The Baby :: Le Bébé

There's something about going to another country that makes you feel like a wailing, dependent stomach.  Forget the brain, just gluttony all the time. Today my host sister made a marbled chocolate heaven of a cake, and I forced myself to drink from my water bottle instead.

just so much sucking

Though I can convey my sentiments now (it only took me, like, two months), I would never chance asking for emancipation in France.  Not that I would've in the USA, but there's something about going to another country that makes me feel younger.

inside are all the languages you don't know

It's like I'm going through another childhood again.  At the beginning, I could not be left alone in the town.  Now, I'm navigating around my city like I have a map in my hand (and I do).  Then again, it is a small city.  Point is, my host parents believe that I won't get lost anymore.

Not that they were holding my hand and coddling me before.  Maybe it's just me, but I feel like everyone in France thinks I'm...naïve.

I'd attribute it to several reasons, of which I have dissected throughly and completely.  Primarily, I cannot, of course, demonstrate my vast internet-thesaurus-cultivated-vocabulary and knowledge, nor my mentally facilitated remarkable intelligence that I do indeed have in my possession, that I developed over my, admittedly not exceedingly long, lifetime, when I talk, like, um...bad-ly???

It's probably because of that one time someone made an dirty joke in class, and I didn't understand.  Actually, that happens with most jokes.  Anyways, my friends always have to rephrase the jokes with small words for me.  Or they don't even bother with the sexual ones.

"we'll tell you when you're as old as we are"

It most likely comes from the fact that I always have to ask what something is.  In that case, people tend to think that I don't know what ____ is, when in fact, I just don't know the word for ____ in French.

I'm sure that people also tend to think I'm incapable of doing anything.  I might be because of the time I tried to take something out of the oven for my host mom...and I burned my arm.  

I need to be protected under lock and key from the harsh, cruel world

Another example: I told my friend that after I went back to the USA, I was going to take, like, 4 AP classes (after explaining what an AP class was).  

"(American) college classes are so easy!!"

Either that, or she thinks I'm a fool for attempting all those hard classes.  If the twirly-finger-next-to-ear meant crazy in France, I'm sure she would've made the gesture.  As it is, that gesture means remembering.  The gesture for insane in France is literally poking your finger at your temple.  

....and they think I'm silly