Linguistics, Limba, Linguine….??

Well here I am installed in my studio apartment in Lyon drinking my €2.60 red wine out of a mug (yes sorry Jessica it has come to that again), which I acquired within 30 mins of hitting my accommodation (one must get their priorities right and the French certainly have with this splendid bottle).

I arrived last night without incident, unless you count the heart-breaking wrench saying goodbye to my family that is.

I have made the discovery that

1)      Lyon is very French.

From what I have seen of the city it appears very nice, however to be honest my judgement is based on a trip to local shop to buy wine, a walk to the office and back, and a trip to the local MacDonalds for tea. And before you judge, my dear friend Kirsty has instilled into me that it is important to go into a McD’s in different countries to sample the local cultural differences on the menu. So today I have also discovered that:

2)      The French big Mac tastes like the British Big mac – shit!

 I have also decided that it is a myth that the French are rude. I would have to say far from it. In fact everyone who I have spoken to has been more than patient and kind with me, especially as I appear to respond to any comments in French with broken Romanian. Yes folks, it appears my default setting is the very basic Romanian that I picked up 10 years ago when working there! To be honest I have spoken more Romanian in the last 24hrs than when I lived there. In my defence Romanian is a romance language so the sounds are quite similar (and boy wouldn’t I like to have a bit of romance with one or two of the fella’s I’ve seen knocking around here, ooh la la!!)

When it’s not Romanian, linguistically I appear to be relying on some primitive knowledge of French learnt from either music or well shall we just say, other influences. For example when the shop keeper last night asked me for the price of this rather splendid table wine, I had no problem replying “deux euro’s”, however, if it had been down to me I would have been paying “deux euro soixante-neuf”, I will let you work that little gem out!

Today has been a rather overwhelming day with no less than 7 meetings. And another discovery I have made is that

3)      The French like to talk.

Seriously, at one point to day I started to look at the air vents on the wall to see if some noxious gases containing derivatives of cocaine were be being filtered through. Luckily I have years of practice at feigning listening utilising the regulation techniques of ‘head nod and tilt’ and ‘repeat the last sentence that is said’, to make it look like I was listening. I was then able to concentrate on important matters, like who had coined the phrase ‘soixante-neuf…… !!

Anyway I have had day one of my induction with a variety of nice people who’s names resemble a GCSE French text book, and been sent home with an archaic laptop, which I think I will return tomorrow well its all in French….( I wonder if they will set it to Romanian for me?!!).

 Day 2 tomorrow only 6 meetings, god my neck will be stiff by the end of it

La revedeve

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