Not Just Thinking, Being.

I do feel that it is essential to spend time out of your comfort zone. Phillip and I were talking the other day about relatives, and how the relative bad of being in a prison camp for someone who has spent their whole life being persecuted, can possibly feel just as bad as someone who's lived a life, let's say in their own accepting and loving home, loosing their dog, or failing a test. People can only gauge based on what they know, and while being shot may be physically more debilitating that getting a paper cut, to someone who's never had a paper cut, compared to James Bond being shot for the 40th time, it can be equal, if not the reverse of the physical matrix. I talk about this because I want to talk about relative comfort zones. I think that you can learn a lot from spending time in a place, be it a mile from your home or 3000, that is not concentrated with people who think, act, speak, or maybe even just look the way you do. I think that self-reflection and just plaining thinking, when done on your own can do amazing things, you ask questions, you come up with answers, they may be wrong, you think again, so on and so forth. I think that France, all in all, is relatively very similar to the US, and even more to Quebec. Of course there are the obvious things, people's skin colors, their accent, the food they eat, their language, but also little ways that people carry themselves, their perception of personal space, time, and thing one person might not consider, like how, one culture might expect water to be served on the table with dinner compared to another's in which they are given cola. There are all things I've been told about, and I'm sure many people have though about or experienced in one way or another, for example if they've gone to someone's house for a holiday they don't celebrate, or even walked into a store in which they would never shop. I talk about this, because I think all in all, it's necessary to be aware. The other day the 25 some odd exchange students here in Lyon from the States, Japan, Tunisia, and Canada had a lesson on 'Raising Cultural Awareness,' and I think it was a large waste of my time, as did many others. The leader tired to 'teach' us things about culture, and as much as there may be, and are concrete things to learn about certain cultures, such as the German's generally speak German, and the Japanese eat rice, it's impossible to accurately stereotype or generalize a culture, let a lone to 'teach' it. Hence the popularity of traveling, to a degree, and immersion, and people branching out to learn about another culture's language, music, cusisne... When we are put in a situation where we are uncomfortable, because in turn humans are generally 'afraid' of what they don't know, this in turn makes us uncomfortable, we can do nothing more than being to learn, and think, and take in, because I can only assume that this is primal survival, i.e. ' If you can't beat 'em (and this is hardly a real option), join 'em. I've found myself continually like a deer in headlights, or scared, but also just frozen, both here and in Quebec, at the idea of speaking French, or jumping in to something where I do not know everything because I always have that nagging fear that lies below. I am able to rationalize, easily, how pointless this fear is a step out, because even the idea of being ridiculed for my accent makes no sense in the end. Plus, again, as they say: No pain, no gain. I feel like multiple times in my life I have been out of my element, and I can't think in any situation how it was not helpful in even the most minute of ways. Assuming you can be at least fractionally open-minded to something new, as the person doing what they are always has a motive, once you learn that, you can take part too, and at least play devil's advocate, if your morals disagree, for the sake of the experience. To pull the veil away from everything, there are a group of students on this trip, from Manhattan College, that have all but physically pulled my attention to the matter. They for one, all stick together at all times, which makes sense, being in a foreign place, as I discussed, but the attitude they bring, and their actions are just so inappropriate. In no way am I or is anyone expecting them to relinquish their personality, their characteristics, or behaviors, but rather I think it is all to be expected that they are to be aware of what is going on, and they they are responsible for their actions. They are in a foreign country and each and every night they do the same thing that they would if they were in their home town, or college. It's the same thing with some Non-Manhattan students going to KFC for dinner, then Pizza Hut, then Dominos, then McDonalds, night after night, and for lunch too. Don't get me wrong, I've had McDonald's twice, I mean Phillip couldn't resist the Pulp Fiction - Royal Cheese reference, and so we went, and I liked it because I could easily have been in West Nyack, and be cause anything that contains 46% of your daily salt intake can't really be that bad. But that's not to say that being in a foreign place, that I fully opted to go to, I would forgo putting a foot in the door and using my poor grammar in a restaurant. I guess one could say now, as the thought has come to my head, that what's the point, what's to be gained? Trying some intestine wrapped intestine isn't going to be enlightening, it's just going to be disgusting and a waste of €16. I again would disagree. I think by trying l'Andouillette, or the local bar, or speaking their language to be worthwhile, because you are putting yourself out of your element, and opening up. If you are lost, vide supra. I tend to be of the school of thought, whatever that might be, that thinking can be the great solve to many things. I would never ask anyone to renounce their ways, but rather to think of the other side. Not to like something, but to think about why someone else does. I think the thoughts can be surprising. Honestly, I don't feel anyone is fully free of any of the things I imply to be faults above. And everyone is more than willing to try certain things over others. Maybe I am being to critical of the fast-food lovers, and that's not where they would ever be able to open up, for as unimaginative of a reason as their tongue has taste bud. Maybe it is enough, or should be, that they are over here. I obviously don't know, and thus, I shall think about it.