grumble grumble...

OK so I guess if I'm going to accurately document this little journey I'm on, the bad has to come with the good. Today = Bad. Not that I'm overall having a bad time or anything but today is one of those days where I'm learning all about the things I DON'T like about France and French people and all French dogs and French food and French cities. Basically, if I had an american flag right now I would walk through the street waving it on a pole and singing the national anthem at the top of my lungs. So now you know the what, here is the why:

It seems to be the ongoing joke in my french family that I'm "bavarde." For all you anglophones out there that's a less polite way of saying "talkative." Perhaps I'm mistranslating, but I thought this word was kind of an insult. Now I know, I know, all you people out there who know me are saying "Geez Cal, what's the big deal? Isn't that completely and totally the truth?" I know, I'm a talker. But honestly, at their dinner table I literally only speak for a total of 45 seconds during the whole half hour dinner. They babble on about their days and their weekends and their homework and I sit there mute carefully contemplating the correct way to hold my fork.

Now normally I would think that it's better to try and enter into polite conversation at the table, rather than stay silent and sullen throughout the whole dinner, so, OCCASIONALLY, I agree with something that is said or interject with my own commentary. When I say occasionally I mean it too, man. So what bugs me, is that while I'm sitting there saying literally nothing the whole dinner, my occasional interjections merit a negative label that has to be joked about at every dinner from now until I leave?

Here's the kicker... am I not here to learn how to SPEAK FRENCH? CONVERSATIONALLY?!@! Why even take on an exchange student if you're going to discourage them from talking. Blah. A month in and I still feel like I'm a stranger to these people. Everyone says it's cultural, but personally I just don't think it's right. Hospitality is a universal cultural attribute in my book, at least when you are the one extending the invitation. Maybe it's just my southern heritage talking, but personally, I like my southern hospitality way better than whatever you call what I'm getting. Whereas the french may call us loud and obnoxious and fat and claim that we invade other people's privacy, I say that we are warm and friendly and welcoming and we enjoy sitting down to a good meal with good family and friends. I'll take the noisy Fenwick clan over these guys any day!

France just needs to give me some space, man. It's just a little quarrel...we'll get over it. But no, I'm not sorry right now, I don't want to kiss and make up, and I don't want to resolve our differences. I just want to be mad for a while!