A Normal? Day in France

Greetings from France!!

Everything here is going swimmingly. It is becoming home; things are fitting into place as common everyday habits so well that I forget sometimes they were ever different. I actually will once and awhile forget how to say things in English; as my French gets better my English worsens. Now, I have bad grammar in two languages.

Since I cannot remember anymore what is different about France and what is the same as in America, I’ll describe a typical day for me and the cultural differences will come naturally.

I wake up at 6 and take a shower, of course stopping the water when I shampoo because of the drought. I do, in fact, recall this being different because the showers work in a similar but not quite the same way here, enough so that when I tried to use it the first time I could not figure it out. Then I eat a breakfast of coffee and bread on the cafeteria-style trays that most houses have. My school schedule changes based on the day of the week, so I only pack for the classes necessary. I take the bus from my tiny suburban town at around 7 and get to Nancy, the city, about 45 minutes later. I walk to school (most people take the tram, but I prefer the walk) to arrive in time for class at 8.

Classes are always at least an hour, sometimes two. They are (admittedly) filled with sideways smirks and shared glances from friends, alongside secretive note passing. I think this kind of thing is normal for any high school; teenagers will be dorks after all. At every chance we get, in between classes when we have 5 to 10 minute breaks, we joke, laugh, and play dumb games like would-you-rather, truth or dare, etc.; the usual adolescent nonsense.

Lunch is spent at the canteen, where everything is covered in butter and vegetables are rare. There is consistently an enormous variety of cheeses available; today, there were at least ten types. There’s also dessert, at lunchtime no less. To top it all off, there’s a large bin filled with fresh baked slices of baguette. Foolishly, we are encouraged to take as many as we want. Lunch is followed by more goofing off and ridiculousness, and then more classes. I finish school at 16 or 17 usually, sometimes earlier or later. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, school finishes at noon. Those days, I stay in Nancy for the afternoon with my friends.

After school, I take my bus home. I do my homework on the bus a lot of the time, or I write. Watching television with everyone or doing homework, being in our rooms, etc. occupies the family until we all come together at around 18:30 for dinner. This is usually a main course and a cheese plate, sometimes followed by dessert. There is always plenty of laughter and conversation, and it lasts an hour or more. Then more TV or room time before lights out at 22:00.

That, my friends, is a day in the life of Suzanna! This explanation cannot capture the true nature of the life here, I guarantee every day is filled with new surprises and excitement. It’s hard to condense it into one example of a normal day, since there are crazy new things happening all the time. For instance, just today my good friends Elea and Alice gave me a bag filled with rainbow food colored spaghetti and cheese as a gift! That kind of silliness can’t be predicted.

It’s a new adventure every day.