A Day in the Life in Paris

My description of a realistic day in the City of Love, Lights, and Dreams (sans the Grève - metro strikes).

Took this photo on an afternoon walk with my dear friend, *Aleni. Her family owns a lovely Greek restaurant in the 7th arrondissement (Apollon! Everyone should go try it out when they come to Paris!), and I sometimes go visit her after school to walk around, have coffee, and practice French.

6H: Beep beep beep beep!!!

I stir under layers of blankets in my pitch black room; fumbling through the covers to find my phone and turn off the alarm.

6:30H: Beep beep beep beep!!!

I open my eyes again to the second alarm I have scheduled and let the biological need to pee motivate me out of bed. Afterwards, I go to the window and open the curtains to see the sky slowly turning into a light blue from the sunlight creeping behind the buildings. I crawl back into bed and wrap my fuzzy blanket around me. I am a burrito.

6:45H: Third time's a charm, and I get out of bed and turn on the shower in my obnoxiously, bright yellow bathroom. I still have no idea why my bathroom is yellow. Anyway, post-shower, I grab my bathrobe, turn on my tunes, and boil some water for hot tea on this rainy day.

7:20H: I brush my teeth, wash my face, and ponder about how to dress for Paris in the rain. According to google, "a cold neck is a sad neck," so I grab a scarf and put it over my everyday staple: a trench coat.

7:40H: I am somehow still in my bathrobe. Some days I'll do some yoga , others I'll just sip tea and read comics on my phone.

8H: I put my shoes on and run out the door in hopes that I have not made my Canadian friends wait too long for me outside of my building.

8:05H: The RER B arrives to take us to our destination.

8:07H: The RER B is too crowded, and we can't even get on... so we wait for the next one.

8:15H: Take two of trying to get on to the RER B. This time, my two Canadian companions have split up to divide and conquer our attempts to fit into a cart on the RER.

8:18H: *Zara, one of my Canadian friends has made it onto the RER, but alas, *Elena and I did not make it on the second one... we wave to our fellow comrade as she rides away smushed by a tall, business man, and a stern looking older woman.

8:22H: Elena and I make it on to the third RER! We manage to smush ourselves like a pack of sardines along with the traveling for work and school into the city.

8:35H: Everyone gets off the RER at Chatâlet Les Halles and Gare du Nord (sketchy station), so Elena and I take a breather by grabbing one of the seats hued of a bright, Shrek green.

8:42H: Elena and I speed walk from Stade de France for the next 15-20 minutes to get to school. We slip through alleyways, avoid being run over in the ghetto of St. Denis.

What you think my walk to school looks like, but my school is actually North of Paris. The ghetto... anyway, this photo was taken on an afterschool walk with a classmate of mine, *Mina. Wonderful conversation that day before I went to work.

9H: Class starts as Zara is already sitting next to our other Canadian in the class, Katie. (Yes, I do seem to hang out with a lot of Canadians here. Yay North America!).

10H: I've stopped listening to our Epidemiology professor and started working on my blog...

10:30H: The professor remembers to give us a break, and I stretch my legs to the basement to buy a .40 coffee from the vending machine.

11:11H: I've started sending memes about my hunger to my classmates while periodically making eye contact with one of my French classmates, *Marie, across the room. Marie and I have a game of making weird faces to each other while avoiding the scanning eyes of our professor during class. It is entertaining.

11:30H: I AM SO HUNGRY.

12H: FREEDOM!!! God bless France and their one hour lunch breaks :')

13H: Back to class... we literally sit in the same room for the whole day with the same people.

16H: Finally out of class. I join my Canadian comrades to line 12 on the metro before getting off at Les Halles to get to work.

St. Eustach's church. The whole area of Chatalet Les Halles is lovely for shopping and not far from the Marais or the Louvre! Right at the center of Paris and close to the Seine as well.

17H: I make it to Châtalet Les Halles and walk to the apartment of the family. I don't need to pick up the little girl for 30 minutes, so I go upstairs to drop my stuff off and play with the cat.

17:25H: I peel away from the cat as it follows me to the door, and I make my way to the nearby crèche (daycare) to pick up the little girl.

17:30 - 20H: I play with the little girl at the park or in the house depending on the weather. Make her pasta then give her a bath before her parents get home.

20:15H: On my way home on the RER.

20:30H: I get a voice message on WhatsApp from my Italian neighbor, *Vanni, to have dinner.

20:45H: Vanni and I meet in the communal kitchen to cook a basic dinner and eat together. Somehow, no American (I live in a mostly American house) seems to cook, so it's just Vanni and me as per usual.

21:30H: Vanni and I grumble about washing dishes, and we decide to meet in 10 minutes to have our regular tea time post dinner.

21:45H: Vanni and I have good conversation about our day and our opinions on various topics. Often my tea buddy and I discuss the differences in our respective cultures, and it always ends up enlightening me. He is quite "vanni" (funny).

22:15H: Vanni and I go our separate ways, and I go back to my room to try and do some homework.

22:30H: Homework time...

23:30H: I do some bedtime yoga, and send Vanni a text of the window emoji.

23:45H: Vanni responds, and I go to my window and peer my head outside to the cold, night air.

"Simi."

"Vanni?"

"Good night."

"Buona Notte!"

00:00H: I finish my bedtime routine and climb into bed.

00:30H: I'm still practicing a terrible habit of scrolling on my phone looking at memes.

00:45H: I drift off into my sweet dreams.

The back views of the house I live at. Obviously edited to bring out the fall colours when I took the photo.

This is the day and life in Paris for me. Some days vary of course, but this is generally what my day looks like. Just wanted to showcase that even though I live in the city of love, lights, and dreams, and I'm absolutely in love with being here, it's not so normal from a day anywhere else. At the end of the day, we're all people trying to accomplish our daily responsibilities and eat, sleep, and use the bathroom somewhere in between there too.

* names changed for privacy purposes.