Excerpts from Rachel Sherman's Letters Home:

Although I have experienced many cultural difference so far, family mealtime is when it is most evident that I am no longer home in the United States. While I really enjoy sitting and talking with the family during this time, table manners are extremely important and it has taken most of the two weeks so far for me to become comfortable with appropriate table behaviors. In addition to spending one ot three hours at the table for each mean, I am not used to waiting for dinner until 8 or 9 at night, o rto eating meals in multiple, distinct courses. We have vegetables, then the main dinner course is followed by cheese, then fruit, and there is always dessert. We do have wine with every meal, though females are not allowed to pour wine or ask for wine -- it is the male's job to observe our empty glasses and then offer to refill them for us.

Both my host mother and my 9-year old host brother Théophile are very honest in telling me what I should and should not do at the table, and so they whisper to me throughout the meal: "You are not polite if you put the bread on your plate," "your fingers must never touch your food - use your bread or knife to move it," "the drinking glass doesn't go on the side, you have to put it back in the center above your plate," "keep your hands above the table where we can see them," "eat your fruit with a fork and knife, only animals and the poor use their hands," "the fork goes in the left hand," and on and on! It got quite frustrating the first couple of days, but I am now able to appreciate their advice and corrections, as I understand that they only intend to help me so I will better fit in with their family and culture. I have learned to wait to eat until I have first observed how my family eats an item "correctly." This way, I can be more relaxed at meal time, to enjoy myself, and concentrate on the conversation - rather than worrying about how to embarrass myself the least when a banana is set in front of me.