Mastering the Microwave-Day 9- January 17th 2018

After coming home somewhat late and not having class until 1:30, I slept in to around 10:30 today. Once I ate breakfast, I got changed and typed up the rest of my blog for yesterday. I also spent some time reviewing my French conjugations as I hadn’t had French class since Saturday. Today was an easy day and I only had a hour and a half French class.

For my lunch, I planned to eat my leftover pizza. I knew I was allowed to use the microwave, but when I asked Anne-Marie, she showed me that I actually had my own microwave and electric water heater upstairs. Any food I could make with these two wonderful tools was now available to me. For my dinners and lunches during the week, it would make sense to make some meals at home to save money. Though unlike some of my friends, I was not allowed to use the kitchen and needed to be creative.

I packed my bag and headed out for campus after lunch. Unfortunately, I missed the bus by two seconds despite running for it and ended up looking like a fool. The next bus wasn’t for ten minutes, so I just walked to the tram station. I took the tram as usual and headed to class. My French professor, Christine, was the same one who taught us last week in the BU office.

The French lesson was pretty typical. We learned more conjugations, ways to describe people and classroom vocabulary. One interesting thing I learned today was the French way to say someone has a black eye. You say, “un oeil au beurere noir” which literally translates to “an eye with black butter”. Pretty weird.

I also found out in class that Grenoble was considered the street artwork capital of the world. This would make sense as there is street art and graffiti almost everywhere in the city and it seems like they make no attempt to clean any of it up. I am now making plans to tag up the fence in front of Anne-Maries’s house with spray paint.

I took a picture of the Tram today at school because I had never posted a picture of it. This is a good personality pic of Nick, Jonathon and Dylan.

After class, I headed home. However, right before I was about to get on the bus, I decided to explore a nearby park rather than going straight home. This park had a giant tower and seemed worthwhile to walk through. It was called Parc Paul Mistral. The park was named after a former Mayer of Grenoble who was responsible for building the gondola line up to the Bastille and other things. A plaque said that the park was named for him after his “brutal death”. I tried to find out online how he died, but it will forever remain a mystery to me. I got excited while I was there, because some French students with a camera and microphone asked to interview me. This seemed like a great opportunity to meet more French locals. This dream of mine died quickly when they realized I didn’t speak French and walked away.

Additionally, there was a lot of monuments in the park dedicated to people of the French resistance.  The signs were all in French, but with the help of Google Translate I found out some information. Grenoble was taken over by Italy in World War II, but its citizens did a lot to fight back as part of the resistance. There was one group called the Blue Devils, that destroyed a factory, powder keg, and barracks after their resistance leaders were executed. Pretty cool stuff.

Here’s a monument dedicated to the Blue Devils.

The giant tower was named the Perret Tower and was built in 1924 for some exhibition. The actual tower had been closed since the 1960s unfortunately, so I could not climb up it.

The Perret Tower.

There was also a big open area with bleachers and a track. I later found out this was built as a cycling track in the 1920’s and the first sporting facility in Grenoble. It did not look super used, but made for a nice picture with the wet ground and alps in the background.

The Cycling Track.

I headed home after walking around for a while. After doing nothing for a bit, I got on athletic clothes and headed to the gym. I was supposed to go with Nick this morning, but was too lazy to get out of bed. Today I did triceps and chest, some time on the rowing machine, and an ab workout.

I also talked to one of the gym employees about basketball for a bit. He said he used to play in a very high level when he was 18 and went to some French championship. He asked me what level I played and if I played for my university. This is a common misconception many people have where they assume I’m really good at basketball because of my height. Little do they know I’m actually pretty mediocre. This often works in my favor though, as people always ask me to play pick up games at gym with them and I usually say yes.  I told him I play mainly with friends, and he invited me to play with him in Grenoble once the weather got warmer.

With the prospect of pick up basketball games and a great workout completed, I left the gym in a great mood. After I got back, I showered and put my normal clothes back on. I had agreed earlier to meet Nick for dinner at this restaurant called Batman Kebeb. I had heard really good things about this place and wanted to try it. Plus you can’t really go wrong with a restaurant named after Batman.

I met up with Nick and had a delicious meal. The kebab, which is different in France, was filled with chicken, vegetables, french fries and a bunch of good stuff.

Here’s a picture of my kebab.

After eating, we went to Monoprix, which is essentially the French version of Target. We were both looking for meals to make during the week. Monoprix had quite the impressive selection of microwaveable meals. I got a package of rice, two precooked dinners, and two precooked pasta meals for about 12 euros. I am planning to go to the market tomorrow to get some fresh meat, cheese, bread and vegetables as well.

I headed home with my haul of microwavable food, excited for the delicious meals of my near future. I guess microwaved food won’t be as bad when paired with goat cheese and baguettes.

When I got home, I asked Anne-Marie in French if I could put my stuff in the fridge. I am proud to say that I now own real estate in the Lopez household fridge, and am allowed to use up the entire top shelf.

My haul + old pizza in my special section of the fridge.

I headed upstairs and worked on my physics and French homework for a while. Afterward, I typed up this blog and called it a night. I went to bed, mouth watering, thinking about my microwaveable meals.