A day in the life

I tend to write about the more exciting or out of the ordinary things that I see and do, but if you are just reading my blog you most likely are unfamiliar with my daily life here in Angers.

So here it goes:

On a typical morning I start class around 8 or 9 a.m. If I have time and or money, I stop at a boulangerie on my way to school to pick up a pain au chocolat or other yummy breakfast treat. It's hard to resist the amazing smells wafting out of the several boulangeries I have to pass on my 10 minute walk to school.

My class schedule is different every day of the week, as opposed to back in South Bend, where my class schedule repeats itself on Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Thursday. I really enjoy the variety.

Another different thing about France is lunch. At Notre Dame I sometimes don't have a lunch break at all, let alone the same lunch time as any of my friends. But in Angers, no one has class between 12:15 and 1:30. It's the same thing for all French citizens - everyone goes home for lunch! I usually just grab a sandwich with some friends or go to the University Restaurant (a really sorry excuse for a dining hall, but it's cheap) and once a week Notre Dame provides a sit down lunch for our entire group.

During my breaks from class I usually go to the library at school to get some homework done. I don't have much homework here at all, but I like to get it done during the day because there are more distractions at my house. (for example I have some homework to be doing right now, but instead I am blogging)

An afternoon snack around 4 p.m. is always necessary, since we don't eat dinner here until at least 8:30 or so. I usually take an afternoon walk and pick up something from the grocery store or a boulangerie to tide me over until dinnertime.

In the evenings I eat dinner with my host family, then hang out with them after dinner and watch TV for a bit before finishing up my homework and heading to bed.

That's just an attempt at describing a typical day, but the truly correct thing to say would be that there are no typical days here in France. I always seem to experience something out of the ordinary or learn something new or do something different.

However, my life is about to become very much out of the ordinary - in three days I will travel to Rome for Easter, then return to Angers for just a few days before embarking on a two week journey through Italy and Spain, so stay tuned for blog posts about those adventures.