Alejandro V: "Modern Sisyphus Diaries"?

Wow, the last week has already begun! I can’t believe how quickly these last three weeks have gone by! Or, as we Germans like to say: Die Zeit verging wie im Flug.

With the schedule I had during the last two weeks, time really did pass in the blink of an eye, which is exactly what this blog post is about. My colleague Adem and I decided to take extra French lessons at the Alliance Française in Toulouse to improve our language skills. However, as our classes were an hour away, we had to wake up at 7:30am to get there on time. There were about ten other students at our level on the course. Surprisingly, we were both placed in an A1-level class, which we found rather unexpected.

After changing courses three times to get a higher level, we finally settled on this one. The classes ran from 9:00 to 12:30, with a 15-minute break from 11:20 to 11:35. After class, Adem had to go straight to work. I, on the other hand, had a bit more flexibility and would usually go home for a well-earned two-hour siesta. Then it was my turn to head to work, which involved a 90-minute commute by bus, metro and on foot. During those weeks, my working hours were from 17:00 to 20:00. Since I work in a sports club, I also spent part of my time doing physical activities with the members. As you can imagine, I was pretty exhausted by the end of the day.

During my long commute home, I would often close my eyes and rest for a moment. I’d arrive back at around 9.30pm, after which it was either cooking, eating and sleeping, or skipping the cooking and eating straight away, depending on how tired I was. Luckily, Adem was a huge support on those long days, often working culinary magic with his delicious dishes. At the end of these long but strangely fast-moving days, I’d fall asleep instantly, ready to do it all again the next day. It was a well-deserved rest after what felt like pushing a boulder uphill all day!

But despite the long days, I enjoyed and learned a lot 😊