Apparently flushing toilets after 10 pm is forbidden in France-Day 3- January 11, 2018

My first day in France started off in typical jet lag style, being wide awake at 5 am. Fortunately for me, after browsing my phone for twenty minutes,  I fell asleep ready for my first full day in France.

Naturally, I slept through both my alarms and had to be waken up by my host mom ten minutes before I was supposed to leave. I scramble to grab all my stuff and get dressed, then head downstairs. This would have been great opportunity to say “sorry” or “I slept through my alarms” but again, I don’t know how to speak French. I said this in English anyway hoping it would get through, which it seemed to a little. Anne-Marie must have not been mad because she made me a full breakfast of cereal, brioche and coffee. I was very appreciative of this, but also extremely confused because my coffee was served in a bowl.

Here’s a picture I took later of the phenomenon.

Being in a rush and alone in the kitchen, I just guessed and drank straight from the bowl Medieval Times style. Jessica came downstairs soon after, and Anne-Marie offered to walk us to where we had to go so we said yes.  This walk took about an hour and was good opportunity too see the river and more parts of Grenoble.

This walk also lead me to believe that BU office was super far away, but later I found out it was only a fifteen minute walk. Going to Jessica’s office is what made the walk take so long.

I took this nice photo on the walk.

 

I got to the BU abroad office, and chatted up my BU classmates about our first nights with the host families. Surprisingly, many had similar experiences to me, though some luckily had families that were fluent in English.

I said this in an earlier blog post, but my official university classes don’t start until next Monday. This week I would have a French class everyday at the BU abroad office until Saturday.  Were split into a beginner and advanced class. I and about 8 others were in the “dumb class”. Today was the first lesson.

My first French lesson lasted about two hours and proved to be super useful. The professor was super nice, though a bit shocked at our lack of French abilities. Two hours later, I was able to introduce myself in French, order basic things, and learned the most essential phrase: “Je ne parla pas Francais”. This translates to I don’t speak French, a very valid statement for myself.

After class, I went to find food with some of my classmates. We settled for a kebab place called Taco Royale and I was somewhat successful in ordering my food in French. I was doing really good until I was asked what sauce I wanted. Luckily for me, barbecue is the same in French and English. What the French call kebab was similar to  chicken gyros in America. Also the French interpretation of tacos are different as well.

We had to do some more orientation stuff at the office so we took the food to go. The kebab was actually pretty good, despite being a little messy.

Our program director, Celine, gave us information about our classes, expectations and some trips we would go on as groups. In two weekends, we would be snowshoeing in the alps. On another weekend, we would visit a chocolate factory and then a vineyard. Additionally, I found out I have two spring breaks and many days off.

After this orientation, we had a two hour break before a woman from the university would come to tell us our schedules.

I took this opportunity to finally get my French sim card and number from Free mobile. For 20 euros a month, I got unlimited data throughout Europe.

Here’s a funny photo of the card reader with a misleading “Free” displayed.

I know its probably not wise to post my phone number on the internet, but since only family and friends will likely be reading this, here it is:  (+33) 07 67 85 88 69. 

If you have an iphone, you should be able to text me via imessage without charges of any kind.

I then met up with my friends to go buy notebooks, which proved to be stupidly expensive. Though to my surprise, one of favorite notebook brands that I’ve only found online was in stock here.  I had forgot that Rhodia was a French brand.

Notebooks Galore

We headed back to the office and listened to the director from L’Universite Grenoble de Alpes, the school we would be attending. To our surprise, our schedule was actually pretty hefty.  We had a lot of classes on Mondays and Fridays, which meant it would be difficult to skip those days for extra three day weekends. We did not have classes on Wednesdays though, which is supposedly common in France. We were assigned our classes and I am taking:

Modern Physics

Differential Equations

Electric Circuits

French

French Culture.

To out delight, we were told that the grading system is apparently much more lenient and the homework load pretty light in French univeristies. These were good signs because I heard that Modern Physics, Diff. Eq. and Circuits were very hard at BU.

After this session, I powered up Google Maps and headed back home for dinner. I successfully found my home, but using my three keys to open the gate, outer door, and main door proved pretty difficult. I made it all the way to third door, and then had the classic experience of getting your key stuck in the door. Luckily, Anne-Marie heard the commotion and helped me. I probably should learn how to say help me in French soon.

I went up to my room and typed up some blog posts for a bit, then heard the dinner bell ring.

For dinner, we had: salad and bread, some type of breaded meat, spinach, more bread and a cheese platter, potato chips and pudding.

This dinner felt more comfortable for me than the night before, but once again I was pretty much silent the whole time. I did have poor French conversation where I learned their cat was named Sonic and they asked me what I learned that day. I answered, “Je suis perdu” (I am lost). They found this pretty funny. I was also super full, but kept on eating to be polite when they offered the next course.

After dinner, I was super exhausted and hung out in my room. Despite my tiredness, I found out my classmates were going to a pub, so I decided to go as well because I did not want to miss out. I google translated how to say, “I am going to the bar with friends” and headed downstairs. A-M nodded and motioned to be quiet when I returned. 

I was able to figure out the door locks, and headed out for the night. The bar was called the London Pub, and was recommended to us by Celine. It was relatively far from me, but I figured this was a good opportunity to test out the Tram, Grenoble’s public transportation. 

The tram proved to be easy, and I was soon at the bar. I found my classmates in the back and we tested our skills by ordering drinks in French. I had success, but realized I don’t know number yet so I just gave the server a ten euro note and hoped my change was right. I had a pretty good gin and tonic and this French beer called Black Licrone. It was very good and tasted similar to Guinness. 

A picture of my beer in the terrible bar lighting.

 

There was no phone service in the bar, so we were all forced to be social and had a merry time. After about two hours, I headed back home because I had class at 9 AM. Despite some navigational trouble, I successfully and made it my goal to be as quiet as possible.

I got through the gate and two doors easily and was feeling good. I tip-toed upstairs to use the bathroom, brush my teeth, and go to bed. After using the bathroom, I was brushing my teeth when I heard a knock on the bathroom door. I opened it to find A-M in her night gown shhhing me and pointing towards the toilet. Apparently flushing toilets after 10 PM is forbidden in France. I apologized and headed to bed.

I was actually trying to be as quiet as possible and was very sober. I fear for the nights I return in the late hour and very inebriated. I guess I will have to start brushing my teeth at the pub or something.