“I don't know, I have found that as soon as a French person finds out I speak English, they automatically assume that my French is horrible and that their English is much better and they begin speaking to me in embarrassingly bad English. It's very frustrating, as we would understand each other a lot better if they would just speak French with me. I love France, but I am quickly getting tired of French people. I don't mean to put you off - but they are the most racist, elitist, self-entitled, ignorant, and completely closed-minded group of people I have ever met. There are some great ones, but they don't make up for the great majority of rude, egotistical people who care about no one but themselves. I know a girl who was hit in the face by a stranger because she is black and she was walking down the street with a white guy. I know a guy who got pushed into the side of a subway train, fell down, hit his head on shards of glass - and people walked on him. The guy who pushed him made eye contact and said nothing. No one tried to help him. I come from a big city, but that would never happen there. No one would stand for that. These people are so self-involved. Their attitude toward immigration is, "You can immigrate to our country if you speak perfect French, listen to Vanessa Paradis, eat baguette, and keep quiet about your religion." Their idea of "successful" immigrants are people who you can't tell are immigrants. It's very hard for me to come to terms with because in the US, at least where I am from (and it is the "ideal") individuality is appreciated and encouraged. You are supposed to embrace people's differences, not try to make everyone exactly like you. Here, they don't even understand that. I try to explain that to a French person, and they can't wrap their head around it. It drives me crazy.”
Now I would like to write about French middle-aged/old women. They are screwed up. My theory is that they were starved as children and teenagers by their screwed up French middle-aged mothers, they became anemic-looking young women, were attractive for a brief period of time, and now they are past their prime and have nothing to show for their miserable lifetime except premature wrinkles, bad dye jobs, and fat husbands. And then the rest of them, the non-stick-thin ones, are miserable because they have spent their entire lives being held up the ideal set by the stick-thins. These women are almost all insane. They need to control everything you do. They complain about everything, loudly. They do not trust me, ever. They blame me for bizarre unreasonable things. This latter trait seems to be especially prevalent. Examples:
-Madame Gilot blaming me for things her husband did
-the cleaning woman here blaming me for the kitchen being dirty
Her: “The other woman came in here this morning and said it was clean. Now it is disgusting. What happened?” sighs loudly and exasperatedly-the woman at the bank blaming me because they spelled my name wrong on my bank card
Me:: “I don’t know, I just got here. I didn’t do this.”
Her:: “I don’t know that. I didn’t see it this morning. It’s disgusting. Why are you cooking in here?”
Me:: “…It’s the kitchen.”
Her:: “Well finish up. I need to clean.”
Me:: “I need to cook for ten people. It’s going to be a while.”
Her:: Exasperated sigh
* an hour later, she comes back, with a man *
Her, to man: “Why is she still here? She hasn’t finished yet?!?”
Me, in my brain: "I can hear you!!! This is a kitchen! People cook in them! Leave me alone"
It never ends. I would write more but writing this made me too pissed off at French people. Also - old French men, stop trying to help me use machines at the grocery store. I know how a scale works, as well as automatic checkout. Learn about personal space, and get the hell away from me. French people in general: STOP TOUCHING ME AND LEARN ABOUT PERSONAL SPACE. AND HYGIENE. YOU ALL SMELL LIKE ONIONS AND ARMPIT.
Whew.
Métro book of the moment:
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