A Birthday, Fancy Cheese, and Plenty of Alcohol-Day 8-January 16th, 2018

Today marks the completion of my first week in France, as well as my birthday.

I decided to treat myself today and slept in until about 10.  Despite the time difference, I woke up to bunch a birthday texts which was very nice. My Grenoble friends also wanted to make plans to get drinks that night. Maybe Anne-Marie would let me flush the toilet after 10 PM as a birthday present too.

After debating whether to get out of bed for a while, I got ready and started my day. Breakfast was the same as always, but Anne-Marie must of known it was my birthday because she said “Bon anniversaire” to me. She said something about dinner that I didn’t quiet understand, but figured that she was doing something special for me. On top of that, I got the ratio for my coffee perfect. My day was already going great.

After breakfast, I changed into workout clothes and headed for the gym. I wanted to workout before I had physics at 1:30. To my surprise, the receptionist at the gym knew my name and said hi when I came in. I also finally got my gym card, though I had to pay 15 euros for it which was disappointing.

Today it was chest day at the gym. Unfortunately for me, the one bench press was being used the whole time and I didn’t know how to ask if I could work in with someone. Otherwise, I had a very good workout. The gym was slightly less crowded, so I took the opportunity to take some pictures for my blog.

Here is a selfie I took in the mirror, kind of shows what the gym looks like

Like I described earlier, everything is in Kilos. Just multiple the number by 2.2 to get lbs.

I finished my workout with another ab session, and headed home feeling great.

I slightly messed up in my time calculations and had to rush home and get ready for school to avoid being late. I was planning to eat the rest of my terrible pizza for lunch, but I had to skip it due to time constraints. I took a quick shower, packed my bag, and headed to the bus stop.

I got to school about 15 minutes before class, and used the opportunity to grab lunch. I got another delicious sandwich on a baguette for 4 euros. After getting my sandwich, I ran into a few of my classmates and we headed to class. One of my classmates, Sara, was inspired by my sandwich and rushed off to get one too. Ten minutes later when we were in class, Sara texted our Grenoble groupchat in a panic saying she couldn’t remember where the building was and was lost. Someone had to give her verbal directions over the phone and eventually she made it.

I had three hours of modern physics to get through. It was split into two sections taught by the two professors. My first professor was pretty good, though the second was a bit dry again. We are learning a lot of stuff about relativity and quantum mechanics, which is cool because it contradicts nearly everything I’ve learned in classical physics before. There are many of diverse ways to analyze time and measurements with new inertial reference systems.

I also sat next to a French student today, and I later bragged to my BU classmates that “he was my first French friend”. His name was Ahmad and we talked for a bit before and after class. He is English is very good and we kept making funny comments to each other throughout the lecture.

I guess the being super bored and making fun of the professor is a universal concept for students.

After class, I just headed home for the day. At home, I facetimed my friend Ivy for about an hour and it was very nice to catch up.

An hour later, I was chilling in my room when I heard the dinner bell ring. I headed downstairs and the table setup was a bit different than usual. In the middle of the table, there was something that looked like two hot plates with a gap in between for little trays. Some googling later revealed this is known as a raclette grill.

This is what the raclette grill looked like, minus the grill part on top.

There was a bunch of slices of cheese that I assume was raclette, a plate of ham, salami and prosciutto, potatoes and a baguette. The cheese actually smelled like vomit, but I trusted it would taste good after being melted. Andre showed me that you had to put the slice of cheese in the pan, then it would melt into a bubbly liquid. Once ready, you poured the now liquidy cheese onto your meat and potatoes. It was super delicious and I ate an ungodly amount of it. Anne-Marie and Andre kept encouraging me to take more and more, and I did not mind one bit.

Despite being told alcohol was not allowed on my first day, they must break this rule for special occasions because there was a bottle of white wine on the table. Halfway through the meal, Andre brought out wine glasses and poured a glass for Jessica, me and himself. Interestingly enough, Anne-Marie did not take part in the wine consumption.

After the food was finished, A-M went to get something out of the freezer that was a birthday cake for me!  She put a two and a zero shaped candle on the cake and lit the candles and started singing. I blew out the candles then A-M kissed me on both cheeks (I guess some birthday wishes do come true!). We enjoyed the cake as well a some sweet-tasting cookies. Andre then refilled Jessica and I’s wine glasses halfway and used the rest to pour himself a tall glass. For a household that doesn’t allow alcohol at the table, Andre sure does love his wine.

I noticed the candles look used before, and A-M told us that she has been hosting exchange students long enough that she had celebrated a good amount of 20th birthdays for students. I imagine she has a slightly melted one candle somewhere in the cabinets as well.

I usually don’t take my phone out at meals, but I made Jessica take a picture of me with my cake for purposes of this blog. It also shows what the kitchen looks like, emphasis on the monopoly man glass I’m given every night for dinner.

Cheesin’ in the country of cheese

I thanked Andre and Anne-Marie for the great meal and cake and headed up to my room after we finished. I had to start getting ready for the pub. We were planning to go this pub called O’Callaghan Irish Pub, which advertised its impressive selection of beers.

The plan was that I would walk to Nick’s house, and we’d walk to the bar together. Dylan, Katie and a few others would meet us their later. On the way to Nick’s, my friend Jared called me and we talked for a bit. I was interested to find out about the new person who replaced me in our BU suite. I got to Nick’s and we headed to the bar. It was possible to take the tram, but it was warmer this evening and we wanted to walk.

We got to the bar and it was very packed despite being a Tuesday night. The bar had over twenty beer taps and an impressive selection. Both Nick and I got tall glasses of Hoegaarden, a Belgian beer that’s been a favorite of mine lately. We then went to sit outside in the heated courtyard.

Here’s a selfie of Nick and I, with an appropriate caption.

Some women randomly put her beer on our table and said she was using the bathroom and said she would be back. This was super odd to us because in America, a women at a bar would never leave her drink unattended with a stranger. We must have looked trustworthy and fortunately for her, Nick and I had zero plans to spike her drink.

Dylan and Katie arrived shortly after, and I was caught up on plans for all of us (and Jonathon) to go to Paris in two weekends. We all booked our bus tickets for the trip and were very excited. Shortly after, our friends Kim, Ellie and Elizabeth got to the bar and joined our table. Thanks to the kindness of my friends, I did not have to pay for any of my drinks that night and I had a gin and tonic and the house Blonde beer. Despite the impressive selection of beer, I was inspired to get the g&t because the bar had my favorite gin, Beefeater London.

We stayed for about another hour and a half and had a great time at the bar. We all headed out around twelve because we had class the next day. Nick and I walked back together again. I would definitely recommend this pub to anyone visiting Grenoble.

Despite being my birthday, I didn’t want to alarm Anne-Marie and chose to forgo using the bathroom again when I got back to the house.

Even though I was expecting my birthday to be an average day, it ended up being an awesome day and one of the best birthdays I’ve had in a while. I am very grateful for my friends and family that made my day so special.