Some more of the people I met (late post from Paris)

~~This post is about a week late~~ it goes all the way back to talk about France sorry its so late its almost irrelvant and is not following the flow of my blog at all. 

So in Paris I had much, much longer conversations with people about life and thoughts and feelings about France and feelings. Some of them lasted like five days. I feel like I have a pretty good sense of how these few people feel although I'm sure I will not do it justice in this post. So while some of my conversations were not directly what I wanted I made the best of it because 1) have to work with what I can on these languages 2) the conversations were a little deeper and had some kind of purpose usually, which I liked and didn't want to stop so I could talk about my problems.

I should be a little stronger with talking with people though, I need to get over some of my nerves of --literally nothing- and deal with talking to people like a human.

Mary was one of the first people I've talked to and together we climbed the Arc de Triumph and talked about both of our projects (she has recently returned from Russia where she was studying the generational influence of Stalin on today's politics...). She is really smart and opinionated and very nice. We had a nice time, I thought.

She thought that a good question for me to talk about in order to get an immediate sense of someones feelings towards the EU was to ask about their thoughts on Eurovision...a bit of a happier current event. She said she was amazed by how much pride some countries took in their representative and how much that meant to them and she didn't think France had that same kind of drive, but at the same time, France already has a name for itself within the EU. 

A theme I am seeing from country to country is that people are saying "well it is interesting because --insert country name here-- is so different/special unique" and that each person's experiences really form a very individualized answer. Sociological questions are great-the answer is there is no answer, but the everyday person should have their voice heard. 

So yes, Mary feels European and French and believes alegiances will stay with nations first before Europe as a whole. We talked about some of the similarities and differences between the US, as a unit, and the EU, as a unit and in France. The flag, for one thing, is very different between US and France. In the US we hang flags from our houses, our schools, our gardens, our dogs...it is what we do. French flags are pretty exclusively on French government buildings here, Mary said it would be strange to see a flag hanging from a house and people would probably see those people as ultra-conservatives (having ultranationalistic feelings and usually too much pride for a country--this feeling I know is recipricated in Germany, which generally fears the ultra-conservatives as a result of World War II). I wonder what this feeling will be in countries that weren't affected so harshly as France and Germany during WWII (Spain, Greece). Could countries with more pride in themselves have more pride in the EU? I will just have to see I guess. 

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I also talked to Baptise who was practicing his english because he was preparing for his first trip to America- to New York City. So while I asked him a few questions about EU life the conversation was focused on his excitement to go to NYC. The entire conversation was pretty entertaining so I leave some key parts here "The EU is great but I LOVE France it is the BEST!" "I am going to go to Five Guys and eat the best cheeseburger" he is also going to buy some Nike Jordans. That was his game plan. 

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Raphael and I talked about everything current events, we watched CNN everyday and discussed the smilirities and differences and of the United States and France. The conversations we had were really great...I would never be able to write all of my thoughts down--nor do I want to write everything down. The kid let me stay with him for a week I don't want to feel like he was being recorded! But those conversations did have a lasting impression. So that will probably come up in my final presentation...I guess people will just be on the edge of their seats until then.