8 rue de Prefet Collignon, Quimper, France

When I first stepped into this apartment it was about 6pm on Wednesday evening. I was exhausted after traveling for a full day. It was about 10am on my biological clock (Mountain Standard Time) and I hadn’t slept but a few hours on a airplane and a hard airport terminal floor. So needless to say my first instinct was to put on a giant t-shirt and sleeeeeeep! But I my stomach hadn’t adjusted to the time difference and I knew if I slept I would be hungry and wake up. So I grabbed some bread, spread some nutella on it, and forced down an apple. I don’t think I’ve ever forced myself to eat like that before. Every bite was a battle. My appetite over here isn’t that good (Who is complaining there??), but it’s not because of the food. Honestly I’m not a picky eater. I’ll pretty much put down anything in front of me unless it’s still wiggling. So today I was at the market in Quimper. There was a cute French bakery shop selling quiche and it looked delicious so I decided to give it a try. The French girl working there barely knew English but with my meager French speaking skills she helped me choose the quiche with fish in it! For those of you who don’t know me that well, fish is not my first choice of meat. Maybe it’s because I’m from a landlocked state. But I’m definitely come into eating fish more and more since going to Rio de Janiero last summer. This quiche was delish! I loved it! And it was only 3 Euros! Sandwiches are about the same price! Heck I’m definitely getting a sandwich for lunch every day!

Anyway, back to the story. So I finally ate and then went to bed. I slept until 12:00pm the next day! You can do the math on that one… but I had some catching up to do for sure! And the only reason I woke up is because my teammate, Hana, was knocking on my door. That was interesting, waking up and trying to put where I was and who was knocking at my door together. Haha.

From then I showered and we found internet at a café. I have lived off that café’s internet for a couple days now! I need to get it set up in my apartment. But at least I’m not going crazy…. Yet.

Other than that, I’m all moved in to my apartment! It’s complete with my room, living room, bathroom, and kitchen. It’s not much to boast of, but heck it’s all mine and there’s hot water! Speaking of hot water, I don’t have a shower curtain yet, so I’m having a fun time of trying to keep my bathroom floor dry when I shower.

We had our first practice today. They were two two-hour sessions of cardio and lifting. I was thinking to myself the whole time for a couple reasons

1.     Je suis Americanne. Je parle Anglais et en peu francais. Tranlsation: I am American. I speak English and a little French.

2.     My teammates are Spanish, Croatian, Slovenian, French, French-speaking African (from Senegal), and I still have yet to meet the Czeck’s. My coach is from Spain and his assistant is Brazilian who knows Spanish better than French because he grew up in Spain. So what happens is most of the spoken directions and conversation is in French. But a few of the girls banter back in forth in Croatian and the coaches talk to Silvana in Spanish. And then there’s me. The American. Don’t worry, they all know English.

Ok, so I’m a little hard on them. I need to just up and learn some French! It’s coming, albeit, slowly. I’m definitely listening intently for any word that I know. Some stuff is coming back to me from high school. But it’s tough.

I absolutely love this city. I walk down the streets and just love looking at the buildings, the cathedral, the carousel, and into shops and watching people as they are buying stuff. It’s beautiful here. The rain comes down a lot. I’m learning that Quimper is definitely coastal. At practice the rain was coming down so hard I thought there would be a monsoon! It’s a good thing there is a river that runs straight through the city to drain all of the water. And I just realized it could get cold this winter with the humidity and being at sea level. Glad I packed some warm clothes!