Hi!
So, I'm Kris, I've been in Arras, France for two weeks now, and this is my blog.
This is the view from my window right now:
A couple pics of Arras during the day:
More pics and info on Arras to follow. But for this post, I'd like to talk about this question I got asked today, which prompted me to actually start this blog. Why do Americans go to France?
In the last two weeks, I have been the subject of many “mock interviews.” Two dozen teenagers asking me questions then using the answers to –poor kids – write an article about me. Somewhere out there someone is being marked down for not knowing that my favorite color is blood red or that “if I could be any fruit in the world, I would be a raspberry.” No, seriously. They were practicing the conditional, so there were a lot of “if you could be --.” One kid asked me who I would be if I could be a man. Obviously I picked God. There still seems to be a major gender bias for that job.
Today one class had to include a picture with their interviews.
“Can we take your photo?” timidly asked a girl in the front.
“Oh- okay,” I replied, a little taken aback, but unwilling to alienate the already hesitant students.
A second later, chairs squeaked and thirty teenagers pushed to the center to get my picture with their camera phones. (Don’t they know Friday is always my bad hair day?)
(Also, for the record, yes. Fame is intoxicating.)
Today, however, one of the students asked me why so many Americans want to come to France.
I thought for a minute, and finally said that I thought many Americans were interested in the history of France and Europe in general. The US is a relatively young country, while France has a wealth of centuries-old buildings and layers of history. I also said Americans were interested in cultural differences and wanted to explore the richness of French culture. Luckily for me, none of the kids are fluent enough in English to say, “Mademoiselle? I call bull shit.”
Despite all our so-called enlightenment about objectivity, rationality, keeping an open mind, avoiding jumping to conclusions, etc., the fact remains that we cannot tell the truth about why we like or dislike certain things without sounding like idiots, without stereotyping, without revealing just how unsubtle our vision is. Why did you study French? Why did you decide to go to France? “I’m interested in French culture.” And what interests you, exactly? Well, I just don’t know yet.
It’s like someone asking you why you like someone you’ve never been on a date with. You respond with some euphemistic bull shit like, “I really feel a connection,” and hope that the person you’re talking to will assume you have a long list of meaningful, rational reasons for feeling that connection. When actually your mental list looks something like
1. smells cinnamon-y and god I love Big Red gum
2. wears Ralph Lauren a lot and that reminds me of my best friend who has a weird obsession with Ralph Lauren
3. ordered chili cheese fries with chili on the side for lunch once. that seemed eccentric.
4. likes Arrested Development
(For the record, #4 is an example of real proof of connection.)
Pictures of France are pretty. France sounds fashionable and has good food and we want a little bit of the French glamour dust to rub off on us. We want to be a little mysterious, a little European, a little …French. We associate France with rich culture, with heightened sensibilities, with artistic freedom, with European gourmet instead of American gourmand. I wanted to go to France because when I was little I was in love with Madeleine cookies. They were beautiful shapes and endearingly small and they were named Madeleine. I thought all cookies should have names. I also wanted to go to France because Amelie skipped rocks into the Canal San-Martin and dipped her hand in a barrels of grain and I understood exactly –poignantly- why she did that and how it felt. And because in high school I did a project on the mathematician Sophie Germain who, as a little girl, solved math equations secretly in her room, using candlelight, because her parents thought girls shouldn’t learn math. And while she quietly did math problems on a little slate, the Bastille was being loudly stormed just outside and her country was changing forever. My point is that my rationale is not all that rational.
And we do want to find out about French history, French architecture, French social issues, French art, French values. I really am interested in finding out about the French education system, the French government, the political or social controversies currently making headlines in France. But we also want to find out about French daily habits, French people, French bathrooms, French cheese, French restaurants, French socks, French stoves. We want to see pretty buildings and eat pretty pastries. And really, isn’t that all included in the word “culture”?
My point is that I’m guessing that for many of us going to a country for the first time, “an interest in the culture” isn’t really as educated as it sounds. I can’t really logically explain why I think that I will gain something worthwhile, will become a better citizen of the world, by being here. The reasons I want to find out about “French culture” aren’t really that much different than the reasons you go on that date: you have a major crush and you’re just damn curious.
