Le foot

I played my first soccer match in France today (in France, a soccer game is a "match du foot"). I went with my host brother and about eight of his friends to l'Hippodrome, an area close by with dirt and grass soccer fields, and we played against some older French guys who were obviously very skilled with their feet. I started at midfield and worked my way back to goalie by the end of the game. Soccer is so much harder when you can not communicate easily (Everything is harder with a language barrier). I could not understand what the other players were saying half the time, and when they were yelling "Sors!" while I was goalie, my mind was too distracted by the guy with the ball sprinting toward me past all the defenders to realize that they were telling me to go out further from the goal. It was fun and active and good to be around younger French people, but I also felt especially different from everyone else (not singled-out, because they embraced me and included me like just another friend, but I was aware that I was the only foreigner).

However, my comfort level is tested almost every day in France, and by now nothing really makes me feel too anxious. I feel like if I can interact with a group of competitive, slang-spitting soccer players even without much communication, then I can do almost anything. I am not sure if it could be called confidence, but it is definitely expanding my comfort level. Another conflict of feelings I have had involves how I feel around people. In one way, I always feel like I am slightly being judged here for being a foreigner, whether it be my clothes, my speech, or my mannerisms. But I also have a growing feeling that I do not mind feeling slightly different here. Whenever I feel self conscious, I remind myself that I am in FRANCE- I have nothing really to prove, nothing to lose, and everything to gain. My previous feelings or nervousness about looking stupid while doing something are completely gone now. I have to ask dumb questions and exchange slightly broken conversations so often that I would get nothing accomplished if I was afraid to step out of my box.

Things I have experienced recently:
1. A man in the street (drunk?) who was very aggressive and persistent with a large group of the IES students and other people walking in the streets. I could not understand him (nor did I try) but he was yelling at no one and getting in other people's faces. He even messed with a couple and their child in a stroller (literally touching the stroller during his interaction) and made everyone around very uncomfortable.
2. Good crepes. They are always presented on the plate folded into a square with all the ingredients inside. My favorite crepe for dinner right now is anything with mushrooms (les champignons) and fromage. Of course my favorite for dessert is a crepe oozing with warm chocolate.
3. Le Musee de Beaux Art and Musee d'Histoire Naturelle. This weekend was Journees du Patrimoines so all the museums and monuments in Nantes were open and free! The centre-ville was teeming with locals and visitors moving from museum to museum. The art museum was exciting and the white walls were very tall to hold huge paintings. There were paintings by Picasso and Monet and hundreds of French artists and I was amused by "Un Concert des Oiseaux" by Frans Snyders which shows dozens of different types of birds all singing together. The natural history museum was packed with people viewing rows of sparkling rocks and there was even a line just to view the upstairs taxidermy exhibit. It was the at the end of a long day of walking so I opted to skip the line and come back and visit more museums another day.
4. Family game night with a French family! My host mom and sister and I have started playing Settlers of Catan after dinner. I really enjoy this game and now I can play it in two languages! It did not take long to remember the resource cards (du bois, de la brique, de la roche, du mouton, du ble) and it is a fun way for me to practice asking questions and making deals in french. So far, my host mom won the first game and I won tonight. A little family competition only brings us closer together!
5. Lunch choice confusion. It was just my host brother and I home for lunch today and we ate at different times. I was not super hungry, but I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a peanut butter and nutella sandwich. My host mom was shocked to hear what I had for lunch and was getting mad at her son for not making me a proper lunch. I had to explain that pb&j's are fairly common and acceptable for lunches in the States.