Kathy Goes Global: Parlez-vous anglais?

I had a very cool experience in France last weekend. Glad I can officially "check" France off my list of countries in Europe to visit, but we'll say I'm "unofficially" checking it off because I still have to go back! Normally when I visit a country I am a typical tourist. That's not to say that I don't try to blend in because I try very hard to appear as a native (although the blonde hair doesn't usually help me... in Spanish countries that is!). However, you can normally find me taking pictures every 15 seconds and lurking around tourist shops buying postcards, magnets, and flags to add to my collections. I usually pick the most obvious destinations with the most tourist attractions, but I decided it was time for a change this time!

You're probably thinking, "Ok so you must have visited Paris?" Well, no. I was in the Paris airport, which I'll talk about in a few, but outside of that I spent all of my time in the city of Angers. And no it is not called "Angers" like you would say in English. It is pronounced "Ahn-jay" with a soft "j" (almost "sh" sounding) like you would say the name "Jean" in French. Angers is a pretty large city about 2 or 3 hours southwest of Paris. It has a totally different vibe from any city I've previously visited so I thought it was super cool. It wasn't filled with skyscrapers per se, but nonetheless it was filled with people and it totally felt like I was in the real/authentic France versus the tourist France I would have been in had I gone to Paris (which is also still cool too). Angers is also a very old city, filled with history. There's even a castle! It's also a bit of a college town. So many students from all over the world go to Angers to study, and over the weekend I met people from all over the place such as Mexico, Nigeria, Austria, India, France (duh), and etc. What an awesome multi-cultural environment! Oh, and did I mention the bakeries are to die for!!!!

I had an interesting experience actually arriving to Angers. I flew from Barcelona with Air France which was a really nice airline, but I couldn't help but notice that there was not one Spanish speaker aboard on either of my flights. Granted, it is Air FRANCE but you would think that coming from SPAIN there would be at least one Spanish speaker aboard. Just seems like common sense to me, but lately I feel like common sense is a bit overrated over here. All of the announcements on the plane were made in French and English, and then an audio recording played for the announcements in Spanish. Have you ever heard a French person speak English? I found it nearly impossible to understand. Perhaps I've gotten so used to the "Spanish version" of English that my brain was confused when it heard a different foreign version of English. Nonetheless, I totally relied on the Spanish announcements to understand what was happening.

For me there's always been that exciting aspect of getting off a plane and speaking Spanish. It's almost like a tradition for me now because if you haven't noticed, the only countries I've ever visited have been Spanish speaking countries. And yes I planned it that way :-) I have to admit I was a tad nervous getting off the plane in Paris, knowing that I know two phrases in French: "Je ne parle pas français" and "Parlez-vous anglais?" meaning I don't speak French, do you speak English? Listening to French I can pick up random words between my knowledge of English and Spanish, but if you asked me to form a sentence I couldn't do it for the life of me. Obviously asking for directions would be out of the question, so I hopped off the plane hoping to somehow find the train station connected with the airport.

Seriously, the Charles de Gaulle airport has the DUMBEST LAYOUT I think I've ever seen in an airport. SO DUMB. Not to mention, people that work there are just rude. The signs are terrible, if there even are any. If you're looking for something directly ahead, make sure you follow the downwards pointing arrow instead of the upwards pointing arrow. Makes sense right? And although they "speak" English, you'll find that 99% of the people working at the food places will respond to you in French and give you your price in French, even after you tell them you don't speak French. Thanks, because I understand what you're saying to me...

A little interjection here: I found myself speaking Spanglish most of the time when I was actually traveling back and forth in France. For some reason, my brain to just reverts to Spanish when I have trouble or can't communicate with people. I found myself saying "sí" and "está bien" almost constantly when I had to speak to French people. I'm not sure why it was happening.... maybe it's just so automatic to speak in Spanish when I travel? Maybe it's a nervous habit? Or maybe I'm just THAT absorbed and immersed in the Spanish language. I'm hoping it's the latter of the three :-)

Europe has a really great train system, probably the best in the world. To arrive in Angers I had to take the train from the airport. That's pretty easy right? Hahahaha you would think so, but I almost 1. missed the train or even worse 2. got on the wrong train. I'm laughing now realizing that people must have thought I was a complete loca SPRINTING to catch my train. It was quite the sight, suitcase and all. When the train comes in you literally have maybe all of five minutes to get on the train and get situated. I had no idea that the train was going to be the length of two football fields so I thought it was wise to wait in the middle. Think again Kath... I ended up running almost half the length of the train just to get on. I was seated in cabin 7, but at first I thought "Well, maybe I'll just get on and walk through the train until I reach cabin 7." That was a BAD idea, and thank the Lord I did not go with that idea. The train actually split in two at cabin 10, so I had I gotten on at cabin 15 who knows where I would have ended up stranded in France, without a phone, without knowing where I was, oh and without knowing a lick of French. That would have been loads of fun! After about a minute of panic and my train had arrived, I went up to a worker, who thankfully spoke English, and asked where I needed to get on. At that point he told me where I needed to go, but he told me to hurry. I got on the train with about 30 seconds to spare. MADRE MIA. And it was also somewhat comical trying to decipher where I had to get off at too. Although they announced the stops in English, it was still extremely difficult for me to understand what they were saying because they still pronounced the names of the stops in French.

After a somewhat stressful journey (mainly due to the language barrier) I finally arrived safely, and that's all that matters! I have a friend that I met while studying in Buenos Aires who is now studying for the semester in Angers who kindly invited me to visit for the weekend and stay with her and her host mom. It was really a cool experience because I got a taste of the real French lifestyle! I ate so healthy all weekend that I don't think my body knew how to react haha! For example, all of the salad that we ate was home grown in the backyard. All of the soup we ate, made from scratch. All of the jam we had at breakfast, homemade. Just delicious concoctions were drawn up, and it was so nice to sit down at a dinner table family-style after such a long time of eating dinner alone. I even tried duck one night, which for anyone who knows how I normally eat would say it's definitely a step outside of my comfort zone. Albeit, if I actually tried to adapt to the Spanish schedule of eating I wouldn't have to eat dinner alone, but I prefer to eat dinner at 6 versus at my bed time! Conversation at the dinner table was interesting as Caitlin acted as translator the entire time. Her host mom knows random words in English, but I'm guessing she followed our conversations in English about as much as I followed their conversations in French, i.e.- I wasn't really following whatsoever, although I tried desperately at times to understand. I was served up a healthy dose of my own medicine because now I understand how everyone else feels when I speak Spanish all the time. Hahahaha oops, pero la verdad es que todavía a mi no me importa. Sigo hablando!

So the result of a really different/fun trip to France and not being able to communicate with the French people practically all weekend (minus the time I spent hablando con los mexicanos).... I'm going to learn French and go back to France so I can practice! Je suis prête à apprendre le français. Au revoir :-)

Un saludo!! And also a big thank you to Caitlin and her host mom for letting me crash for the weekend! Merci!! Already making progress with my French! Booya :-)