The French

I once heard someone say that the French are a hard people to know. I mean, to really know. Sure, they'll give directions, advice, and recommendations to tourists. They may even take you into their house to offer you a meal. But the French are significantly closed in many ways. That is, unless they are with other French. I am an english speaking person living in France. My french is very much “school french”, and not practical french. Therefore, I can explain myself, express myself well enough to get by but I remain relatively lost in a pure French setting. When the french speak amongst themselves, they speak too quickly and use too much slang. Sometimes, there will be one or two who slow down for me; or who will explain things every once in awhile. But for the most part, Il s'en fiche!

Some French are more open than others of course. The more open, understanding, and accomodating ones are predominantly the ones who have travelled. It is important to understand that there are many french who have never left France. They don't completely understand the world around them. They look inward. But the ones who have travelled outside the country, a number I would peg at less than 50%, understand that the world is not French.

It is true that within France, you have a diverse country full of rich culture, great food, gorgeous countryside, dynamic cities, and a climate that offers a little bit of everything. You could argue that of all countries, France seems to have it all. The south, the north, the east, and the west are all very different. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons why the french are sometimes resistant to learning even a little bit of english. Simply because they don't need to. They have everything that they need where they are.

The common explanation put forth is that they are arrogant. In love with themselves and their language. Perhaps it is a little of both. But it seems to me that France puts forth the least amount of effort towards learning english than any other European country. And even some Asian states. The reason why is a whole other story.

Training it to Bourg St. Maurice

As I am writing this, I am on a train headed to Bourg St. Maurice. BSM is a small village in the French Alps, which seems (from a map) like a few steps from Switzerland. Having taken three different trains today, I have noticed the change outside. The temperature has dropped, there is more wind, and there is definitely more mountains. Right now, they're big enough but I feel that as we travel more east, they'll only get bigger. There is some beautiful scenery out here I look forward to the crisp clean mountain air.

The trains are very strange indeed in France. From the map, it seems like a direct route would have taken about 4 hours. Three trains and 8 hours later, I will arrive. The train started out heading west (the opposite direction). A couple of hours in, it actually stopped at a station, let people off, and then started again in the opposite direction (i.e. turning around). And the trains here ain't cheap either. I paid 80 euros (about 120 dollars) to get to BSM from Nice and then a 35 euro cab ride after that to the hotel. Sheeeit! I don't know. It seems to me like there is both a cheaper and quicker way to get here. Whats done is done though. Here's a map and the route I took:

Traveling with lots of luggage is horrible. I had one huge suitcase, a smaller one, a backpack, a computer bag, and a big bag of groceries. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to change trains twice. Also, it might not be so bad if the second transfer gave me more than 5 minutes to find the next train. The first gave me about 20. My brilliant idea is to sling the smaller suitcase over the big one. This works out until inevitably it loses grip, falls down, and hangs. If there were ever moments where I want to swear really loudly, this one is at the top of that list.

The Raptors won last night. I believe they play again tomorrow against NJ. That should be a great game filled with passionate play and rivalry inducing hustle. The sad part is is that I wont be able to watch it.

Bargnani just might average 20 ppg this season. Especially if Bosh continues to be hampered by his injury. This will open up not only more playing time for the big soph, but more end of game, contest on the line moments. As they say, he does seem to have ice in his veins. Nothing seems to phase him. Hard to ask for a better personality for a clutch shooter than that.

As you can tell, I miss the Raps and therefore will write about them to ease the pain. Or maybe that will make it worse. Not really sure. Screw it.