Despite my desire to sleep in a bit, I got up around 8 AM on this bright Saturday morning. There were some sneakers releasing online at 9 AM that I wanted to buy and resell for a high profit. Spoiler alert: I didn’t get them.
On the bright side, it got me out of bed much earlier than I would have on a normal Saturday morning. I used this time to try and be a little productive. I wrote my whole blog post from the night before and spent a good amount of time planning my class schedule for the Fall. I was trying to work a French class into my schedule, but I needed another social science and it didn’t qualify unfortunately. Next year will be interesting because my classes will only be mechanical engineers. This means most of my class friends won’t be in my classes anymore, but my classes will be smaller and more tailored to my major.
Once my productivity phase ended this morning, I spent some quality time being lazy and doing nothing. I lounged around watching the Sopranos and ate a sandwich for lunch. I did have one more thing to accomplish today, and that was to get a haircut.
I found a place that Harry went to and looked up a bunch of French phrases to describe my haircut. This could be a potentially risky haircut because of the language barrier. Most French businesses close for two hours during lunch, so I headed to the place a little after 3.
As soon as I got there, I knew I was in for a good experience. The barbershop was super cool, had big comfy couches, a bunch of cool clothing for sale, and they were blasting rap music. One guy I spoke to knew English and pointed to the barber I would be waiting for. It was about a forty minute wait, but I didn’t mind because it was a nice environment.
Here’s a picture I snuck of the barbershop
The person who cut my hair didn’t really speak too much English, but I tried to explain in French and someone helped me translate. The haircut went pretty well and I was impressed with their work. I definitely will be returning here.
My haircut. I already know my mom will see this picture and exclaim, “I miss my handsome boy!”.
It was almost time for dinner by the time I get back, and I really wasn’t feeling another sandwich or salad. I messaged some of my friends and Harry agreed to get Tacos with me. I watched another episode of the Sopranos, then I headed out to Tacos Royale to meet Harry.
I got a delicious steak tacos and fries.
My food
Harry and I discussed our plans for the night. Our friend David was having a 21st birthday party tonight. The plan was to go to his apartment for “predrinks”, then to London Pub. David is really from Ireland, but we still group him within “the French kids” in our physics class. He definitely is one of the more approachable ones and we were looking forward to hanging out with non-Americans for once. Jonathan was going to come with us as well.
We had time to kill, so rather than leaving and meeting up later, I took Harry back to my house. I needed to grab the sixpack of beers I bought and took the risk of bringing a guest home for the first time. I didn’t know how Anne-Marie would react, but I didn’t want to make Harry awkwardly wait outside.
I prepped a little spiel to give her that pretty much was (in French of course):
“This is my friend Harry, we are going to the bar in a few minutes. I just need to change my clothes before we go out”.
Surprisingly, A-M didn’t care at all that I brought Harry. She just said bonjour and kind of shooed us away. I took Harry to my room and gave him the grand tour. He is literally the first person to ever see where I live, so this was pretty monumental for me. He thought my African lady sheets were hilarious.
Here’s Harry in my room
I shoved all six beers into my coat and we headed off to Harry’s house to repeat this process. Harry’s host parents weren’t home, so this was a bit easier. Harry lives pretty damn far from me in a section called La Tronche. It is across the river and close to the university. I had never been over there before.
We took the tram and Harry brought me to his apartment briefly so he could grab his gin and tonic supplies. It is very interesting to see what other people’s living spaces were like. The only other home I had been to was Jonathan’s twice before.
I had to document this moment by making Harry take a photo of me on his bed.
We left shortly after to meet Jonathan at the Victor Hugo tram stop, which was close to David’s apartment. We met him outside Burger King and went to David’s. His family’s apartment was super nice and had very tall ceilings. I could tell this building was very old as well. There was about ten people there, a few of them were people that were going to be joining our circuits class. I had met some of them before, but there was a good amount of new faces.
Everyone was very open about sharing their alcohol, so there was many good options. David was also playing a ton of throwback songs and everyone was having a good time singing and dancing. Almost everyone spoke English, though a few people didn’t. I briefly spoke to some guy in French about the Celtics because he was a fan. After a while there, we headed out to London Pub. David used to work there, so we would get our own table and a cake as well.
It was about a twenty minute walk, and I was talking to some Italian-French girl named Valentina. Her English was not great, so we spoke in Italian because it was easier. I was a little impressed with myself, because I felt like I was able to have a real conversation completely in Italian. Granted, I probably messed up a lot and occasionally used French words accidentally, but not bad overall for someone who was drinking. I talked to her for a bit once we got to the bar, but through some outside investigation with David, I learned she had a boyfriend. Rats.
I had been to London Pub on my second night in France, but it was not packed at all and very chill. It was completely full tonight and a totally different atmosphere. The tight dance floor was packed and we had a table upstairs. At the bar, we ran into a few more of my physics classmates, including my new lab partner Greg. Besides David and Ahmad, I really hadn’t spoke that much to the other French kids in my class. Being slightly inebriated changed this situation greatly, and I was soon talking a ton with Greg and we were having a great time with everyone. I guess alcohol can really be a social lubricant sometimes.
Here’s Jonathan and one of the French kids wearing a random wig we found.
Overall it was a super fun night and a nice change-up from my nights out with the Americans. I definitely will try to go out more with this group in the future.
After a long night, I headed home pretty late and immediately crashed in bed.
Foreign Tourist with No Grasp of the Local Language 
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