I arrived in France a little over a week before the program started, (May 20th). My uncle lives in Orl�ans, France. It is an hour by train from Paris and an hour and a half by car. I flew British Airways, so I didn’t have to use French until the airport. But, there was a woman on the plane that only spoke French and one of the flight attendants needed a translator and I assisted her. After being able to be of help, I kind of began to feel like I was going to be okay speaking another language for the next two months. I arrived at Orly airport at 13:35 (1:35PM). I went through customs and the man at the desk was very nice and polite. He didn’t say much. He just checked my passport and sent me on my way. My first cultural shock was the constant French being spoken around me. I don’t know why I thought that everyone in the airport would be a foreigner like me trying to find his or her way. It was tiring and difficult translating the conversation in my head to English. Following the signs to the baggage claim wasn’t difficult.  My uncle was not there waiting for me when I arrived. I later found out there was a lot of traffic. But, meanwhile I was using all the French I know so I could gather information as to where to have a currency exchange to use the payphone. A found a woman who let me use her cell phone to call. I was picked up thirty minutes later.

  During my stay in Orl�ans , I encountered a couple of culture shocks. The first culture shock was the bathroom. The toilet is in a room by itself and they do not have the same flush mechanism. There is a small circular button on top of the toilette and you press it to flush. Another cultural shock for me was breakfast. French people love bread and milk in the morning. I, personally, am not a big breakfast eater unless it is the weekend and have time to make a big meal like an omelet, bacon, and toast. Bread is a very important aspect in ANY french meal. They have bread with everything.

I visited “au center ville” (downtown) many times. The stores have different style of clothes from the U.S, depending on the store. Some of the stores are French but are seen in the U.S, so it doing seem different. In the French culture, the client greets the storekeeper.
 

Location: Orléans, France