Frédéric, who comes from an, in his opinion, idyllic part of rural France (Boulonnais; picture above), had been hoping that Sarah would find his birth place as arresting as he does.
Regrettably, Sarah believed Boulonnais to be gloomy and depressing as she had no childhood memories of any kind attached to it.
The same cultural clash occurs as Frédéric visits Sydney (picture on the left) for the first time in his life. Sarah had been expecting him to almost immediately fall for her urbanised birth place. Sad to say, he initially held that the water is too cold and the buildings too American style-wise.
In the end, what they did was get the hang of France and Australia first. Only then did they start to construct their own web of memories so that they could more easily feel sympathy for each others' home countries.
As time is allegedly the best healer, their initial preconceived believes were transformed into love and deepening knowledge about France and Australia.
It was compelling for me to read this chapter as I myself am an expat who has just begun to understand how puzzling it is to be torn between two countries. While Graz has been my actual home for a year and something now, Lovran is my history. I learned to walk, talk and swim there, I had my first best friend there etc. Lovran is were all my cherished memories lie.
Nevertheless, akin to Turnbull and Frédéric, I have started to create my own memories of Graz which will aid me in understanding this quaint Austrian city better. In other words, I've begun to pave the way for an deeper awareness of my chosen university place.
New vocab:
1. chasm
a)a large difference
b)a gap
c)a rock formation
2. no-nonsense
a)easy
b) practical
c)immediate
3. evanescence
a)blithe
b)serendipity
c) sth. lasting for a short time
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