Sunday

Sunday is Angers is quiet. In general, it is a quiet town. Most of the streets you walk down are almost completely vacant. To further extend this feeling of emptiness, most of the shops in town are closed for the month. This is a normal occurrence in France. Supposedly there are 200,000 people in this town but it feels like 1000. Sundays it feels more like 100. Being that I am in a very catholic country, Sunday is the day of rest here. There is no question about it. A few of the Tabacs are open and maybe a couple restaurants and cafés, but for the most part the only thing open is Church.
Today, I went and did my laundry. I sat in the Laundromat for most of the time alone. A few people every now and then walked by. Afterwards, on the walk home, I could not help but notice how quiet everything was. I could hear the occasional car from a distance, but mostly all I could hear were a few birds, the wind rustling the leaves in the trees, the wind blowing past my ears, my breath and my footsteps. It is such a contrast to the rest of my time spent here Europe. It is nice but it makes the days long. It reminds me of when I was younger living in Orange County. On the weekends at my mom’s I use to just watch the days slowly fade. The endless blue sky, the sound of planes overhead, the occasional car cutting through our street, water sprinklers, front lawn grass between my toes after running across the hot concrete, the shadows that slowly began to take shape inside the house, and the lights of the house that we seem to procrastinate switching on until it was completely necessary. I haven’t been in the midst of such a quiet environment nor felt so quietly calm inside for such a long time. To a certain extent, it is really nice. I think the last time I was able to lazily watch the weekend pass on a regular basis was sometime when I was 16! At least it feels that way. On the other hand, the slow day allows the mind to wander and I find myself missing people the most on Sundays. It’s good though. It’s good to experience this. However, when I think about my journey back home it seems so long. I feel so far away sometimes.
My weeks in Angers are not so lazy. Rather they are the opposite. I get up everyday around 7 in the morning; I am usually out of the Foyer by 8 ish. I stop by this Boulangerie(sort of like a bakery) on the way to school. The lady usually greets me with a big smile and a “Bonjour”. I order my usual(pain au chocolat and un grand café ). I sit facing the window while consuming my food. It faces a busy intersection and I enjoy the 15 minutes I spend there alone, watching the French workday begin. Bikes, buses, mopeds, and roundabouts. I spend the next 8 hours at school. I get the occasional 5 minute break from class and an hour break to consume the cafeteria food which doesn’t need to be mentioned again. I go home, do my homework, maybe go hang out with some people for an hour or two and I am usually in bed by midnight. Ready to do it all over again. My classes are enjoyable but hard and long. My language professor really likes me but also makes fun of me almost every class. I don’t know why. I take it as good thing.
I believe Angers is a pretty normal French town. Its sort of weird, life is slow, and everything except for the bars seems to shut down by sundown. In all honesty, the best part of Angers is the weather. I know that sounds silly but it is true. The morning grey usually doesn’t burn off until about noon and for the rest of the day it is warm with a cool breeze. It is like this almost every day and I love it. The other aspect of Angers that is cool is the Chateau in the middle of town. When you’re walking home from a bar or sitting by the river with some friends you see it. Every time I cant help to think how old it is. There it is, built from stones placed there by men over 1000 years ago, which you can go up to and touch. Life goes on. It remains. Sort of a trip…
Yesterday evening I played soccer again with the Polish kids. We went someplace new to play. It was surrounded by fields and remnants of construction which had halted for the weekend. Everything around us was flat. I have never been to the Midwest but I can imagine that it was similar. I could see the sky forever, and as the game went on the grey clouds in the distance eventually covered us. Once again it was quiet all around except for sounds of the game.