This Wednesday, I’ll have been in France for about 3 weeks now. It’s been really fun getting to see everything and live as a quasi Parisian for so long. Even so, being in Paris has shown me that as expected, there’s going to be some uncomfortable times when you live in a foreign country. Some things I’ve seen have just been plain strange, such as seeing eggs and milk being unrefrigerated and left out until used. The quality has been pretty similar so it’s just been a tad bizarre with being used to the U.S. way of refrigerating everything. Some other common household tasks have also been very different. Doing laundry, I’ve always had large washing machines and a dryer was always available at home. It’s very common here to hang one’s clothes dry, and the washing machine is much smaller. to One of the more impactful and surprising moments for me was how poorly some French people view foreigners and tourists. During an outing to Montmartre with a few other interns, we were randomly approached by a man who interrupted our conversation, asking if we spoke French. We all said no, expecting him to ask us for something, before he started calling us expletives for not speaking French. I have heard of things like this happening in the United States so I can’t fully say that this is too different, but I had never been in a similar situation, or would ever dare to have the mindset of telling somebody to do the same. There is also how people immediately switch to English when speaking with you. Whether or not your language skills are better, many people will usually switch to English and look as if they don’t like you. It’s kind of difficult dealing with this and it’s quite common so it’s rather disheartening that people simply won’t interact with you naturally because of which language you speak. I think it’s because most French people grow up learning English so it may come from a kind place but it has never felt that way to me, or the other interns who have experienced the same. Workwise, I had only been working with one person, and even then my internship got canceled since the time of my last post, so I haven’t been able to truly experience what a French work life is supposed to be like. Some aspects from my initial internship were pretty different such as running errands for lunch and spending extra time enjoying a meal with no worries, but for the majority the work seemed pretty standard and didn’t feel very different. French culture in general isn’t too different from what I’m used to in the United States, and apart from a few negatives, has been relatively easy to adapt to. I especially love the culture when it comes to food. The French are more obsessed with quality over quantity when it comes to food, which tends to be the opposite in the United States. They also savor their meals more and eat slower to better enjoy their time wherever they are. It’s been so nice going to a café to simply sit down and enjoy the day, even while on their break at work, which is significantly longer than in the U.S. Being in a large city as well, is nothing new to me, and so it has been no problem getting used to living here. Whether it be navigating some of the neighborhoods or interacting with strangers on public transport, I’ve already had similar experiences in Pittsburgh that have helped. All in all, I’m enjoying my time here, and I haven’t yet had a case of true culture shock that I had been expecting.