It's funny, I realized today that the way I think about the French has shifted drastically. I think at the beginning of the exchange I associated myself more with a European/French mentality than an American/Canadian one, but now I've totally flip flopped on the whole thing.
I don't know, maybe it was because compared to my friends I always kind of felt my family got a heavier European influence (whether from my parents or grandparents or whatever), just with cooking styles, eating habits, switching back and forth from English to French.... I still think that holds, we're definitely more European than your average Canadian family, but on my newly enlarged scale of what defines Canada and what is European, I now know that I'm DEFINITELY a Canadian gal, 100%.
Example of French ludicrousness:
We were just sitting in our "Savoirs culturels" class during our "pose" (break) and then this AIR RAID alarm comes on, which in itself is not that unusual (they test the air raid alarms the first Wednesday of every month to make sure they still work from WWII) until we realized it was neither a Wednesday nor the first week of the month.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APgSOmHGSiE&feature=related] Visit this link to hear what it sounds like.
The teacher tells us in this reassuring voice that its a fire alarm. Everyone kind of looks around nervously, but the teacher doesn't really pay attention. Then she starts rooting in her bag and in my row we're all kind of like, "Oh good, she's gonna call someone to see what's going on..."
and then she pulls out some change for the coffee machine and just kind of flounces out of the room.I was like, "What?!?!". Fire alarm going off, everyone is just sitting around, not doing anything, and this is what she does in the crisis moment, get COFFEE?!?! (So French if you think about it, pretty sure during the French Revolution while shit was burning down and people were getting killed some French guy was like, FUCKING SHIT, they burned the Tabac down, now I'll never get any cigarettes...)
Then a few students trickle in and tell us a few people went outside to go for a smoke and one of the teachers flipped out and told them not to leave the building.
So... when there's a fire alarm... you stay IN the building that's potentially on fire?
I don't care if the alarm's coming from the building down the block, if I can hear the friggin air raid horn going, I'm getting the hell out of any building that could potentially burn down around me.
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Like I said, they're a crazy people.
(Turned out the alarm was from the next building over, which still doesn't really explain why we wouldn't want to evacuate the place since we were next to it.)
The best part is their explanations:
"Nah there's no fire here, the alarm would be WAY louder."
"They make the alarms really loud so all the firemen in the city can hear it and come to help." (?! sounds... efficient...)
Anyway, this is by no means a criticism of the French, I think they're loveable in their complete ridiculousness. Like a little brother that is a pain in the ass and annoys the hell out of you but you still love 'em.
......... Kind of like Québec, really.
Bahahaha so many people could be offended by this post. Please just read it knowing my tone is incredulous but affectionate. (And that les Québécois are only similar to the French in that they are both ridiculous in their respective annoying ways) <3
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1 comment:
I'm assuming this annoying little brother reference has nothing to do with me. I like to think I was a hilarious exception to that rule......right?.........RIGHT?
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