Becoming a Native

I went around to see the family that I’m working for the other to organise what days I was working and it turned out that the whole family was there. The Grandmother was asking me about where I came from and all of that stuff. She said to me that “soon I would be a Parisian”. Now this sounded odd at first because how can someone who isn’t français de souche be Parisian? Well it turns out that you can feel like you belong in this great city even if you aren’t French. I know that I’ve only been here little under two weeks but I already feel like I’m a local for      main reasons.

1.       When I went to the Louvre with Pip we were stood in the queue just having a chat and this girl turned around to us asking if we were from round here. My initial reaction was “Yeah I live here!” and proceeded to ask us why the Carrousel de Louvre looked like the Brandenburg Gate to which I had no answer. Pip was laughing her head off at my response. But it’s true! I do live in Paris!

2.       I went to go and meet up with the person who did the job I’m doing before me (who is absolutely lovely). I was waiting by the Pompidou Centre for her when this American came up to me to ask if I could take a picture of him with it in the background. He passed me his iPad which incidentally made me feel a bit soft using as I don’t see the point of using something so big when a camera is much easier. But the simple task of taking a photo for a tourist made me feel like I was becoming a local/native which was really quite comforting.

3.       This third point might seem a little bit bizarre but that’s me so here goes nothing….I can now read while getting the metro. I find that when I’m on my own trying to get somewhere that I tend to look at my phone quite a lot despite the fact that no-one ever texts me. But now because I need to try and keep my phone bill down I can’t text anyone that much so I’ve taken to reading whilst I move around. Trying to get off the carriage whilst still reading and walking from one end of Chatelet Les Halles to the other is an acquired skill I can tell you!

I know that I’m not quite a proper Parisian yet I mean I can’t roller skate yet and I don’t have one of those old lady trolleys for going to the market with but I am definitely getting there. Who knows maybe by next week I will be wearing black all of the time, drinking espressos and looking really chic smoking cigarettes? But I probably won’t!