Camping in Paris: RER Violet

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And now back to our regularly scheduled programme...

Eid Mubarak! As I write this there are four very organized Algerian men cooking up a storm in the kitchen down the hall, because today is Eid, and Muslims everywhere are cooking and sharing food together as part of the celebration. There are lots of people from Muslim countries in my residence, and lots of excellent cooks, so I think the couloir is going to smell heavenly for the rest of the weekend!

Pre-meal Eid preparations - this is a small fraction of the meat they are preparing.

Now, Eid is an important holiday, but it does little to explain the title of this post, which is in reference to my oft-mentioned softball team, and their all-encompassing takeover of the RER last Sunday. We had a practice that lasted for all of the afternoon and evening, giving a whole new meaning to the term beer league - it was more like picnic party league by the end of the night! And then kids, parents, friends, etc all made the trek to the RER, the train that goes between Paris and the surrounding suburbs, and with all the players and hangers-on it really was as though the RER turned purple with PUC colours (our uniforms are purple shirts and white pants).

RER violet!

As I have mentioned before, the majority of women (and a few men too) on my softball team are from Latin American countries - the coach is Venezuelan, the manager is Peruvian, and the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Mexico are all represented as well. I had just gotten accustomed to the rapid pace of Parisian french, and then I was quite literally thrown a curveball when I realized Spanish is going to be the most commonly spoken language at practice - although my wonderful teammates always translate for me, and I’m slowly learning. Primero, segundo, tercero. Esso!

But that’s kind of how things seem to work in Paris - yes, there is the french culture that I wrote about last week, that is new and exciting and sometimes confusing, but Paris is a majorly cosmopolitan city with a hundred other cultures swirling around. me Last night after saying goodbye to my Korean, British, American and Australian colleagues, I ate French quiche with my Peruvian, French, Colombian, Dominican, and Venezuelan teammates, and then I came home and had a long discussion about life and love and culture with my neighbours from Turkey and Morocco. Now I’m listening to sizzling mutton as the Algerian guys in the kitchen prepare their celebratory feast. It's fantastic!

A few other things that happened this week, as a matter of course:

A start of year dinner at the Maison des Etudiants Canadien, where I applied, but am not living because they sent me to another house as part of the campus ‘mixing policy’ or policie du brassage. It was nice to see the inside of another building, even though that other building is approximately 500 million times nicer than mine. The MEC was featured on French news, along with lots of shots of the Cité Universitaire, the campus sort of area where my residence is too. You can watch it here: http://www.6play.fr/#/m6/66-minutes/11396334-grand-format-emission-du-28-septembre (hopefully this link will work outside of France!). If you do watch the show you’ll notice that it follows a nice boy from Quebec in his journey from Montreal to Paris, and that it puts subtitles on anytime anyone from Quebec speaks…

I was called “sportive” so many times that I eventually lost it. The temper tantrum went something like this: “I’m not ‘sporty’. I’m NORMAL! WOMEN CAN PLAY SPORTS TOO.” The recipients of my tirade were slightly taken aback, having just expressed interest in the fact that I was playing both soccer and softball, but unfortunately their interest came on the heels of what seemed like too many people going “Wow, you play a sport! You are so sportive! Good for you! (metaphorical pat on the head).” Maybe it’s Emma Watson’s UN address getting me all riled up, but I think people here are a little less used to women playing sports - which I find strange, because there are so many strong french female athletes, and also strong female athletes from other francophone countries.

Today I went to the market in an adorable suburb that’s only a 10 minute walk away, but really felt like we were outside of the city in a small town. The marché was huge, and it was really nice to feel like we were outside of the hustle and bustle for a bit.

Enroute to marché Gentilly

Anything and everything you could want
is sold at this market!

Did you want this?

And I got a haircut! From my amazing friend Alejandra, who formerly was mentioned because she called parisian garbage romantic. She is an engineer, and her haircutting skills reflected that attention to detail!