Carla's Fabulous French Foray, 1.1

After much hinting, wheedling, begging, blackmailing, bribing, and
demanding, I have decided to cave in to the wisdom of the other
officers and give a small report of my studies so far in France. Since
this is English Club, I thought it would be suitably improper to speak
about the French, arch- and ancient enemies of the English. So, here
it goes. (p.s. I might write a column for the Collegian in the Fall
or Spring, so don’t be surprised if you see some of this stuff again…
as long as it’s my name in the byline!)

From what I’ve discovered so far, the French are…
1. MUCH more politically active: the students blockaded all of the
other students, teachers, and personnel out of the university buildings
for a week and a half (and still counting), and I don’t think it was
because they didn’t want to go to school any more. (more later, if any
one’s interested…)
2. not aliens. The (one) truly Irish pub here is still packed to the
gills and the crowd spilling onto the street on St. Paddy’s Day.
Although getting drunk until one is sick isn’t considered cool here as
it apparently is in the US, people still like to enjoy themselves with
alcohol.
3. not the antichrist. Churches are still crowded on Sunday mornings,
and they keep the Sabbath better than we do in the States (try buying
anything other than bread on Sunday, I dare ya!). Even if the official
statistic is 10 % of the population as practicing Christians, you
couldn’t prove it by me.
4. VERY concerned with their children and family life. Most French
students go home nearly every weekend to be with their family. And if
they’re not in church Sunday morning, odds are that most people with
kids are in the park with them, or taking a Sunday stroll through
centre-ville, again, children in tow.
5. REALLY good at making bread and pastries. I’m going to be 20 pounds
heavier when I get back to the States, so I hope you all still
recognize me!
6. ... and, finally, (to make this somewhat literary) REALLY rather
fond of Diderot (an eighteenth century French philosopher and writer)
and Freud. I'm studying not one, but two books by Diderot, and the
English girls next door spend nearly all their time in psychology
talking about Freud. I don’t know if they read these people for fun,
but I’d say, almost…

until next time… as long as I don’t get done-in by the angry mobs here!
jk. mostly.
Carla Schuster