Culture Shock Watch!

Here in Indiana, we get Tornado warnings and watches...and these never happen during a convenient time. The times I've been at school, it was during gym class. And our designated area for cover was the boys' locker room. The BOYS'. I just want to take the time right now to yell at my high school (long overdue and they totally deserve it for the following). I don't think anyone was in the girls' locker room, and even if there was, the locker rooms are freaking big! You could fit more than one stupid gym class or regular sized class of twenty-ish students in the girls' locker room! The worst case in the girls' is that you are overwhelmed with the perfume smell (you get used to it, I promise). But NO; into the boys with the overwhelming desire to just jump into that said "tornado" that probably wasn't even going to hit the ground near our building. My little brother's bedroom was like a nice garden compared to that sweat-sock, football-helmet-that-hasn't-seen-pure-water-in-sixty-years, something-was-killed-by-the-Indians-and-left-here locker room.

No tornadoes today, but I have received a culture shock warning! It's one of those other subjects that the staff at the exchange department on campus and many other students have talked about...and I am taking seriously. A few months ago, I started researching and found, what I think, is a great place to be spending my last few weeks online here in the US: Comme Une Francaise (Like a French [Woman])

Wow, have I learned a lot...and haven't remembered as much as I would like to! Spoken French is not like written French; shocker! Written English (proper written English, anyway) isn't how we American's speak either! Geraldine, the leader of Comme Une Francaise, has said that one English speaker has put it like this: Speaking "proper French" that we learn in school would be like spouting Shakespeare on the street. You're going to sound ridiculous and, maybe, really stuffy. No more, "Dude! Let's get a burger", but "Oh, my friend, how my stomach is full of immense pain..." I can't even go on; this is taking way too much brainpower right now.

Then there's the little things that, I've been told by Geraldine, the French won't like, such as not keeping your hands in sight at all times when you're at the table and saying "Bonjour" more than once to the same person in the same day.

For those planning on traveling sometime soon: this is your Culture Shock Watch! Don't start after you get on the plane (the Watch to a Warning).