I definitely had a moment of feeling completely lost in France. I was walking down the cobblestone streets and losing myself in the windows filled with “foreign” to “not really foreign, but you’re in France” objects which I deemed worth the 30 euros listed on its price tag. On my first night alone while studying abroad, I took an unreasonably expensive cab – conveniently enough for the driver – and grew nervous and doubtful of my French skills. Once I paid the fare, I found a nearby restaurant which turned out to be a family cafĂ©. That’s when I found out there’s nothing more that upsets a French person than interrupting their somewhat sacred style of cuisine and lots of wine. I stumbled into the cafĂ© and was greeted with side glances and full-blown staredowns. Then the chef waves his hands at me, angrily shooing me away while mumbling “We aren’t serving anyone.” But clearly, I walked in on a feast. Quickly apologizing, I stumbled back out the door and speedwalked away. Growing more anxiety ridden, I ended up walking down the street and found a place to eat French fries and a gyro all alone, with the chef and cashier watching me out of their peripherals (slightly amused, of course). I stuck close to the gyro shop next to a tobacco dispensary, waited for my next rip-off of a cab ride, arrived at my residence and cried myself to sleep.
That was the worst moment of my experience. But I can now say I’m happy it happened at the beginning of my trip or else I wouldn’t have been able to get over it and move on. So many times in my life I have gotten swept up in disappointments or concerns and I lose sight of the silver lining.
Having had my meltdown, I woke up the next day feeling nervous to meet my classmates for the next month. I sat at the front of our residence, first as usual thanks to my father’s lessons on being timely as a kid, and anxiously awaited the new faces I would see.
Each person in my group had a different quality that interested me. In a group of people so diverse, I wondered how we could learn to bond rather than stick to our own way of doing things; being in a big foreign city, you need people to look out for you. Although I was shaken after my placement exam in the university of Lyon’s CIEF program, I still witnessed the most advanced people in my group nervously stumble for answers and French phrases. In the first five days of our program, one of my friends and I got kicked off a bus and had to pay a fine of 32 euros (fifty buckaroos). How did that happen, you ask? Well, let’s just say it was because we couldn’t explain our situation and decided to say “Nous sommes Americaines!” To state that we were Americans, quickly resulted in being escorting off the bus in front of two-dozen strangers on their way home from work.Â
In the first week of my study abroad program, I learned that not only were my language skills going to be strengthened, but also my ability to become a proficient speaker along with the rest of my classmates. At the end of the week, we celebrated at a local bar which happened to have an ASU graduate as a bartender.
Stay tuned for next week’s post where I explore the Lyon alleys and my experiments with Lyonnais cuisine!
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