Episode 21 - Nancy
Volleyball weekend in eastern France, old married couple, and a fencing extraordinaire!
The last weekend trip outside of Paris before classes end. How crazy! I feel like I just got here, yet it is already time to go back to California soon.
Friday 11/24/2023
I woke up around 2, chilled for a bit, and reset my Apple Watch so that it would connect to my new phone.
I then got my shit together and decided to go on a run; this way, there would be at least something productive done in my rather short day.
With my Apple Watch run reset, I went on the run and called Tatiana while doing so.
That was one of the best decisions ever. Calling people while running distracts me from how much I don’t like running, and is a great way to catch up! I ran to my beloved Bois de Vincennes, and completed a few loops around the island in the middle of the lake. The islands have a lot of birds around them, including a group of peacocks that are guarded by an armed man employed by the city.
Paris does not joke around with the defense of its peacocks, it seems!
I hurdled a goose, ran back to my apartment, showered, and then proceeded to Emma’s apartment to help her clean up after Friendsgiving the night before. Emma put on some great tunes and proceeded to clean all the dishes, while I vacuumed the entire apartment and wiped down all the tables. Emma didn’t have any Clorox, so I had to settle with glass cleaner to clean those bad boys.
Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
For some reason, when I wiped those tables, they came off with a strange green residue. Either she has never cleaned those tables, or they are secretly covered in green glass.
I have a feeling that it’s not the latter.
After we cleaned up the apartment, I was planning on studying a bit, then heading over to Ben’s for an early night.
That plan was immediately disregarded, as Emma put on the show The Crown and I proceeded to finish the rest of season 6.
Emma and I are literally like an old married couple. She made us some big bowls of tea, and we sat on the couch watching TV. How lovely!
Emma eventually fell asleep, Diana died, and I learned a ton about the British royal family. Emma was shocked that I didn’t know all the intricate details of British royal drama, and I had to apologize for having better things to do than learn it. She then proceeded to explain it to me over the course of 10 minutes.
See what I did there? I outsourced all the information gathering so that Emma could present it to me in a short, condensed format. Efficiency is my middle name.
Eventually, Gibs, Joe, Ben, and Anna came over for dinner, and we had pizza and sushi for dinner while vibing. The girls pregamed in preparation for going out that evening, and Ben and I were extraordinarily content to not join them and just chill on the couch. Watching them drink that terrible rum concoction, while not joining them, was tremendously satisfying.
After a long time chilling, Ben and I biked to my apartment so that I could pack for the weekend (we have a volleyball training camp in eastern France!), and then headed over to his apartment by Sciences Po. The blue bike that I rode was heavenly, and I crashed on Ben’s blow-up mattress while we chilled some more and talked a ton.
What an absolutely wonderful day!
Saturday 11/25
I woke up at 6 in the morning, put on my shoes, donned my backpack, and walked a single block down the street to the main building of Sciences Po (Ben lives right there). Our bus for the volleyball training camp was leaving from that location around 6:30, and I called Mama before we got on since it was still evening in California!
I fell asleep as soon as I sat down, and woke up 5 hours later in eastern France in a small town called Nancy.
France has a rather developed sports training infrastructure, and basically, they have a bunch of camps where youth athletes are trained year-round in their respective sports. They are similar to Premier League or MLS academies, where promising young players are coached semi-professionally.
Sciences Po rented out one of these facilities, and all the different sports teams of the school came there for the weekend to practice and have fun together. So basically, a sports weekend retreat.
We got there around noon, and played some volleyball outside while the handball team was using the main gym. I met a lot of players on the girls team that I had never talked to before (since they practice before us), and walked around the facility to explore all the different buildings they had there.
We warmed up in the main gym, and I played with and met a lovely girl named Lucile that was probably the best passer I have met in my entire life. We then played a scrimmage game all together that was tremendously fun and exciting. We were playing on a girls-height net that is significantly shorter than what guys play on, and I was put as outside hitter,.
Basically, that meant I was killing every set that came my way.
What an amazing time!
After our game, I walked to the center of Nancy to check out the touristy areas, of which there was pretty much only one — Stanislaus Place. It is an old palace courtyard that is covered in gold and tremendously beautiful. They had a massive Christmas Tree set up, and I got myself a pretzel at the Christmas shop nearby, too!
Besides Stanislaus Place, however, Nancy is by far the ugliest city I have been to in France.
I took the bus back to the training camp in preparation for playing more volleyball. We played more volleyball, then headed over to the cafeteria for dinner.
Holy shit. That was a delicious dinner. Massive portions, great taste, and it was basically a bougie school cafeteria. Amazing!
After dinner, we took the bus to our hotel, dropped off our things there, bought some alc, then headed to a dance club in the center of the city.
That was the worst nightclub I had ever been to in my entire life. Especially after coming from the amazing nightlife in Berlin, I was sorely underwhelmed and disappointed by the clubs in Nancy. I did get a pint and dance for a bit, then decided to leave for the sake of preserving my sanity.
I made it back to my room, read a bit of my book, and just vibed by myself until the rest of the group left the club and made it to my room around midnight. They all agreed that the club was terrible and commended me on my excellent decision to leave early.
We then proceeded to drink and play cards for the next 4 hours, while I was in charge of the music with the goal of an “American vibe”.
I am proud and happy to report that I succeeded!
We played this very funny card game that was basically the French version of King’s Cup. By far the best was drawing a 10, whereupon everyone has to act like a Viking or the ocean. Crazy stuff! The cultural immersion was amazing, and I got so much closer to my teammates in the process. :)
Sunday 11/26
I was told the night before that breakfast was at 9 in the morning, so I woke up at 8:50 so that I could make it down there on time.
Turns out, breakfast ended at 8:30, so my dreams of starting the day off on a delicious note crumbled right there.
I cleaned the trashed room, packed up my very few belongings, and left for the training gym across town. I had to sprint to catch up with my teammates since they had left 5 minutes before me, and I successfully got there before they made it to the bus station.
My dreams of a delicious morning were realized when they gave me the croissant that they brought for me. :)
Best teammates ever!
The bus was horribly late, so we decided to walk the couple kilometers to the training facility. Everyone’s energy was in the gutter from the long night the day before, so I played super loud music while we walked to the place to wake everyone up. I hit up a boulangerie to get some more food but before I could get some breakfast, the bus pulled and we had to go.
We all played with extremely low energy in the gym and basically just chilled out until lunch. I finished playing my game of horse with Paul and learned that he went on exchange to John Hopkins last year, and was back at Sciences Po to finish up a master’s.
That explains his exceptional English!
Lunch was delicious again, and Mattias finally pulled up after sleeping in until noon. All my teammates sitting around me were rattling off a crazy fast conversation in French, and it was honestly so cool to see native French speakers in their natural habitat, laughing and talking with each other so quickly. It was honestly such an amazing experience to witness firsthand, one I would definitely not get in the US, or even with any of my other friends in Paris.
They would often translate their conversation into English so that I could understand it (which I really appreciated), but they kept apologizing when they didn’t know some certain obscure word. I would help them out, and they would feel bad for not knowing the word.
I was the one feeling bad for knowing barely any French. What a crazy language, and a great experience.
After lunch, he played some more volleyball, and I began introducing some more American volleyball chants to my teammates. Among their favorites was one you yell when someone serves or hits the ball into the net:
“How’s high’s the net?“
“Too high!“
We finished up around 3, and then the handball team came onto the court and played a few games. I was exhausted but managed to watch to the end, and then we all packed up and got back onto the bus around 5. It was back to Paris!
I continued reading some of my book (the same A Secret History, what a long but interesting book) and fell asleep about an hour into it. We made it to a gas station around 8 pm in Champagne Country, where I got some chips, went on a short walk, and called Mama. Then it was back to the bus, where I fell asleep again and woke up in Paris.
We got our things and headed off the bus, where immediately a sea of cigarettes emerged from countless pockets, and in no time at all, the sky was full of smoke.
These Europeans are serious about their smoking. At least they don’t do it inside.
Mattias, my favorite teammate, was super happy and excited the entire time on the bus and over the weekend, and I found that I will miss him quite a lot when I head back to California. It shows me that I need to enjoy the moments while they last. :)
I took the best blue Vélib I have ever ridden back home, unpacked, called Emma to tell her about the week, and went off to an early sleep.
Monday 11/27
What amazing sleep, in my amazingly warm bed. Monday was upon us!
I woke up and edited Emma’s master’s application thesis, which was tremendously fun. I feel that my writing has gotten significantly better in the last few months (just from the sheer amount of writing I have been doing recently), and I have learned to edit ruthlessly as a result.
Write without fear, edit without mercy, they say.
It was quite fun to write comments on Emma’s writing, especially the ones about being more direct and using less passive voice: “Be confident! Be bold! Seize the day!”
Emma will get into LSE, I am sure!
After the adventure of editing, I biked over to Joe’s for breakfast and to meet his numerous Bristol friends who were in town.
What a lovely and happy bunch, they were!
It was lovely to meet the entire group, and the banter was wonderful. I found it tremendously refreshing to be speaking advanced, masterful English with other native speakers again after a long weekend of not doing so.
I’ve found that in Europe, there are many people that speak English, yet are not fully fluent, and while it is wonderful to speak to them, I find those conversations not the same as with someone who is fully fluent. There are certain nuances, inflections, and cultural understandings that are missed, and I find myself tremendously excited to speak with those who understand them. After tutoring Eliana, or even speaking with my volleyball teammates, it is always nice to speak with native English speakers again. (this is not to say that I am very impressed by everyone’s knowledge of English and ability to communicate in a foreign language, despite me not understanding their language at all)
We had a delightful breakfast with the Bristol gang, and I learned a lot of interesting and quite graphic British slang words from them. It was wonderful to meet you all!
Joe and the Bristol gang left for Notre Dame, while I stayed in his apartment to do some work and blogging. I was entrusted with the backup keys and felt very special for that reason. :)
There was a minor fiasco where Joe did not have any toilet paper in his bathroom and I didn’t find that out until it was too late, but I devised a creative solution to that problem. I studied a lot for my French exam tomorrow and found myself to be very excited for that class to be over, yet also sad that it is ending.
I am excited for exams to end, but for not school to end. It is a strange feeling.
I also looked at potentially visiting Gloria before I come back to California, but unfortunately, my flight to San Francisco is nonrefundable so it is too late to change it. Looks like I’ll need to visit Boston during the school year instead!
I took the metro to fencing class because I couldn’t be bothered to take a velib in the cold.
Fencing went extraordinarily! We learned a number of different attacking techniques before practicing them with each other. We then transitioned to fencing each other, where I quickly dismantled everyone in the class. I even defeated Appoliner, my fencing classmate, who had previously fenced for 10 years!
People were asking me after class if I had fenced before, and I told them yes.
*relieved faces, as they realized they lost to an experienced fencer and not a noob*
After a slight pause, I continued: “I started about 5 weeks ago!”
*crestfallen faces, as they realized they did lose to a noob*
“However, I did fight my 11-year-old brother with sticks many times before.”
*laughs, and the crestfallen faces are gone*
They call me the Easer of Tensions!
I left fencing at 5 with the plan to bike home. I saw that it was raining, thought “hell naw”, turned around, and took the metro home.
I had never taken the metro from fencing home, but I am such a native Parisian now that I didn’t even need to look at the map. I knew the transfer station I needed to get off at, and it was smooth sailing the entire way back to my street.
I made another yummy dinner, and had a productive session working on my international finance homework.
While doing this homework, I checked my email and noticed that Chase kept sending me all these emails about my credit card balance. I was like “dawg, I know I’m broke.”
Around 7:50, I biked to the movie theater near Sciences Po to watch the new Hunger Games movie with the gang. I trolled Gibs by texting her that I forgot the movie was today, so she was very surprised when I walked into the theater and saw that I was already in my seat.
They call me a prankster.
The new Hunger Games movie was absolutely amazing. Young President Snow is a complete badass and there were so many wonderful quotes from that movie:
“And smile! That’s why you have teeth.”
*shoots someone* “I didn’t like him anyway.”
“Snow falls on top.”
I accidentally kept kicking the chair in front of me, but that’s because the chairs were super close together and I’m tall. My bad!
After the movie, I walked to the velib station with Emma and she had the giggles. I thought I was tripping because I thought I saw a potato on the ground, but it turned out that it was, in fact, a potato.
“C’est potat”, I told Emma.
Emma thought that was hilarious, because in French, potatoes translate to “apples of the ground”. Emma then told me that it’s the same case in Dutch.
I think Emma thought that would make French seem more logical, but if anything, it made me think that Dutch is even more fake of a language than it already is.
I biked home on a great green velib, and was pleasantly surprised that they filled the pothole that is on the bike lane I always take to my apartment. It’s the small things in life that bring us joy!
I finished my international finance homework, called Sanketh, and caught up with him after a few weeks of not chatting. Can’t wait to get Indian food with him back at UCLA. :)
And so another blog ends! Thanks everyone for joining.
Best,
Dennis, The Easer of Tensions
