French Differneces Thus Far.

Bathroom

1) The toilet and the rest of the bathroom are always separate. Hence why in French, you have "Les toilettes" or "le W.C." (water closet) and then "La salle de bain".

2) The French are really big into not wasting water and energy and stuff, so the shower is designed in a such a way that inhibits long showers. The shower head is connected to a tube that doesnt have a place to hang from the wall, so you can't stand under it. You literally have to: Turn water on, wet yourself, turn water off, soap, rinse. 5 minutes tops, done.

Food

The food is COMPLETELY different. I know this is legit food, because my host family is very traditionally, and my host mom teaches a cooking course for the BU students throughout the semester. The meat is sometimes not cooked - i.e. bacon. Usually our salads consist of onions and "sauce". Cheese is always its own course. The salad and cheese courses come after the entree. As for words, "entree" is the appetizer and "plat" is the entree. Yeah, that was confusing when going to a restaurant for the first time. Bread and usually wine are musts at every meal. Time-wise, the French eat RIDIC fast but then talk for 2 hours after the meal, so meals last a loonnnggg time. They eat lunch between noon and 2 but don't eat dinner until 8. And do NOT eat between meals. Ordering a "coffee" here is the same as ordering a double shot of espresso in the States (and guess what? I'm more addicted to this coffee than American coffee - BAM!). You drink the coffee absolutely last in the meal, even after dessert, and even if the meal lasts until 11:30 at night. There are Mcdonald's, but they call it "McDo" because McDonalds is hard to say in French. They eat everything absolutely fresh. They hardly keep any food in the house and just go to the market every morning to pick up fruits and veggies. They dont fridgerate eggs or milk because if you do... it lasts longer... but then it's not fresh. So if it sits in the store too long, they throw it out, so you know itll always be fresh. And once you open it, you fridgerate it, but the bottles actually say, use within 3-4 days of opening. same with everything

Roads: People drive like crazy here! I frickin love driving in Boston and I would not want to drive here. There's no way to tell when there's a road, except for these small pillar things - so I almost got hit the first day here. There are only a few lights and even downtown there are like NO cars on the road, ever. Side note: The town is DEAD between dinner and going out time. Even downtown, from 12-1 everything is closed, because of lunch, and then from like 8-11, the place is dead. The roads and sidewalk are all cobblestone.

Mannerisms: 

1) The French speak really softly all the time, especially on the tram and in public areas. You rarely see them, freaking out, laughing and yelling, like Americans. 

2) They don't like to directly exchange money with you. There's usually a little dish on the counter, where you can put the coins (if you're paying with coins) or they will put your change in the dish. Basically, the dish is the middle man when paying for anything. 

3) On that note, they use cash for everything! The only time it's acceptable to use a card is if something is 20 euros or more. Also, the euro has coins for one dollar and two dollars! And if you get 1 centimes (penny), you might as well, donate it to something, because you're never going to use it. They always round up to the nearest 10 centime (dime - yay).