The Key Hook :: La Porte-Clé

My high school has really strange hours here.  When I left the States, my high school had a pretty straight forward schedule.  Every day, go to school for seven hours for four classes.  Three more hours afterwards if one is on a sports team with the high school.  On A days, you have classes 1357, on B days, you have classes 2467.  Simple, easy to remember.

My schedule in France?  
MON: 8h - 12h 1234
TUE: 9h - 16h  354
WED: 8h - 12h 61
THU: 8h - 18h  3235
FRI: 8h - 15h   7251

French people are more active than the average American

I prefer the French/Military time way more than AM/PM.  While it saves just that little bit of space when writing (9h10 vs 9:10 AM), it also helps during those confusing times of noon and midnight.  I'm never sure and it's always hard to remember if noon is 12:00 AM or 12:00 PM.  

Anyways, you can see that my schedule in France ends isn't exactly consistent.  My host family's schedule is likewise random.  At the moment, I'm not sure who's home at what day to open the door for me when I return.

My host mother is prepared for everything, though I suppose she'd been through it all before with her two sons, even if they're both younger than me.  So, she gave me a key for the house.  

I thought it merited a post because it looks different.  I got so excited, I thought it was a special type of key ring made only in France.  Nope, it's made by an ________(I think American since I had the time to do some research) company called Fred and Friends.

Japanese glowing fish look more American than that

I probably should've figured it out when my friends had "normal" key rings.  The one's I'm used to, a metal circle that you have to put your key on, maybe a cute little charm as well.  Here, some people put it onto their ID cards.

The ID cards here are so fancy.  You don't get your picture put on them (like at my high school in the States), but they give you access to the cafeteria.  There's a barrier that is only opened with the magnetic card.  They put the cards in a plastic case that has a hole near the side, perfect for key rings.

I feel like I'm opening my eyes.  I'm discovering American things in France (and French things in France, of course)!  I'm also discovering that things I thought were American are French.

Such as the saying, "Eat to live, not live to eat"...and variations.  I mentioned it to my host mother, describing it as a saying in America.  She described it as a saying from a French philosopher.  Well, I googled it (despite my decreasing faith in the Internet) and I have found four people that have said variations of the same quote.

"Eat to live, and not live to eat." - Benjamin Franklin
'Poor Richard's Almanac'

"We must eat to live and live to eat." - Henry Fielding

"According to the saying of an ancient philosopher, one should eat to live, and not live to eat." - Moliere, 'L'Avare'

"Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat." - Socrates

Who still has faith in the Internet?  I can see why all my teachers hate Wikipedia.  It's better than Google for explaining societal things...like la bise.

DON'T TRUST THAT PUPPY

Well, that quote was a terrible example seeing as how it comes from five different people from five different countries.  However, my family introduced me to the TV show, "Homeland", which is on television here.  I hadn't heard of the series before I came to France.

I thought it was a French series first, mainly because there's a sex scene and I thought those were not allowed in American TV shows.  I feel like such a prude here!  First night when I got here, my host family was watching a French movie, La Guerre est Declarée, and (I'm sure it's a good film if you can understand it) there was a naked scene in it.  "Is it over yet??"  You'd think I was watching the Black Swan or something.

Whereas my host family are all staring at the screen with blank looks on their face.  My host brothers were there too, and they're both younger than I am!  They're not old enough to watch gory movies like Ironclad because but sex scenes in movies, pffft totally fine.  

I'll take my hand off when the sex scene starts