DeuxAlpes

After living in a city that is surrounded by the Alps and pre-Alps all semester, I finally went skiing in them.  Now I’ve paraglided over them, hiked them, and skied in them.  I feel pretty satisfied.  I couldn’t live here and not ski in the Alps.  Not even a question.  However, the weather this year decided to make it a challenge since it’s been such a shitty winter (aka one of the warmest Grenoble has seen in 10 plus years – or so I’ve heard).

Yesterday, Caitlin and I caught the earliest bus they had (at 10:15) to the DeuxAlpes ski resort.  After the two hour ride, we finally made it.  I rented skis, bought passes, grabbed a quick lunch and headed up the mountain.  I was pretty overwhelmed by the immensity of the Alps.  We’d get to the top of one chairlift and see 3 other chairlifts and télépheriques (cable cars) that took you to sections of other trails.  At one point, we took a 75-person télépherique which took us to a bar at the top of the mountain with a HUGE sound system.  We might or might not have had our own little dance party when we got to the top.  Unfortunately, it was at the end of our day so we didn’t have time to stop in and join the actual party. 

Unfortunately, at the end of the day, Caitlin and I made the stupid decision to take the black trail (aka the most difficult section) down the last 600m of the trail.  We could see the bottom of the mountain at this point.  We figured we could handle it.  WRONG.  After the first 100m we both took HUGE crashes.  I twisted my knee in a way that it wasn’t supposed to bend.  Luckily, some French guy immediately stopped to help me.  He helped me take off my skies.  I could walk but definitely wasn’t going to get back on my skis, so he carried them while I butt-slided down the mountain.  Thank god for that man.  We returned my skis just before the store closed and then waited around for the bus.  We met this wonderful French couple who had partied a little too much at the top of the mountain.  They added some entertainment to our long wait and were very intrigued to learn English slang.  The bus was late, so after waiting for a good 45 minutes we started freaking out that we had missed it – the last bus back home.  We got back to Grenoble around 9:30ish, grabbed a quick meal, and headed home exhausted!

Today is my last day in Grenoble.  It definitely has not hit me that I’m leaving yet.  This week was a whirlwind - straight from Paris to finals and papers.  I still have another paper to finish that I will have to do when I get home.  C’est la vie.  I feel like I haven’t really had time to reflect on the fact that I’m leaving yet.  I haven’t started packing and I can’t process the fact that lots of my friends are already gone.  Strange.  I guess tomorrow I will face reality when I get on that plane home! I’m a little nervous about all the walking with my busted knee.  It’s super swollen today and kinda hard to walk on.  Gotta do what you gotta do. 

HUGE telepherique

everywhere = breathtaking

on le bus

so cold, so inappropriately dressed, so me

PARIS round two

Friday, I had a little pain in my stomach so I decided to get it checked out at the doctors.  It was very localized so the physician thought it was either a muscle tear or an infection.  I’m getting an ultrasound on Monday to check it out.  After my appointment, I had an oral exam at two.  I got there a bit early and hung out with a bunch of students from my classes beforehand.  I am really going to miss them.  They are so dynamic and fun and so interesting to learn from.  After the exam, I chatted with a girl from Taiwain who was sitting behind me about global warming.  Apparently, one of the mountains by her house got snow for the first time ever.  Craziness! After my test, I headed to the train station and went to Paris to meet up with Aunt Ann and Nora at the nicest hotel I’ve ever been to – the Westin right by the Tuileries Garden.  That night I had a good old fashioned cheeseburger at the hotel (my first one since being here!) and then met up with my friend Olga for a couple drinks before heading to bed relatively early. 

The next day, we slept in and had coffee brought to us in bed – quite the life!  We took the double decker bus to the Eiffel Tower, where we got off and wandered to Chloe’s grandmother’s flat (a friend from Cape Cod).  Luckily, her son and grandson were there.  She could only speak French so with the 3 of us translating it ended up being super successful.   The grandson, Hubert, and I really hit it off.  He ended up inviting me out to a friend’s birthday party with him that evening.  So exciting!  Also, fun fact, he worked at the French Open and got to hit a few balls with Nadal (aka my tennis crush/love).  So cool!

After lunch, Aunt Ann, Nora and I wandered along the Champs-Elysees and then headed to the Place de la Concorde to meet Olga.  We took the metro to Notre-Dame and checked out Shakespeare and Co.  We stopped at a café with a great view of Notre-Dame and got some drinks and a few snacks.  We wandered along the Seine and headed back to the hotel.  I got ready for the evening and then went to meet Hubert at his flat (right above his grandmother’s).  He drove me to the place where the party was, pointing out all the historic spots and explaining all the history along the way.  It was super interesting to go to a French house party.  There was wine and cheese everywhere.  So classic.  We ended up having a great night in Paris!

The next morning, I Aunt Ann and Nora headed out.  They were exhausted and although sad to leave also very ready.  I can’t believe I’ll be following them in a week!  I met up with Olga one last time for lunch.  I can’t wait to see her when I get back to Maine; it’s been so fun to meet up and chat with her in Paris!

Aunt Ann and I on the double decker bus

Arche de Triomphe

Aunt Ann, me, and Hubert

yes, there might have been a Winter Wonderland
at our hotel - including skis

Notre Dame

Eiffel Tower at night

the Seine

nicest hotel I've ever stayed at

Aunt Ann, Madeleine (Chloe's mom), me, Olivier, Hubert

Aunt Ann and Nora!!!

The last couple of weeks are going insane.  Right now, I should be working on my huge essays or studying for my finals next week but instead I am blogging.  I have a half hour before class and then classes for the rest of the afternoon/evening so my mind needs a break!  Plus, there’s been so much happening in my life!

Autrans last weekend was filled with work.  At any given moment, there was a person from our group in the lobby of our hotel working on the dreadful “dossiers” (essays).  Our group took over the lobby.  As for my work, in the next two weeks I have to write 18 pages of French – aka 3 essays that need to be fully researched and take 5 finals.  Let the fun begin.  It actually would be fun if I had more time because I really like everything I’m learning.  As for the essays, I’m writing an analytical essay of a story tale (Cinderella), an analysis of the law in France that decrees it unconstitutional to wear a full face niquab or full body coverage of a burqa, and an essay on the educational system in France.  I honestly don’t know how it’s going to all get done.  I sure do miss reading period from Bowoin!  Classes end tomorrow (Friday), I am going to Paris for the weekend immediately after my first exam, and then I return to take finals all week. I can’t believe I leave the following Monday! I’m hoping to go skiing in the Alps next weekend with one of my friends from class.  It kills me to see the snow in the mountains and not have already gone skiing!

Monday, Aunt Ann and Nora arrived to visit Grenoble.  It’s been incredible to have them here.  It feels so good to know my way around and be able to lead them around the city.  It’s also neat to be the only person who can speak French.  I am definitely at the lowest level of all the people in my program so usually when we go as a group together somewhere; I don’t talk as much.  With Aunt Ann and Nora, I’m the only person who knows French so it’s been neat to see how much I actually do know! 

Sunday, I met them right outside the hotel.  After some room difficulties, we finally dropped our stuff off and went to meet Emma, Elita, and Molly in town for dinner.  We went to a delicious creperie.  Being there was bittersweet.  It was the first real moment where I really connected with the fact that I am leaving these people.  As I was sitting across from Emma I couldn’t help but wonder when I will get to see her again.  She is from New Jersey and goes to school in Minnesotta.  In our time here, we really connected and it makes me sad to think about how we won’t be spending time together in the future.  Besides a few silent episodes of sadness, the dinner was great.  Emma and I shared all our food.  For dessert, we got a banana-nutella crepe and a maple syrup, ice cream, and almond crepe.  SO GOOD.  I love the fact that Ann and Nora got to know my friends here.  After that dinner and the time they spent in Grenoble I really feel like they can fully understand my experience abroad.  It’s great to share that connection.  I’m just so happy they came!

The next morning we met at the hotel in the morning and then headed out for a long, full day of adventures.  It was raining but luckily I had an umbrella and they both had heavy-duty raincoats so we didn’t let it get us down.  We ended up walking a lot that day – we wandered around the river and found the Musée de Grenoble but unfortunately it was closed.  So, we decided to take a trip up to the Bastille to check out the fort.  The view was breathtaking as we could see the snow on the tops of the mountains.  So beautiful.  We went to a museum about soldiers in the Alps which I really enjoyed because there was so much skiing!  It made me want to ski soooo badly.  Then, we had drinks at the restaurant at the top of the mountain and headed back down in “Les Bulles”.  Those are the clear glass balls that bring us down to have a beautiful view of Grenoble.  They really liked them.

note the snow!!!

 After, we walked around the Christmas market and then searched around for a late lunch (almost 3!).  We had a traditional meal of tartiflette and diots as well as a platter of meat, which was kind of disgusting.  Then we walked back to the Christmas market.  We did a little shopping and I forced them to try some yummy treats – hot wine, macaroons, hot chocolate. 

diots and tartiflette - YUM

After, we headed back to the hotel and I explained to them how to get to my house because my host mom invited them over for dinner.  It was my cooking class and we had the most cliché French meal I could think of – French onion soup, tomates farcée, quiche with leeks, and “buche du Noel” aka the Christmas cake.  It was really funny for my friends and me to act as translators.  We sometimes got confused and accidentally tried to explain in French the conversation to my aunts.  It was pretty challenging to switch back and forth between French and English. 

Nicole, Elliot, and Ele about to enjoy my French Onion Soup

Emma with her delicious Quiche with Leeks

Elliot's Tomates Farcees

Nicole's Buche du Noel

me, Nora, and Aunt Ann

 The next day, we decided to visit the Musée de Grenoble and then went to the Café de la Table Ronde for lunch.  This café is the second oldest café in all of Europe!  I decided to be brave and try frog legs.  They weren’t bad but it freaked me out to actually move the legs.  It was just so much like an actual frog.  Aunt Ann and I both got glasses of wine.  It’s going to be rough to return to the states and not be able to have wine with meals!  After, we decided to go to the Musée de la Résistance et de la Déportation de l’Isère which was on the history of WWII in the Grenoble region.  WWII is such a disturbing time period.  The museum was graphic – displaying torture tools the Nazis used as well as the actual walls of torture chambers where people had carved their names and a chart of how many days they stayed there.  I had a hard time being there.

frog legs

La Cafe de la Table Ronde

outside of it - so wet

Musee de Grenoble

After the second museum, we decided to go to my favorite pastry place to get some hot drinks and pastries.  It unfortunately rained for the whole 2 days that Ann and Nora were here so it felt especially nice to relax in the warm café.  After, we picked up some wine, cheese, and a baguette at a grocery store and had a low key evening.  I rushed off around 8 to go over to Molly’s host family to have fondu.  After a tram mishap and phone mishap, I got to her apartment late and then wandered around inside not being able to find the right door.  I couldn’t remember the name of her host family or her apartment number and I didn’t have any more minutes on my phone so after coming that close, I had to go home.  So close but yet so far.  

RACLETTE

I’m a little disappointed.  I tried to do a push up a couple days ago and I think it made me back track.  A lot.  Today, I felt pretty sharp pains in my stomach, which is a little worrisome.  It only happened a couple times but enough to know that I made a mistake.  I just want to have abs!!!  I just want to be a normal person again.  I’ve decided to go to bed early tonight.  It’s going to hopefully be a productive weekend work wise.

On a happy note, today at dinner I sat by one of the directors of our program, Miriam.  I remember the first week not being able to understand anything she said.  Literally.  She gave us a tour of Grenoble and I understood approximately 30 words.  Now, I understand everything.  It’s incredible!  The group trips provide me a great way to see how much I’ve improved.  Here in Autrans, I am super satisfied.  I’ve definitely made some progress - thank goodness because I’m leaving in 17 days!  We had a super interesting conversation about Miriam’s son Sasha and the school system in France.  Apparently, the schools sometimes don’t find substitutes so when teachers are sick the parents are stuck trying to find last minute solutions for what to do with their children.  From there we began to talk about the philosophy of parenting.  So interesting!

We also ate raclette – a specialty of this region of France.  Raclette is a type of mild cheese.  You melt it in this special electric machine and then drip the melted cheese over potatoes, jambon cru, sauccisson, or another type of meat.  It was so delicious!

A Bad Run, Cute Little Kids, and Class Dinner

As an athlete, trying to push past the pain on a run, running across a field, or up and down a court is a challenge I am willing to and love to take on.  I never realized the fact that I can push my body past its limits is truly a gift.  This past week, my runs have taken a level down.  When I start the run, I immediately feel my right side of my stomach.  It doesn’t hurt, but I know it doesn’t feel quite normal so I know I should not push myself as I normally would.  It’s been so frustrating to not be able to do the workouts I want to.  I am still thankful for the fact that I can run and now my head has been feeling much clearer and sharper, however, now I am frustrated by my inability to challenge my fitness. 

On a happier note, there are two things the past couple weeks that I’ve been meaning to talk about.  The first is a dinner I set up with classmates from the international school.  I am quite proud of myself organizing this dinner really signifies how much I have changed.  In high school, I would’ve loved to have had a dinner with these cool people I’ve met in class to learn more about them but would’ve been too passive and shy to set it up.  Here, however, I did and it worked out perfectly!  There were students from Moldova, Kazakhstan, Japan, and the US.  Our only way to communicate was in French (with very different accents!).  It was really interesting to try and understand each other, learn from each other, and just see where our conversations stumbled upon.  At one point the Japanese student asked a question that had clearly been on her mind – “Why does Elizabeth have two names – Beth and Liz?”  To me and the two other Americans the concept was clear but it is super interesting to how small things in American culture foreigners don’t know.  I’m sure it is the exact same vice versa!  It felt great to get to know my peers outside of class plus we got to eat some delicious crepes.

This past week, I was doing my homework in the house when my host mom’s granddaughter came over to visit.  She’s only 5 and is absolutely adorable.  We started talking about her school and how much she liked it.  She ran into the other room and took out the book they’ve been working with.  She’s been learning how to pronounce different letters of the alphabet.  Her pronunciation was impeccable.  Sometimes I lose the perspective that everyone who is raised in France has been working on the sounds since they were little kids, so the fact that I can’t make the sounds perfectly is completely understandable!  It was also wonderful because I did get to help her with some of the words in the poems they were reading, such as “pays” which means “country”.  I know more than I think I do!  She also began to sing some French songs to me which just about melted my heart.  I love kids!

This weekend, we are going to visit Autrans where we were supposed to go skiing, but because there is no snow we will be visiting a fromagerie (cheese store) instead.  I’m set on finding a way to ski before I leave and am working on recruiting some of my friends from class since I would like to do it after finals and most of the people from my program leave earlier than me.  This weekend is going to include a lot of paper writing but I am pumped to eat some delicious, fresh cheese.  I am also so so so excited for Aunt Ann and Nora to visit me on Sunday!!!!!!  Can’t wait!!!!

Sweden and Thanksgiving #2

The next day Kaitlyn and I pulled ourselves out of bed to catch the 10:20am bus.  We had some delicious danishes on the way – which were dedicated to you, mom.  We headed off to Sweden for a day trip.  We went from Helsingør, Denmark to Helsingborg, Sweden.  The names really confused me.  We decided to have a relaxed afternoon and just wandered around – finding a soccer field, tower, and then later a café.  It felt wonderful to just be with Kaitlyn, being absolutely ridiculous per usual.  These photos capture pure happiness.  So so so so fun. 

ferry to Sweden

so much free time

too much free time

hidden entrance

Sweden - NBD

so much love

This whole trip I was taken aback by the Danish and Swedish language.  It literally sounds like the gibberish I made up as a child.  It is so funny to listen to!  Here’s a hilarious video that captures it’s essence to my ears.  Kaitlyn and I chatted about how incredible it is that other people in the world think, talk, and dream in a whole other language. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=s-mOy8VUEBk

After getting back from Sweden, we headed off to Thanksgiving #2 at Ava’s house.  We hung out, chatted, ate, and joked around for hours.  The warm, welcoming atmosphere really captured the essence of Thanksgiving.  The Danish families were so welcoming and it felt so good to have discussions about Danish culture.  I was a little sad because I feel like the language barrier has prevented me from learning as much I would’ve liked from France.  It’s been difficult lately for me to get past the embarrassment of asking questions and my difficulties in comprehension. I am still not at a high enough level to have a long, intense intellectual conversation L It’s a little bit frustrating. 

Thanksgiving #2 - thanks again for the photos Lauren!

Kevin's host dad, Kevin, and I

Throughout the weekend I was continually impressed by Kaitlyn’s thorough understanding of Denmark, its traditions, and the generalities of its people.  She whipped out super interesting facts the whole weekend.  Two that I found exceptionally interesting are that marriage is not super common and bikes are parallel to vacuum cleaners.  Everyone has a bike and uses it.  It is just an everyday item.  Everywhere we went in the city there were throngs of people biking around – in any outfit (biking heels and skirts is common) and in any weather.  It isn’t necessary to have super nice bike and people don’t really pay attention to what they look like or the brands.  I saw a bunch of rusty old ones.  The only thing that matters is that the bikes work – hence the similarity to a vacuum cleaner.  It was so neat to see biking used as such an important form of transportation.  In the US, the culture around biking is much more intimidating and not so common, everyday.  As for marriage, a lot of couples have families together but never get married. It’s really interesting!

Exploring Copenhagen

After Kaitlyn and I finally reunited, we rushed off to our first Thanksgiving dinner with a group of students from her DIS program.  It felt so good to have a real meal.  I’d only eaten crackers all day!  Plus Thanksgiving is by far my favorite meal and holiday of the year.  It was great to be able to share the event with her Danish parents and brother; it was their first Thanksgiving!  They were adorable and loved the concept of the wishbone.  Once we got home, I got to skype with the ski team for a bit before bed.  Yay skype!

Thanksgiving #1 (Thanks for the photo Lauren!)

The next day Kaitlyn, Lauren, and I had some yummy homemade bread and cheese for breakfast before heading to Copenhagen to explore for the day.  It took us over an hour to get into the city.  Now I can finally understand Kaitlyn’s frustration with her commute.  She has to change from a bus to a train just to get to the city.  The bus runs only every hour on the weekends and you have to a do a TON of waiting outside at the stations.  It’s super frustrating! 

Our first aim of attack was to find Christiania – a hippie town in the middle of Copenhagen.  It was neat to see the make-shift houses and see how separated it was from the city.  It was like its own little world!  After, we walked to the center of town, Strøget Street, and found the gorgeous view of the harbor.  Since it is getting close to Christmas, the town was decorated and filled with lights.  It was beautiful!  Unfortunately it was cold and rainy so we hurriedly searched for a café to order some hot drinks.  There were a bunch of stands and mini Christmas bazaars throughout the city.  We tried some delicious Danish specialties – Glogg: a delicious drink of mulled wine with raisins (which I liked better than the mulled wine I’ve had in France!), æbelskiver: fried balls of dough served with powdered sugar and jam, romkugles: chocolate donut-like balls that tasted intensely like rum, and later the Christmas beer (Tuburg Julebryg). 

getting the gløgg and æbelskiver from the super friendly Dane 

æbelskiver

weird rumballs which I hated

Tuburg Julebryg - Christmas beer
note my matching hat with a bottle opener on the brim

Next up was exploring Tivoli at night – an amusement park and with world famous gardens, a beautiful concert venue, and tons of food.  The theme was Russian Winter so there were TONS of lights and it was absolutely beautiful to wander around!  We headed back to Gevninge to eat dinner with Ava and then went back to Kaitlyn’s house to skype with my family for Thanksgiving.  Kaitlyn got to see the real Cape Cod Thanksgiving.  So much family!  It was wonderful to catch up and alsosad to miss the festivities (especially Aunt Patti’s heath cake).  After we decided to go out and explore the nightlife in Roskilde, which is the second largest city in Denmark.  We had a great time – staying out till 4:30 in the morning!  

Tivoli

miss them! epic skype <3

a night on the town