1. Smoking. On my way home the other day I looked out the window and saw two 12 year old boys smoking. I am not kidding. Apparently kids start smoking here really really young (ie 11-12 years old for girls and 13-14 years old for boys). Tons of people here smoke and tons of people roll their own cigarettes even with the intense warnings on the packaging. I've seen packs of cigarettes that legit say SMOKING KILLS YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS, in all capital letters. Ok one last thing on smoking. People here share their cigarettes like it's nothing. Many people have come up to me asking if I have a cigarette they can have (which is slightly obnoxious considering I don't smoke). The people that do smoke never hesitate to hand one over to the complete stranger on the street.
2. Clothing. This is a little harder to describe because up until about a week ago everyone had big winter coats on but I will do my best to describe the fashion here. A lot of girls here wear tights with skirts and boots or ballet flats. I saw a lot of cape-esque black wool coats as well or black pea coats. Coats were always accompanied by a perfectly wrapped scarf. It sounds dumb but I have no idea how they get their scarves to look so perfect here. Another little thing about scarves is I saw a lot of girls leave their hair wrapped under the scarf instead of pulling it out. A lot of girls and women in general carry longchamp bags too. For hair I would say a little less than half have all their hair pulled away from their face in a high bun. The other half leave it natural. Me and my friends actually commented on the fact that while we were in Paris we could tell who wasn't really French because their hair was obviously straightened or curled with a curling iron. Girls in general here don't seem to do that. Also students here dress up a bit more than students in the US. Yes they wear leggings but never sweats and I don't think I have seen yoga pants here either. It is also not uncommon to see students in heels on their way to class. For girls it seems that clothes are generally a little bit looser than girls clothing in America but I could be wrong on that, we will see what happens once Spring actually hits.
Ok now for guys clothing. I don't pay quite as much attention to guys clothing but here we go. First of all jeans here are tighter but not like girl, skin tight and they are generally straighter if that makes sense (as in they are a little tighter around the bottoms). Guys usually wear either t-shirts like in the US or nicer sweaters. A ton of guys wear pea coats as well. The main thing I have noticed is that the shoes are nicer. They are usually leather and lace up and I am doing a terrible job of describing them so I will post a picture of them in a sec. In general I would say that guys here have better style than in America. I am extremely happy not to have to look at sweat shirts and baggy jeans all the time.
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| I almost forgot! I would say about 75% of girls here in Nantes (including me) have these shoes in either the heeled or flat version. I see them everywhere. |
3. DJ's. There are so many dj's in Nantes it's nuts. This one might just be my experience because my host brothers are dj's but I feel like half of the student male population are dj's. The dj here is like the equivalent of the guitar player/band in America.
4. Smiles. I think I have touched on this before but people don't really smile at each other on the street here. It's not that people aren't friendly. For the most part if you go up to someone to ask for directions or something they will smile and help you but not before then. The other day I was walking to class at IES when I passed a guy getting out of his car who smiled at me and my immediate thought was 1. he must be foreign or 2. he must be a creeper. I got my answer after he proceeded to follow me and badger me for my number for 10 minutes even though he was obviously 15 years older than me but that just goes to show you that people here don't usually smile at strangers on the street. It also provided some in site into how used to the customs I have become that I thought that his smiling was strange. Quite a change from friendly Minnesota.
5. Which leads us to Creepers. Girls here handle creepers in a very different way than in the US. The other night we were with my French friend Julia at a bar when a guy came up to me and my American friend and started bothering us. We quietly replied to his questions and tried to discretely turn away, hoping he would get the hint. After about 3 minutes he finally left us alone but 30 seconds later he was bothering Julia. Instead of humoring him by answering his questions, she just completely ignored his existance. It was like she couldn't even hear him and after about 10 seconds he walked away. Her way was much more effective.
6. Hugs. People here do not give hugs. People have told me that they would only hug extremely close friends or a boyfriend or girlfriend. Instead everyone here does "bisous" which is the kisses on the cheek. I actually really like this custom (I feel way more French when I see someone and we greet each other with bisous) but I find it slightly more intimate than a hug (which I have found French people are completely shocked to hear).
7. PDA. There is definitely more PDA here than in the US but usually not in a disgusting over the top way. I feel like there are just more couples holding hands and more couples kiss in public than in the US. The only time its weird is when a couple is making out on the crowded bus right next to me, then it's a little awkward...
8. Coucou. This is basically the French version of hey. Every time someone enters my house they sort of yell "coucou" from the entryway to say they are home and to see who else is home. I have also received this as the beginning of a "texto" and the beginning of a facebook chat message.
9. Timing. It seems like days start and end later here. I think kids start school a bit later and parents go to work a bit later. However they also return later. Diner is also later here. Back in Minnesota I got in the really bad habit of eating dinner at 5pm. I would then be hungry again by 9pm. Here people usually eat a snack around 3-4 pm so they can make it to dinner around 8 or 8:30. This makes the afternoon feel a lot longer to me. 6:30 now feels really early, like it is still part of the afternoon whereas before it felt like night time
10. Work. It seems like most students here don't work during the school year. I feel like most high school students and the majority of college students work year round in the US but here I think students only work in the summer for around 2 months. Maybe it has something to do with the later school hours.
Well that's all I have for now. I should probably get back to studying for midterms so I don't completely fail this semester.
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