Back in Business-Day 106-April 25th, 2018

Despite my 9+ hours of sleep, my jet lag hit hard this morning. I wanted to get up early and be productive, but my body felt like I hadn’t slept at all. This lead to me snoozing a few more times. Eventually I realized I need to just get up and deal with it, so I got out of bed. I hadn’t showered since being in the States, so that was my first priority. I would have done it last night if it wasn’t close to midnight.

After my shower, my second priority was drinking coffee as soon as possible. Coffee is usually is more of a routine thing for me, but I really needed it to wake me up. My bowl of coffee did the trick, which was accompanied by a bowl of Frosties and a pain au chocolate. To be honest, I am really sick of pain au chocolate and wasn’t able to finish it. I don’t know how the French eat them so much.

I had lost a lot of my productivity time due to sleeping in, but I did not want the rest go to waste. I spent a solid hour typing a blog post for yesterday. When I type one everyday, they can become a bit of a chore sometimes. I’d much rather get it done early, so I wouldn’t have to type up two later tonight. With an exam and lab tomorrow, that wouldn’t be the best use of my time.

By the time I finished, it was nearly time to head to French class. I turned on my audio book and headed to school.

I don’t know what happened while I was gone, but it is really hot in France now. Considering the school and most places don’t have A/C, I am not a fan. I don’t think I will be wearing my jackets and sweatshirts much more from now on. It was above 80 degrees today.

I got to French early and chatted with my classmates about how their week off went. Everyone seemed a bit tanner and more relaxed than when I saw them last. This was our last French class before the exam, so it was primarily review. This was helpful for our exam tomorrow. The hour and a half of class went by somewhat quickly and I left feeling pretty good about the exam. I felt even better when I learned my circuits tutorial was cancelled.

This meant I had time now to head to the BU office. It was only open from 3:00 to 5:00 today, so I couldn’t have gone if I had circuits class. I headed to the office with some others who were planning to study there. I picked up my 120 euros and was feeling like a rich man. I briefly talked to Celine about my trip home.

Considering I didn’t have a real lunch, I went to get a taco at Batman Kebab. I might as well enjoy all my favorite French foods while I’m here for my last month. I got a beer with my taco and sat outside to enjoy the warm weather. Getting a nice lunch by yourself can be surprisingly therapeutic.

My taco and beer

After eating, I headed to the grocery store near my house. I really only had to get three days worth of meals since one of my host dinners was rescheduled to tonight. Not feeling too creative, I got supplies to make beans, rice and sausage plus sandwiches. I did get grape jelly to change it up this time though. I don’t know the word for grape, but the jelly was purple looking. I guess we will find out later if it’s actually grape.

When I got home, my room was even hotter than it was outside. I opened my window and stripped down to my underwear to cool down. I guess having your own room really does have its benefits.

After a thirty minute cool down, I put my clothes back on and went to work on a physics lab report. I realized Greg had never sent me the pictures of the graphs, so they’re wasn’t much I could do yet. Instead, I typed up part of this blog to save time later. Soon the dinner bell rang and I headed downstairs.

Tonight it was just Andre, Anne-Marie and I at dinner. The appetizer was some type of spring roll with salad, then the main course was lasagna. This was pretty good. Being away from France has really made me realize how much French I actually know. I think I can finally say I am conversational in French because I had an hour long conversation in French at dinner. No English was spoken at all and I talked all about my trip to Italy and back home. I felt like I could express myself entirely, granted with some simplistic language. Some of A-M’s questions weren’t even easy ones. She asked me if it was hard to return to France after being home. I said yes, but I missed French food too much not to come back.

After dinner, I finished typing up this blog post. My night isn’t over yet, but sometimes predicting it makes me more productive. I will study French for an hour, then work on my circuits pre lab for tomorrow. If I have time, I will watch an episode of Silicon Valley before bed.

A-M’s question earlier really made me think. It was hard coming back to France after being home. I had been in France so long that leaving really felt like a final goodbye, despite me returning a week later. Being home was almost like turning off the French part of me and forgetting about it. I don’t know if it was just my desire to spend more time with my family, but I kept wishing I didn’t have to go back for another month.

Now that I am here, it seems almost silly to not want to come back. Who can say no to a month in Europe where I had minimal work and spent most of my time travelling and having a good time. I guess even that could get a bit old after a while though.

When I finally made it back to my French home last night, it felt a bit odd. It was almost felt like I was revisiting a place that I had been to in a dream before. Someplace familiar, but still foreign. I definitely have a new mindset coming back to France. I could tell all my friends got a little jealous when I told them about being home, eating American breakfast food, etc. Some were even straightforward with saying that they were ready to go home.

Knowing I only have a month left, the push to really enjoy my time here has never been stronger. Having an opportunity like this in Europe is truly once in a lifetime. Even with lab reports, exams, and essays due, I’m going to try to do as much fun stuff as possible. I might miss the US sometimes, but I have the rest of my life to spend there. My time in Grenoble, France, is now.