I want a TV

Tomorrow morning, I am going to the Marchés aux Puces, the biggest flea market in Paris. Purportedly, I am doing this in order to 1. Practice my french 2. Find a radio 3. Find a coffeemaker. While those appliances are all well and good (especially the second-- caffeine, I miss you so much), there is one that I secretly crave and will buy if I can find a used one startlingly cheap: television.

I don't think I am a huge TV watcher. Over the summer, I made a habit of it, sure, but I rarely watch it at school. Still, I caught a glimpse of French television my first morning here, and I have to admit, I'm pretty intrigued. I think it is likely as dumb as American television, but here's the thing-- when the banality of TV is translated to a just-learned language and unfamiliar culture, it becomes really interesting. Some things that were strikingly similar, like, Le Destin du Lisa, their version of-- well, I think you can see:

Though this picture really does look like the American Betty, the cast is completely different, and the show is set in France.

A good deal of what's on would not fit in at all with American programming. The first time I was in France, my mother and I saw a documentary about a nudist colony on one of the main channels. While I wasn't lucky enough (!) to catch a re-run, I did watch a program about a bunch of wealthy teenagers. It comes on around ten on a weekend morning, right after cartoons. By 10:15 two couples had gone from being fully clad to this:

then this

Of course, there were a few scenes I would've felt uncomfortable photographing in between. Which is normal, you know, in the evening, but right after morning cartoons?

And of course, the commercials. I didn't manage to catch this classic:


But there were some along the same vein, which I think are really preferable to the American car commercials where seat stowing is all about letting the kid out to pee, or stowing shopping bags under, or going on a picturesque family vacation with a picturesque family. I mean, c'mon.

So how much of this actually reflects on the culture, and how much just seems strange because of a different visual style, language, etc.? I found myself thinking about this in the weeks before leaving the US-- when I watched something ( knowing that a lot of our especially heinous programming is exported around the world), I tried to think about what type of values it indicated were important.

Which is really interesting, of course (really), but since I'm tired, I'll admit that I'm partly saying all this to convince myself there's some legitimacy in finding a cheap TV just to watch the French Ugly Betty. I mean, look at her dad!

Who is he? Who cuts his hair? Is he really that big, or is his coat stuffed with pillows? Why does he look completely different from his family, and for that matter, any other human being on Earth?

These are questions I must have answered, and I can't do it without a TV.

Groceries in Asnières

About this time last week I was wondering what I would be doing now-- grocery shopping, cooking dinner, babysitting? The answer to all three is more or less yes-- while I haven't yet done the second two (though I'm about to cook, and I'm scheduled to watch the baby in the morning), I have definitely done a lot of grocery shopping. To be honest, I expected that I might be doing something a little bit more exciting my first few days in Paris, but besides for the first evening, I really haven't been into the city at all. Where I live in Asnières really isn't that far out, especially considering that I can easily walk to the train station or Pont d'Asnières, which connects to main Paris, but doing either feels like a bit too much right now. I'm not overwhelmed, just tired, and besides, I'm at the point where just exploring this little city is still pretty interesting to me.

The place where I have spent the most time so far is Casino, a large grocery store that's close to what we have in the U.S. There's also a Monoprix, which sells clothing and home items as well as groceries, and which is nicer and a little more expensive. Both of these are within five minutes' walk from my apartment at the most. I feel a little embarrassed that I haven't shopped yet at the boulangeries (bakeries) and charcuteries (butcher shops) nearby, but I don't feel confident enough in my French or in handling euros to do much shopping anywhere besides the impersonal large stores. Most of the things I've been looking for can't be found at such small shops anyway. I've been trying to stock up on some of the things I know I need to cook almost anything (olive oil, pepper) as well as items which can be used for a lot of different meals (pasta, rice).

my plane snacks+ food already there+ scavenging at Casino


It has been hard to find everything I need. While Casino and Monoprix look pretty American, they're quite different than, say, Super Ingles. While I was unable to find sugar, almond powder (?) was quite easy to find, which I guess is good to keep in mind if I ever decide to do something involving powdered almonds. Butter? Impossible. Surely it could be found somewhere down the stupendously long aisle of dairy products, but between the cheeses, yogurts, and cheeses that look like yogurt, I didn't really have the patience. The dairy aisle in general is pretty intimidating, since I don't know all of the terminology. The French are so into these foods that knowing the words for milk, yogurt, and cheese, as well as a few adjectives isn't enough-- there's a whole vocabulary to accommodate the vast amount of choice shoppers have here.


Le frigo! Obviously, I could not resist coca-cola. The bottle on the bottom is the unpasteurized milk, quelle horreur!


Of course, that vocabulary exists in English, too, but you don't usually have to pull it out at Bi-Lo. While there might be a lot of different brands in the United States, they usually vary only in quality and aesthetics. At the stores here, there are fewer brands, but more substantial variations on each product. For instance, in the stores I visit in the US, there will usually be multiple brands of milk, but each will only offer the same choices (skim, 1%, 2%, whole, etc.). In France, there are around as many brands, or less, but with more significant choices about the type of product you're getting: the usual (demi-crème, crème, etc.) as well as those that I didn't expect. Among other things, you can have cow's milk or goat's milk, pasteurized or frais-- which I accidentally bought by mistake and am a little afraid of, though I've had a few glasses and survived without illness so far.


After I discovered I'd been drinking raw milk, I was just as happy as this little guy to find that the family had already put this carton in the fridge for me


I'll try to sneak a few pictures inside these stores sometime, though it would blow my cover-- the refreshing and unexpected thing about living in Asnières is that there are no tourists here, so until I open my mouth, I don't stick out too much, and even then, it's likely I'm taken for what I am-- a foreigner, but one who's here for more than a couple of days.

I'll write more later-- it's getting dark here, which means it's time to pull close the heavy wooden shutters to my bedroom window and go downstairs to cook my supper and read the paper.


What is going on here? Hopefully, I will find out.


PS. The woman whose children I will be nannying shook her head sadly when she saw that I had bought tea. "It is very hard to find good tea in this country,"she said. I am afraid that's she's correct.

"Jean-Pierre began quite rightly to fully understand how very seriously the English take their concept of 'Tea-Time.'"

In Munich

My brother's suggestion for this post title was "lol rofl rofl ich bin en deutschland :)" which I think is ultimately more evocative of how crazy I feel just about now. Will post more later-- flight went okay, but it was one of those times where I ended up feeling so hateful-- to the girl sitting next to me who was able to sleep the entire time, to the boys behind me who talked for two hours straight about how dumb Americans are (one of them had apparently visited my hometown, so hey, I can't really argue-- but still!), and of course to the baby who was screeching and the old woman glaring at it. Whew.

I think the Paris flight will be more exciting.

Last minute preparations

The time between the present and the time I leave is growing smaller and smaller. For a while, I was projecting into the future, wondering, what will I be doing in exactly two weeks?, and then one. The time is up for that, I think. A week from now, I'll be grocery shopping, or babysitting, or cooking dinner, which isn't as easy to imagine as getting off the plane and finding my way home. I'll write more when I'm off, or on my way there-- the five hour holdover I've got in Munich has to be used for something. Until then (and after that point, too) you can get in touch with me via email (ela.szyp AT gmail.com) or skype (eszypulski).

Today was the first day of classes in Chapel Hill. I miss you all so much!

PS. Packing is going slow. What on earth should I take?