Hello gang...I've never said that before and don't want to again...Anyway. Hi. It's been a while, as i've been busy busy. This new world of mine seems to flow by, like a river of hot wax, and tea and smells and strange words and sounds, and pens and pencils and flowers and wind. And then next thing you know its a week later, and your parents are gone.
There's nothing quite so humbling as to learn a language in a foreign country. One thing Louis, my french brother now who came to stay with us two years ago always said was that he was like a language baby and I never realized how right he was. Everything is different, what you need for school, who pays for lunch, stoplights, and sugar cubes. I bloody love sugar cubes. They're sugar, but you can make a house out of them at the same time. One of my things that I promised myself I'd work on while I'm here is humility and that definitely seems to be happening. I'm coming to realize that the world is huge. I grew up in a 300 mile equilateral triangle of D.C, Raleigh, and The Outer Banks. I occasionally left my little triangle on a quick dash where I desperately tried to soak up everything I could, to Have all the experiences I could, and I did. Rock hopping in Bar Harbor, Maine; Bouldering on the cliffs of Big Sur, California; Mountain biking and hill bombing in the Arizona desert. I have a good life. But it was a tiny life. I explored a corner of a country that is a corner of a continent that is a corner of a big wide wonderful world and because I had two french brothers I had the audacity, the gall to think of myself as wordly, as above the US of A. So I'm sorry, and to all of you that think I was full of it, you were right. Now, when I stop and think that I am on a different continent, looking at the other side of my ocean, it all makes me feel pretty small.
Even stoplights are different. You're probably thinking "What's he on about? A stoplight's a stoplight!" But it isn't really. Here sometimes there are two sets, one for bikes and one for cars, and then there's a light a cross the street to tell you when the lights for the cars coming the other way are red, and then there's another that flashes to tell you that if you're on a bike its okay to turn right on red. OH! And...actually context first: for those of you that don't live in the US, we don't have traffic circles, roundabouts. At all. There's one in my city, and it's a place of huge accidents because no one knows how to use it. There's writing on the road giving everyone directions and it's all very confusing. Here, on the other hand, if four roads, or three roads meet, pretty much a guaranteed roundabout. There are barely any stop signs. Though...the ones that there are are in English for some reason. It's pretty funny.
Also if anyone else does a year abroad, plan to sleep alot. I got by with six hours, or five in the US, but the mental effort required to speak and understand another language all day is incredible. And I, at least, need to take little zone out breaks. At a soirée or something I can't follow all the conversations for the whole thing or I'll just kill myself.
The other thinkg you need to plan on though, is everyone being crazy nice. The minute you talk to anyone, they ask where you're from, you say you're American, and they light up immediately. Everyone wants to show off their English, even if it's just "cool," "non-stop" and "ohkay!" Every one is very understanding and willing to explain things or talk slower. And so far, at least, no one has given me a dirty look. Let's hope it stays that way.
That's enough word sharing for now I think. Imma go get a haircut. Chez la coiffure!
I'll be back though!
There's nothing quite so humbling as to learn a language in a foreign country. One thing Louis, my french brother now who came to stay with us two years ago always said was that he was like a language baby and I never realized how right he was. Everything is different, what you need for school, who pays for lunch, stoplights, and sugar cubes. I bloody love sugar cubes. They're sugar, but you can make a house out of them at the same time. One of my things that I promised myself I'd work on while I'm here is humility and that definitely seems to be happening. I'm coming to realize that the world is huge. I grew up in a 300 mile equilateral triangle of D.C, Raleigh, and The Outer Banks. I occasionally left my little triangle on a quick dash where I desperately tried to soak up everything I could, to Have all the experiences I could, and I did. Rock hopping in Bar Harbor, Maine; Bouldering on the cliffs of Big Sur, California; Mountain biking and hill bombing in the Arizona desert. I have a good life. But it was a tiny life. I explored a corner of a country that is a corner of a continent that is a corner of a big wide wonderful world and because I had two french brothers I had the audacity, the gall to think of myself as wordly, as above the US of A. So I'm sorry, and to all of you that think I was full of it, you were right. Now, when I stop and think that I am on a different continent, looking at the other side of my ocean, it all makes me feel pretty small.
Even stoplights are different. You're probably thinking "What's he on about? A stoplight's a stoplight!" But it isn't really. Here sometimes there are two sets, one for bikes and one for cars, and then there's a light a cross the street to tell you when the lights for the cars coming the other way are red, and then there's another that flashes to tell you that if you're on a bike its okay to turn right on red. OH! And...actually context first: for those of you that don't live in the US, we don't have traffic circles, roundabouts. At all. There's one in my city, and it's a place of huge accidents because no one knows how to use it. There's writing on the road giving everyone directions and it's all very confusing. Here, on the other hand, if four roads, or three roads meet, pretty much a guaranteed roundabout. There are barely any stop signs. Though...the ones that there are are in English for some reason. It's pretty funny.
Also if anyone else does a year abroad, plan to sleep alot. I got by with six hours, or five in the US, but the mental effort required to speak and understand another language all day is incredible. And I, at least, need to take little zone out breaks. At a soirée or something I can't follow all the conversations for the whole thing or I'll just kill myself.
The other thinkg you need to plan on though, is everyone being crazy nice. The minute you talk to anyone, they ask where you're from, you say you're American, and they light up immediately. Everyone wants to show off their English, even if it's just "cool," "non-stop" and "ohkay!" Every one is very understanding and willing to explain things or talk slower. And so far, at least, no one has given me a dirty look. Let's hope it stays that way.
That's enough word sharing for now I think. Imma go get a haircut. Chez la coiffure!
I'll be back though!
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