30 Day Writing Challenge: Day 28 (A Phrase You Use Constantly)

Day 28: The word/phrase you use constantly

There seem to be a lot of trendy phrases in use today, and they phase in and out, changing throughout time with the seasons. But one phrase which I have used consistently in my life since I can remember is, "oh my god".

I find this to be indicative of something in our culture, although I couldn't necessarily tell you what. I am not a religious person, and I do not believe in God. At least, not the way that 95% of the rest of Kansans do. I'm not a Christian, so I find it to be funny that I use the phrase "oh my god" so often. I don't think it has any religious context to it anymore, for anyone. (Except for my super Christian eighth grade teacher who would get overly-offended if we used it in class, in our public school.)

Anyway, I don't think of it as having anything to do with religion. It's just another phrase in the evolution of language. To me, "oh my god" is something you exclaim when you are shocked or appalled about something. I use it to express a wide array of feelings: anger, annoyance, surprise, disgust, joy, pride, hunger, impatience, understanding... It is kind of a catch-all phrase for me, and I would say it serves the same purpose for many others around me, as well... Christians and non-Christians, alike.

My French friends like to tease me about how "American" I sound when I exclaim "Oh my god!" without even realizing I'm doing it. They've told me on several occasions, "The French don't say, 'oh mon Dieu!'" Which is true, and why I think it is specific only to the English-speaking culture of America (and perhaps Britain, although I have no firsthand experience by which to attest).

I say many other things constantly, like "I can't even" and "Are you kidding me?" but by and large, and for the longest amount of time, "Oh my god" has certainly been the most common.

30 Day Writing Challenge: Day 24 (Something You Miss)

Day 24: Something you miss

I miss France. I miss France so terribly. I miss the loved ones I have there and the culture as a whole. I miss the language, the fashion, the food, the music, the art, and all of the beautiful people. I miss the country so rich in history that they have wines older than America. I miss walking through small cobblestone streets and hearing French small talk among the natives and smelling bread everywhere. I miss the weather which necessitates an umbrella on your person at all times, and the sun seeming to rise earlier and set later than it does in the Western Hemisphere. I miss volets and having open windows always, but especially when I sleep. I miss the picturesque beaches and ordering fruits de mer from a menu to eat some of the best food in my life. I miss ending words in -erie to simply mean a store specializing in whatever the prefix may be. I miss seeing boys with clearly European facial features and body hair with scarves and handbags, all over the place. I miss the tiny, almost unnoticeable, linguistic idiosyncrasies that you will only hear coming out of a French person, like a sigh with "alors" or the elongated "euh..." between catching their breath in a long-winded story. I miss the moment of proud epiphany when I understand a slang phrase like "Che pas" and how it translates to what I learned in a classroom years before as "Je ne sais pas". I miss not being carded for ordering a glass of wine with my dinner or a beer on a Friday night. I miss wearing dresses everywhere, all the time, and receiving less that one-tenth of the disgusting, leering looks from male passersby as in America. I miss ordering a meal, any meal, and it automatically arriving with a side dish of baguette. I miss chocolate everything. I miss all of the coffee. I miss fast public transportation and not driving a car for weeks.

I miss many things about France, but more than everything else, I miss my family there. I miss the little girls whose baby French voices I could hear floating up the stairs from breakfast as I woke up in the mornings. I miss learning playground songs and clapping games from two beautiful children with chocolate brown eyes, and experiencing their adorable French frustration when I still couldn't understand them after asking them to repeat themselves several times. I miss my international host parents who were experts in four cultures and five languages between the two of them. I miss grocery shopping in giant French hypermarches with them weekly and still being culture-shocked by something new every single time.

I miss the culture and I miss my family. But mostly, I guess I just miss feeling so much at home, so far away from where I was born.

30 Day Writing Challenge: Day 12 (Two Phrases That Make You Laugh)

Day 12: Two words/phrases that make you laugh

I'm honestly having a little trouble thinking of words or phrases that make me laugh. There are plenty of words and phrases that intrigue me, that anger me, that sadden me. But that make me laugh? I am almost at a loss.

After thinking about it for a few minutes, I've decided that English is boring and that there is no such word or phrase in the language that really makes me laugh. So, instead I thought about words and phrases I know in French, and now I have a few more colorful ideas.

"C'est quoi ce bordel?" This one is bad, and it is not a phrase which is meant to be used in a polite setting, certainly. It is a curse word, and if you are exclaiming it at someone, don't expect them to respond happily. I've heard many a French person demand an answer to this question before, and each time it is hilarious to me. Essentially, it's the equivalent of asking someone "what the f***?" in English. Though to translate it literally, it means "what is this mess?" This phrase makes me laugh for a few reasons. First of all, I learned the phrase in a bar in France one night when my fellow drunk American friends and I asked the bartender to teach us bad words. I still have the Post-It note on which he scribbled it. I've never picked up rough slang in a more straightforward manner. Secondly, this phrase makes me laugh because it is something which an unknowing student could read and translate quite literally, without realizing the cultural connotation it holds. You'd think you are simply asking, "what is this mess?" and you'd have no idea what you had actually just done. And while that seems unlikely, it is actually pretty common to commit such a faux pas, and you never really learn how to gracefully bounce back from a situation like that.

"Coup de foudre" The translation and figurative meaning of this phrase is innocent enough, but that's not what makes me laugh about it. It literally translates to "a strike of lightning" and figuratively, it means "love at first sight". As in, when you meet someone and you are so taken by them that it hits you like a strike of lightning. I learned this phrase in a formal setting some years ago during one of my very first college French courses. However, it was not until a few years later that I would learn a phrase so similar in sound yet different in meaning, that a slight slip of the untrained American tongue would mean a lot of laughter and embarrassment for any person so careless. The reason this particular phrase makes me laugh is because "coup de foudre" is 100 percent pure and innocent. However, a lazy non-native French speaker accidentally adding extra emphasis to the last syllable could easily result in other people understanding "coup de foutre" and that one tiny letter change makes a world of difference. This phrase is totally sexual and should not be used in any social circle more formal than with your drinking buddies. I will let you Google the phrase for yourself and discover what it means. Let's just say, mastering the slight difference between the "-dre" and "-tre" sounds en français is extremely important in this instance, lest you give someone the wrong idea about how exactly you fell in love at first sight.

There are many other much more profound words and phrases in English, French, and many other languages as well that intrigue and captivate me with their etymology. But these two phrases in particular? Well, just thinking about their situational uses makes me giggle.

30 Day Writing Challenge: Day 4 (10 Interesting Facts About Yourself)

Day 4: Ten interesting facts about yourself

I don't really know what is to be considered "interesting," as it is a relative term. But I'll do my best.

1. My birthday is on Valentine's Day. But barely. My mom pushed me out just in time at 11:38 PM.
2. I was the youngest child for 15 1/2 years. Then my bratty little brother came along. I love him now. I didn't so much at the time.
3. Je parle français. I took my first French class in seventh grade and studied abroad in France in 2014. I had never realistically considered studying abroad until about six months before it happened.
4. I love Harry Potter. To an obsessive degree. More than Snape loved Lily.
5. I won first place in the city spelling bee in eighth grade. My winning word was "mayonnaise". I got a blue ribbon and everything.
6. I'm a feminist. I've been aware of it since the day I bought Full Frontal Feminism at Barnes & Noble in 2012. But I was one without knowing it for much longer.
7. I don't want to have kids. Seriously. They're messy, expensive, and dependent. I have a little brother and three nephews. My mother and my older sister have done all the child-bearing and child-rearing for me. Now I just get to teach them cool stuff and buy them loud toys.
8. I won a scholarship to go to college my senior year of high school. I'm a first-generation college student (and soon-to-be graduate). I still would've gone, regardless. But the money has certainly helped.
9. My parents divorced when I was 11. That is a large part of the reason why I am very hesitant to get married.
10. I want to travel the world so badly. It's gonna happen some day sooner than I think.