Foire & Jour Férié

Last Friday we had a jour férié which means a vacation day for all of France.  It was Armistice Day – aka the day when the treaty was signed to end WWI.  This war has much more importance in Europe since this is the grounds where the fighting actually took place.  Each village in France has a ceremony and parade to commemorate the past.  Emma arrived at my house that morning and we took off to catch the parade.  The parade consisted of only a small marching band but what made it really cool is the fact that the whole community of Echirolles (the suburb I live in) was following.  At the end everyone gathered, had drinks, chatted, and listened to the band play more music.  It was such a beautiful, community event that reminded me of home.  It really made me miss those middle school Memorial Day parades. 

After, Emma and I sat out on the steps of my house, soaking up the sun.  I did a little work while she played harmonica.  It was glorious.  Then, we decided to go for a run - my FIRST RUN post hospitalization.  It was so exciting.  It was a mix of walking/ running, which was frustrating, but it is a step in the right direction!  I can’t get over how much more I appreciate life.  The fact that I can move – I can walk, I can jog, I can stretch.  It’s really incredible what our bodies have the capabilities to do and how well they work most of the time. 

Anyways, after our run, we decided to change into sundresses and try to find the big fair that was going on a few tram stops from our houses.  It was wonderful to hang out, listen to music, and get ready together.  It reminded me so much of college!  I miss the freedom of living independently with friends so much!  Going from the independence of college to living with a family that isn’t yours is a huge transition.  Wow, I am really wandering with my thoughts here.  Let’s see, next we stumbled across this shopping mall that reminded me so much of the states but with a French twist.  Then we found a skating rink and decided to chill in the sun a little more before going to hunt further for the fair.  Got so much journaling done.

The fair was a super cool event that took place inside and sold literally anything and everything you could think of.  We checked out the furniture, weird window cleaners, leather jackets, scarves, baby sweaters, and FOOD.  It was like Annecy on repeat.  We shared everything we bought and had the most delicious feasts.  That weekend we were planning on going on a quest to find the best pralines (according to Vincent).  The pralines were in a small town called Romans and had a special ingredient called fleur de l’Orange in the brioche.  They happened to be at the fair.  How lucky?!?!  I have to agree, the brioche definitely stepped it up a notch.  Unsure if they were the best I’ve ever eaten but definitely a good find.  We tried the gross looking sausages which ended up actually tasting really good and tasting like beef jerky (yummy, right Kait?).  We also found a dried fruit stand that sold the most bizarre things like dried grapefruit, starfruit, and aloe vera, which were all delicious!

I ended up going to bed early after studying for politics for as long as I could

random lion at fair

bonbons!

quest = complete

looks disgusting, actually delicious

weird,  mild, delicious

that's dried grapefruit in the back

biggest pralines EVER

A Good Day

Today, I got up early and took care of some loose ends and then went to the hospital for my final round of visits.  I met with my surgeon and paid all the rest of my bills.  I felt so grown up handling all the paper work myself and taking care of myself.  Now that I’ve done this whole process in French as well as figured out how to get around both Grenoble and Milan, I feel as if I could handle almost anything thrown at me in the US. 

It is such a beautiful day.  The mountains are still there gorgeous and visible from wherever I stand and there isn’t a sky in the cloud.  It’s starting to finally get cold here.  I can almost feel ski season approaching, which makes me so incredibly happy.  As I walked to and from my appointment I couldn’t help but just think about how lucky I was to be able to walk to my appointment and be physically and mentally able to take care of myself.  Other good news, the surgeon said I can exercise whenever I feel up to it.  I’m going to try a slow jog tomorrow.  I’m so excited!  I’ve really missed using exercise as a way to clear my head. 

striking every day

Another exciting highlight is that I got into Boston Urban Teaching Fellowship!  I applied for the program this past October, excited because urban education is what I am thinking of following for a career path.  This is the perfect opportunity to make sure this is what I really want to pursue, get some hands on experience in urban classrooms, and get some connections.  I’m a little bummed because I misread the times and didn’t realize that I would have to miss the first two Eastern Cups for skiing, but c’est la vie.  This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!  

My First Cooking Class

Can’t wait to come home and try all these new recipes although it might be a little confusing since they use the metric system here!

Milan, Italy

The next day, we woke up pretty early – around 9:30.  We got breakfast (there was cereal –YAY) and headed out to check out the sights.  It was pouring.  Elita bought an umbrella from a street vendor at the metro but I didn’t figuring I was fine because I had a raincoat.  Man was I wrong. 

We got to the Duomo and took pictures of the church.  I got sucked in by one of the street vendors to take pictures with pigeons on my hand.  He gave me a bunch of corn and then the pigeons flocked to me.  It was pretty disgusting.  It felt kind of cool to have birds perched on me and if they weren’t pigeons I would’ve probably loved it.  Not really sure why I had the urge to do that.  Then, we hurried in the church to take a break from the rain.  It was beautiful.  What I was most struck by was the floor.  I loved the tiled patterns.  In all of Milan, from the magnificent floor of the church to the cobblestone streets to the tiles of the Castello Sforzesco and to the designs on the floors of the shopping areas – the ground was always strikingly beautiful. 

We wandered past all these stunning buildings and walked 5 minutes to the castle (Castello Sforzesco).  My favorite part of the chateau was definitely the HUGE open courtyard.  If it had been nice out I would’ve sat and read there for hours.  Please keep in mind all of this was in the pouring rain.  Similar to Annecy, Elita and I treated it as a challenge, whose butt we totally kicked.  It never got us down and even felt good to overcome an obstacle that could’ve easily ruined the trip. 

After visiting the two biggest tourist spots, we decided to get some lunch.  This was the second most epic dinner of my time here.  Elita and I had such a great time chatting.  She ended up teaching me about the difference between lattes and cappuccinos (lattes have more milk whereas cappuccinos have more foam) and drawing a beautiful sketch of me on her placemat.  So amusing.  We had cappuccinos, pizza, and gnocchi.  Delicious!

Then we decided to check out a gelateria.  Best gelato I’ve ever had.  I recommend trying tiramisu flavor!  We spent the whole afternoon there chatting (in French), journaling, and just relaxing.  It was wonderful.  Then we wandered along the streets and visited this weird needle and thread statue.  It started pouring really hard so I finally decided to buy an umbrella and we rushed into a bar to have a pre-dinner drink.  It was a cool place with a great atmosphere that we could picture being busy at night.  Unfortunately since it was only 5 in the evening it was dead.  We hung out for a couple hours and then decided to wander around a little more until dinner time.  Elita got her fortune told by a phony – it was so ridiculous. 

We decided to splurge on dinner and have a traditional, delicious Italian meal.  We started off with champagne for an aperitif.  For our entrées we both got pasta.  I ordered spaghetti in a goat cheese sauce.  This pasta was just incredible.  I’ve never had anything like it.  It was thicker and richer tasting than anything I’ve ever had.  We shared a bottle of wine (the waiter’s recommendation).  Then we split tiramisu.  Yum.

The waiter pointed us in the direction of the bars and we hung out until 4 in the morning!  It was a great night.  Elita and I ended up hanging out with one group of Italians the entire night.  She talked to one guy who spoke English very well the entire night.  I talked with a group of his friends - 3 guys and one girl.  Only the girl could speak English.  Since Italian is pretty much a mix of French, English, and Spanish I would speak in English and translate in French right after.  Every now and then the boys could understand without her translation.  It was so interesting!  After we got back from the bars, we went back to our hostel and met some really friendly Brazilians before going to bed.  Overall, a great day!

After being in Italy for the weekend and not being able to understand when anyone talked to me in Italian, I really appreciated knowing the language of French and realized I do know more than I think.  It’s easy for me to have everyday conversations with people, a simple skill I took for granted in Grenoble!  It’s frustrating to just stare at someone with a blank face because you cannot understand a word of what they’re saying!

One last note:  I ADORE Italy.  Because of the weather, we mostly got to experience the food and people culture and it was incredible.  I am bound and determined to return again – hopefully next time I’ll know more Italian tha “Preggo” and “Ciao”!

floor of Duomo

Castello Sforzesco

this happened all the time

cool rain!

GNOCCHI

ME

heaven

needle and thread statue

bar 1

fraud

so legit

most delicious pasta i've ever eaten

tiramisu

Last Minute Journey to Italy

Since my last blog entry, I am feeling much, much better.  The morning of Uncle Nou’s funeral I decided to skip class and write about how much he meant to me (some solid advice from Micheline).  After I was done, I forwarded a copy to my dad and asked him if it could be read at the ceremony.  Even though I couldn’t be there, I wanted to be a part of it somehow.  My brother ended up reading it (Thanks Tommy!) and my Aunt Nancy decided to put it in the coffin with Uncle Nou.  What an honor.  After letting out how I was feeling and how much a valued Uncle Nou, I felt more at peace.  After being cooped up in the hospital, and then in my house, and being so upset about Uncle Nou a trip to Italy is exactly what the doctor order (figuratively of course).

Elita and I decided to plan this crazy adventure to Milan, Italy on Wednesday and we left Friday afternoon.  Craziness!  It was completely last minute but ended up being one of my favorite weekends thus far.  It all started with Emma cutting Elita’s hair at the train station.  Random, I know.  Then we took the 5+ hour journey to Milan.  It was interesting to compare the difference between Italians and the French and see the stereotypes appear right before our very eyes.  The train from Grenoble, France to Chambery, France was dead silent.  Yet the trip from Chambery, France to Milan, Italy was the opposite.  Italians were having super loud conversations all around us.  The language is incredibly beautiful and I kept getting lulled to sleep by the melody of their words.  Every now and then I could pick up a cognate (a word that is Italian but also English or French), but I basically couldn’t understand anything, which reminded me of my experience of Franglish in high school living on the Canadian border.  We chatted with two Italian men sitting in front of us.  They were adorable.  When they realized we were foreigners they immediately started shouting Italian stereotypes of “pizza and spaghetti”.  It was hilarious.  I loved the accent.  I swear I will learn Italian some day.  They also were obsessed with saying “I’m sorry”.  They kept accidentally hitting into us and then they’d say I’m sorry over and over again followed by a little giggle.  Like I said, so adorable. 

We got to Milan at around 11:30 at night.  Although the guys on the train had told us we were in the middle of town, we definitely were not.  After wandering around for two minutes we realized we were actually in an incredibly sketchy part of town.  So, we walked back to the train station, wandered over to a bus stop, and asked help from a friendly looking girl who luckily spoke a little English.  She began to explain to us that to get to the middle of town we needed to go back inside the train station and take the metro to Duomo (the stop by the magnificent church).  Then another man rushed over and said, “I speak better English, I can help you!”  Then he said the exact same thing but gave us a map and had a super long conversation with us about New York, California, Miami, and where we are actually from.  I love how everyone I meet in Europe only knows about those three places.  It’s very amusing to learn about how Americans are perceived. 

So, we figured out how to buy tickets and take the right subway to the center of town.  After figuring out how to navigate in a huge city where I don’t know a lick of the language, I thought about how silly it was to be afraid of navigating around Boston less than a year ago!  We wandered around until we found a hotel.  We walked in and asked how much it was for a room.  It ended up being around 200euro.  Definitely out of our price range!  We were about to leave and keep searching when he started saying, I can find you a hostel if you’d like.  He found us a hostel nearby, printed us out directions, and even called to see if it was full (they didn’t pick up, so we decided to risk it).  I couldn’t believe it!  Every single Italian we met was so friendly and above and beyond willing to help us.  I began to fall in love with the language, people, and culture.    

We meandered down the street and after a good 20 minutes found our hotel.  It ended up being super confusing to find because it is hard to find the street names and there is no grid format to the city – it looks like a circle with all kinds of randomly assorted intersecting lines on the map.  Also, the map didn’t have all the street names!  When we got to the Ciao Bella, there was a huge party going on.  We went inside and pushed past the people to the front desk.  The lady said they were full up, but once again helped us out in finding another hostel.  She also recommended we stay or return later for drinks.  We declined and decided to take a taxi to the next hostel - Hostel Zebra. 

For some reason, the hostel name wasn’t posted outside.  So after wandering down both sides of the street for a while, we finally found it by peering inside a window and being overwhelmed by zebra print.  We had finally arrived and were safely in our beds at 2 in the morning.  What a way to start the trip!

yummy snack on the train!

gorgeous train station with a poster of a gorgeous man. so fitting

Duomo

so much zebra print!

The Unexpected

Studying abroad has not been what I expected.  Life has thrown me so many obstacles here in France.  It hasn’t been the relaxing, thoughtful, and crazy experience I expected.  It’s been full of life lessons and many high highs and low lows.  Earlier this week, I wanted nothing more than to give up and go home.  Learning French has been a dream of mine since I was little kid, but this week I felt as if some higher power is against my dream.  After my whole hospital ordeal, I was ready to jump back into school on Monday.  Then, I found out the most terrible news on Sunday, which is still difficult for me to process.  My uncle died on Sunday.  He was like a grandfather to me and it breaks my heart to think about the fact that I will never see him again.  I will never get one of his special hugs again or never see him look at me with so much love ever again.  It doesn’t seem real.  It’s been so incredibly hard for me to focus this week with my classes when every spare second I think about him.  I’m tearing up as I write this.  He just means so much to me and it’s incredibly hard to be away from my family right now.  It’s hard enough to mourn someone who is close to you, but even harder when you cannot be with the ones you love.  I know I have to keep plugging along, catching up with work, and living my life but sometimes I just want to curl up in a ball in my room and just be sad.  No one here knows him, no one can picture him the way I do.  I just want to be surrounded by other people who loved him as much as I did.  I want to talk to someone who understands my feelings inside and out.  I just want a hug from my mom or dad.  It’s just so hard because I know I won’t be able to attend the funeral (which is tomorrow) or take the break I need to mourn.  I’ve already missed two weeks of school and unless I want to give up, I have to keep plugging.  Right now, that is asking a lot. 

One thing I’ve learned since being here - appreciate the people in your life and don’t take life for granted.  Sounds cliché but it really isn’t.  I feel so privileged to have been able to have so much time with such an amazing person.  Uncle Nou taught me so much about how to love, how to work hard, and how to appreciate others.  I never realized just how much he meant to me.  Man, am I going to miss him.  It’s just so important to appreciate your life and the people in it.  You really never know when it’s your time to go.  I definitely didn’t think Uncle Nou’s was coming anytime soon. 

Although I’ve been really sad lately, today it got a little easier.  I made a mental checklist of things that made me happy.

1.      1. Chatting with Micheline and getting an incredible hug after telling her about what happened.

2.      2. Tutorat with Elita – We talked about the difference between America’s and France’s laws on secularism.  In France, religion is COMPLETELY separate from the state.  For example, Muslims have to take off their burqas upon entering school and Christians cannot have a cross necklace showing.  There was also a big controversy about a Muslim woman running a day care wearing a burqa.  It was ruled unconstitutional for her to wear the burqa because it would influence the children’s views of religion.  Such a different mindset from the US!

3.      3. Most delicious dessert I’ve had since being here.  Bold statement, I know.   But look at it and you might understand

4.      4. Buying 3 new French books – Le Petit Prince, Harry Potter 4 and wait for it…..ALANNA – aka a random fantasy book that no one except for me and Molly know but is my favorite book from adolescence! 

5.      5. Planning a trip to Italy for the weekend.  It’s so close I can’t not go.  

6. 6. Getting a surprise present from Micheline at midnight - CHOCOLATE! (from the lovely delivery boy - Elliot)

best thing i've ever eaten.  literally.

the leaves and mountains are so beautiful right now!

YES

Micheline is so sweet!

he

Macy Adventures

farmer's market

BATMAN

Verdun Prefecture - aka my fav. reading spot

MANGO

The second day (Friday), I was super excited because I was not utterly exhausted.  I was ready to head back out and go on another adventure!  So, we took “les bulles” up to the Bastille - which I’ve already done and explained in another blog post but here’s a synopsis in case you’ve forgotten.  “Les bulles” are these beautiful bubble-like cable cars that take you up to the top of one of the mountains on the edge of Grenoble where there are remains of fortifications built during the Middle Ages.  It was absolutely gorgeous because the leaves are changing colors so the views were even more breathtaking than usual.  We also got some fruit at the farmers market, took some pictures at this gorgeous park (Verdun Prefacture) that I love to read in, found Travis by peering into a patisserie window where he was studying, ate lunch with Travis at some Greek(ish) restaurant called Batmans (where the owner insisted that Macy was Mexican), whipped out some delicious fruit at Batmans (including a MANGO – yay!  my favorite fruit!), returned to the patisserie and ate yummy desserts, explored and took more pictures. 

check out the difference in clouds.  so cool!

I was feeling pretty tired at this point, so Macy and I decided to return home.  But, as we were walking to the tram we got stopped by this young man, Jonathon, asking for money for an educational organization.  Macy was annoyed at first, but he was super sweet so we decided to stop and chat with him.  Apparently, he has been in Grenoble for a year and is studying at a local university.  We, and by we I actually mean Macy, asked him about some of the popular bars and got his number!  Score!  Then, we accidentally hopped on the wrong tram.  We got off and took some back streets towards the correct tram stop and stumbled across Baberousse – a bar he had recommended.  Fate!

We finally got home and rested up before we met up with the gang for dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  After dinner I was still feeling pretty good, so I decided to take Macy to a few of our favorite night spots and then head home for an early night.  We ended up hitting London Pub, Plan B, and Baberousse. 

Tequilla Poppers

Pub 2 - infamous London Pub

Pub 1 (sorta - too crowded)

Pub 3 - recommendation from the local!

London Pub was hilarious.  There was a group of boys at the table next to us who were adorable.  They struck a conversation with us and told us they were from Miami.  Complete lies.  They had Irish accents, which we pointed out, and they quickly said that it’s because their parents are from Ireland.  Haha. I’m not sure why they thought Miami would impress us.  Anyways, the whole time we were there we would see them huddle and then they’d come up with some clever small talk to blurt out to our group spontaneously.  It was funny.  (Inside joke – We’re from Tequilla).  Baberousse was awesome – great music and a lot of dancing.  Very cool atmosphere.  By the time we got there I was feeling pretty shitty, unfortunately, so it was just a step in and step out kind of deal. 

The next morning, I woke up to a text from Jonathon.  We had invited him out with us but he never responded.  He said sorry for not responding, he was at another party last night.  He said to definitely let us know when we go out again.  Exciting!  This could be a connection to a group of young French people.  We’ll see what happens!  We spent the rest of the day resting, watching movies, and relaxing.  We sat on my windowsill for a while and just stared at the mountains and watched my neighbor work on his garden (yes, a little creepy – but he was cute and old).  Then, we walked downtown and bought a baguette to eat with the avacodo we had gotten at the farmer’s market the day before.  We also randomly ran into a circus in the park I usually run in – there were camels or chameaux, it was awesome.  Solid day – until the shenanigans of the evening happened that I explained in the post before. 

YUM

might be the best dessert I've ever had

Another couple random tid bits:

-My host parent’s grandchildren were very sweet this weekend.  They attempted to speak English at meal times so Macy could understand since she doesn’t know a lick of French.  Our favorite (Monah?) even shared some of the words she had to memorize for her college English class – one of which was power breaker.  So bizarre!  There was also the most adorable family fight because the 17 year old cousin was going to a Halloween party with her older cousin.  The uncle got super upset about it and ended up wrestling to get her phone.  It was very entertaining and made me miss my family a lot! 

-This morning I was standing alone watching Macy’s bus take off when this man who had been sitting across from Macy and I inside came up to me.  He struck up a conversation and I found out he is from Egypt but has been living in France for a few years.  He asked for my number and I gave it to him.  Luckily I gave him my actual number because he called me right after to make sure it worked.  He offered to give me a ride back to Echirolles.  I said, no and said maybe we could get some coffee later.  I’m glad I talked to him and decided not to be timid because it was a very interesting experience to have a guy be so pushy in his flirting.  I was in a public place so I felt perfectly safe, but it made me think a lot about different cultures and how perhaps his behavior was normal for Egyptian men.  Maybe I will get coffee and try to learn more about him!

-I just sneezed and it didn’t hurt that badly!  Yay!