Some may recognize Gene Kelly in his lead role of the 1951’s classic An American in Paris. He played the lively-yet-composed role of Jerry Mulligan, an American painter who brightened up the streets of Paris with his spirited singing and dancing. Jerry struggled through the entire movie with mishaps and battles along the way but at the end of the film he still managed to get the girl and live happily in one of France’s most beautiful cities. This is how Hollywood prepared me for France, but it’s nothing like that.

This summer, I was fortunate enough to take part in the French Exchange program at Niles West. Okay, we know how it works. I have a guest from France for two weeks and then I go live with them for two weeks. Easy trade off. Everyone thinks it’s this really powerful cultural connection thing, but really it’s just two teenagers living with each other and hanging out 24/7 for two weeks.

In June, I went to France to live with my correspondent in Strasbourg. The town was simple and very innocent, just like I imagined it to be. My first day there I was able to see Strasbourg’s version of the Gay Pride Parade. Pink boas and Lady Gaga music flooded the streets of Strasbourg as the at least a mile long group walked through the town, livening up the city with it’s out of the ordinary behavior. Men and women were gathered on floats, as well as walking down the rues (that’s French for streets), while people in balconies waved and blew kisses down to the group below. After about two hours of walking with the crowded gang of Europeans, the parade finished in the center of town, where there was a large Park. Adults and teenagers were scattered across the open areas, barely finding any room to spread their legs it was so packed. A DJ was set on the steps of what I think was their town hall and people jumped and danced on and all around the stage. I was even able to squirm my way onto the stage with my friends and had a blast.

What I enjoyed when I was over there was that everyone meets in parks. All the teenagers and their groups of friends would just go from park to park and sometimes stay there for hours at a time and lay in the grass. At first I thought it seemed so weird that that was all they did. Usually I go to my friends’ houses and we move around from place to place, but in France everyone seems content with staying where they are.

Another strange thing was that the town is nothing like Morton Grove. Everyone lives outside the city and commutes to school every day by bus, train, or parent. I met a girl there who said it takes her at least 45 minutes to get to school every day. My correspondent and I took a cute tram to get to town everyday and it’s always took at least 20 minutes just to get from her house to the school. What I didn’t realize that would happen on this trip was that all the teenagers either walk or ride their bikes everywhere. You will never see a car full of teenagers blasting their music through the city driving at least 40 miles an hour.

Also, going to someone’s house to hangout was always a big social event. My correspondent said that she had never seen the inside of her best friend’s house because all they do is hangout in the center of town mostly. It just seemed so weird that they were so close, yet rarely hung out at each others houses because it was such a trip to get there.

After staying in Strasbourg for a little over a week, the “American” group moved off to Paris.  Everyone seemed so excited. We had a bus shuttle us from the airport to our hotel which was a bit outside of the center of Paris. The funny thing was was that our bus driver, instead of taking us through the touristy parts of Paris, drove us in through the back way which gave us a glimpse of what the city’s scary parts looked like, like garbage all through the streets and a group of homeless people all sleeping under a bridge. It’s not like these things were new to me since I’ve been in Chicago a million times, but it just didn’t seem like the ideal Paris everyone had talked about.

We had stayed in Paris for four days and then it came to the time where we all had to go back home. No one wanted to leave since we all enjoyed our time there so much.

Other than all the walking we did, I didn’t really have anything bad to say about the trip. And I had made some good friends there also. I was with the same people for two weeks straight; we had to become close at some point. I think the best day in Paris was the last full day we had, since we got to see the Eiffel Tower and go on a boat ride down La Seine river.

Being able to go almost halfway across the world really does give you a culture shock. Like who knew that people in France are super nice and not snobby at all? Or that teenagers at their schools don’t get to have homecoming or prom? Or even that their teenage style looks really different than ours (ie: boys have much tighter pants). Girls over there look down upon those who wear clothes like Forever 21’s style. I say they all look more like Gap models.

Unfortunately, my biggest fault on the trip was thinking that my credit card would be able to work overseas. That thing gives me trouble in the States, who thought it would be fine in a whole other country.Even though I became short on money the last couple days, I was able to discover some good cheap finds though with the euros I had to buy things like jewelry, a new wallet, and found my favorite new candy: Chupa Chups. They were these awesome lollipops in all the convenient stores. The best is watermelon.

My favorite thing about being on the trip was probably the bridge outside of Notre Dame. The railings of this bridge had been covered in all of these different locks. Each one had something written on them, and were all unique. We learned that once people get married, or are engaged, they come to the bridge as a couple and put their lock on, so as to show that they could not be broken. One of my favorite locks that I saw was this cute plain brown one that read “Me and You….Just us two”. I promised myself that once I get engaged, I wanted to come to France and put my lock on as well. Let’s see how that goes.

Hollywood had declared Paris as the city of love, happiness, and pure bliss, but in fact, it was just like any other place. It had lights like Chicago, and busyness like New York, and even a little poverty like any other town you would see. I made sure that even though I was in the great town, I still noticed the little things, and wasn’t distracted like any other tourist would be. I wanted to make sure that my trip was a memorable experience and one that I would never forget.