So Thursday night had to be one of the most boring nights in my life. I really can’t think of a time when I felt more bored and more out of place. Being bored is one thing, but feeling out of place on top if it makes it unbearable.
AnneJulie’s parents had old family friends over – a husband and wife along with their two children, who were somewhere around my age. I was told that they speak English so it won’t be a problem and it would be ok. However, I was skeptical, based on my previous “they speak English, it will be ok” encounters. Before they arrived, I got some good news from AnneJulie’s dad, who is incredibly nice. He said I can leave at any point if I am uncomfortable, because he understands what it is like not to understand anything. So that was a nice sign of relief – but I told him I would try to stick with it for as long as I could.
So they arrived and, of course, no English. They arrived around 8:00 PM and introductions were made. We then went inside to the living room around 8:20 and drank a very strong “rum-like” alcohol that is from Rio combined with sugar and limes. It was strong but good, and got me fairly tanked since I had not eaten anything. So I sat there for about 40 minutes, bored, not understanding about 99.8% of it. At one point, I went upstairs to get her brother, Antoine, who was not down there yet. I told him, “There are two reasons why you need to come downstairs. #1: There is alcohol. #2: If I have to suffer through this, so do you.” He laughed, and came down a few moments later. It was a good thing he came down because he, like any normal young male, is bored stiff at this type of thing. He kept me entertained by telling me what was going on, what he predicted they would talk about next, etc.
About 9:00, we went into the kitchen to eat. Squid. Woo-hoo. And rice, with white wine. The squid is basically just like meat with a sauce. It doesn’t have tentacles or anything like that. So I tried two pieces. Eh, well, it wasn’t the worst thing ever. Foiegras (duck liver) is worse. So is the weird goat cheese I’ve tried. But still. I am branching out on my food (I actually had salmon the other day – and enjoyed it somewhat), but this was just too weird. The idea of it was what killed it.
So the dinner went on and on and on, all in French of course. I joked with Antoine about crap since we were sitting together (AnneJulie was on my other side, but she was, for some odd reason, enjoying the evening…). We had dessert, which was vanilla ice cream, some caramel and almonds, grapes dipped in alcohol, a sauce with alcohol. It was pretty good, but I did not like the grapes much. AnneJulie says I am spoiled in California with grapes – I guess they are really good in Cali. I am just used to them, so didn’t think of them as being special.
About 10:15, Antoine had to go shower to get ready to go out and party, so he excused himself. Seizing the opportunity, I took the blue pill and ended my boring lesson of French culture.
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So why was it so boring? Basically it comes down to one thing: understanding. If you don’t know what is going on, it’s hard to have any fun whatsoever. It’s amazing how you can guess what they are talking, in a super general way, just by their hand movements, tone, and hearing one or two words. But other than that, it was horrible. I do not wish this experience on anyone, and that is fo’sho.
So I am going to have to learn French faster. It is the only viable solution. Otherwise, I will dread all family events with AnneJulie’s non-immediate family, because one can only expect that I will suffer the same boredom. Her immediate family is great and has done everything they can to make me comfortable, and I appreciate it tremendously. But this stuff is going to continue no matter what, until I learn more French and can understand. I don’t want to be fluent – I would like to but that isn’t the goal – I just want to have a general idea what is going on more than 0.2% of the time.
AnneJulie’s parents had old family friends over – a husband and wife along with their two children, who were somewhere around my age. I was told that they speak English so it won’t be a problem and it would be ok. However, I was skeptical, based on my previous “they speak English, it will be ok” encounters. Before they arrived, I got some good news from AnneJulie’s dad, who is incredibly nice. He said I can leave at any point if I am uncomfortable, because he understands what it is like not to understand anything. So that was a nice sign of relief – but I told him I would try to stick with it for as long as I could.
So they arrived and, of course, no English. They arrived around 8:00 PM and introductions were made. We then went inside to the living room around 8:20 and drank a very strong “rum-like” alcohol that is from Rio combined with sugar and limes. It was strong but good, and got me fairly tanked since I had not eaten anything. So I sat there for about 40 minutes, bored, not understanding about 99.8% of it. At one point, I went upstairs to get her brother, Antoine, who was not down there yet. I told him, “There are two reasons why you need to come downstairs. #1: There is alcohol. #2: If I have to suffer through this, so do you.” He laughed, and came down a few moments later. It was a good thing he came down because he, like any normal young male, is bored stiff at this type of thing. He kept me entertained by telling me what was going on, what he predicted they would talk about next, etc.
About 9:00, we went into the kitchen to eat. Squid. Woo-hoo. And rice, with white wine. The squid is basically just like meat with a sauce. It doesn’t have tentacles or anything like that. So I tried two pieces. Eh, well, it wasn’t the worst thing ever. Foiegras (duck liver) is worse. So is the weird goat cheese I’ve tried. But still. I am branching out on my food (I actually had salmon the other day – and enjoyed it somewhat), but this was just too weird. The idea of it was what killed it.
So the dinner went on and on and on, all in French of course. I joked with Antoine about crap since we were sitting together (AnneJulie was on my other side, but she was, for some odd reason, enjoying the evening…). We had dessert, which was vanilla ice cream, some caramel and almonds, grapes dipped in alcohol, a sauce with alcohol. It was pretty good, but I did not like the grapes much. AnneJulie says I am spoiled in California with grapes – I guess they are really good in Cali. I am just used to them, so didn’t think of them as being special.
About 10:15, Antoine had to go shower to get ready to go out and party, so he excused himself. Seizing the opportunity, I took the blue pill and ended my boring lesson of French culture.
--
So why was it so boring? Basically it comes down to one thing: understanding. If you don’t know what is going on, it’s hard to have any fun whatsoever. It’s amazing how you can guess what they are talking, in a super general way, just by their hand movements, tone, and hearing one or two words. But other than that, it was horrible. I do not wish this experience on anyone, and that is fo’sho.
So I am going to have to learn French faster. It is the only viable solution. Otherwise, I will dread all family events with AnneJulie’s non-immediate family, because one can only expect that I will suffer the same boredom. Her immediate family is great and has done everything they can to make me comfortable, and I appreciate it tremendously. But this stuff is going to continue no matter what, until I learn more French and can understand. I don’t want to be fluent – I would like to but that isn’t the goal – I just want to have a general idea what is going on more than 0.2% of the time.
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