Culture Challenge

Disclaimer: Apologies for the long delay, it's been a busy couple of weeks! Here are two posts for the price of one, just to make up for it =D

I'll start my post this week with a quote from my dear friend Annie: God has sent you out and put you in an incredible place, and remember he never gives us more than we can bear. And indeed, this is true. I have spent my week trying to be as friendly as I can, and I seem to have managed it. There are still times when I have passed by an opportunity to chat, but all in all, I'm happy with the progress I've made. Thanks God! So, next challenge... 

The problem about being really friendly is that it is very easy to give the wrong impression. From what I have seen, the French are very tactile and rather flirty. The dilemma: if I stick to my roots and act like an English girl, I come across rather reserved and quite cold. However, if I go native and try to act like a frog (not literally, obvs), it's very difficult to discern where the line is between just being friendly and being a bit over-friendly, if you know what I mean. Which, all in all, tends to make things a little awkward! I have to admit, it's a bit like being 13 again, having to learn all the rules and social etiquette that comes with the teenage years. Oh la la. So, what to do?

And so, the journey begins.

Only a few days in, but it seems a long time ago now that I was sitting in my bedroom writing my first post. It's not just the distance that separates me from that place now. The over-packed suitcase is gone, now my surroundings are quite different - I am in a white, reasonably big, slightly dirty kitchen with a large bay window at the front, looking out onto a paved courtyard, from which I can see the rolling hills of the Côte d'Azur, and hear the cicadas as they sing (very loudly!). An idyllic setting, really. And I can't complain - I feel that God has truly blessed me in these first few days of my stay here in France, and I hope that He continues to do so! There have ben a few teething problems (like the fact that I arrived, exhausted and rather sweaty, to be greeted with a very confused employer who wanted to know why I was here several days too early for my shift!), but these are massively outweighed by the gifts that God has given me - a friendly, helpful flatmate called Marie (who seems to know everyone!), a reasonably active social life, and of course, a few days to settle in and explore. It's still a challenge to understand everything that people are saying, and I am yet to build up the confidence to really step out and lead a conversation, but hopefully this will come with time. I look forward to the challenges that the next few days will bring me, as I start work on Monday, and pray for confidence in tackling them head-on. This was not a bad beginning!