeeze my eyes closed for a while, but I laughed it off. My picture-taking went off without any further complications after that, and no one stole my money or gave me a hard time, so it ended as well as it could.

I also tried my hand (literally, oh ho ho ho) at handwashing clothing for the first time. The machines here (which are in an adorable little hut) are kind of pricey, so Marisa, a really sweet girl who's also in the program, mentioned handwashing, which I decided was a good idea. I googled a video of how to do it, and it was kind of fun. Smells really good, too.

I washed whites, colors, and dark clothing (not all at once, though), and everything came out just fine.

Since I've been here, I feel like I've taken on a new persona. My personality definitely comes out when I write in this blog, but in interactions with others, it's really watered down. I think it's because not only am I unfamiliar with everything, but also because I have to wear my glasses until an infection on my eyelids heals. I hate, with every bit of strength in my body, the way I look in glasses, and everytime someone looks at me it's literally the only thing I can think about, so I've been even more self-conscious than I already would have been to begin with. As a result, I've been presenting myself in a very simple, unconfident way. The me that I am here is definitely not the me that I've been in the States.

Mine are way nicer than this, and I still look awful.

Also, grocery shopping has proven to be interesting. I've never grocery shopped for myself, so a whole host of new concerns have arisen in my life. And not just of the "what will last me a week" or "what will make a proper meal" variety. I'm buying groceries for myself in a completely different country, with completely different cuisine, with labels and food names in a completely different language. So, for example, I wanted some cheddar cheese. Well, France, despite being the cheese capitol of the world, is not exactly boasting blocks of cheddar at the grocery store. Camembert, sure, brie, naturally, but not cheddar. I managed to track one down that tastes similar, however. But little things like that are making a huge difference in how I feel about living here. I've come to be satisfied with very simple food.

Carrying groceries for over 5 minutes gets old very quickly as well.

Furthermore, back at home, I constantly make an effort to dress stylishly. A girl in one of my classes last semester said to me, "Okay, I have to see your closet, because I don't think I've ever seen you wear the same thing twice." Within four days here, I wore the same thing twice. This is my uniform: jean skirt, t-shirt over a tank top, sandals. Yes, ironically, in France of all places, I have become less fashionable. FAR less fashionable. This has further affected my confidence, though not badly.

My closet at home looks something like this. Here, it's about 1/10 of this.

We'll see what kind of person I wind up being after a few more months of these differences (although I'm hoping I'll be able to wear my contacts and get some more clothes from my family in the mail by October).

Today we found out our classes and schedules. I tested into a higher level than I thought I would. I have French language classes three times a week, a phonetics class once a week, a lab that same day, and choices of a literature, theater, cinema, art history, culture, civilisation, or French economic/sociological life class. I have to pick two out of those options. Literature is a must, since I'm a comparative literature major, and I like the idea of art history. I have Wednesdays off. Shannon, a lucky girl who's also in ISEP, has Thursdays and Fridays off. I believe everyone has at least one day off a week.

Also, I've been seeing lizards.

They're small here and scurry along like big ol' bugs.

There were some snails on a fence I was passing on the way to Shopi and I thought, "Oh no! Run! You will be harvested and eaten!"

"But I'm too cute to be eaten!"

I'm really happy to be here and I can't wait to see what my classes are like! :)