At orientation one of the volunteers asked where I was going, and when I said Alsace she immediately replied "oof, rainy and cold."
It didn't seem rainy and cold though, perhaps because I come from upstate New York, which is snowy and cold. There is a lot of mist at night and in the morning, which I love. September was generally beautiful, lots of warm and sunny days. The rain didn't seem unreasonable, except once when we were out hiking and barely made it back to the car on time.
Of course, as it became fall the temperature dropped from 25˚ (77F) to 6˚ (43F). The worst was riding my bike 15 minutes to school in the morning at 7:45, but it wasn't too bad.
Then one morning it rained. Foreign exchange requires you to do a ton of things you wouldn't normally, and most of them are good, but riding a bike in freezing rain is not. The worst part about it was that it was Wednesday on a week when I only have one class in the morning. By the time feeling had returned to my hands and they had their normal color, I went back into it. Fortunately the rain cleared before I returned in the afternoon.
That day I realized there was no way the four flimsy sweaters I had brought were warm enough. It wasn't even November yet. I decided I wasn't going to buy anything that wasn't warm. Which brings me to the next topic.
I went shopping with two things in mind: warm sweaters and a giant scarf. Every shop sells these, because in France (or Strasbourg at least) people dress for the weather a lot more than in the US. Hardly anyone wears short sleeves to school after September, and they usually have scarves and hats even if it's just chilly.
I walked into a store and immediately found the warmest sweater I had even seen. It was thick and lovely and… oh 40 euros ($56). Hmm. This one's 30 euros ($42) but it has short sleeves. Oh that shirt's only 10! But it's sleeveless, that's useless.
Clothing is generally made better in France, but is also more expensive. Even H&M is noticeably more.
Food is also generally made better in France, and is also more expensive. The only exception to this is bread and pastries, which are actually cheaper. Two weeks ago I ate with friends before seeing a dance show, and they decided to go to "MacDo". I thought "well at least it won't be expensive." Wrong. True, it was actually better than US MacDonald's food, but I still wasn't expecting to pay 11.20 USD for a salad and medium fries. Whoa. That's twice what I paid for the delicious pesto I had for lunch. Who would pay $6 for a 6-piece chicken nugget? Apparently a lot of people, the it was a busy place.
If MacDo was the only thing with higher prices things would be easy, but folders, floss, books, and pretty much everything else costs more. I don't know if this has to do with the value added tax, the economy, or the materials, but it took time to adjust to.
I'll end on a positive note by going back to the first topic. This past week (of vacation) has been beautiful. It was even warm enough to sit outside with my dictionary and papers. Today there's a high of 17˚ (63F).
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