The Funny Side of Language Barriers
My first solo trip overseas ended in the city that held a lot of expectations and high hopes for me — Paris. It was the city that I would always dream of living in, with that view of “the grass is always greener on the other side”, and I expected to fall head over heels in love with it. I had been told that I would be disappointed. That Paris was dirty and the French were rude and wouldn’t want to speak to me unless I spoke perfect French to them. I’m sure you know someone with that kind of generalist impression of Paris.
My impression, however, was one that I did not expect to have and was the complete opposite of what I had been told. I did fall in love with Paris, but not because it was the perfect, magical place that I expected it to be. Because Paris has great humor.
On the second last day of my trip, I was starting to feel really homesick. It was a Monday and a lot of places in the city were closed down, which I didn’t realize would happen and hadn’t planned for it. I thought I would go see the Palace of Versailles that day, but it was closed. Then I took the Metro to Musée d’Orsay and found that was closed, too. I had no idea what to do. After wandering the streets — which is a must in Paris — I found a discounted ticket booth where I was able to get a ticket to the Opera (The Magic Flute) that day.
