Fraternité

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité. The motto of France.

Today, I experienced more fraternité with the people of France, as well as my class peers, as we visited the Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration and went to dinner at a Moroccan restaurant.

As we have been discussing immigration in class, Professor Thomas took us on a little field trip to the Immigration Museum, to look at actual photographs and representations of the history and development of the people of France. Although much of the museum was in French, the various displays struck a chord in me, about the intense diversity and varied experiences of those that once made the trek from around the world to France.

This unique construction of a six level bunk bed, depicts the cramped and minimized lifestyles of many immigrants of the twentieth century until now. Professor Thomas described how people could not afford homes for their individual families, so groups of 25 or so people would purchase a room together and would share the entire space. To be able to share the bed space, people would get jobs at different times of day to trade off using the mattress to sleep. So when you went off to work, someone else would be coming home and would sleep in the bed you just slept in. They had to make the best of the little they could bring, many only brining one bag of personal items.

The museum has a very unique exhibit of gifts from various immigrant families who donated different trinkets and items that represented their own journey to France. There were many passports, travel diaries, and such. There were also sewing machines, and photographs, and traditional garb, and other personal items. Attached to each item is a very specific story, of a person or group of people who saw France with the hope of a better life, and took the often dangerous and insecure path to a new home.

Another striking piece at the museum was a video exhibit of three generations of women, a grandmother, mother, and granddaughter. The first video was the grandmother and mother speaking to each other in Arabic. Because I could not understand, I assume it was a conversation about their lives, before and after immigrating and such. The second video was of the mother speaking to the daughter in French, with the daughter responding and asking various questions in English. This video reminded me a lot about my relationship with my father (who immigrated to the United States from Japan in his twenties), where he speaks to me in Japanese, and I understand well, but have trouble speaking in Japanese so I respond in English. The dual-language conversation occurs both for my older brother and myself with my dad. The third video was of the grandmother and her granddaughter. This conversation reminded me of the way my younger sister interacts with our grandmother. In the video, the grandmother would say something in Arabic with a smile on her face, only to receive a blank stare from her granddaughter. Then after a long, silent pause, the granddaughter would say something or ask a question in English, the grandmother unable to understand responding with a sad smile, knowing the two could not communicate without the bridge of the mother. I can still communicate with my grandmother with the limited Japanese I can speak, if I force myself to. But my younger sister can barely understand and unfortunately cannot speak Japanese at all. Whenever we visit my grandmother in Japan it is very difficult for my younger sister to communicate and it is hard for me to translate between the two.

It is heartbreaking to see that within one generation, something as precious to one's identity as language can be so easily lost. There are many things to gain from immigrating to a new place, but there are also many things that are lost.

Fraternité in this sense gives me a sense of pride to be a child of immigrants. Even though my experience is vastly different from the experiences of those depicted in the museum, I am able to stand in solidarity with all the joy and trials that they faced, entering a new country, with little to lose and everything to gain. I feel as though this is the aim of this museum, to share the stories of individuals, to be able to empathize with one another, to better love one another, and to build a community as one, to experience fraternité.

After the museum, we were free before dinner. Myself and a few friends went to Angelina, for the richest and most expensive hot chocolate I have ever had, and went to the outside gardens of the Louvre for a bit.

Dinner with the class was quite an adventure with a cuisine I was previously unfamiliar with, Moroccan at Le Sirocco! I was unsure of what to expect, but it turned out to be delicious!

For an appetizer we were served an array of spreads, none of which I am sure of what it was, but they were delicious! Served with warm bread, the spreads were fantastic and full of flavor! There were also meat filled samosas which were so tasty!

The main course was a base of plain cous cous, and then a large bowl of some sort of vegetable broth with yams, zucchini (or "corgette" here), carrots, and bell peppers. Then there was chicken and lamb sausage, and some chickpeas and golden raisins to add.

After the vegetable broth was poured over, the cous cous was soaked in this delicious, bold flavor, then with the chicken and sausage, it was amazing!

For dessert we were served small cookies and pastries with mint tea, which was also so delicious, but very difficult to finish after a meal that absolutely stuffed me.

The best part was the chance to get to know some of my classmates. Although the program only has forty people, it has been difficult to get to know those that I don't regularly spend time with, since class is also only a few times a week. But just enjoying the new foods together, swapping stories about Paris and other parts of Europe, sharing experiences about UCLA, finding out we have mutual friends, and other conversations, I felt that I had begun to experience more of the fraternité with my peers. I am so thankful for these outings that Professor Thomas organizes for us to chat and get to know each other more, because that is also an important part of our time here.

Many students in the class planned tonight to enjoy the celebrations of Bastille Day together. (I am so excited, because as I type this at midnight there are already fireworks going off in the neighborhood.)

I hope that with the next two weeks of the program we will continue to make more friends, and enjoy each other's company as we learn more about this wonderful city.

Check out UCLA IEO for more information to plan your own study abroad trip and experience fraternité with classmates in your dream destination!