I think the biggest adjustment is by far the language barrier. By the end of each day I am mentally exhausted from absorbing so much French and trying desperately to speak correctly and understand what people are saying when they talk to me. I never expected that it would take a toll though. The other part, like I mentioned before is the interaction between people, between strangers. They are soo unfriendly (compared to Americans). NO ONE smiles at one another when they meet eyes, hardly anyone says "thank you" when opening a door for them or says "excuse me" when they accidentally bump into each other on the street. I got nailed by a girl's shoulder and she didn't even wince or apologize, but kept on her way...s'est bizarre.
My host mom (Dominique) asked me if I wanted to go to "Gypsy" concert with her and her friends on Friday and that I could bring a friend with me, so I agreed and invited my closest friend here, Meagan. We had no idea what a gypsy concert was but we arrived and waited excitedly. 12 men walked out on stage, some with trumpets, clarinets, flutes, french horns, two sets of violins, an accordion and one single drum, and began playing Romanian/Hungarian music. It was INCREDIBLY fast paced. I had never heard that kind of music before, but the talent the musicians had for being able to play their instruments at that speed amazed me. They played several different songs, and sometimes the musicians would rotate singing and playing instruments. Meagan and I enjoyed it a lot. It was definitely an interesting experience.
That night we also experienced the night life for the first time with the group I traveled here with and although it was fun, it was definitely interesting. We went to a couple different pubs over the span of the weekend. What we learned was that there are always much more men than there are women because it is less common for women to drink especially in excess, they typically drink indoors in the privacy of their own home. However, the younger generations are starting to break this rule of society and more women are coming out to bars. Luckily, I learned before coming here that you must not make eye contact with men and smile or make frequent eye contact because that gives them the clue that you're interested so I was careful to keep my eyes down and not look at them while walking from the table to the bar to order. I definitely did not want to give any one the wrong message.
This past week, my friend Meagan and I wanted to get a jump start on traveling during our weekends and breaks, so we made a potential agenda: Strasbourg this coming weekend, Barcelona for 5 days since we have days off of school in February and then Ireland during our winter break which is also in February since she has family there we can stay with. Easter weekend will be Germany, Prague and Vienna and then we have planned excursions with our study abroad group to Provence and Paris. Then for spring break the whole group wants to plan the entire 10 days traveling all over Italy. Then during public holidays day/weekend trips to Marseille and Normandy France and Geneva, Austria. We already have 3 trips booked...I'M SO EXCITED! I have dreamt about traveling Europe for most of my life and I'm finally making it happen. Once these trips come up there will be tons more pictures to show you. As for right now though, I only have a few more that I've taken.
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