I finally was able to get some quality sleep after a bunch of early starts the past couple of days. I got a full ten hours and woke up around 9:00. I took my time my laying around this morning since my only real task before class was my French homework.
I was starving for some reason and ate my breakfast more enthusiastically than usual. Once I was full and content, I started my French homework. It wasn’t too difficult, but there were three separate worksheets to complete. I spent about forty minutes on this. After finishing up, I watched some Netflix. I am currently watching a show called White Collar. It is about a very charismatic former criminal who helps the FBI solves cases. I usually switch on and off between this and Sopranos.
It was soon time for class, so I headed out the door. As I was about to round the corner, I saw my bus drive by! This was unusual because I was certain I gave myself enough time. I checked my watch and I realized I left the house at 11:59 instead of 12:59. I was about to turn around and go home, but I wanted to try something new.
When my sisters visited Grenoble, I made the realization that I really haven’t been to many restaurants here. In an effort to change this up and kill some time, I went to this restaurant around the corner called Basilic&Co. I have been eyeing it for a while and it has vibes similar to a Chipotle, though they serve pizza.
I didn’t know how long the pizza would take, so I got it to go. A big part of the restaurant’s theme was that all the ingredients were locally sourced and of higher quality. Because of this, they had a seasonal menu. I got a white personal pie with bacon, onions, cheese and something called “crottin de chevre”. According to google translate, this means “goat dung” in French. I was extremely confused, but ordered anyway. Hey, if it’s locally sourced at least.
My Pizza
My pizza came out after a few minutes and fortunately did not have goat dung on it. Even better, it looked delicious. I took my pizza, box and all, to go in search of a nice place to eat it outside. It was 65 degrees out and super nice. I didn’t even bring a jacket today.
I walked to parc Paul Mistral and found a bench in the sun. My pizza was really good and hit the spot. While I was eating, some really cute shiba inu dog came up to me. He must have smelled my pizza. I petted the dog and the owner came over to take the dog back. I sat in the park for about 45 minutes, then headed to the tram station.
My view while eating lunch
I got to class pretty early and was the only one there for about ten minutes. My French professor was there and we had a nice conversation in French while waiting for everyone to show up. She told me that she was really impressed by my French. This made me feel great and the rest of French class went swimmingly.
After class, I had my AC circuits tutorial. I really like the professor for tutorial and wish I could be in his lab session. He really gives individual attention to students and helps the complex problems seem much easier. Despite all this, I am not looking forward to circuits lab tomorrow. Hopefully it doesn’t take almost six hours this time.
Once class had finished, I took the tram home and headed to the supermarket. In a attempt to be efficient, I made a shopping list for the first time. My plan was to have pb&j’s with an apple for lunches, then have rice and sausage or salad for dinner. My shopping was going to great until I made the grim realization that they did not have peanut butter here. Despite seeing skippy at the American store, it is not worth paying ten euros for it and going all the way back to the store.
I ended up buying something called speculoos spread. It is this cookie butter that is supposed to be an alternative to peanut butter and nutella. A version of this is very popular at Trader Joe’s in the US. I will soon find out if this tastes good with strawberry jelly. I also got whole wheat bread since the white bread I had last week was gross. The rest of shopping went swimmingly. I got some oreos to have as desserts after dinner.
I put all my groceries when I got back from the store, and got changed for the gym. Today I was doing shoulders and bicep. At one point at the gym, some dude asked about the dumbbell I was using. Despite my recent success in French, I was struggling to understand him. I thought he was asking if he could use it after, but he was actually asking if there was another matching 16 kg dumbbell. His friend spoke a tiny amount of English and I figured this out. I really need to learn some French vocabulary for the gym. The rest of my time at the gym went swimmingly.
Once I got home, I showered and got ready to make dinner. Tonight I was attempting rice and sausage again. Just like last time, it ended up being really good and made my room smell like New Orleans.
Dinner
I cleaned up my dishes and worked on some French homework and my prelab for circuits. From there, I wrote this blog and watched an episode of the Sopranos.
Foreign Tourist with No Grasp of the Local Language 
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