While I know that this has been a topic of conversation for the last few months amongst my friends and I here in Aix, I feel the need to bring it up with you fine folks reading this. What is up with the French and their need to use 4 different colors of highlighters, two different pens, white-out, and a ruler when taking notes in class? I was sitting behind a girl today in class that, and I kid you not, had 3 different highlighters, two different pens and a ruler all just to take notes. Does this seem excessive to anyone else? Why can't they just take notes with one pen like the rest of the world (or is the US in the minority here?) I have tried taking notes with so many utensils and found it extremely hard to keep up with the prof, who has no concept of speaking slowly so that we can get all the information, and not only that, there gets to be so many colors that they begin to lose their significance. Then there is the issue of the stylo plume, or fountain pen, which apparently is extremely necessary in French culture if you want anyone to take you seriously. Francois, our almost snobbish French tutor who seems to suffer from the love/hate relationship of americans and our culture found so prevelant in France today, told us a few months ago that no one, I mean NO ONE, can be taken seriously using a ball-point pen. The French will laugh you out of the boardroom if you dare to use one. Could this be true? Forget everything I have ever learned, all I need in life to be taken seriously is a fountain pen? If only it were that easy. Of course, all the French need is a fountain pen, as an American you are required to have much more, the fountain pen is merely getting your foot in the door.
So, conclusion of the day: buy stock in the French national highlighter company and start using that fountain pen whenever I feel I'm just not being taken seriously enough.