why i'll never be 100% french

i went out today to the mall near my apartment to start my christmas shopping. well, actually just to finish it as we had bought all of our presents for family and friends during our last trip the U.S. and all i had left to do was the boy. so this year, we decided to keep things simple as we had moved to a bigger apartment this year (and consequently had to buy all of the furniture and appliances) and did a big trip to the U.S. in October....so the boy made a small list of some things he wanted: DVDs, books, computer games, and the ultimate Frenchy reading material...les bandes desinees...or the literal translation is : comic books. now we're not talking about the comic books we think such as marvel comics..but more so like japanese manga.

now i love French comics...especially Asterix and Tintin (which are supposed to be for kids, but have lots of inside jokes and stories for adults too), but the French definitely take their bandes desinees to another level where the adults follow very serious crime or sitcom-type story series and there are whole sections in bookstores dedicated to the bandes desinees and some of the earlier editions of longer series can fetch a pretty nice price (considering they are only about 8-10 euros each to begin with)...something i will never get and apparently, you had to be born French or had a French parent growing up in order to get it or even be into it...

so anyway..i went into auchan (a big super walmart type store) today to try to find a few of the bandes desinees that were on my honey's list...and needless to say, it was one of the few times in my life that i felt that i was completely 100% lost and on another planet....everything was categorized in a system that i, of course, didn't understand and of course, i felt like a complete idiot asking any salesperson (and lack thereof) for any help as i was sure that the series i was looking for are totally popular and common (sort of asking someone in a store where the bestsellers are located)...i spent about a half an hour reading all the price tickets on the shelves before i gave up....i think the boy will be getting underwear this year....blahhh