1 Week since Vanderbilt Infiltration into France

Sexism & The City

The title of this is appropriate 2 reasons:

(1) We've been watching a lot of French-subtitled Sex & The City episodes here (specifically, the portion of the series where Carrie lives in France with her Russian boyfriend.)

(2) In terms of sexism, France is apparently still really sexist.

The first time I noticed this was last week, at the end of dinner with Madame & Monsieur Bach. We'd finished eating, so we all stood up to take the dishes into the kitchen. Monsieur Bach, however, stopped Marquise (the only male in the group) with an outstretched hand & said, "No, no, no, let the girls do it." Marquise sat back down & uncomfortably gave his armful of dishes to the nearest female student, continued their conversation while we cleaned up. It was a little thing, but it definitely surprised me. When I told my roommate about it, she just said knowingly, "Yeah, it's because France is so [profanity] sexist." 

The other thing I noticed is that girls aren't active here. They don't play sports or work out or anything. I mean, a couple girls' sports teams exist, but it's definitely not common, and it's usually just basketball (says Madame Bach). Soccer in particular is considered to be a masculine sport (it'd be like a girl in the States playing American football...which explains the surprised looks I got when I told some people that I'd played soccer for 14 years). As someone who gained so much self-confidence & self-discovery through sports, I find this really sad; and as a girl, I just find that unfair! Anyways, apparently that's why French women are so famously tiny: they have zero muscle mass!

Le Fete Obama

Yesterday, I was interviewed by a local journalist about what young Americans thought about Obama. I told them about the incredible energy & excitement that's been circulating among most campuses...how I've seen a recent shift in dynamics among young Americans. A couple of years ago we were extremely polarized, sitting in our dorm rooms telling stories about the Big Bad Republican/Democrat; now it seems like people are more sane, less extreme, more cooperative in general. That's my take on it, as someone who has voted for both Republicans & Democrats.

Tonight we're having a party at the Vanderbilt Center to watch the Inauguration. All of our French roommates are coming also, & everyone's been looking forward to it, even those who didn't vote Obama. Regardless of who you campaigned for, everyone recognizes this is a milestone in history that no one -- even the French -- wants to miss.

This Week I Realized...

-I'm going to risk sounding like a Toby Keith song right now, but...America actually IS a really awesome country. For the longest time I was someone who figured Europe did everything better than we did. And maybe they do some things better, I haven't decided yet. But we are so tolerant, so diverse, so creative, so influential, so good (relatively) with women's rights & human rights in general...and, as of tonight, we will have elected a black president. I'm proud of us!