A few very French Things

-Kamikazee pigeons. All around you.
-People coming on the metro and playing the accordion for money
-drinks in restaurants costing about 4 euros for a pint of liquid
-you don't have to give tips; it's included in the price, which is why food costs so much (partly)
-very few public restrooms. MacDo (mcdonalds) is the most reliable place to find them
-The MacDo on Champs Elysses is the only one in the world to have golden arches that are white. It's a requirement - all buildings on that street must be white
-every hour, on the hour, for ten minutes, the Tour Eiffel sparkles.
-internet is ridiculously hard for students to find
-French cars are tiny
-French driving involves only honking to let someone know you're coming, never in irritation since everybody's irritating. Americans would flip out driving here, people are so rude on the road.
-food-specific stores: bread store, cheese store, frozen food store, etc.
-American titles, brands, phrases that are often odd (ex., US swear words are only as strong here as "drat!" is in the US so it's easy to get offended by what people are calling you, ex., US word "sexy" is spelled "sex'y" here, ex., Puma is huge here, as are US movies)
-You use "American" for the adjective and "United States" for the noun. Don't say you're from America; nobody does that.
-Tourists are really, REALLY obvious.
-pitch your voice lower and slur your words a little bit to pretend you have an accent

And finally, this morning's experience: la Brocante. This is sort of like an expensive flea market - very old stuff, lots of vendors, outside, etc. It actually reminded me of a very expensive, very HUGE garage sale. Mom would have loved it. Super expensive. Super huge. I managed to get a ring for 5 euros when it really cost 12, since the lady said 5 before she checked, but most places when I asked if they had anything under 15 euros looked at me in horror and commented that I must be a student. Too true!