Tom is my roommate for the summer. He's living in Paris, France currently to go to school, but he comes from Saint-Etienne. He tried to explain the complicated French education system once, but I don't really understand it. Basically, he's in graduate school for physics and he wants to get his Ph.D. and do research.

He's here to help out with research in quantum physics; clearly, he's really smart. He told me that science and math was always his strong point and he never cared about French class (ahhh like English class, isn't that strange?). He never wanted to really read anything. So it's all about the science and he and Tarik likes to make math babies and leave them all over the apartment.

We've often discussed the differences and similarities between America and France, and it probably dominates at least 80% of our conversation. There are the important things I've learned.

1. They are not aware of how much Americans love to make French jokes.
2. To them, the Belgians are like the Canadians to us. They have a myriad of Belgium jokes.
3. They do not see Arabs or Muslims the way we see Mexicans. He personally also does not mind their presence.
4. Getting into higher education (which is free) is mainly based on grades and standardized test scores. There are no clubs or sports affiliated with high schools, at least the high school he attended. All extracurriculars are outside of the school.
5. The prevalence of peanut butter and Nutella is exchanged. It is very hard to find peanut butter, and impossible to find crunchy peanut butter. They have Nutella all the time. I got to introduce him to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and he loved it. He also plans to bring back jars of crunchy peanut butter.

What's also been interesting is helping him out with English. He'll usually make some sort of mistakes, and I'll vaguely acknowledge it in my mind, but I understood him so I don't bother to point it out. Then he'll stop, correct himself, and then get mad at me because I didn't correct him. Then other times I'll get really picky and give him a suggestion for a better word to use in a specific context. He thinks he's not very good at English, but I think he is. He certainly has the indisputable French accent, though. It's interesting, though, because his accent is part of what makes me know him as him.

But what is he like in his native language? Is a part of his personality different because he can't speak the language perfectly? I guess I've never know.

He has a girlfriend of five years who's adopted from Vietnam. She doesn't know how to use chopsticks. He's also bought six or seven gifts for her. When asked if he's going to get married to her, she just shrugged and replied, "I don't know." "What! You've been together for five years!" "I don't know." Maybe that's the right attitude to take, since he's 22. But still, though, they seem really cute.

He likes to make a lot of tarts. He'll take a pan and put dough down around the bottom and sides and then fill it with tomatoes, tuna, and sometimes peppers. Never tried it, though looks good. He made some ratatouille once and that was pretty good. Then of course, the crepes. Mmmm, crepes! He makes us the crepes and then we put on Nutella, banana, strawberries, or anything. Deliciousness.

He also enjoys watching a movie or several TV episodes every night. Currently it's been "Prison Break." It's usually all English speaking with French subtitles that he gets from torrents. He probably has seen tons of more movies than I, the film major, have.

He's been a really great roommate, and the other day he told me that he's going to miss me; that it's going to be weird because he's used to seeing me every day. I'll miss him, too, and hope that one day I can visit him in France.