By Adaeze
One thing I miss about Gelbucks at GW is the ability to be who you want to be. Starbucks is known for being notoriously bad at names, and if you tell them your name is Bob, then your name is Bob. If you tell them your name is Jill, your name is Jill. In France, if you tell them you identify as one thing, they might correct you and tell you what you actually should identify with.
My host community has supported my identity as an American for sure. Contrary to all the false belief about how Parisians are rude and hate Americans, every French person that I’ve met has been nothing but nice and encouraging. They actually love it when I tell them that I’m American. This is kind of comforting because when I got here, I wasn’t sure how to represent myself.
The people here seem to get confused when I tell them that I’m Nigerian-American. They want you to be one or the other, not both, which is difficult because I’ve always identified myself as either Nigerian or Nigerian-American. Here, it’s different. I don’t have a Nigerian accent so the people don’t believe me when I say that I’m from Nigeria, the actually tell me that I’m from America. How can someone tell you where you are from? I guess it’s just their way of trying to wrap their heads around everything.
Regardless, I’m still loving my time here. I’ve definitely gone through the phases of loving it, wanting to go back home, and now I’m loving it again. There’s just something about that Eiffel Tower that makes you fall in love with the place every single day.
