The summer night is like a perfection of thought.
The summer feels as if it is coming to take shape in northern France (never too late) - there is definite warmth in the air and sunshine in the skies. I have just returned from my French class and the summer clear blue sky reminded of Indian summer and yep I am flying back to New Delhi in mid of June for a vacation.
More than half of a year in this corner of the world alone has tested my patience to every extent but still could not stop me from appreciating this beautiful place. I decided today to write something about my experience (somebody is also bugging me from a long time to start writing about it.)
I suppose there are stages to living in a foreign country. An early stage when you are in an excitement/shock of settling into a new country struggling to find a routine in life. When you compare many things and judge few of them. In this stage the whole country seems to be like a black box and it takes lot of energy to understand and to penetrate through that box.
And next stage, when life settles a bit and when you know where to buy your stuff and where to go for a nice evening bear and with whom. When you notice difference between the things and start attributing to the reason of cultural difference.
I am right now in that transition from early stage to this second stage and I suppose that's why I haven't written about France at all, I was really busy in clearing my way out here and comprehending things in French way.
It all began not so long ago when I was an intern at the Ecole Lille. Long story cut short I fell in love with this country, and it's been back and forth between New Delhi and Lille since then. It seemed only natural to take up the challenge of doing a job in this country. So here I am, in France that's new for me. In a life that's new for me. The newness of my life, mercifully, has come gently. As I am enjoying this newness, I always miss the home.
So with this blog I hope to start to write about all the little moments that make up my life in France, to share my love for food and as usual do some life philosophy time to time.
Well as habitual I cannot finish this post without stating some or lot of complains….. :)
Living in a foreign country comes with loads of difficulties. Perhaps the most obvious difficulty of living in a foreign country is the fact that everybody speaks a language which sounds very sweet but you don’t get a single word. But what could be a better language then ‘Le Français’ to learn. (Though my progress has not been very good but my teacher assures that it will come...) It really is very odd. How is it that I can talk to perfect strangers, go dancing all alone and enjoy karaoke, but not have the guts to practice a language? People like me should be deported immediately for being lazy imperialists. Oh well, it's only few months.
But what is more irritating for me here is to manage the ‘coins’. My problem is everything here costs ‘X euro YY cents’ and it becomes next to impossible for me to count those YY coins standing in front of person who is so eagerly waiting for me to pay and leave. . So, whenever I buy anything, I pay with bills to avoid showing my ignorance in handling coins and this has resulted in a pile of coins at home. Lol… I think I will soon find a way to dispose all those coins.
P.S. I do not like cheese but people treat me here for this like Aristotle was treated by his contemporaries for stating ‘earth is round’.
This France, my France. I do not know when this sense of possessiveness will arrive in me.
The summer feels as if it is coming to take shape in northern France (never too late) - there is definite warmth in the air and sunshine in the skies. I have just returned from my French class and the summer clear blue sky reminded of Indian summer and yep I am flying back to New Delhi in mid of June for a vacation.
More than half of a year in this corner of the world alone has tested my patience to every extent but still could not stop me from appreciating this beautiful place. I decided today to write something about my experience (somebody is also bugging me from a long time to start writing about it.)
I suppose there are stages to living in a foreign country. An early stage when you are in an excitement/shock of settling into a new country struggling to find a routine in life. When you compare many things and judge few of them. In this stage the whole country seems to be like a black box and it takes lot of energy to understand and to penetrate through that box.
And next stage, when life settles a bit and when you know where to buy your stuff and where to go for a nice evening bear and with whom. When you notice difference between the things and start attributing to the reason of cultural difference.
I am right now in that transition from early stage to this second stage and I suppose that's why I haven't written about France at all, I was really busy in clearing my way out here and comprehending things in French way.
It all began not so long ago when I was an intern at the Ecole Lille. Long story cut short I fell in love with this country, and it's been back and forth between New Delhi and Lille since then. It seemed only natural to take up the challenge of doing a job in this country. So here I am, in France that's new for me. In a life that's new for me. The newness of my life, mercifully, has come gently. As I am enjoying this newness, I always miss the home.
So with this blog I hope to start to write about all the little moments that make up my life in France, to share my love for food and as usual do some life philosophy time to time.
Well as habitual I cannot finish this post without stating some or lot of complains….. :)
Living in a foreign country comes with loads of difficulties. Perhaps the most obvious difficulty of living in a foreign country is the fact that everybody speaks a language which sounds very sweet but you don’t get a single word. But what could be a better language then ‘Le Français’ to learn. (Though my progress has not been very good but my teacher assures that it will come...) It really is very odd. How is it that I can talk to perfect strangers, go dancing all alone and enjoy karaoke, but not have the guts to practice a language? People like me should be deported immediately for being lazy imperialists. Oh well, it's only few months.
But what is more irritating for me here is to manage the ‘coins’. My problem is everything here costs ‘X euro YY cents’ and it becomes next to impossible for me to count those YY coins standing in front of person who is so eagerly waiting for me to pay and leave. . So, whenever I buy anything, I pay with bills to avoid showing my ignorance in handling coins and this has resulted in a pile of coins at home. Lol… I think I will soon find a way to dispose all those coins.
P.S. I do not like cheese but people treat me here for this like Aristotle was treated by his contemporaries for stating ‘earth is round’.
This France, my France. I do not know when this sense of possessiveness will arrive in me.
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