January 27, 2021

Wednesday

There were a lot of errands that I wanted to run during the day that would have been great to get done before my trip this weekend. I planned on taking the bus in and making a mad dash around town so I could get the 12:25 bus back to Anthon. I was in an absolute fog all morning. I woke up three or four times during the night and felt like I didn’t get any rest. I almost decided I felt bad enough to skip the store, but Mme Bodet texted me and asked if I’d want to go into town with her. I had about 20 minutes to get ready and we were on our way.

Our first stop was the bank. Mme Bodet checked on the status of a loan she wanted to take out for a new car. We also asked about getting me a debit card because I still haven’t gotten one in the mail. If I understood correctly, they’re sending me one now. I did find out that this morning, I finally got my pay deposited!!! I was so excited. I took out enough money to pay for rent and my bus card.

We walked down the street to get my bus card refilled for February. When we originally filled the card, it was 43.5 euros for the month. However, the last time I filled it up, the clerk charged my 61 euros. I didn’t have time to argue and wasn’t sure I knew the words at the time, so I let it go. This time, I had Mme Bodet and a booklet of prices with me. I indicated on the page which plan I wanted and the 43.5 euro price next to it. The clerk said that the machine would only allow her to charge me 61 euros. Mme Bodet got in there and spoke up for me, repeating the story above. The vendor said the difference in price was likely because they don’t have the same clearances to sell TCL (the Lyon metro line) tickets that the main office does. I would either have to go to Lyon or the Crémieu office to recharge my card.

We headed out without a recharged bus card and went over to ELeclerc to shop for some groceries. I found a lot of the things I kept forgetting. I got syrup! There’ll be pancakes tomorrow, folks! Sadly, I forgot to buy some disposable masks. I want to start double masking at school because the kids refuse to wear their masks on their noses! It grosses me out so much to know that they’re all breathing on me. I see so many of them with their hands in their mouths all the time, ugh!

When I got home I went for my daily walk. The weather was grey and pretty dreary. I walked along the little path by the Rhône and enjoyed the sound of the river. I wandered through town and did some laps around the inner neighborhood. I have it clocked out so that I know each lap is about .75 of a mile. Most of my podcasts talked about the limited efficacy of Biden’s private prison policy that recently came out. While it is certainly a step in the right direction, it is not nearly radical enough to put even a dent in the private prison problem that this country faces.

Because I’m STILL struggling with post-COVID fatigue, I took a lovely two hour nap in the middle of the afternoon. I woke up and made myself a pizza before I went to dinner at the Bodet house.

I went over for dinner and Daniel and I chatted about the calming effect Biden has seemed to have over the US news. He repeated that he’s feeling quiet relieved regarding the future of the US. He isn’t very concerned about the upcoming impeachment trial in the Senate. There isn’t much coverage on it over here. They are more concerned about climate policy and COVID policy. Bernadette, Daniel, and I enjoyed some champagne flavored with a bit of raspberry syrup. We had shrimp and risotto for dinner. Janja does not like shrimp so we had a big discussion about how healthy it was as his mom cajoled him into eating a bit.

I ended the night with a phone call with one of my friends and some internet searching for Avignon train tickets.