Friday

Wow, I realized that my rant in the last post was longer than most of my non-rant posts...I guess that's what a mojito at a humid pirate/jungle-themed bar followed by more alcohol on the steps of the Opera Bastille will do to a lightweight American drinker. Good to know.

On the subject of ranting, I'd like to continue by discussion how RIDICULOUS I think it is that some cultures have a formal "you" and a not formal "you". In high school French, they scared us into believing that if we used the informal "tu or toi" with an adult, that would be the Complete End of the World, and thankfully that's not true (on my second day of using "vous" with Joana in Bordeaux, she told me that we pretty much knew each other well enough where that wouldn't be necessary). It's such a pain to figure out which one to use, that I've pretty much started using "toi" with strangers, because by the time the word leaves my mouth it's quite obvious that I'm not French anyway, so why try and put on the act of caring? No one's gotten mad at me yet, so I probably shouldn't actually be complaining in the first place. But Mariene told me that she was talking to her mom on the phone (with whom she speaks French) in a store, and when she hung up, the lady working at the store actually told her that she should be using the formal you.  So clearly some people still care, but I find it incredibly annoying, and I feel like this type of social etiquette exists solely for the purpose of allowing people something to get mad about if it's used incorrectly (maybe French people would seem happier in general if they had less cultural rules to cause them distress??).

Also, on another topic, I'm debating between being proud or worried that Lise actually offered me cuddling in exchange for buying her a Fanta from a vending machine yesterday. But I'm leaning towards proud because her offer worked (I do like cuddling).

Pizza with the host family tonight!