Silke discovers that she is Canadian

Another title for this post could be, "Which child is which?"  Anyone who knows Silke knows that she is a very gregarious child.  Wherever she goes, she makes friends with astonishing speed.  Jerome on the other hand has always struggled socially and been more of an outsider.  As a very quiet boy with interests in math and music and reading but not in sports or video games, he could hardly be otherwise.  But in Paris something odd has happened.  Silke has decided, intentionally, to remain to some degree a social outsider.  And Jerome seems surprisingly to be accepted as "one of the boys" in the class.  One of our children sometimes eats lunch alone, which doesn't surprise me, only that it is Silke and not Jerome is surprising.  There is an obvious factor.  Silke, in 3ème, is in the last year of collège, so her classmates have been together for four years and social groups are already formed.  Jerome on the other hand is in the first year of collège, so it is a new school for all his classmates.  But there is something more fundamental going on with Silke.  She has met the Parisian teenager, and decided that is not who she wants to be.  To the point of over-reacting.  Of course, one thinks of clothing.  Her classmates dress trendily, wear makeup, and some of them smoke.  Silke wears her MEC hiking pants every day, a T-shirt, and either hiking boots or old scuffy running shoes.  (Her father - me - has almost convinced her to go shoe shopping sometime soon, if nothing else at least to get a slightly more presentable pair of sneakers.)  More than clothing are the attitudes.  This was well-illustrated when her class watched Charlie Chaplain's "Modern Times".  (They were doing a quite interesting analysis of the political and economic issues.)  As she reported to us after, she was the only one who laughed out loud.  Nor was she inhibited when no one else did, "It was funny.  Too bad for them if they didn't laugh." Apparently it even drew mention from the teacher, who probably had been hoping that more students would openly find it funny.  Silke of course loves slapstick, and goofiness.  And when one thinks back to her friends in Canada, they all did.  Starting with her (sole) classmate of least year, Emil, with whom she had great times, and the other members of her quartet, the Tetrarchy, Katrina and Andrew, and the girl-friends that she has kept in contact with from elementary school, Dana and Eleanor and Julia and the others.   Are they typically Canadian, or just typical of Silke's friends?  Regardless, they are all of the same cloth.  Irreverent, but frankly curious and eager to learn, boisterous and goofy, but considerate and gentle, not earnest but putting in the effort when required.  And each of them a unique character not particularly concerned with conforming, nor expecting conformity from others.  For Silke, that describes her friends, and that is who she is, and will stay.  Not that she is a pariah here.  She is friendly with her classmates, and they with her.  But nevertheless, lines have been drawn, and has declared herself comfortably outside of some lines.  Silke - the funny exotic foreigner with strange habits and ideas.

Not seen on the runway at Paris Fashion Week 2013

As for Jerome, I don't know exactly why he is suddenly more social.  Simply, he is altogether happier and more confident here.  The higher expectations and denser course material, and the structure and the rules suit him.  It's not elementary school anymore.  There is quite a lot of self-responsibility required of him here.  That extends right to getting to and from school, which he does on his own on the metro.  (His school day rarely begins or ends at the same time as Silke's.)  It seems to be good for him.  He's also lucky in that his class does swimming once a week (all year!).  If there is one sport that he is good at - besides cross-country skiing - it's swimming.  So he is not even the un-athletic boy anymore.