69 days down, 69 more to go. If you couldn’t tell by the title of this blog post, I have officially reached the halfway point of my time here. I guess time flies when you’re having fun.
I had an idea that the halfway point was coming soon, but when I woke up this morning it felt like any other day. Well it was just any other day to be fair. Today was a pretty routine Monday and I will go through my day a little quicker to leave room for some reflection at the end of this post.
The only thing that was new today was the timing of my circuits class. It is usually from 1:30 to 4:45, but today it was only from 12:00 to 1:00. This was the new slot based off the schedules of the French students.
This morning was extremely routine with no surprises. I was soon at school waiting in my differential equations classroom. Our lecture today was essentially just a review of linear algebra, so it wasn’t too bad. I usually go to the office to collect my food stipend on Mondays, but because of the new circuits time, I had to go later.
Having an hour long class was really nice. It’s only thirty less minutes of class, but circuits felt much shorter today. After class I headed to the BU office with my friends to pick up money for the week from Celine. In typical Monday tradition, I went to La Natation for lunch. I brought Nick again with me this week. We didn’t even bother asking for the menus and just ordered two of the “plat du jour” when we walked in. I am really starting to feel like a regular here.
My lunch featuring Nick
Lunch was some pork with salad and these things that were like fancy hash browns. Overall it was pretty good. After lunch, I ran a few errands then headed back to campus for class.
We only were doing practice problems today, so physics went by quickly. This part of the course might be called nuclear physics, but the problems were just basic chemistry and math today. After class, I took the tram home and stopped at the grocery store to pick up two salads to eat for dinner tonight and a meal later this week.
When I got home, I got changed and headed to the gym. Today was leg day and I left the gym very tired. I ate dinner and showered when I got back. I spent some time working on my physics pre-lab, then wrote this post.
Now time for some halfway point reflection!
I figured a good place to start would be to check up on my goals for the semester from the first post.
Here’s my goals from the first post:
Learn French
Purchase and use sonicare toothbrush
Don’t puke from drinking
Go snowboarding in the alps
Get a high GPA
Visit Sicily/Italy
Continuously lift
Fall in love with a French women/ get my heart broken by a French women
New foreign friends
Visit at least 5 countries
Let’s discuss how I’ve been doing for each one.
1. Learn French
Status: Getting There
While I’m not quite there yet, the strides I have made in French are incredible. While learning in a classroom is helpful, it amazing how much easier it is to learn when you’re living in a place where French is the primary language. It also doesn’t hurt that my host family really doesn’t speak English either.
I am going to keep working at this one, and really would like to be conversational by the time I leave. By biggest weaknesses right now are vocabulary and pronunciation. If I can work on these more, I will be getting there.
2. Purchase and Use a SonicCare toothbrush.
Status: Not even attempted.
My dental hygiene is going well, but this one has taken the back burner for now. I don’t even know if I can find one of these in France.
3. Don’t puke from drinking
Status: Whoops!
Not much more to say about this one.
4. Go Snowboarding in the alps
Status: Accomplished
Some annoying people might say I technically haven’t done this one, but I have gone skiing three times so that counts. I was little unsure of this goal going in, but I’m glad I went skiing and am definitely hooked on it. Skiing is awesome and I’m glad I got to learn in one of best places to ski in the world.
5. Get a high GPA
Status: Workin’ on it
Obviously my workload here is much lighter, but I still have been getting everything done and studying. Apparently the program director is really fair with converting grades from the French system to the US letter one too. We’ll have to wait until the end to really see my progress with this one.
6. Visit Sicily/Italy
Status: In the works
I haven’t done this one yet, but I have a trip for Venice and a trip for Sicily both booked and paid for. On top of that, I am meeting my cousins in Le Cinque Terre in May and possibly going to Milan for a weekend. I should have a good dose of Italy after these trips.
7. Continuously Lift
Status: Getting huge!
I’ve been really good about this one and don’t expect this to change during the rest of my trip. I even have a cool handshake with the guy who works at the gym, that should count as some extra credit.
8. Fall in love with a French women/ get my heart broken by a French women
Status: Abysmal Failure
Yeah I haven’t had much luck with this one and its probably for the best. French women are a whole different breed. All the really nice girls I’ve met have had boyfriends too. I’ve still got some time left to find a French lady, but this one is not a main focus currently.
9. New Foreign Friends
Status: Accomplished
I think getting invited to my friends 21st birthday is good enough evidence for this one. I was able to meet people in class and eventually go out with them. This was a more intimidating one, but I’m glad I’ve made strides on it. On top of this, I can’t even count all the interesting strangers I’ve talked to while travelling, even if only for ten minutes.
10. Visit at least 5 countries
Status: Accomplished
France, Sweden, The Netherlands, Ireland, England and Switzerland. Six to be precise. I also should have wrote ” 5 new countries” for this one, but too late now. I could go back and edit it, but that goes against for my personal rules for this blog.
I think that’s some pretty good reflection and I am not going get too philosophical for this post. One thing I will do however, is add some new goals for the second half. I pretty much accomplished all of them, so why not have some other ones?
Here’s the old list with added items:
Learn French
Purchase and use sonicare toothbrush
Don’t puke from drinking
Go snowboarding in the alps X
Get a high GPA
Visit Sicily/Italy
Continuously lift X
Fall in love with a French women/ get my heart broken by a French women
New foreign friends X
Visit at least 5 countries X
Do a solo trip Book a trip to a new country last minute with no plans Eat something bizarre in a foreign place Go on a hike nearby Grenoble Beach trip with the boys to the south of France
I think these are some pretty fine additions to my list. I feel like I have settled a bit too much into routines here and am ready to shake things up. I have 69 days left here and you best believe that I’m going to make them count.
Foreign Tourist with No Grasp of the Local Language 
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