This is the story of my weekend, a rather interesting one at that. Remember that whole, I don't know that much french still and I feel disconnected from real french life, yeah well thats over. I'm finally connected. It started this Saturday when I took the train to a small suburb outside of the ancient roman city named Nimes. I arrived at train station where I met my first new friend, Gilles. He was one of Elodie's friends from Montpellier and we were both waiting to be picked up by Elodie in her sweet VW something or another. He was really cool, and very energetic. He is fairly proficent in english and is leaving for london in two weeks to get a job and immerse himself in the language, which is pretty cool. We spoke french, even though he knows english, which happend almost the whole weekend, for my sake so I could practice. Elodie picked us up and took us to her cute house in this little village that I can't remember the name of. I got to meet her 15 yr old brother Justin, who was the only other family memeber there for the weekend bc her sister and parents were in Marsailles. He was fun to talk to too, doesn't know that much english, but he loves 50 cents. I asked if he knew at all what they were singing about, of course he didn't. He asked if I liked him and I said no because rap isn't a real kind genre to women, among others. Elodie spent the next 2 hours whipping up a huge stack of crepes, which were delicious. After awhile Amadis and Morgan came for the "fete." Morgan is one of Elodie's good friends that goes to law school in Nimes. Morgan and Elodie both love techno music, blah, and when it played....well lets just they definitly busted a move. Not quite like american dancing, but cool. They wanted me to join, but techno, as many of you can imagine, is hard to dance to if you don't like it or ever listen to it...so I passed...
Amadis is a student at an english university in Nimes, and he loves everything american. This is surprising to find out because I first found out that he hates Bush, capital punishment, gun policy, etc... He loves Marilyn Manson and Nirvana and Courtney Love. He also doesn't believe in God, because he feels like religion is self-medicating and manipulating, the cause of wars and such. You wouldn't think that would give us much to talk about, but thats far from true. He loved asked questions about american culture, and why I didn't like Marilyn Manson. When I explained it was a God thing, that lead into a huge conversatoin about why I believe. He was very open to hear, but not very convinced which I wasnt that surprised at. He thought that all americans are very religious and thats why we voted for a president who enters into religious wars...I explained thats not true, and that no one but God and Bush can know what motives are really in his heart. I also explained that I hate religion, but I have a relationship with God, that was kind of a new concept for him I think. Its a hard convo to have in english with a secular intellectual type, but even harder in french. Elodie listened in for a bit, and I think she liked what I had to say. I found out that she grew up catholic, and by what I can tell still believes even though its not part of her life very much anymore. She always listens when I talk about have a relationship with God, the seeds are there. I hope God will call her to more in her faith. As for Amadis, we had to switch subjects, but I know the seeds are there. I'd explain everything else we covered, but there's too much. I've never seen someone so interested in my culture. I never felt particularly special as an american here, always blessed, but never felt cool. He made me feel like being an american makes you a celebrity. The american accent is appartently really cool too, and I was asked many times to say things with my cool american accent.
This leads me to the peanut butter phenomenom. Elodie had tried some at my apartment and thought it would be fun for her to buy some for her friends to try. They hated it. We put it on the crepes, and I suggested they put it with Nutella (chocolate/hazelnut heaven!). That was worse. Apparently you can't just mix sweet and salty things in france. It's a bizarre taste to them. The french aparently can't say the word peanut butter any better than they like it. It sounds like they are saying peanut budddderrr. I tried to teach them so many times, but no luck. So that was the on running joke of the weekend. So was my saying "fromage" (french for cheese) when taking a picture. I guess they say cheese too, or souri (smile). If you say fromage it makes a big o shape with your mouth, which is kinda funny. Oh and my badger pride is a very foriegn concept. No one here displays their university let alone cheers for it (sports arent so big here). I said in french, "Nous sommes les blaireaux!" (we are the badgers!) and they couldn't stop laughing. I guess in french its an expression to be a badger, which means you're really stupid. So oops, yeah and I got made fun of for that when I changed into pjs and had a wonderful red badger shirt.
By 4 in the morning I couldnt speak any more french. I refused and started speaking english, just for fun. Gilles and Amadis followed a little bit, if I went slow, but the rest were lost. So I had to switch back. But I couln't think or undertand what they said, bc 4am is much to late to converse in french. We got maybe 6 hrs of sleep before Amadis woke us all up to start the day. I couldn't convice anyone to have pb for breakfast, they all claimed it make their stomach's sick, liars...Then we booked it into town to see the sights of Nimes. Unfortunately everything is closed on Sundays, but we still got to see the ancient roman ampitheater that was there. For those who aren't up to date with the history of the south of France, around the time of Christ is was a busseling Roman territory, Nimes being a very important city. So yeah, that means cool old ruins. It was sad to leave, bc I had a ton of fun. But it was nice to get a break from the total french immersion. I need to do that more though, bc it helps sooo much. Oh and I think between people coming and going and meeting and saying goodbye, I got more kisses this weekend than I have in my entire life. Oh the french...
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