New Friend :)

Today, I got to school early and decided to go to the computer lab before class. As soon as I sat down, my new friend DJamal rushed over and said he had to say hi!  He said that I am always smiling and happy and he loves seeing me here.  Then he went back to his work.  Then he rushed over again and asked if I would be in the lab tomorrow.  I said probably between classes.  Then he got a big smile on his face and said he would bring me a piece of cake.  I don`t fully understand what it is for but he is just so sweet.  I love all the new friends I`m making.  It`s neat to see how just being friendly and good-spirited can bring so many great things into your life.  Like this amazing connection. 

Lyon & Chartreuse

This weekend has been another whirlwind.  Friday was a glorious day – after class we bough sandwiches and ate by the fountain in Place Grenette.  Then, we went to Hagen Daïs and I got a scoop of Crème Brulee, which had delicious chunks of crunchy brulee in it.  It was heavenly.  Once again, we took advantage of the relaxed atmosphere and just hung out at the ice cream shop for a couple hours talking.  Gotta love the French lifestyle.  After, Molly, Elita, and I went purse shopping and I got a beautiful leather bag.  After, we found this amazing and cheap boutique with a magical fitting room attendant.  Then I went home for supper and ate with Nicole all by myself – my first time since being here.  It was cool to have to keep the conversation the whole time and not depend on Elliot when I got tired and frustrated speaking French.  It was a really nice, relaxing evening.  Not the most eventful Friday night but to me it was perfect. 

The next morning I woke up early to be at the train station for 8:15.  After buying tickets, Adam, Travis, Molly, Elita, Greg, Hannah, and I traveled to Lyon for the day.  It was my first train ride and it was gorgeous – weirdly enough we were weaving in and out of the clouds the entire time even though we didn’t change elevation.  I’ve decided I like trains much better than flying!  It’s very relaxing and you can look out the window and see land the entire time. 

Inside Notre Dame

Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourviere

We got to Lyon and were all ridiculously excited.  We walked from the train to Place Bellecour where there was a rally for Handicap International going on.  Then we walked around Vieux Lyon, which had beautiful, antique buildings and the coolest stores.  We stopped at a cute café for lunch, where there was a man making crepes right on the side of the street.  I tried a bite of liver for the first time.  It wasn’t very good.  We checked out the Cathédrale Saint-Jean Baptiste, walked to the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière, took the télépherique down back to Vieux Lyon (which was a letdown because it was in a tunnel), and checked out the Traboules – secret shortcuts throughout the city.  We also came across two random bands in the streets.  I love music; it just makes everyone so happy.  Seeing the bands made me miss playing the flute, perhaps I’ll pick it back up when I get back to school! 

More Crepes!

Telepherique

LYON

Molly in the Traboules

Random Street Band

We decided to have a drink alongside the Rhône and then rushed back to make the 6:45 train back to Grenoble.  Molly and I almost missed the train because we forgot to buy a return ticket!  When we got back to Grenoble, we stopped at Monoprix and got some cheap food for a nighttime picnic and the hike tomorrow.  Nutella sandwiches = yummy.  We ended up chilling on the ramp of the Victor Hugo church. 

Sunday, aka today, Molly and I decided to go hiking with the club from school.  My morning was a complete fail, which luckily ended up turning out perfectly.  First of all I didn’t set my alarm early enough for some strange reason, but fortunately woke up exactly the time I needed to.  Avoiding that close call, I went to the bus station and arrived 8 minutes early for the bus.  The bus never came.  So I walked 10 minutes to the next stop just in time for the next bus I needed.  When the bus came, it was not the right number.  After relooking at the schedule, I realized another bus came at 8:20 and I needed to actually be there at 8:12 for the correct one.  So, bus number 1 never showed up and I missed bus number 2.  Fail.  Then, I waited for almost an hour for the next bus – getting super antsy to make the 8:30 departure time (although I was somewhat productive and read a bunch in my new French novel: The Diary of Anne Frank)!  Once I got on the bus, it took 20 minutes to get to campus rather than the normal 45 – since no one goes out on Sundays and we did not have to pick anyone up.  So, I made it exactly on time!

The group decided to go to the Chartreuse Mountains rather than the Ecrins because the weather was supposed to be better.  So, we took an hour drive to Chartreuse on the most twisty and small roads I’ve ever been in.  The whole ride Molly and I just kept making exclamations about how beautiful everything was.  The villages are part of the mountain and were just incredible – look at the photos! 

I chatted with Anna and Julian the whole ride – two native French students.  They wanted to practice their English and I wanted to practice my French, so they would talk English to me and I would talk French to them.  We all corrected each other and helped one another out with the vocab words.  It was so cool!  My favorite part of the conversation was when Julian exclaimed that he couldn’t believe people in America ate the yellow, plastic cheese. 

When we got to the trailhead, the van got stuck in a ditch.  We spent a solid hour trying to get the van out, which I am still surprised we did successfully.  The hike was AMAZING.  The people were great and the scenery was incredible.  The only scary part was that the whole hike was super slippery!  Through my many interesting conversations (all in French) I came to realize a lot of the students were international on the ERASMIS program.  Molly and I were the only Americans, which was great!  There were two people from Quebec, one from Italy, another from the Czech Republic, another from Germany, and a bunch of people from different areas in France.  I was having casual and pretty fast paced conversations in French and it felt so great!  I even started thinking in French.  Some of my favorite discussions included comparing the Italian/American university systems, talking about my Acadian heritage with the Quebec guys, chatting about Fort Kent with the director of the program, talking about the exciting challenge of living completely on your own in a new city with a new language with the German guy, teaching each other the word ditch in all the different languages (after getting the van stuck), and trying to explain the word throat lozenge and skidding.  Julian also pointed out that French people have a difficult time pronouncing rice versus race, which I found super interesting.  Then he helped us with pronouncing dessous/dessus and crier/ créer.

  

Chartreuse

Chartreuse

The Crew

One of my favorite parts of the day was talking with the guy from the Czech Republic on the tram ride home.  I’ve been feeling a little bit guilty the last couple days for having the ability to travel around Europe and visit all these amazing places when there are so many others who cannot.  I am torn because it is so much fun and teaches me so many things, yet that money could be used to benefit others who need it.  My friend, however, chatted with me about how he was staying here for a year and was disappointed that I am only staying for a semester.  He thinks it is so important to really get a feel for a place –which he thinks takes a year.  In his words, to learn a culture completely different from your own makes you understand the world as well as your own country much better.  He put it more elegantly, but basically he helped me see the worth in traveling.  He also talked about the “American Dream”.  It was neat to see the perception of how an outsider views America.  He truly believes America is the place where you can do anything and do not have to worry about bureaucratic problems.  I quickly refuted that statement, but he helped me see the positives of America.  It is amazing how if you work hard and set your mind to becoming successful, no matter what your background is, you can move up in the world.  It truly is remarkable.  I’ve seen it happen.  The American Dream exists!

DJamal

I`ve worked in the computer lab quite a bit this past week and have run into this really cool man who is trying to become a French professor.  Yesterday we talked about the origin of our names.  I explained my riveting story of being named after a street.  Then, he explained that his name, DJamal can be written two ways in Arabic.  He said that one way you write it means camel, which made me laugh a little, and the other beauty.  His represents beauty. Then he said something that really struck me.  He explained that he doesn`t consider himself very beautiful on the outside but in then pointed to his head and said, I try to be beautiful in here.  I need to remember that. Whenever I am feeling a little lost here, I have to remember that the most important thing is to be beautiful on the inside.  It`s a little cliché but I`ve been feeling a little lost and out of place this last week and that mere sentence made me reflect on who I am and what I am doing here.  I immediately felt less discouraged :)

I had a lot of revelations yesterday. I had 4 hours of free time between classes - a weird amount of time where I can`t go home.  I did some homework and spent a lot of time writing in my journal.  When I met up with Molly later in the day, we started chatting and all these thoughts came up.  We were on such a similar page and it felt so good to discuss our experiences.  Being here makes us appreciate the states much more.  It`s strange here how different the university system is here.  For example, people aren`t particularly proud of where they go to school.  It`s merely a place to get a diploma. We did presentations in my class on our schools and the pride all the American students had of their school was so much stronger than anyone else.  Perhaps that has something to do with the price tag.  Here it is around 3,000€ per year to study at a university.  In the states that would be considered peanuts. 

Also, I love living with my host family but it makes me realize how much I take for granted the freedom at a university.  To have to be home for dinner every night does limit what you can do.  It is a pain to have to communicate to your family any actions that are out of the norm.  It is also strange to have to keep your room clean and be considerate of little things - like not showering at night because the water system is loud and will wake up the host family.  It`s also annoying to not be able to go home between classes and fit in a bike ride or a run.  Even if I brought running stuff to the university, I`d have to run with my backpack on, and I`d be sweaty all day until I got home at 7ish.  A smaller percentage of students live on campus then in the states.  The whole university system is so different from back home.  I’ve also heard that students blatantly don’t listen to the professor in the classes.  I am only in the international school so I don’t get that perspective, but the students who are at a high enough level have been sharing some pretty shocking stories of students just chatting loudly while a professor is giving a lecture – in a classroom with less than 20 students!

Molly and I signed up for our first hike this weekend with the club.  We`re planning on hiking Moraine de Bonnepierre in the Ecrins.  Should be sweet.  We signed up at the end of the day and it was a total fail.  The guy at the front desk directed us to the wrong room, where an actual class was starting.  So confusing!  Then when we finally found the place to register I could not think of any French words and could not understand anything.  Molly was in the same boat.  Like I said, fail.  Finally, we signed up and because of the challenging conversation the nice man was worried that we had no idea what we were signing up for.  He said, “You walked before?”  Meaning, do you know how to hike and do you even understand what you just signed up for.  We said yes and ran out of the building.  It was quite funny.  I`m excited to meet real French people on the hike this weekend! I can only hope that my brain works and I can actually talk with them! 

I`m also planning on taking the bus to Lyon with a small group on Saturday.  I`m excited to explore a new place and not go to the London Pub again.  I chatted with some of the girls in my class about how the Americans always seem to end up there and it`s super annoying!  I got some recommendations of other bars to check out too!

Had a great discussion with Nicole about how the group should really try and speak French more. She said every weekend after I spend a night at a bar with my friends, she can hear my French dramatically get worse.  That`s a goal for the weekend - speak more French!  Also, I was trying to jokingly tell her that I feel at home here because just like in the valley, everyone is brown haired and blue eyed.  She interrupted me after I got done saying I feel very at home here and got all sappy.  She said it is a huge compliment that I said I feel at home in her house.  So, I decided to leave it at that.  She did say I would fit in very well here if I didn`t speak.  Ouch.  Burn, Nicole.  Yet before dinner when a visitor came to the door she said my French was very good.  I think my pronunciation is improving - I just have difficulty forming my phrases grammatically correct.  I can get my meaning across but rarely say it properly.  Nicole also said she was interested in visiting the states.  So exciting!

And an fyi, this past week I`ve felt a little lost being in France. It just does not fit me perfectly.  I`m having a great time exploring the city and trying this new city life but deep down I know it`s not where I`m supposed to be.  When I was sitting by myself in a café people watching and thinking about how I used to dream of being a city girl and doing exactly what I am doing now; yet now that I`m here I miss the random adventures of living in a small or at least suburban town.  I miss exploring random woods and knowing people when you go out into town!  I`m thinking a lot about my future and where I want it to take me.  Being here in France is exactly what I needed.  It`s giving me the time for reflection that I haven`t been able to have the last couple years.  It`s also teaching me to take chill pill and not try to overbook myself every second of my life.  Just take every day as it comes and leave room for the unexpected.

check out where I'm going!  Lyon, Massif des Ecrins this weekend and Chamonix and Annecy in early October

Fairy Castles and Yummy Food

Supper - zuchinni, tomato, chicken, and rice cake

Dessert - prunes, cheese, and jam

First sighting of SNOW

Le toit de la maison ne risque pas tomber sur mon tête

I remember my French TA at Bowdoin making a comment last fall about how when he talked to me in French and when he talked to me in English, it was like two different people.  When I talked in French I was shy, nervous, and unsure of myself; yet when I talked in English I acted like my normal self.  After being in France for over 3 weeks, it’s incredible to see how much I’ve changed.  Back then, I would’ve never believed I could buy a cellphone in French or ask a waiter for museum recommendations.  These things that I now do so casually seemed unfathomable merely a year ago. 

At dinner tonight, I learned some great French phrases.  It feels so great to not be ashamed to questions about the words I don’t know and to have casual conversations in French.  I learned:

-Chat à gorge = cat in throat

aka something’s caught in your throat

-le toit de la maison ne risque pas tomber sur mon tête = there is no risk of the ceiling of the house falling on my head

aka i left the house today and got shit done

-araignée dans ton plafond = spider in your ceiling

aka there’s nothing in your head - you’re not that intelligent

-ne mélange pas les serviettes et les torchons =

aka don’t mix the upper class (napkins) and the lower class (dish rags) – which I find super offensive

Today was another rainy day and it was GLORIOUS.  I went for another run.  I’m beginning to develop a running routine that ends with yoga/stretching, abs, pushups, and dips.  It’s so fun.  After class, Molly, Travis, Elita and I hung out at a café for lunch and hot cocoa.  There is nothing like a warm drink on a cold, rainy day!  Then we went to get dessert at another café.  I love France.  So chill.  The owner of this store loved Americans -first French person I’ve met who has good things to say about America!

We ended up just eating and hanging out until 4 o’clock!  Since Elita and I had to be at Tonic Stretching for 5, we had to rush back to campus from centre ville.  Before rushing off to class, we signed up for a trip to Annecy and one for PARAGLIDING.  I am going to jump off a cliff fo real.  I am so scared but so excited.  This will definitely be an experience I will never forget.  Thank god for Elita for making me do crazy things.  Annecy, Chamonix, and paragliding are all the same weekend in October (9/10).  Kinda pumped.

Tonique stretching was so silly.  It was the weirdest, slowest stretching I’ve ever done.  There were 25 females in the class – mostly taking it as an easy class to get credit.  Elita and I were just doing it for fun.  The whole time there was this slow, bizarre American music playing – which talked about waiting in the rain and waiting for love.  It was a mix of evanescence and nature music.  Like I said, so bizarre.  The final stretch involved partners - it was merely me laying on top of Elita and then vice versa.  Haha I’m not sure if I’ll stick with it.  It was relaxing but something might come up with a higher priority. 

Travis and I at Cafe #2

Me and Elita at Cafe #1

Also, there was snow on the tops of the mountains today.  Made me so happy.

Beauty and Wonder

“The longer I live, the more my mind dwells upon the beauty and wonder of the world.”

-Jake Burroughs

So true!  Thought I’d share this quote from the travel journal Aunt Ann gave me.  Thanks girl, I use it every night!

Gilmore Girls en francais

Two posts in one day.  This is just plain craziness.   I just had to let all my French readers out there know about this AMAZING website for American TV – in French! (Thanks Elita!)  Emma and I just watched so much French Gilmore Girls.  We also ate some tomatoes.  Good times in Echirolles. 

But seriously, if you know French you need to watch this.  It really helps you pick up casual conversational phrases! 

http://lookiz.com/series

YAY

Mountains and Fountains

yummy fondue

I’ve realized there’s nothing that clears my head better than a run.  I love it.  I love running in the wilderness with no watch and no concept of time.  Simply running until I don’t feel like it anymore.  This morning, it was pouring rain.  The first “bad” weather we’ve had since I’ve been here.  I love the feeling of being warm and having the cold rain stream down your body.  It was a great start to my day. 

On my run I came across so many thoughts.  My head was filled with stream of consciousness about everything I’m learning from being in France.  I thought a lot about the language and how excited I am to get to a higher level of French.  I’ve decided to major in English at school because I love the challenge of trying to figure out how to write exactly what you want to say.  Words all have different undertones and it’s so fun to try and put words, phrases, paragraphs together to create a coherent piece of writing that has a distinct vibe attached to it.  Right now, I am at the point of French where I do not understand enough about the structure of sentences to play with the words and create writing that has my own flair.  It is the same with speaking; I cannot quite get across the meaning I want to when I talk.  It’s frustrating but I love the challenge.  It’s been amazing to be here and strictly work on French all the time.  At Bowdoin, it was great because I was finally making progress because of the intensity of the French program.  But this experience, here in France, is exactly what I’ve always wanted what I’ve needed to get to the level where I want to be. 

Being here has also helped me understand about how crucial it is to have family in your life and how much I love my own family.  Most of Nicole and Robert’s children live within 15 minutes to their house.  Their grandchildren often come over to play and Nicole’s now older children come to help her with chores and just chat.  I just love the feeling here – the family comes over and gives kisses on the cheeks and have a great time relaxing, chatting, and helping out around the house.  It reminds me how close distance wise all my relatives are at home.  I think with my family’s new move to southern Maine, I’m beginning to realize how much I took that for granted.  Having my family surround me for my entire life is a privilege that not everyone has.  I’ve always inherently felt a very strong connection to both my immediate family and my extended family but could describe it or fully understand that connection enough to put it into words.  Seeing my host family’s interactions has made this connection much clearer to me.  It’s still hard to describe, but I’m beginning to understand it more and hope I can take back what I’ve learned back to the states.  I want to appreciate these ties more and keep them prevalent in my life.  Much love to Tommy, Minal, dad and mom J

I’m also so thankful for my friends.  Reading Hannah’s blog helped me come to this realization about family, because she has had a similar experience in Argentina.  And talking to Macy this weekend helped me figure out/ overcome some of the obstacles I’ve been facing here in France.  She didn’t even realize how much a casual 10 minute chat on skype helped me.   Having such close friends just brings me such happiness every day.  I think about each of my friends a lot – especially during my two hours of commute every day.  My friends and family are such rocks in my life.  They push me to think and help me get through every obstacle I face in my life.  And best of all they are always with me, in my heart and in my mind.  I’m just so appreciative of them and where my life has taken me thus far. 

As for this weekend – plans took a 180 degree turn because of the weather.  The trip to Chamonix was canceled and Molly and I decided not to go hiking in a thunderstorm.  So, Friday, we ate some Chinese food and then went to good ol’ London Pub.  It was cool to see how “Chinese food” varies between countries.  I had chicken curry and white rice – which was more similar to Indian food than Chinese in the states. 

This weekend was the “Le patrimoine francais” so a bunch of stuff was going on in Grenoble – including free visits to all the museums.  Yesterday, I slept in till noon and then met up with Greg and JeeSol for lunch at a delicious creperie.  Then we went to the church of Notre Dame and accidentally walked in on a wedding, which there are so many of in September in Grenoble!  When a wedding ends, here, everyone follows the bride and groom and honks their horns for what feels like forever.  After watching the ceremony for a bit, we toured the museum connected to the church which was super cool because the remains of a destroyed chateau lie in the basement.  Apparently it was destroyed as a result of disagreements between the Protestants and Catholics back in the day.  Then we checked out the Palais de Justice where we got to tour the parliament building and wander around a craft fair.  My personal favorite artist was a guy who was making guitars.  It was super neat to see how the pieces of wood are carved out and put together!

It was a rainy day yesterday too, so after touring we found a café to hang out at until the group was ready to meet up for dinner.  It was perfect.  Molly and I both got tea and man did it hit the spot.  Perfect thing to do on a rainy day.  I still can’t get over how slow the pace of life is here.  It’s great to just hang out and chat all day. 

Yesterday afternoon we all decided to speak French the whole day.  It was great to force ourselves to do this.  When Adam was explaining the history of the ruined chateau, it got a little confusing to understand but we made it through.  I could even feel myself thinking in French at the end of the afternoon!

Then, the group decided to eat at a Fondue place.  We got two bottles of wine and three pots of melted cheese into which we dipped bread, chicken, and mashed potatoes into them.  So good and so heavy.  Mmmmmmmmm.  On the way home, Emma and I had a total bonding session on the tram ride home.  Good times.

A few other random thoughts:  Mountains and Fountains = Grenoble.  Both are everywhere.  Elita, Molly, Emma and I have the most wonderful connection with pre-teen fantasy series.  Tamara Pierce all the way.  Friday we went to a bar called Plan B that had shots called Abortion and Tabernakle.  Politically incorrect in every way possible.  After saying “toss over” and no one understanding what I meant, I realized county slang is not American slang.  Meals are SO late here.  I got back from dinner at 11 last night.  That would never happen at Bowdoin.  I have two goals for the week – find a spot at a café to do work and talk more with French natives.

Sending love and bons souhaits to all!

chilling in the park

COOKIES

random wedding at Notre Dame

remains of the chateau

My fav artist

floor of the parliament building

inner courtyard/ parking lot? of the parliament building

sweet stairwell

Me, Emma, Molly and the BEAUTIFUL fountain

TEAAAA

Soberly Tobs and the Strange Week

This has been such a strange week.  Everyone has started their classes and are now on different schedules.  Because no one else is in the same morning class as me and I lost my phone last weekend, I have been mostly alone with nothing to do.  ALL WEEK.  At first it was awesome and I had a great time exploring the city by myself, doing errands, writing in my journal, and reading.  But at the end of this week I began to realize how important technology is in my life.  No one plans far enough ahead to let me know what is happening through email or fb the night before.  So at lunchtime, after wandering around the campus a couple times in search for friends, I did my own thing every day this week.  I finally got another cellphone today and I am reconnected with society (well, my new French society).  Now I won’t be missing out on any more opportunities for group fun! 

It’s weird to have so much down time.   After coming from Bowdoin where I hop from activity to sport to homework to hanging out, having literally nothing to do is making me crazy!  I think it’s good for me though.  The relaxed, French culture should be more widespread.  It’s so strange for me to not feel stressed out.  I don’t think that’s good…  Gotta love the American lifestyle…Workaholics.  Did you know that in France it is rude to discuss jobs?  Back home, it’s a source of pride and recognition.  Here, it’s taboo. 

Today I had my first Contemporary French Politics class.  I’m super excited about it.  The teacher is so nice and seems to really have her stuff together.  She even gave us handouts of a copy of her printed powerpoint slides!  So far in my literature, history, and politics class, we’ve talked about French history - the Bastille, the Revolution, Louis XIV, all that good stuff.  It’s cool to see how I understand more and more every day.  It’s been a huge roller coaster ride with how I am feeling linguistically.  Whenever I don’t think I am making progress, I think back to when I always felt so great after going to the weekly French table sessions at Bowdoin.  France is like French table times 1,000.

When I got back home, I skyped quickly with my dad and with his help, decided to follow my gut and become part of the hiking club at Université de Grenoble.  The club has hikes every Saturday and Sunday.  If I want to go on one of the hikes, all I have to do is going to a meeting Thursday evening to let them know.  It’s sweet because this way I don’t have to figure out the complicated logistics with buses/ trail heads if I want to go hiking and, more importantly, I’ll get to meet real French kids who are my age!  This program isn’t just for the international CUEF part of the school that I attend but it is for the entire university!  So cool!  Also, I chatted with Molly about it tonight at the bars and she signed up for the club too!  I think we might be the same person.

I’m really enjoying getting to know my new host brother Èlie.  He doesn’t know barely any English so we can’t cheat when it’s hard to understand one another.  Today I was telling him about the hiking club I wanted to join and how I had to send some guy and email with some questions.  He offered to edit it and worked with me for like half an hour on grammar.  It was so sweet!  He’s getting his masters in math at the University and is super shy but super nice. 

Per usual, Nicole was awesome.  She is just so funny.  One of the things I can remember from dinner is when Elliot got a phone call she said, “Must be his wife.”  It doesn’t sound that funny but when you picture this little old lady casually making a comment like that, it really is. 

The phone call ended up being Emma and she convinced me to go out for Adam’s birthday.  Although I was starting to get annoyed with the lack of variety in location, I’m realizing that it’s actually kind of cool to have a spot to go.  The other day when people from the London Pub were giving out flyers at school and the bartender and I mos def recognized each other.  We said salut; it was kind of a big deal.  It ended up being a super fun night and I was glad to be there, especially after having such little social interaction throughout the week.   Molly, Emma, and I made plans to go to Grenoble tomorrow – to the hiking store to get recommendations for the weekend, grab some lunch, look for some stylish/baggy pants, and for a computer bag/ purse.  It’s going to be a good time.  It’s going to be a great weekend!  Hang out with Molly all afternoon tomorrow, go to dinner and a French movie, wake up early to head to Chamonix on Saturday, and go hiking on Sunday.  Not too shabby! 

Lastly, shout out to my lovely friend EW  - Soberly Tobs :P

so many girafs

poison for the birthday boy???

The TRAM

Ma cherie

Every day, I look forward to dinner at my house.  Literally ever night, Nicole somehow makes my night.  She is just so funny.  She gets so excited about things and makes all kinds of hilarious comments.  Tonight she insisted on drawing a tomato plant to describe the parts to me.  She also made fun of Elliot because he said Je suis plein – attempting to say I am full.  Apparently this is used when you are full on alcohol.  Je suis rassasrié means full on food.  It was great. 

Another highlight – I’ve moved up in status.  She whipped out ma cherie – a term of endearment!  Score!  We’re becoming BFFs and it’s wonderful. 

I had my favorite class so far today.  The subject:  French and francophone literature.  I am so ignorant in everything to do with France.  I am excited to read classic French literature and learn more about the history and how literature reflects it. 

I was also super excited to discuss the different components of literature in French during class and actually understand everything.  I can already see how my comprehension is improving – initially I couldn’t even recognize the words I did know.  Now I can recognize sentence after sentence of words and take notes.  I can’t wait to get in the groove of things and sit at a café and look through my notes to study!

Molly and I wrote on each others’ legs during class.  It was très amusant.  Here is a sample of what is on my leg.  On hers are a couple of unicorns.  NBD.  Also, she bravely chatted it up with a French guy who was using a taut line, thanks to Elita's aide :).  Here she is trying it out.  Brave little Molly.  I’m glad she and Elita are coming to Chamonix on Saturday and am pumped to go hiking with Molly on Sunday.  We’re hoping to also go see Harry Potter 7 at the theaters sometime this week and go to an athletic club fair this afternoon.  So fun!

One more random thought: The mountains make me happy every day.  For the whole hour commute to class I just look out the window, jam out, and think about the mountains.  They are just amazing.  They are so varied in their appearance.  There are rock cliffs, trees, little villages, odd peaks.  Sometimes the clouds are in the middle of them or right in front or half and half.  Sometimes it’s a clear day and you can see the details perfectly.  Every day it is different and every day I am in awe of their beauty. Below are all photos I took from the bus on the way to class this past week.

Also, jitterbug played on the tram the other day.  Made me laugh.

Doooooodles

Molly's bravery

Mountains, Mountains, and More Mountains!

FAILLLL

weird things about France: 

-Their keyboards are very different from America.  Every time I try to use one, I forget that the Z key is where the A is.  So annoying. 

-They give baby-sized coffees here, legitimately the size of a shot glass.  Luckily they are also quite strong, kind of like espresso. 

-At cafés you pay as the waiter brings the drinks, not after. 

-At restaurants you must ask the waiter for the addition or else you will be waiting at the restaurant forever. 

-In all buildings, the stairs start at 0 so when you climb up a floor are only then on the 1^st floor. 

-The bathrooms are completely enclosed stalls; the one at school has a weird cage thing on top. 

-My all time favorite is the French put their bread on the table rather than the plate.  Genius! 

-They also sop up whatever is left on their plate with that bread.  Yummy.  Reminds me of my dad.

Sunday was a wonderful day in general.  I started out by baking a carrot cake with Molly.  We found out converting everything to grams is super confusing and that the French have very different cooking equipment than Americans.  We couldn’t find a basic rectangular square pan and had to use two circular ones.  There are also no cooling racks.  And as far as ingredients, there is no cream cheese at the grocery store, as far as we could tell.   Also, grating carrots sucks when all you have are the small blades from a food processor.  Soo many carrots.

After we somewhat successfully completed our cake, we grabbed some lunch at Batmans – yes, batmans - since basically all other restaurants, stores, and shops are closed on Sunday.  Then Hank, Emma, Hannah, Molly and I hiked the Bastille.  It was super chill.  We stopped near a sweet tower along the way and had our lunch at the most amazing viewpoint.  It was super windy, though, so a little scary being so high up!  The whole rest of the hike we kept stopping to take pictures and check out different views.  We decided to go all the way to the top, where there were some really neat memorials to soldiers who had died defending Grenoble on the very mountain where we stood.  Kind of crazy. 

The rest of my Sunday involved doing the 3 assignments I didn’t do all weekend.  Fun times.

Monday, I got a new host brother!  His name is Èlie and he is a graduate student at the Université de Grenoble – studying math.  He seems really nice and really shy.  I also went for a run/ did core and yoga with Emma and Nicole before dinner.  It woke me up and made me feel a lot better!  At night, I decided to watch the new Harry Potter (finally!) on my computer.  Hopefully this will be prepwork so I can go watch it in French at the theaters with Molly. 

Also, we had beignets last night – which are basically the best mini donuts in the world.  So delicious.  I’ve taken over dishes for Nicole in the evening.   Last night she told Èlie, that it’s my specialty.  It was adorable.  I told her it was because I used to take over when my brothers washed the dishes when we were younger.  I thought it was a treat. Haha.  Oh children.  

FAILLLLLLLL.  I just realized that my class was supposed to be at 8:30 this morning and not 10:40.  I skipped my first class, accidentally.  Shit!  Baaaaaa, I just emailed my professor.  I am super stressed out, because I think I may be in the wrong level classes and I was going to chat with her about this after class.  I am way above and beyond in understanding the grammar but have a hard time infiltrating it into casual conversation.  I need way more practice in fluidity of speaking as well as pronunciation and oral comprehension.  I’m worried that the pace will be too slow and that once I get used to hearing French and speaking, I’ll be at the wrong level.  I know my pronunciation isn’t great but I think I just can’t formulate ideas faster than other kids in my class.  Stressful!  I could be wrong though, I’ll have to see what she says – which will have to wait another day!  I’m also bummed because I’m not allowed to take Université de Grenoble courses because I am not at a high enough level L. 

C'est la vie. 

Les Boulles et Grenoble

Stug City with the Wind

The Crew at the Top!

Sweet tunnels

Go Big or Go Home

Wow this weekend just flew by.  Soooo many updates.  I guess I’ll start off by telling you how much the start to every weekend is going to suck because I have class from 8:30-12:30.  I hate Friday classes.  While everyone else is sleeping/ going on trips I sit in class. GT’s.  It’s okay though because Bowdoin accepts all abroad credits as pass/fail.  I am definitely going to skip a couple to do sweet things.  I am in Europe after all. 

After class, the group met up in Echirolles, aka my homeland (thanks for being patient guys)! We all got Subway sandwiches, which is in France is somehow waaaay classier than in America even though it has the exact same sandwiches.  But get this, it only had one type of cheese.  How ironic!

Then we all hung out at the park all afternoon.  It was AMAZING.  This is the park that is 1 minute away from my house so I got to walk home and change too.  Score.  On the way back to the group I met this old man playing bocci (which is HUGE here among the old peeps).  It was the strangest conversation and I think it ended by him hitting on me?  It started by him asking where I was from and what I was doing here –pretty normal right?  No.  Then he started saying how 9/11 is coming up and how that increased airplane security in France.  Then he asked me if I was married and I said, “No way!  Too young.” And he asked how old I was and I told him 20.  He said no, definitely not to young.  Then he asked what I liked to do and I said hiking and biking but unfortunately I don’t have a bike here.  He said that he had two and asked what I was doing on Sunday.  I said hiking and ran away.  It was funny and super unexpected.  He had a mullet style fro going on.  Hot stuff.  Maybe I should have taken him up on that offer…haha.

Keep in mind that entire conversation was in French.  So cool.

After the park hanging out at the park all afternoon, Emma and I decided to girl it up – college style.  We were chatting about how we missed getting dressed up, putting on make up, and jamming out to music before going out with our friends at college.  So, we decided to do it.  We picked out each others’ clothes, put on makeup, listened to the best old school music mix, chatted about life/ realized we have the strangest and most wonderful similarities, and decided to WEAR heels!  Good decision at the beginning of the night because we felt hot as hell, bad decision at the end of the night when I had to take them off and stop dancing.

We ended up going to surprise, surprise the London Pub again.  They love us there and give us free drinks.  They also offered Alex a job as a bartender and gave us a random police hat in the middle of the night.  It was wonderful.  The American music there is so nice because we can actually sing along.  Tonight, my favorite jam out song was Ignition by R. Kelly.  Sooo good.  Love going old school.

After the pub we went to “Au Vieux Manoir” where we got our first true experience of European night life.  We got free passes to the pub since we stayed at London Pub until it closed at 1am.  Yay for saving 10 euro!  The club was absolutely empty.  Only at 2am and later did the people start rolling in.  The people here stay out SO late!  It reminded me of Canada except with more variety in creepers.  There was fog, a cage, and strobe lights everywhere.  Unfortunately because of my heels and my exhausted lameness, a huge group of us left the club at like 3ish.  But we had to wait outside for literally an hour outside for a cab.  I still don’t understand why.   Emma, Elita, and I were sitting on this curb and these two guys came up to us and just started saying oh hello three pretty ladies.  It was funny.  One ended up being German and thought it was the most amusing thing to be politically incorrect in English.  I chatted with the other guy so I missed a lot of it (thank god) but I heard glimpses of the conversations which included the word fuck repeatedly as well as nigga and Jews.  Everyone got pretty pissed and made him stop being so rude and disrespectful.  At one point he started talking about how Jewish people had big noses, and Emma made him back off and told him,  “Hey man, I’m Jewish.  How’s my nose for you?”  Backed him into a real corner with that one.  The other guy was this sweet French guy.  Somehow we ended up talking about Rock bands in Sweden and Norway.  He got so excited about one band he demanded he write it down somewhere, which ended up being onmy arm.  He kept saying, “You need to remember this in the morning!!!”  It was adorable.  They are called the Helicopters.  Check them out, they’re pretty good. 

After getting home at like 4 in the morning, I got up at 8:15 to meet up with Emma and then the group at the bus station.  We decided instead of going to Chartreuse, we’d go to Lac Laffrey since the weather was beautiful.  It was the most beautiful lake and a great afternoon.  We just swam, lazed around, and ate pizza.  Epic.  So sunburned though. 

Then a group of us met up at a Creperie at Victor Hugo.  It was the best time.  I was in my crazy mood and so was everyone else.  Pure loveliness.

Highlights:

-Molly falling off a chair

-endless laughter

-me demanding for greg’s lemon to eat and then later declaring I hate all things lemon when Elita asked if I wanted some of her lemon crepe.  Hehe whoops

-Girls Gone Wild?

-when pictures were taken, immediately get into rain drop catching position

-2 and half hours of pure happiness

-the game Waffles v. Pancakes (Death v. Sleeping/ Stars v. Food)

park behind my house

Emma and I - so ready for the night

London Pub

The Hellacopters - thanks French dude

Lac Laffrey

PIZZA

Raindrops?

the crew at the creperie

Today I’m meeting up with Molly to bake a cake and then going hiking at the Bastille.  It’s going to be awesome.