The Shower :: La Douche

I know, my classmates giggled at the name for the shower too. There's an elegant name for bath of course, baignoire, but not for a shower.

My mother was really worried about my trip to France.  She'd tell me crime rates, or send me e-mails  horror stories about France.  One of her concerns? "What if they aren't any showers in France??"

To which I'd always reply that France was a modern country and that of course there were showers.  I think she envisioned France as an abandoned island with cannibals and monsters.  

Might've been looking at this map

I told her that it was just like America, except everyone spoke a different language.  Of course, France and America are not the same country.  They're not such drastic polar opposites, though, that I have to change everything.  The sun always comes up anywhere in the world.

French people

Actually, the shower here is pretty nice.  I was so relieved, because I think what my mom said started stewing in my head subconsciously.  Nope, the showers here are just like the ones in the States.  The water gets warm really quickly, which is a super big benefit.  I'm talking like instantaneously, as opposed to my shower back at home that takes like (oh no) half a minute to get warm <-- the horror!

My HSHB (high school host brother) got so indignant when I told him what my mom said.  "What?? Americans think we don't have showers?  Letsee, we've got one... two.... three... four showers!  Oh, no, one shower, and three bathtubs."

Oh, that's right.  They count differently here.  In America, when we count, we start with our index finger and end with our thumb.  I suppose that's a bit weird, if you think about it too much, because you do the four fingers, and then the thumb.

France's counting system is so much more logical.  Start with thumb, end with pinky.  Go down the hand.  Now in theory, that works.  I tried it; when trying to count four, five (the pinky) kinda starts to rise.  So you've got your thumb, index, and middle straight, ring at a 45° angle, and pinky at a 90° angle.

Actually, the most logical system I can think of would be to start with the pinky.  It's the most comfortable and still progresses logically.  When I was younger, someone told me that raising just the pinky was offensive to Chinese people?  I didn't think it was true, but I wouldn't want to accidentally offend anyone = that one foreigner that doesn't know any of the customs.

I know that I'm that foreigner here, but I attempt to hide it.  I haven't had my tourist day yet.  I need just one day week where I can go nuts with a camera to get it out of my system.  Also because I can't find any pictures of what I want to describe on Google.

Guy = Me  Girl = Condescending Paris

I should mark it on the calendar so I can warn my host family.  THIS IS THE ONE WEEK WHEN I'M GOING TO TAKE PICTURES OF YOU EATING AND USING THE MINUTERIE.