French Culture (Graham)

A big part of our time at Champfleuri so far has been learning French customs and traditions. Surprisingly, it's not very straight forward. The discussion of the bisu (the French traditonal greeting of touching cheeks together and making kissing sounds then switching over to the other cheek to repeat) brought on a lively debate from the French counselors concerning which cheeks meet first and how many times it is done. Another big area of discussion is table etiquette, which yet again remains debateable. Rules we have learned:

1. Keep your hands above the table, not below.
2. Bread is put on the table, not on the plate.
3. When finished, utensils stay on the plate.

There are others but for the sake of time, I'll cut it off here. We have also learned a lot about French laws. The camp is required to serve different types of meals everyday that meet all the food groups (sadly for us, we can't eat pasta everyday). They are required to serve several dairy products a day (and milk does not count). They have to let French students smoke, if they do (the smoking age limit here is 16) but they can dictate where. We are also required to turn over our cellphones and any equipment that can connect to the internet. The reason being, Champfleuri collects the French students cellphones when they arrive to push them to participate in the daily activities. The French people believe strongly in equality and justice though, so if their technology is taken then ours needs to be as well to avoid conflict. 

In the end though all 21 American campers aren't concerned with having to pick up these new social norms and rules, we're just happy to be here. We have one of the most stunning views I have seen in my life from our quad (pictures to come) and amazing people around us. I hope everyone is doing well at home and finds themselves a little less busy with 1 or 2 teenagers out of the house.

This is Graham Davis signing off.