My morning started at 6:35 AM, as I woke up fifteen earlier than normal. This was part of my continuous plan to make my mornings less hectic. This is somewhat ironic because the French are known for being late to everything. I had to pack a lot of extra things in my backpack today like my laptop and charger, because I was making a presentation in French culture class.
After taking my time while enjoying my frosties and coffee, I headed off to school. It was a bit colder today, so I wore my parka. One thing I didn’t realize was that sunrise occurs significantly later in Grenoble. This is because the whole city is surrounded by mountains, making the sun take longer to rise. This also means that I walk in the dark on Friday mornings.
My first class of the day was circuits. This was not too bad since we only did practice problems. I worked with Harry for most of the problems and understood all of them. Class was over before I knew it. Culture class was next.
French culture class always goes by quickly. The past couple times we entered the classroom, it was freezing and reeked of body odor. Somebody in the previous class really needs to learn personal hygiene. Once class began, we talked about various subjects such as agreements, laws, intimate spaces in the home and the news. Every class, two people make a presentation where they compare a French and American article on a single event. It is interesting to see the differences in reporting and sometimes biases.
Later in class, Jonathon and I made our presentation on the land-based mentality of France and the importance of different regions. We had the class do an activity where they described the region they’re from in the US by:
- A typical food
- A typical activity or form of entertainment
- A typical personality or attitude.
This was interesting to see what people listed for their region, whether it was New Yorker’s being mean or New Englander’s loving lobster. This served as great segway into the importance of pays in France and the land’s influence on these characteristics. I talk more about my presentation in the previous blog post, if you are interested.
After class I headed to the shops area on campus for lunch. I wanted to try this Italian place, but had forgot my cash at home. I had four euros in coins on me, so I got the usual sandwich which was delicious as always.
Half Eaten Sandwich
While waiting on line for food, I spotted Sebastian ahead in line. I grabbed him by the shoulders and started cursing at him to spook him. It was very successful. I probably should be more cautious in the future though, considering Sebastian is a very built football player.
I ended up eating my lunch with Sebastian and our other friend from Colby, Alex. This was a nice surprise to run into them and made my lunch much more enjoyable.
I was dreading my physics class after lunch, but it went well today. I actually felt like I understood everything and asked a ton of questions. I also made the professor laugh. He asked me the mass of a proton and I replied “1.67 x 10^-27”. He then said, “What’s the unit, apples?” and I responded “No, it’s actually bananas”. This may have been the lamest joke I’ve ever made in my life, but it made the professor and French kids laugh so I couldn’t complain.
After physics was differential equations. I feel bad because this professor has us for our first lecture on Monday mornings and our last lecture on Fridays. Both are terrible periods for participation and attention. Even though every urge in my body wanted me to not pay attention in this class, I actually kept up with his complex algebra and derivations. After 45 minutes of this, I realized that this was all just to derive a simple formula we already knew. After this, he did the same process for a slightly different version. I zoned out for a bit during this part.
We are learning about population growth models which is somewhat interesting. Based on a series of graphs and lines, you can predict how a population will react to different factors. The concept is cool, the derivations are not. Eventually the class ended and we were finally free. I made plans to go to Monoprix and H&M with Nick and Harry after class.
We rode the tram to the Gustave Rivet stop and got off. We ended up stopping in a drug store first because Nick and Harry wanted travel sized toiletries. Afterwards, we headed to Monoprix where they both did some food shopping. Not only was I surprised to find a tiny American section in the store featuring poptarts, but I found one of my favorite American craft beers too.
A Brooklyn Lager individual bottle I found in France for some odd reason
I was very tempted to buy it, but I didn’t want to carry it around until I got home. I will come back for it at some point. If only I could find Sam Adams here now.
We briefly headed to H&M afterwards, but none of us could find anything we were looking for. I said goodbye to my friends and headed home.
I typically only have two dinners a week, but I was having a third one tonight to make up for one I would miss while on winter break. The reason Anne-Marie planned this was because her other son Jerome, who is a firefighter in Paris, was visiting. We were having raclette for the occasion.
I heard the dinner bell ring around 8 PM, about 30 minutes later than usual. I came downstairs to see the kitchen surprisingly not set up. Jerome was cooking crepes on the stove and flipping the crepes high in the air. Jerome’s wife was there as well, though I don’t remember her name.
I forgot to mention it earlier, but February 2nd is a day in France where everyone eats crepes, sort of like Crepe Day. It really is a religious holiday called La Chandeleur, but everyone celebrates by eating crepes since they look like a sun or something. Either way, I love crepes and can’t complain.
Anne-Marie asked me if I wanted to flip the crepe in the air, and of course I said yes. This was quite nerve-wracking. I knew there was like an 80% chance the crepe would land on the floor. A-M gave me a penny to place in the hand holding the pan, I guess for good luck or something. I took a deep breath, and somehow managed to successfully flip the crepe. It was a good day. Jessica was next and my expectations were low for her
Fortunately, I recorded her crepe flip on video. I didn’t want my blog readers to miss out.
Not the cleanest flip, but also not the worst. After this, A-M led us into the living room. To my shock, there was dining room table in here setup for dinner. This is legit the first time I have ever been in this room, as I only ever go in my room, the kitchen, and the front hall.
If you are unfamiliar with raclette, it is a type of cheese that you typically melt in a pan, than pour over various meats and potatoes. You mix everything together and it tastes extremely good. Having raclette is a very popular thing in the French Alps and this is my third time having it in France. For our setup, there was an electric raclette grill in the center of the table.
Here’s what it looked like, minus the grill on top.
The new company at dinner made for a great opportunity to use my French. I probably had the longest and most intense French conversations in my life tonight. I spoke to Andre about French politics, brexit, and World War II for about twenty minutes. I surprisingly understood about sixty percent of what he was saying. I was very proud of my abilities.
I also found it interesting how taboo of a subject WWII is in France. The whole time we talked about it, the mood became much more solemn and quiet. I guess this is because France’s occupation left a lot of scarring memories for the country. I told Andre that I had relatives who took part in D-Day and he was impressed. He asked which beach they landed on and I didn’t know which one. He asked me again, so I just said Omaha. There was only two beaches Americans landed on, so hopefully I was right. I will have to ask my real dad about it later.
We also had wine with dinner, which was a nice change. There were two good white wines and a sparkling rose. At the end of dinner, Jerome and Fabrise brought out gifts for A-M. It was her birthday! I wish I knew because I would have bought her flowers or something. Maybe I will buy some later. A-M brought out her own birthday cake and we all sang for her. I didn’t actually sing because I didn’t know the words. We had cake and nutella crepes for dessert. I was extremely full, but very content. We sat around a for a good amount of time afterwards.
Eventually, I thanked A-M for the delicious meal and wished her happy birthday in French.
I headed upstairs, where I took a shower and packed my bag for Lyon. Tomorrow I was going on an overnight field trip to Lyon with my BU classmates.
I typed up this blog, then called it a night.
Foreign Tourist with No Grasp of the Local Language 
Leave a comment