Just your average Rouennais day

One of my most “widely-acclaimed” Ghana blog entries was when I went through and described a typical day. Since this was my last day of actual classes, I’ll give you a moment-by-moment rundown of your average, ordinary Rouennais day.

8:04 am. Hit snooze once. 5 minutes later, roll out of bed. Glance at my e-mail box, get dressed to the tune of “Here Comes the Sun,” and head downstairs. Fill up on a big bowl of cereal (which I subsequently refill), a slice of bread slathered with Normandy honey, and a piece of fruit. Then I run out the door because I’m typically about 5 min late…



8:45 am. In the winter, I usually took the bus up to school (it’s a 30 min walk uphill), but since it has gotten a bit warmer, I’ve taken the opportunity to exercise. So if you’re commuting to Mont Saint Aignan in this half-hour period, you’ll probably pass me speed-walking and lip syncing to Christophe Mae, Zac Brown Band, Tom Petty, or - shamefully - like the Backstreet Boys.

9:18 am. Walk in 3 minutes late to People Management. Look around and question myself about why I stressed about getting to class on time. Only 1/3 of the class is there.
9:30 am. Class starts after another 5-10 people walk in. Professor Pavy, albeit being a Wharton PhD with 3 Masters from Sciences-Po, pulls up slides that make sense about 80% of the time. To his credit, it’s a language issue – and his English is far better than my French. Favorite phrase of the day: “People behave according to unconscious phantasms.”

10:40 am. 15 minute break. All French students head outside to smoke, Americans grab a 50 centeme coffee and chat inside. Class resumes and Pavy makes an awkward joke about the milkman ringing twice. Awkward laugther from the 5% of the class who are both 1) listening and 2) native English speakers. He shows two movie clips (totaling about an hour long) showing examples hysteric vs. obsessive managerial styles. Class dismissed.

12:20 pm. Lunch at school. Huge portions and cheap prices mean that all calories lost during my walk to school were regained. Over frites and chocolate mousse a few other students and I discuss our classes, the French educational system (always a hot topic), and upcoming travel plans.

1:35 pm. Arrive back home. Usually, I have a more productive day and head downtown to send out some mail, pick up groceries, stroll around La Rue de Gros Hologe, et cetera. But today was a bit more relaxed, so I watched an episode of The Office, caught up on some e-mailing, and prepared for my conversation about France with Renee’s 2nd grade class.



4:40 pm. Chat with Renee’s class! Best part of the day, by far. Aside from more “typical” questions like, “What is the capital of France?” and “Who is the President of France?” I also got: “Are there lizards in France?” “Do you have to wear your hair up?” “Has anyone painted a picture of you?” And my favorite: “How is the tilted tower?”

6:00 pm. It has been freezing in Rouen the past two days (two departments in the south of France got snow!), so I took a shower intending for it to be a 5 minute warm-up session. I stood in the hot water for probably 25 minutes. Whoops.
7:`10 pm. Go downstairs and read two books in the living room (The Theory of Everything and Les Jardins Introyables) while Hugues (9 years old) watched Lois & Clarke.



8:00 pm. Dinner with Florence, Hugues, and Benoit. Harm is in Germany for work. Meal usually consists of a salad, bread (always, always delicious bread, thankfully), a couple of vegetable-based side dishes, an egg-based dish (for me, the difficult vegetarian), and applesauce or delicious pudding viennois for dessert. On that note, if you ever want to learn how to eat a hard-boiled egg a la francaise, just say the word. Today’s topics of discussion at dinner: Florence’s parent/teacher/student conference earlier that day, whether Turkey should be in the EU (a resounding “NO!”), and my conversation with Renee’s class).

9:15 pm. Read more and watch a bit of French TV. Get confused after about 10-15 minutes and eventually switch to French 24. Chat with Benoit for a couple of minutes. Horribly fail at maintaining the fire in the living room much to Florence’s chagrin.

10:35 pm. Upstairs to my room. Send out a few e-mails, plan a day trip for tomorrow (to Giverny – home of Monet and his gardens!), and Skyped with other friends abroad and at home. (Shout-out to Scott!)

11:10 pm. Very early time to start prepping for bed, but I want 8 hours of sleep. Bonne nuit!