A Foreign Bedroom

Part of my roomOne of the (many) funny things about being abroad is, actually, exploring your bedroom. Not in the way that Xavier de Maistre did. De Maistre knew his bedroom before he explored it, or he at least thought he did. For me, though, my bedroom in Paris is as foreign to me as the rest of the city is.
Looking around my bedroom reveals as much to me about France and French culture as any other place I’ve been—not as much as a guidebook, but within its contained space, as much as a place like a bedroom can offer. Through my bedroom I can learn that the French have many more cupboards in their homes and buildings than in the United States. I can learn that they put plugs into their plugs because there are very few wall outlets. I can learn that they have boxy switches instead of the tiny ones that we have in the States. I can learn that they often have very old window mechanisms. I can learn that they enjoy an oddly placed mirror.
These are all things that are reinforced for me by other buildings and bedrooms that I’ve been in while in France, from Versailles to the school campus. Simply by looking around me while sitting on my bed I’ve learned many peculiarities and differences between France and the United States.
Sometimes it just takes the right situation to get you to pay closer attention to your surroundings. When I come home at two in the morning, while it’s raining, I pay much more attention to the buildings and the people that I’m passing—but it’s because I don’t want to be caught off-guard so late at night, in the dark. When an accordion player comes on the metro, I suddenly become very aware of the graffiti in the tunnels in my attempt to ignore the music. It’s kind of like if someone is talking to you, and you don’t want to look at her, so you become intimately acquainted with a spot on the wall above her head.
I agree with de Botton and de Maistre that it’s important to see what’s going on around you before you try to discover something else new. But I also think that when you start to think your life is boring, it’s a good sign—at least for people studying abroad. It means that you’re finally feeling comfortable, that you’re not on edge every time you walk out the door, defending yourself against assimilation. It’s part of getting over culture shock—becoming a little bit disillusioned.