The French

I seem to be learning more about every other culture except Italian while in Rome. A guy that works at the hostel organized a group to go out last night. It was about 30 French students and three "others" including me. The French students were a rowdy bunch, and had a song for everything. They take shots, and they all chant something in French. Someone comes back from the bathroom, and they all sing a little song. One of the two tables would sing something, and the other would try to sing it louder, and on and on until one table won. I'm told they used a ton of slang, and often would slip into "verlan", which is like our pig latin. I think you take the first syllable and put it at the end. The word verlan is itself verlan for l'enver, which means inversed. They were a bit difficult to get to know, as the French are private people who don't ever make superficial friends, I'm told. So they stuck to themselves mostly. Though a few of the more drunk ones chatted us up a bit. Making three-day friends is, it seems, a big part of the hostel culture. It's surprising how you can make good friends in so few days while traveling. Most you will never see again, but I imaging some of the friends I've made I'll see at some point. I may take them up on an offer to stay in a strange new country, or they may take me up on mine. It's a bit strange, because I usually only make close friends. Anyway, they all went out to a club after the restaurant, but I went back to the hostel because I had to get up early the next day to take a train to Venice.