Video Blogs

I guess you can say I made some video blogs. Well, if it makes you feel any better I am currently looking at the Torre pendente di Pisa and I am eating some left over pizza. It's been one awesome semester abroad, Ciao.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nY8nKl2tcg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-56vn1YoqI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JUUWot7vNk

Post 10

For this post, I am looking at the tropos of the final video of a past CAAH 201/Study Abroad student: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf2bX8IrhqA&list=UU-_3kWO3O0AtNrrmSWwPSDg&index=9.

The student decided to use strictly pictures and personal photographs for her video with a voiceover. While this provides plenty of visuals, the same viewing effect of the pictures and the continuing voice over can make the presentation a little less exciting. But, good credit to the information in the video is instantly known because the student shares her knowledge and background with veterinary sciences. This can create more focus to the information because the information comes from a first-hand knowledgeable source.

The video was dry in terms of visual appeal--no videos, music or creative backgrounds/fonts--so it was harder to truly appreciate the video. It seems like visual appeal--colors, juxtaposition and so forth--is a big component to tropos considerations. Also, the information was presented in more of a monotone manner--the speaker did not necessarily sound thrilled about the subject though she discussed her passion for veterinary sciences at the beginning of the video. There were also some awkward transitions between what the speaker was discussing and utilizing an appropriate photo while it was being discussed. There were a few delays in displaying the proper photo and sometimes some early appearances.

Overall, the video is very factual and provides some good knowledge comparing the student's home culture and their host culture, but the design should be better laid out to keep the attention of anyone who watches the video. Some sort of video--of the city, of a veterinarian in the UK, etc.--would have been useful throughout the video. But, it's harder to evaluate the tropos, to find true purpose because it seems the student discussed the information and then matched up pictures as needed. So, the tropos needs some improvement but that's all.

Post 12 Rhetorical Analyses of 2 Media Artifacts

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Le-Coq-Sportif-Spring-Collection-Ad-Campaign/600555

This is a Le Coq Sportif advertisement showing some of their new gear. The advertisement shows two people coming out of eggs meaning that they are "breaking out of their shell" and trying new ideas to attract customers. Le Coq Sportif is using this ad to also tell possible customers that they need to try something new and why not try Le Coq. Another message that Le Coq Sportif is trying to send is that everyone is different and different is good so why not be yourself and create and image that only you can be.

http://files.coloribus.com/files/adsarchive/part_512/5125005/file/boursin-cheese-the-mouse-small-60009.jpg

This here is an advertisement for Boursin Cheese. If you didn't know Boursin Cheese is the bee's knees. The ad shows a mouse laying down next to some cheese and it has always been a thing that mice like cheese thus the cheese must be good. Also, in order for you to no it's a luxury the sprawled out mouse is wearing some nice gold jewelry with sunglasses, a purse and some nice heels. This ad would attract many Parisians because what two things do people in Paris love besides cheese and expensive goods.

Post 11

After living in the Paris for the past four months I have noticed that a lot of Parisians freak out about most things. The day after North Korea started to go loco they had a massive rally by my school. People flocked down to La Defense to protest against something so small and that would probably have nothing to do with them. What makes Paris even better is that they can protest whenever they want and every protest is massive. Since Paris is so involved in social events and they like to let everyone know how they feel I have decided to make my interview lean more towards what my host culture thinks is the best way to deal with a social issue. I walked around La Defense one day and asked people how they felt about recent events such as the bombings in Boston and how they think it will change their everyday life. Security is already extremely crazy in Paris because of the conflict in Mali that started when we first came over to France. Also, now that gay marriage is legal I will have to ask people how they feel about that issue. I really want to get involved with the same sex marriage law because there has been a lot of protesting during the voting of this bill. I will probably only use these interviews for my final project about public issues since it will be on the most interesting topics.

Post 9 Final Project Ideas

For my final project about public issues I am going to create a video which includes and interview regarding social events in Europe and how people reacted to them. I will be interviewing random people and will ask them how they feel about certain public issues that have happened recently. This may be difficult given many people don't like speaking about such topics in public but I will do my best to get an answer. Gay marriage just became legal in France so that may be one question that I ask. This is because there has been massive riots against gay marriage since I have been living in Paris and it would be very interesting to see how others feel about an unpopular idea becoming a law.

For my video relating to my personal engagement in my host culture I will show you what I do on a normal day. Starting with my walk to school and the views and people that I see everyday. I will not bore you buy showing the life of the metro even though I have spent days riding it back in forth throughout the city. I will however show you what it is like to live in Paris for four months by giving you insight on the delicious food and drinks that are popular here. My video will include all that I believe is necessary to show you how I have engaged my host culture.

For my video regarding how careers related to my major are practiced in my host culture I will show you how everyone goes about their day here in the Business District of Paris. Since I live in the business hub I will easily be able to show you how my major is practiced here. Accounting is a very dry major so this video may not be the most exciting one you have ever seen, and if it is... well you may just be an accountant.

Post 8 (Yep, talking about the pictures again)

This post is reflecting on Post 7 (Pictures) and why I took each picture.

I took this picture for many reasons. First off, I have never seen mountains like this before in my life. Since I grew up in Cincinnati I never saw mountains unless I went on vacation and we drove through the Appalachian Mountains and those are not nearly as amazing as the mountains in Innsbruck, Austria. The mountains are the main reason why Innsbruck is the town it is today given the Winter Olympics took place in Innsbruck twice in the last fifty years. When I was walking from the train station to my hotel I came to this view. With mountains surrounding the city every picture I took had the mountains towering in the background. As I stood on the bridge to take this picture a line formed behind me so I knew this had to be a good shot of the town. With the houses on the right and the majority of the mountains on the left I feel like I balanced out this shot well and it will go down as one of my favorites. 

This photo was also taken in Innsbruck, Austria. Once again you can see the mountains in the background and the colored houses in the middle. I took this picture, honestly, because I thought it looked cool. All of the houses were painted a different color and this picture captures the majority of the colors. I also made it so most of the colors that would pop out would be in the middle. This picture isn't one of my favorites but I do like the way it turned out.

This is a photo of Manneken-Pis. This small statue is a big deal in Brussels and to me that is funny because how small this statue really is. Periodically, the statue is dressed up but I went to Brussels twice and it wasn't. I made sure I didn't zoom in on this photo because I wanted to show the size of the statue in comparison to objects around it. 

McDonald's In Paris

For this post I will be comparing McDonald's in France with McDonald's in America. Yummy!!

French McDonald's Website

The French McDonald's website is very different than the McDonald's website that we see in America. The French use a very simple layout which makes it easier for their target market to understand. The logo in that is used on this website is different than the one you see in America. Although they still use the Golden Arches the background is green and not the normal red. This is because the French are trying to appeal to their customers emotionally. All of Europe is in a "Green Movement" and by creating a logo with the green background lets McDonald's customers know that the McDonald's corporation is also trying to go green. 

EasyOrder- McDonald's France

All of the McDonald's in France have these EasyOrder  Machines. This specific one is an example from the McDonald's on the Champs-Élysées. EasyOrder machines only except payment by card and you skip to the front of the lines that clog up every McDonald's.

United States McDonald's Website

The McDonald's website in America looks very different than the one in France. The logo is still the same red and gold. Compared to the French site the American site is very confusing and instead of just showing pictures of food on the front page there are links to take you to other aspects of the site. For example, the picture in the middle on the bottom shows an average man that McDonald's tells you "picks the apples for happy meals." By doing this it makes the customers feel closer to the people who make the ingredients for meals at McDonald's and it makes the food seem more legit and healthier to customers.

I went to the McDonald's on the Champs-Élysées (which is the most profitable McDonald's in the world) late one night. The lines where crazy and took up half of the restaurant and the EasyOrder machines even had lines. In La Defense, there is a mall that has three McDonald's in it and are all connected by elevators and escalators. If you go to a McDonald's in Europe you are guaranteed to see an item on the menu that you have never seen before. In Paris you can by a normal Big Mac but then get potato wedges instead of fries and you can even replace your Coke with a nice beer. Just going into the McDonald's in France was a cultural experience that I will never forget.  

Post 7 (Pictures)

This picture here was taken in Innsbruck, Austria. It is an almost straight shot at the houses across the river. Each house is a different color and this picture shows just a few of them. With this being a straight shot it only allows certain objects to be in the frame. 

This picture was also taken in Innsbruck, Austria. Since it is at a different angle the picture cuts out most of the snow capped mountains that were in the background of the previous picture but shows more houses and clear sky.

This picture also taken in you guessed it... Innsbruck, Austria. I took more photos here than anywhere else because it was the first time in my life that I have seen snow capped mountains. The river was also crystal clear and you could see straight to the bottom when standing on the bridge. This landscape shot captures not only the river but the majestic mountains and beautiful colored houses. It was starting to get dark so the deep shadows give this photo a quaint feel.

This picture is the vertical cousin to previous photo. It shows less of the mountains and slightly more of the house on the right. Taking this vertical shot cropped out some of what could be considered important parts of the previous photo.

This is a photo of Manneken-Pis. Yes, it really is that small. I did not zoom in whatsoever in this picture  so it shows the size of the statue compared to surrounding objects. This picture is one of my favorites because it shows the size of Manneken-Pis and when I heard about it I thought it was going to be a large statue of a boy peeing when in fact it is only about a foot tall.

This is the only zoomed in picture I have because I usually don't zoom in on many object but since the statue was so small I felt that it was necessary. Also this photo may have been filtered through Instagram (I'm sorry, I usually don't filter any pictures.) By zooming in on Manneken-Pis it removes many of the important items surrounding the little statue. Doing so takes away anything that could have been used as a scale to see how big the object really was.

How Facebook Ruins S.A

In the article titled, How Facebook Can Ruin Study Abroad, the author talks about how social media ruins cultural experiences that students could have. He believed that when students listen to music or are engaged in social media that it reduces their knowledge and protects them from culture shock. He also talks about his experiences studying abroad. In 1980 he did his first study abroad in Mexico City and this was before the wave of social media. Robert had a huge culture shock because there was no way for him to branch back to the way of life before entering Mexico.

Without social media communication would have been difficult, taking days to receive mail from friends and family. Now you can stay connected with friends back home within seconds of sending a message. Keeping in touch with your friends may seem like a very important thing but by doing so you are reducing your culture shock. Some people think that culture shock is a bad thing, but I believe that it is very important. Without going through a culture shock you will never become accustomed to the culture. Facebook will always keep you in touch with back home thus eliminating your cultural experience and keeping you from going through a culture shock because you are holding yourself back from the host culture. If you only read about topics that are occurring in your home country you will miss out completely on events happening in your host culture. My first week here I turned my computer on and every page asked me if I wanted to be directed to the French sites, without fully understanding what I was doing helped me get involved with the French culture very fast. All of my advertisements changed from topics I looked up to back home to topics I may be interested in here in Paris. I lost most of my connection to news because I didn't have a T.V. and if I tried to look anything up on my computer it would be translated in French and would only be about the news in Paris. I stopped using my computer because I was tired of seeing French adverts. Then I started walking around Paris and everything came together. There is more advertisements and they were easier to understand with all of the French people walking past. When living in a country you shouldn't rely on the internet to get around but rely more on the citizens of that country. By putting yourself out there and making attempts to get in touch with the host culture makes a huge difference. It helps learn the language and helps you understand the daily grind in your host country.

Exchange Students

Now that I have been living in Paris for some time I have realized things that I neve noticed in my first weeks. Coming in to Paris is knew little about their culture and how they reflect it in everyday life. During the winter months, you will not see a single Parisian wearing any color lighter than navy blue and the first day I went out in Paris I wore an orange sweatshirt. The looks that I got from every person I walked by shocked me because I had no idea what I was doing wrong. Now that I know this I dress to fit in with the rest of Paris. I went shopping and purchased dark clothes just to walk around (I even bought my first scarf.) I never thought that I wouldn't fit in with the majority of people like I do back home. If you are going out to eat in Paris plan on sitting for a long time. The waiters will now come to your table unless you ask them to after you ordered your food. If you get lucky they will ask you if you want coffee for desert (which was strange to me) and then you can ask for the check. Knowing this now I understand why other people have a hard time adjusting to customs of another country.
If I was hosting an exchange student the first thing I would tell them about living in my hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio would be the obvious places to not go when the sun goes down, much like I was told when coming to Paris. Then, I would tell them what to do in order to adjust to customs in Cincinnati.
Unlike Paris, Cincinnati doesn't care to much about fashion and you may stick out more if you dress with the most up to date fashion advice.
Cincinnati is a sports oriented city, if you don't like sports don't tell people and it may help to know some of the major athletes in Cincy. You can and probably will get in an awkward conversation if someone yells, "free Pete," on Fountain Square and you don't cheer. Another thing I would have to explain to an exchange student coming to Cincinnati would be the food that we eat. Cincinnati is a very German town. Some street signs are still in German and there are a lot of beer houses in the city. If you go in one you will see a lot of sausages and sauerkraut  being consumed and washed down with a liter of beer. Another big food staple in Cincinnati is Skyline Chili. You either love it or hate it and if you hate it you might as well leave Cincinnati...
I noticed the first Sunday I was in Paris that nothing is open. This, however, is the complete opposite in Cincinnati. Everything is open everyday of the week. Restaurants and stores may close earlier on Sundays but they are still open past six o'clock, so don't worry if you go to hard Saturday night you will be able to find food the next day. Cincinnati is a very catholic city but is not as orthodox as Paris or other European cities.

Cultural Literate

Growing up in a strong household surrounded by intelligent people has helped me become culturally literate in my own culture. Not only did I have to learn about new cultures when coming to Paris but I had to learn about the culture in Clemson, South Carolina. The culture is completely different living in Cincinnati than it is living in Clemson. The hardest thing that I had to adjust to was people being "gentlemen" and "ladies." In Cincinnati it is not common for someone to hold the door for the person after them, in fact, I would say that you are more likely to get the door slammed in your face rather than having the door held open for you. I, however, was always told to hold the door, to say please and thank you, and help out people who are in need. Making the transformation from Cincinnati to Clemson was difficult enough for me but then to go from Clemson where everyone is nice to Paris where everyone basically hates everyone else and they only care about their own lives. 

When arriving in Paris, France the first thing I did was hold the door open for the lady behind me. She didn't say thank you, in fact she didn't say anything at all as she walked past me giving me the death stare. I thought it was a little much for holding the door but after a couple of weeks in Paris I noticed that hardly anyone  holds the door for another person. One of my teachers who is from Europe told us one day that girls think of people differently when someone holds the door for them. If it's an elderly man than he is just being nice but if it is a young man like myself then I must be hitting on her. I still always hold the door for the person behind me but I have been noticing that younger girls react differently than older women. So, what has made me culturally literate in one culture doesn't necessarily make me culturally literate in another culture. I am still trying to get used to all of the cultural differences and trying to act more like the norm than an outsider. Every Sunday I still wake up and try to do things that I could normally do back in the U.S. such as grocery shopping. It is impossible to go grocery shopping in Paris on a Sunday because all grocery stores are closed. Going from Sunday equals grocery day to Sunday equals day of rest and seventy-five percent of the city is closed will be hard for me to get used to.

I feel like the amount of gaps to make me completely culturally literate in Paris will decrease but it will never fully disappear. This isn't because I am not trying hard enough but because I will always fall back on what I was taught growing up and what is now instinct. I still say words or phrases that you will only hear people in Cincinnati say, even in Paris when half of the conversation is in French. This is because you will never completely lose yourself or be able to change all of the ways that you normally act. You may be able to take me out of the city but you will never be able to take the city out of me.

Social Media

Wow, it has been a while since I have been on because of my extensive traveling.
Making an adjustment from American culture to the culture in France has been very difficult. To me, Facebook and Twitter have made France look like the place to be and everything is all good. As it turns out I find my self on Facebook and Twitter just so I can connect with the ones that I left behind. I feel like I am shying away from other French people because I don't fit in and they let me know everyday. Being laughed at for struggling to speak their language is just one thing that is making this an awful experience. The one thing that has made my study abroad trip worth it thus far has been traveling and that is why I am slacking on this blog. Visiting new countries and not having wifi (or as the call it wee-fee) or anyway to connect with other people has been amazing, so maybe being on Facebook everyday is hurting my cultural experience because I am still trying to live the life that I left in America.

Culture Shock

Now that I have been in Paris for close to two weeks I have noticed a lot of things that I am not used to. For example, the amount of people who smoke in Paris is outstanding and how they live so long is amazing. I was shocked to see how many people dressed in black when I am walking around in bright colors. Since everyone is hourly, service here is extremely slow and they really don't care as much as the customer as they do back home which I found out to be frustrating. Anyway, that is just some things that have shocked me so far and I'm sure many more things will pop up during my stay.

A little about me

Hey, my name is Eddie Smith and I am a sophomore accounting major at Clemson University.  I am from Cincinnati, Ohio and I transferred to Clemson this past year. After finally adjusting to life in the south I decided to study abroad in Europe where I will be spending the next 4.5 months.