News from France

Montpellier (France), evening

I didn't have the internet connection, so I couldn't keep up with my blog....but I have so many things to write about...from the first moment I got here some many things (weird things) happened that I just wanted to have internet to write about it.

But I have to write about one thing I noticed over and over in these last days...actually two things which impress me a lot...The first....the baguette...You buy the baguette and the hygiene is the last thing that the French think about it. They put the baguette on whatever place while you are paying them, and then they give it to you or with a piece of paper around it (?) or in a plastic bag with whatever other thing you bought too. Today for example I bought some glue and a baguette. The plastic container of the glue was extremely dusty. Well, I paid and the man trowed the glue in a plastic bag with the baguette. I think that I made a disgusted face and immediately removed the glue from the plastic bag. Maybe it is a technique that they have to get in contact with as many bacteria as they can to try to boost their immune system....bah...

Second weirdness...the "salle de bain" or bathroom is not existing in France. In these old houses the shower place is separated by the toilet place. The sink is always so small that you have to be really good in spitting the water and the toothpaste in it after brushing your teeth. There is a higher chance that you would spit it outside the sink. Forget about putting body cream on you in the bathroom. You can't move in there. You wouldn't do it in the room where there is only the toilet and in the room where there is the shower, you can't move. The advantage of these places is that you can make a #1 or a #2 and at the same time brushing your teeth. I know it sounds disgusting, but it is a possibility.....Anyway, for someone like me for whom the bathroom is the second most favorite place (the first is the kitchen), here it is really frustrating. You can't actually enjoy it. And of course, since these two places are so small they have no window. Hopefully in the new buildings this situation has been improved....but so far, for what I saw, French don't care that much about how their bathrooms look like.....