The apartment we spent the night in was really nice, and having an entire bed to myself was even better. This made getting out of bed particularly difficult this morning at 6:30 AM. It wasn’t all too bad though, I got to have a cold slice of pizza for breakfast.
Does this even need a caption?
I packed up pretty quickly and put on my over-worn clothes on for the last time. I had run out of fresh socks and underwear the night before. Just a few more hours to get through. Everyone else was still sleeping because their train was at nine. I quietly packed and up headed out to the train station.
Boy was it freezing today. I’m talking the type of cold that hurts your face, a cold I thought only possible in Boston. There was a strong and absolutely painful wind blowing, making everything much worse.
I snapped this picture this morning thinking, “It will be worth getting my hands cold to have a picture for the blog”
Fortunately the train station was extremely close. I had to take a twenty minute train ride to Annemasse where I would meet my BlaBlaCar driver. To quote BlaBlaCar’s website, “BlaBlaCar is the world’s leading long distance carpooling service, connecting drivers with empty seats to people travelling the same way”. The service makes you verify your identity, phone number, and Facebook as an extra level of protection.
This service is very nice because you only pay for the gas. My hour and a half drive from Annemasse to Grenoble only cost me $14. The reason I was taking it was because I forgot to book the train with my friends and it ended up being much more expensive since I waited. I saw this BlaBlaCar and hopped on the opportunity since it would get me to Grenoble a few hours earlier than planned.
Anyway, I waited in the freezing cold for ten minutes until my train came. One short ride later, I was at the Gare d’Annemasse. This was conveniently where I was planning to meet my driver Amar.
BlaBlaCar gives you each other’s phone numbers and I had texted Amar earlier.
Our Conversation. Amar obviously only speaks French, but I made do with some help from Google translate.
I found Amar at the train station and the other passenger travelling with BlaBlaCar. I quickly introduced myself and we headed to the car. He could tell I didn’t speak much French, so I didn’t really have to converse much more. I just plugged in my head phones and before I knew it, we were back in Grenoble.
I can’t tell you how nice it felt to be back. Just seeing the French Alps on the horizon felt amazing.
How you know your are close to home.
He dropped us off by the Rugby stadium and I walked to the nearest bus stop. I took my usual C4 bus, and was soon back in my neighborhood. Neither Anne-Marie or Andre were there when I got back, but my breakfast was set up on the table and I just grabbed the brioche. I got up to my room and collapsed in my bed.
It felt really nice to be back. Grenoble really was my home now.
I had a few hours until class, so I unpacked and showered first. It was great to be in clean clothes again. I spent the next hour and a half just lying in bed. An hour and a half before class, I headed to the BU office to pick up my stipend and Valentine’s Day package my mom had sent. I was looking forward to having more consistent meal and a new selection of US snacks. A lot of my other classmates were there, and I ended up going to La Natation with Sarah, Elizabeth and Ryan for lunch. I had been craving their pasta carbonara all week.
Delicious as expected
It was nice to hear about everyone else’s trip and this pasta made feel significantly more energetic. After eating, it was time to head circuits class. Safe to say, I was dreading going back to class. My trip was so exhausting that I could use another vacation to recover from my first vacation.
Circuits wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected, and I didn’t even feel tempted to look at my phone. I guess a week without class makes it significantly less boring. We finished the DC regime today, and would be starting AC soon. This meant more French students would be joining us. I had met a few of them, and they were pretty nice. It would be a nice change-up.
To my surprise, my physics quiz I expected to have tomorrow was actually today. Fortunately it was at the end of class, and I felt pretty prepared for it since we did a lot of review of material from before vacation. Although, I could really feel my tiredness in this class.
I headed back to the BU office after class since I left my package there. Nick was there and we both headed to Monoprix afterwards. I desperately needed to do some grocery shopping.
I picked up a bunch of sandwich supplies for lunch, fresh fruit, tissues, and some pre-made salads. I also signed up for the Monoprix loyalty card and bought one of their big reusable grocery bags. I saved about five euros and was feeling pretty damn proud of myself. Being an adult is fun sometimes.
I walked with Nick back to his place, which was on the way to my house. I deposited all my groceries in the fridge and had a brief conversation with Anne-Marie.
Here are some highlights from the conversation, conveniently translated to English:
“My trip was very fun.”
“I am tired”
“It is very cold today”
Thrilling.
I immediately threw my laundry into the washing machine after going to my room. I really struggled to fit it all in the machine, but I made it work.
It was now time to open my care package and I was pretty excited. I already knew most of the contents though, because Andrew got the same one a week ago and sent a picture in our family group chat. Either way I now had a nice card from my mom and a huge selection of American snacks and candy. It’s funny how I now consider American candy exotic.
My Package
The Lego mini figure was a great touch by my mom. Legos are pretty much the reason I wanted to do engineering and this little figure is now a great addition to my Grenoble desk.
I spent a good fifteen minutes eating a ton of snacks, despite planning to eat in thirty minutes. Afterwards, I spent some time learning some new French vocab. I had taken a decent break from French this week and wanted to get back into my studies.
A bit later, I ate my salad for dinner and hung up all my wet clothes on the drying rack. I spent some time typing up this blog, and went to bed pretty early. I really needed a good rest.
Foreign Tourist with No Grasp of the Local Language 
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