{"id":4937,"date":"2019-12-06T08:00:28","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T08:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bracketyackrc.wpengine.com\/?p=4937"},"modified":"2019-12-06T08:00:28","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T08:00:28","slug":"greetings-from-abroad-feelin-kinda-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/?p=4937","title":{"rendered":"Greetings from Abroad: Feelin’ Kinda Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Zoe Manoukian<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I was surprised to find nearly every storefront closed during my first Sunday in Nantes. In preparation for my travel, I had read about common times of rest in Europe\u2014for instance, in London, many shops close by 18h00; in Spain many shops have a long afternoon break; and in France, few stores are open on Sunday. I thought the malls would surely stay open, and that the super markets could not possibly be closed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It took finally being here and walking past the empty, dimly lit, shuttered streets for me to fully believe that almost every establishment would not see a single customer come Sunday, save the occasional boulangerie. Initially, this was a point of worry for me. I thought \u201cwhat if all of my groceries go bad and I have nothing to eat?\u201d, and \u201cdoes this mean I will have no choice but to hide out in my 9 sq metre room all alone every Sunday?\u201d Further, I felt uncomfortable with the idea of passing what felt like a lazy Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n

I soon found, though, that by planning ahead well, my groceries would not fail me, and that there are many pleasant ways to pass a day without touching your wallet. Now I appreciate the emphasis France puts on allowing us time to re-energize, and I am quite fond of my new day of rest. I see it as a time to sleep in and enjoy a cleansing afternoon before my week of studying starts again. In the warmer days, I had taken to writing by the river that runs downtown, and for the past few weeks I have been enjoying walking through one of our public gardens. I have also spent these Sundays walking through nearby trails with my friends or getting together to cook and paint.<\/span><\/p>\n

I feel that by literally closing shop once a week, I am encouraged to work hard and plan well for the beginning of the week, and can then have a day of calm and reflection. I have a day completely at my disposal for doing whatever it is that I find to be regenerative and meaningful. I no longer feel uncomfortable with the thought of passing a \u201clazy\u201d Sunday because I have realized that they are not lazy\u2014rather I am manifesting my energy and passion into activities other than those which are demanded of me, and into past times that I know will set me up for a productive week. I hope that I remember how profoundly this day of rest has impacted my mentality when I return to the United States, and that even when fronted with both a country and university that places what I would consider to be a much less emphasis on rest, I can continue to honor my Sundays as moments of recuperation. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Zoe Manoukian I was surprised to find nearly every storefront closed during my first Sunday in Nantes. In preparation for my travel, I had read about common times of rest in Europe\u2014for instance, in London, many shops close by 18h00; in Spain many shops have a long afternoon break; and in France, few…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-wellness"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/sunday.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}