Grenoble Peaked in 1968-Day 28-February 6th, 2018

I woke up around 9 AM with plans to start my day productively at the gym. I snoozed my alarm for about two hours and that gym thing didn’t end up happening. I spent sometime typing up my blogs this mornings, as well as having my usual breakfast and coffee. I chilled out for a while this morning and was in no rush to do anything.

A little before 1, I headed off to school for my three hours of physics classes. My classmates and I didn’t realize this, but we had a quiz in quantum mechanics today. I made sure to pay attention as much as possible and take notes more than usual. Most of what we learned made sense in the first physics session. However, the quiz ended up being a bit challenging. I knew most of it, but definitely will prepare more for the next quiz. The second half of physics, special relativity, was not terrible either. We are studying different ways to analyze momentum and velocity when you have four dimensions rather than the classical three. It was cool because were using and applying a lot of Einstein’s equations, including E = mc^2. Physics was finally over and I headed home for the day.

On the way home, I stopped to buy some flowers. It was Anne-Marie’s birthday last Friday, and I felt bad that I hadn’t gotten her anything. I picked out some nice pink/white roses.

The Flowers

While walking home, I memorized how to say “I am a few days late, but happy birthday!” in French. When I got home, I gave her the flowers and she loved them. I was planning to go to the gym before dinner, but A-M told me that we would be eating earlier tonight. It was because tonight Grenoble was having a big celebration since it held the Winter Olympics exactly 50 years ago in 2018.

I hung out in my room for a bit, then made plans to meet up with some friends after dinner for the Olympic celebration. The dinner bell rung around 6:45, and went downstairs. Dinner tonight featured some weird hot pastry for an appetizer, then some pork and beans dish as the main course. Both of these were pretty meh, but I ate it all anyway. There was leftover crepes from last Friday, so we had nutella crepes for dessert. Crepes never disappoint and I definitely want to increase my crepe consumption in America.

During dinner, Andre was asking me about my trip to Lyon and where I went. He also asked what restaurant I ate dinner at. My French was seriously lacking here and I couldn’t really think of the words to express myself. This just motivated me to do some more studying on my own.

After dinner, I headed to Paul Mistral park for the celebration. This park is the one place in Grenoble that is actually close to me. Even if I got lost, it would not be hard to follow the bright lights and loud music. I had been to the park before, but its was extremely crowded this time and had a bunch of new structures. I was able to find Dylan and Jonathon, and we entered what used to be the Olympic speed skating rink (there was no ice currently).

A band came out and started playing the Olympic music while people holding different flags walked across the empty bleachers. Then the Mayor of Grenoble came out and gave a speech. He spoke French slowly enough that I could actually understand a lot. My listening skills are definitely better than my speaking skills.

The Flags and Band ( I apologize, this photo is terrible)

 

The band started up again, and some guy wearing snow camo ran in carrying the Olympic torch. He gave the torch to a former French Olympian, who ran up the stairs and lit the giant bowl with the Olympic flame. This was extremely cool to watch.

Here’s grainy video of this happening.

After the lighting, they showed two videos on the big screen. The first video was a bunch of vintage footage from the 1968 Grenoble Olympics with very energetic music. The second video was footage of Grenoble today. Just when we thought the event was over, a light turned on above the huge structure and we saw a man and some tiny stair case. Music started playing and the man did a routine where he would climb the stairs and fall onto the trampolines very rhythmically. It was odd, but entertaining to watch.

This is what the setup looked like. This was about fifty feet in the air.

Afterwards, there was a dance routine on the stage with a man and some girl. This was followed by a big fire work show. There was a bunch of shooting flames on the bleachers and a variety of fireworks. It was pretty entertaining, but I think America may have France beat with firework shows.

Fireworks. The orange in bottom corner is the giant Olympic Flame

After the show, the crowd dispersed and I met some others from BU at the tram stop. We went to some bar called Le Jules Verne. My card kept getting declined for some reason, so a friend spotted me. I only had one drink, than headed home for the night. I was pretty tired and immediately went to bed.