A Day In the Life

I figure that since it has been 5 months and 2 days since my arrival in Rennes, it's high time for a Day In the Life of An SYA Student post.

I'll use today as my example. And hey, Happy Valentine's Day!

6:45am - The alarm sounds and I reluctantly wake up to shower, get dressed and put my books in my bag. I stare blankly at the post it that I put on my mirror reminding me to put a USB in my backpack. I have a Lit dissertation today. I groan at the thought.

7:30am - I ascend the staircase (my room is on the lower level) and grab a coffee for breakfast while my host family sits around the kitchen table, each of them gazing at the table in a sleepy haze. I go back downstairs, put on my coat and we are out the door by 7:45. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays my host dad drops off my host sisters, Agathe and Clémence, and me but on Wednesdays and Fridays I start an hour later so I take the bus.

8:10am - I drowsily open the heavy door to Salle 6, a large classroom in a building detached from the school house that we fondly call le Jardin. It constantly smells like wet paint. I sit through a 45 minute Language class that consists of my teacher, Monsieur Raguin, acting out scenes from his favorite book, Le Parfum, while we follow along and laugh at him when he speaks English with a very British accent. Though he very rarely speaks to us in English, unless it's to explain a French expression that makes absolutely no sense.

9:00 am - My group and I walk back to the school house in the chilly Bretagne morning and ascend the stairs to Salle 4 for CESF (Culture et Société Française). It's a small, stuffy room, dominated by one enormous table that just about fits the 15 of us plus Pascal. The walls are plastered with maps of France, Europe and Bretagne and we discuss le conseil de l'Union Européen. 

9:50am - The 15 of us drag ourselves to Salle 5, the room next door, and whip out the laptops. We have a dissertation on Voltaire's "L'Ingénu." Our French Literature teacher, Marie-Anne, is a lovely woman but very serious when it comes to the format of our essays so we type furiously for 50 minutes, attempting to meet the criteria of the prompt that she provides us with - How does Voltaire mock society and religion in his novel? We struggle to finish before time is up and hand her our USBs. A sigh of relief echoes throughout the classroom as we finish the class we'd dreaded all week.

10:40am - We go back to Salle 4 for Histoire. Monsieur Nicolas waits impatiently for us to sit down and we discuss Robespierre, les Jacobins, les Girondins and the Reign of Terror. He snaps at those who answer incorrectly but we laugh off his criticisms. He's a good egg underneath it all.

11:30am - Today is Thursday, which means we have a Période Disponible after lunch which we are supposed to use to meet with our Advisors but today the advisors have a meeting, so I have an extra free period in addition to lunch and my two frees afterward. Since it's Valentine's Day, a big group of us decide to treat ourselves to Indian. Juliana, Darby, Grant, Omar, Elizabeth and I hop on the Number 1 and walk from Sainte Anne to Hôtel Dieu. We order Chicken Tikka Masalas and Mango Lassis and enjoy the free time. Afterwards, we decide that the day is too beautiful to waste and we walk back to school in the sunshine. The sun is so rarely part of Bretagne weather that we take advantage as much as we can.

1:50pm - Some of our friends have a class, so Darby and I sit in the garden behind the school house, reading The Great Gatsby aloud and enjoying the nice weather. I use the rest of my time answering a college questionnaire for a meeting I have with the college counselor next period

2:40pm - I head to the college counselor's office and I face the dreaded talk about my future. We discuss what kind of colleges I'm interested in and before I know it it's time for math.

3:30pm - My first class of the afternoon starts. We sit through Trigonometry review in Precalc, try practice problems and take down homework.

4:20pm - We're reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby in English and I'm absolutely mesmerized. We have a free discussion period in which we argue about Gatsby's persona and how it is interpreted by Nick. Is it all just an act? What is Jordan's role in their relationship? The period passes quickly and we finish up at 5:05pm.

5:25pm - Thursday is Peer Support day. My group decides to have our chat in the Jardin du Thabor and we laugh and discuss until 6pm. I go home on the bus, encounter a singing old man (see last entry, "Apologies") and head back to my host family's house, where I decided to describe my life to the internet. If anybody's even listening. You out there, world?

While I would love to write a million more entries, I have an essay on Hamlet to write. Until next time.

Yours in Dysfunctional French,

-L