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French connection
By Zoë Williams
williamz@mscd.edu

While in Paris for Spring Break, I found myself in the company of university students drinking cocktails and enjoying a mild spring evening. It was a diverse bunch – from the Middle East, Asia and across Europe – that was very kind when some Americans joined in their festivities.

After I disappointed them with the information that – despite my residency in Colorado – I did not live on a mountain or own a cowboy hat or horse, they asked about U.S. culture. One of the men even expressed a genuine interest in an extended stay in Nebraska. I was shocked that these folks cared considering the slice of our kind found clustered around the Eiffel Tower donning fanny packs and speaking at shouting volumes about the highfalutin lifestyles of Parisians.

The university students listened intently as my sister and I explained Sam’s Club, National Security color codes, dive bars and veganism. As the conversation shifted to politics, we were asked why people in the U.S. were so passive to the absurdity of this government. Sadly that was cut short once a bag of gum with temporary tattoos was produced.

When I returned to my hotel, I began to think about all of the people that I know who are deathly afraid of traveling overseas – specifically to a nation like France – due to unfavorable views of the United States. They tremble at the notion of upturned noses, Euro hungry pickpockets and torch-bearing radicals amassing once their nationality is revealed.

As I ambled through Paris from discotheque to neighborhood café, the greatest reaction my citizenship earned was a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner in French. Even when I fumbled with my language skills and asked a woman at the hotel if I spoke English, she humored me and responded as if nothing happened. With the students, the general consensus in regards to the dismal state of affairs within the U.S. was simply that Americans are uneducated by schools and media alike.

During my journey, I feared not the French on the street and in the Metro, but the French in cars zooming through crosswalks and red lights. Rest assured, as long as you can spot oncoming traffic, there is little to fear about hopping the pond for an adventure in Europe.