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Blogs by Jerome Parisse
Three chocolate croissants, please! 6/30/2010 5:48:34 PM
I came across a group of Japanese tourists yesterday as I was hurrying to a meeting in the city. They surprised me by being uncharacteristically un-Japanese. I love the way people behave in Japan, the politeness, the silence, the respect for each other, the attention paid to the neighbour, the lack of body contact... I am sure you get my drift. Yesterday's tourists were boisterous and behaved as if they literally owned the place. As I walked through their group, I found myself being shoved around, pushed to the side, and simply ignored. This started me pondering how weird it is that as soon as we leave the confines of our culture, we drop everything that used to define us, we go wild, we behave unlike anything we are at home.
A few months ago, I found myself in Paris at the same time as an Australian friend of mine who lives in Sydney. She was there on a short visit, taking advantage of a work trip to the UK. We met at Cafe Marly, a beautiful restaurant near the Louvre, where you can find a delicious brunch on Sundays at a very decent price. As I devoured my scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, I could not help notice my friend's lack of appetite. She beat around the bush for a minute or two before confessing that she had eaten three chocolate croissants on her way to the restaurant. I stared at her, wide-eyed. "What on earth possessed you to eat - not one - but three chocolate croissants?" I asked. She blushed and said, "I don't know. I never eat chocolate croissants at home, let alone three of them." Then she added, looking even more red in the face, "And I didn't even sit down to eat them! I ate them walking on the street. My mum would die if she knew." We both burst out laughing. Have you read the book, "Why French women don't get fat"? Rule number one: Don't eat three chocolate croissants at a time! My friend couldn't for the life of her understand why she behaved so out of character on that day. Which takes us back to my initial point. When in a foreign country, under the influence of a different culture, we let our barriers down, as if on drugs. This is an interesting point, which goes to show how powerful the influence of culture is - even for things as insignificant as eating cake or keeping our voices down. It also shows that our rebellious self is never too far - if you want to discover it, just travel overseas: you'll get to know yourself better, while having fun at the same time. And God knows what monster will come out of your well polished persona... Don't forget to let me know.
