French Word of the Day: parents (pair-hawn)- parents

Translating my CV into French took way too long.  It would have been easier if some of the things had directly translated, but the French don’t even have the words or concepts of some of the things on my resume (like grants).  It’s surprisingly difficult to explain a job when the words for it don’t exist.

I also have to explain my schooling.  I might have graduated from college, but in France, the word “college” means “middle school.”  I’m willing to give the French the benefit of the doubt.  After all, my birthday and age are written on the CV.  I’m assuming most employers won’t look at the dates and say, “You were still in middle school at 22 years of age?  Is that normal in the US?”

According to the internship instructor, I can’t assume anything.  I think most of my resume now consists of me explaining the words on my resume.  Yay intercultural exchanges!

Thursday was Armistice Day.  The French have an obsession with World War I (possibly because they lost over 1 million men- an entire generation- and also possibly because everyone’s still trying to forget Vichy France existed), so they get a national holiday on the anniversary.  It’s a way to remember an important time in French history.

Of course, we used it as an excuse to party on Wednesday night.

My parents came on Friday.  Théo’s parents invited us for dinner which went really well, especially considering the fact that my parents speak very little French and Théo’s dad isn’t fluent in English.  Théo, his mom, and I had to translate a bit, but not as much as I would have thought.

We decided today would be our relaxation day, and we walked around the Champs-Elysées in the rain.  Paris in the rain… that sounds very poetic.  Except for the negative effect it had on our hair, it was.

Théo and Arnaud joined us for dinner tonight at this fabulous hole-in-the-wall restaurant.  Everyone got half-baked chocolate cake for dessert except for my dad, who got a banana pie with chocolate syrup on the plate- all of which he lovingly gave to me (the syrup).

Dessert is the most important part of any meal.  Especially if there’s chocolate involved, which there always should be.

Speaking of chocolate, my mom is insisting we go get some pain au chocolat during her visit because I’ve made her hungry with my blog posts.  It took a very long time to convince me to get some with her.  Roughly 1 second.

Chocolate… mmmmm.

Pain au chocolat count: 27