14

Feb 18, 19

Yesterday (18) was a normal day at school. We had croisées, a type of tiny square pasta native to this region, for dinner. They tasted like pasta. I'm trying to think what else happened yesterday... Ah yes, I worked on a PowerPoint for school with Mathilde, I read until act 3 of Le Cid for French, I practiced my orchestra music, and Aline shaved my head for me. It was starting to look strange with patches of hair and stuff. So, average day. 

I brought a granola bar as a little snack today (19), and as I was eating it everyone glanced at me for a moment. They really don't eat any snacks here, ever. Par contre les répas sont très grands. Even if the food here is super yummy, there's a lot of gluten (which doesn't completely agree with me) and it's a strange pattern of getting really hungry, stomach rumbling, then eating until very full and then not eating for a long time again. To me it doesn't seem like a very healthy way of nourishment, but they think that eating little snacks all day when you're hungry is unhealthy. I think the cultures are worlds apart when it comes to eating schedules, but out of courtesy I'm going to eat in their pattern while I'm here (but I don't think it's very healthy). It's not like I really have any other choice: food is put in front of me and I either eat or go hungry. So yeah. 

Another big cultural difference I've noticed is "taboo" subjects. We had a guy come in and give a presentation on addiction and tobacco and drugs, but it also touched on everything from feminism to homosexuality to racism and classism. I noticed some flaws in his arguments, but I was too shy to raise my hand. I wanted to sound like I knew what I was talking about (I did), but because French was my second language I held back. I think presentations like these are fairly rare here, and there are a lot of taboo subjects that aren't really discussed. It's quite different from my school in Victoria, we are really open there with everything and I miss that feeling. I wonder if it's just schools that are different or whether it's a Canadian vs French thing. Maybe there are schools here like mine, but somehow I doubt it. Esquimalt really has an unbeatable atmosphere :)