An outsider's look at the US

Early September I went to the French American club happy hour, and my husband and I hit it off with a French couple who had just returned from 10 months in the US during which the wife did research on Californian art for her PhD.

The couple invited us to have dinner with them a few evenings later since they had been frustrated in California when people they met said "We should get together!" without ever actually calling them back or agreeing on a date.

We talked about a lot of different things, like how they had a minimalist wedding like us, but one of the most interesting things were their insights into American culture as a French person.

The husband was astonished to see that at the DMV in Berkeley (only a few miles from Silicon Valley) one person is dedicated to verifying by hand the answers on the driving tests. I had forgotten about the fact that driving tests are given on strips of paper, and it is indeed a bit surprising that in 2014 they still haven't instituted scantron type tests or some other kind of machine verifiable test or that there isn't a technological solution like using a computer kiosk with a touch-screen.

The couple were also surprised to see how many people go running without a shirt (or with it tucked in the back of their shorts). The husband asked some of the runners he saw, and they told him that running without a shirt made them feel free. After 9 years in France, it seems strange that having your shirt on or off while running would make a difference in how "free" you feel. It also reminds me of the fact that the appropriate ways and places for showing skin in France are different than the US.

They were in the US for Halloween and found something online about a bed and breakfast hosting a Halloween ghost event, so they booked it and arrived ready for a fun Halloween party. But when the ghost hunting got started, they quickly realized that it wasn't a silly party, but a group of people actually looking to 'speak to the spirits' (like the tv show Ghost Hunters). The idea that people would take ghost hunting seriously had never crossed their mind! France openly values intellectuals and scientists and of course is much less religious, so you don't hear people in France talk about supernatural experiences like in the US.

Besides being genuinely nice people, it's been refreshing to re-discover the US through their eyes.