Strawberries and Cream

My roommate and I are starting to rub off on each other. She is drinking tea and quoting mean girls, and I am reading climate change articles while eating strawberries the Norwegian way (with cream and sugar). While I am certainly not speaking enough French, I feel like this cultural osmosis is not so bad.

There is something I have been noticing about the general parisien mentality, which I would sum up as "if you don't see it it doesnt exist". I feel like this is most obvious when someone is inconspicuously unaware when their dog is pooping in the middle of the sidewalk, but extends to France's social policies. I'm not criticizing France's policies (except for the complete ban on gay marriage and adoption), but it is very different from Canada. While we are more of an "lets embrace our diversity!!!!" kind of country, France is more of "what diversity? we are all french" kind of country. This difference is also apparent in my acute awareness of what is Politically correct, something which does not quite exist here.

Maybe this is one of the reasons I so often feel like the French are being rude - if I bump into someone, my Canadian upbringing is to apologize profusly. If you get knocked over by a French madame? She "didn't notice". I also realized that I have unknowingly become much better at ignoring then I ever thought possible. While I probably get asked for money at least one a day be it by a child, a drunk playing the trumpet or a teenager with a puppy on their lap, I have probably emptied my pockets into their awaiting cup around 5 times.

I am not sure if the tendency to turn a blind eye is a terribly detrimental to my emotional development of if it is a necessary survival skill of this city. However, sometimes whether you want to or not you are thrust into the middle of what you have been trying to ignore. Yesterday when I was walking to a coffee shop to study, I got overwhelmed with pepper spray as I hurried by 4 police officers forcefully arresting a group of guys. Suddenly "the mean streets of paris" were painfully apparent (and burning my nose and throat).