Flower Power vs Pollen Attack-Day 87-April 6th, 2018

I woke up this morning at 8 AM this morning, my first class was at 9:45. I checked the weather and saw it was supposed to be 75 degrees later this afternoon. It’s hard not to be in a good mood when it’s Friday and beautiful outside. My morning routine was the same as always, so I will spare my readers the details. I packed another sandwich, apple, and oreos for lunch today.

My first class today was three hours of French culture class. I enjoy this class usually, but after almost three months in France I’m not really making many cultural observations any more. We usually will discuss our observations in class, but I could tell everyone felt similar to me because the class participation was minimal. You can really only talk so much about how the French eat breakfast differently or about European drinking culture.

Today we talked a lot about Francophones, which are people who speak French outside of France. Quebec is the obvious example of this, but there are many African speaking countries too. Our Professor also was under the impression that a ton of people spoke French or Cajun in New Orleans. While New Orleans obviously has a ton of French influence in its food and culture, I told her I didn’t run into a single French speaking person when I was there. I’m sure they’re are more French speakers there than other parts of the US, but she was saying New Orleans at the same level as Quebec. I googled it, and four percent of the population in Louisiana speaks French compared to the 95% in Quebec. I don’t think our Professor has actually been to New Orleans before.

I had a brief break before physics and went to the cafeteria with Nick and Harry in usual fashion. My packed lunch was pretty satisfying, as it was the day before. After about twenty minutes, Harry and I headed to our nuclear physics lecture.

Physics today was dreadful. We went through a ton of information and it was all painful and dry. I paid attention and took notes for most of class, but by the end I couldn’t do it anymore. At one point, Harry left class and returned with an espresso in hand from the vending machine and yawned. We all laughed because it was clear that everyone had the same feelings about today’s lecture. After what felt like a few decades, lecture was over and I headed to my last class of the day.

Differential equations on Friday’s is notoriously boring, but after that physics lecture it felt like we were going to gym class. We were studying the predator-prey model which is when you model to changing rabbit and fox populations with differential equations. The basic idea is that the rabbit population is always growing, but part is killed from the foxes. The fox population grows proportionally with the rabbit population. We can use differential equations to simulate different scenarios and show how the populations will rise and fall over time.

Despite the interesting topic, the lecture turned into annoying algebra proofs by the end and I was ready to leave school for the weekend. I hopped on the tram and made plans to meet Nick at the gym after we both stopped home. I needed to make up for missing the gym yesterday because of lab.

As I walked home, the weather was beautiful and all the flowers were blooming. I think Anne-Marie must be into gardening, because the entire front yard of my house was covered in flowers. I had never noticed them before since I’ve only been in Grenoble for the winter.

Here’s some pictures

The flowers are all great to look at, but are wreaking havoc on my sinuses. The number of sneezes and tissues used by me in the past couple days have sky rocketed. This is odd because I usually don’t get spring allergies. Maybe this has to do something with not being adjusted to European pollen or something.

After blowing my nose and changing clothes, I headed to the gym. I went in shorts and a t-shirt for the first time since it was so warm. The gym had like five people total there today and was a great way to end the school week. I did chest day and it was very nice to have Nick there to spot for me. Since I usually bench press alone, I can’t really push myself too had. With Nick spotting, I was not afraid to do that today. We did an ab workout together at the end, which was especially nice after doing it alone all the time.

We parted ways and I headed home in a great mood. I usually say “bon soiree” (Have a good evening) when I leave the gym, but I had to say “bon journee” instead since it still was light out. The general rule of thumb is that you switch from “good day” to “good evening” when the sunsets.

I showered as soon as I got home and ate a premade salad for dinner. The salad really hit the spot and I have acquired a new love for grape tomatoes while I’ve been in France. I was extremely productive after dinner.

Nick, Harry and I are going to skiing tomorrow at Les Deux Alpes. We’ve never been to this resort and it apparently is much nice than the other ones. It also costs $20 more for a lift ticket, so I really hope it is. Tomorrow will potentially be my last time skiing for a while and I want to make the most of it.

In my productivity stint after dinner, I made two sandwiches to bring for lunch tomorrow while skiing. I also did my laundry, packed my bag, and wrote this blog post. I watched an episode of the Sopranos afterwards, then went to bed. I have an early bus tomorrow and wanted to get some good sleep.