Welcome to Paris!

Bonjour and welcome to my blog! As I write this first post, I am sitting at a local café in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. French words are flying, the Eiffel Tower is quite literally right down the street, and I am still waiting for it to hit me that I am actually in France. In fact, in just a few short days, I will hit the two-week mark since landing at Charles de Gaulle Airport at the crack of dawn on January 8th. If the speed in which these past weeks have come and gone is any indication to how fast this entire experience will pass by, I will be on the plane back to the States before I know it...which, frankly, is scary! There is so much on my "must-do" list, and considering that I have checked off only two items so far, these next four months will be a total whirlwind and I cannot wait to get it started. 

Before I dive into my French adventures, I need to introduce myself. For starters, my name is Erin Delaney and I am currently a junior at Loyola University Maryland. I was born in Virginia, in a town just outside of DC, but moved to northern New Jersey when I was one year old. I am the middle child, with an older brother who is two years older than me and a younger sister, seven years younger than me. I also have two extremely loving parents. My mother is a real estate agent and my father is a director at Johnson & Johnson. In fact, my dad is the one who instilled into me my intense desire to travel and see the world. 

Growing up, I always took French as my language to study. I started learning French when I was twelve years old. The only two reasons I decided to take French over Spanish were 1.) I never enjoyed Spanish class in elementary school and 2.) my mom took French and me, being a little girl at the time, wanted to be just like her. Well, turns out that those two reasons steered me in the right direction because I went on to study French for seven more years. Throughout that time, I fell in love with the language, the culture, the French architecture, fashion, food… everything! It is very fitting that I ended up here for my study abroad experience.

I was seventeen years old the first time I traveled to France. The country was everything I thought it would be and more. There is something so unexplainably glamourous and special about Paris. Unfortunately, I stayed in France for a few short days that time since it was one out of seven countries during my three-week European adventure. In order to hit every must-see French landmark, I was bombarded with sight-seeing, a quick trip to the Louvre, and even a fast day trip to Normandy. Although I loved every second of my first experience here, I did not have the time to soak everything in and truly appreciate it. Fortunately, I’m back and not for a brief 96-hours this time either.

Prior to hopping on a plane and residing in Paris for four months, I found great comfort in knowing that French culture and their way of life is not so different than my lifestyle back home… or so I thought. Granted, I did not experience world-flipping-up-side-down culture shock, but there are definitely a number of differences that I have picked up on since starting my temporary life here. Firstly, French people simply do not smile! Of course, there is that typical stereotype of the French being rude; but to be clear, the people here are not rude. In fact, the Parisians are quite nice and helpful! It is just that everyone has their best poker face on 24/7. I am not use to that. I am accustomed to sharing a quick smile with a passing stranger or smiling at someone as a way to say "Thanks" for doing a simple task like holding the door. People here don’t even make eye contact, which leads me to my next cultural difference.

At orientation, all visiting students attended a safety presentation. One major point that the presenter emphasized is that under no circumstance should anyone ever make eye contact with a stranger. The French, especially a man seeking eye contact with a woman, see that as a sexual invitation. It was shocking to learn that something as simple like unintendedly locking eyes with someone could result with a free drink in front of me and an unwanted favor to repay.

Finally, the third aspect of French culture that I also found to be interesting is how quiet the city is. Considering that Paris is a major city, it is truly shocking. In fact, there are enforced quiet hours every day 10pm-7am across the entire city. Imagine the strict quiet hours during finals week at Loyola and put that on a city-wide scale. The metro in the morning is silent, Uber drivers say “bonjour” and that’s it, even the luggage claim in the airport was strikingly soundless. I understand that French culture values privacy and the French people, overall, mostly keep to themselves, but just how serious that this city takes being quiet is truly surprising.

Adjustment is inevitable with every instance of change. These cultural differences, along with others that I have yet to discover, will absolutely take some getting used to. Paris as a whole and life abroad will too take some getting used to. Despite avoiding homesickness thus far and having a relatively smooth transition into my new European life, I am sure I will face some challenges in the upcoming weeks. Whatever obstacle that may be looming on my horizon, I need to remember that these four months are going to pass by in a blink of an eye. I am going to wake up one day and it will be time to hop onto my 8-hour flight home. I am excited to find out everything about this city and explore Europe beyond. It is such a special privilege to be able to go study abroad. My parents have always told me, "Travel while you're young!" Well, here we are. I'm young and I am traveling! Let’s do this.