Les Aventures en France

So…I’ve decided that I’m the worst blogger ever. I was all excited when I started, but it’s proving to be a little trickier than I had thought. It’s tempting to go out and get a croissant or set up at  coffee shop and figure out travel plans rather than write about what I’ve been up to. But alas, I am sick today and it’s snowing. No croissants for me.

I’ve settled into life here pretty well, and I already know I’m going to be Grenoble-sick starting the day I leave. Here’s a couple more pictures of the city:

Would you blame me for missing it?

Anyway, my language professor is the most stereotypical French woman ever (without the rudeness). She must be at least 40, but I’m pretty sure I could break her in half. She’s that little. She’s got this enthusiastic, kind of high pitched voice and when she can’t figure out how to work the Smartboard, she gives a distressed “Oh, la laaaaa.” It’s wonderful. On top of 10 hours of language a week, I’m taking English to French translation, French History, History of French Art, and Politics of France. You’d think with all this French going on that’d I’d be near fluent by now, but I’m constantly finding myself saying “Pardon?”. In my defense, the French talk SUPER fast. But I’ll get there eventually…hopefully. 

Miranda set us up with some French students the other weekend, and it was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had here. I actually had conversations with French students! I know it’s their language and everything, but it blows my mind every time a French person understands what I’m saying. That’s the cool thing about language. French is one of the few things I’ve learned in school that I can see being applied to real life. Oh, by the way, all  the French will tell you they suck at English. NOT true. They’re so damn modest about it, and then they start speaking this basically fluent English and make you feel horrible about your level of French. It was definitely a good night though. I can’t tell you how proud I am to say I have French friends. The French are much more to themselves than Americans. They’re not a friendly people at all. Marie was talking about this proverb that they have about a French city up north. They say when you visit there, you always cry twice; once on arriving because nobody talks to you, and again when you leave because when you get past actually meeting French people, they become really nice and you don’t want to leave. 

Well, I decided to suck it up and try skiing while I’m here. I’ve never done it before, but  I felt like I had to because I’m in the Alps. I’d be ashamed of myself if I left Grenoble without trying it at least once. Vincent, one of the university’s employees, sets up a bunch of international activities and he offered a ski course for students that are beginners. All I had to do was borrow the ski clothes from Marie and then show up at the bus station. I’m a little “mal-a-droit” (literally, bad at finger. Just means clumsy), so I was pretty nervous. When I first got there, I realized most people had brought friends. Kinda awkward, but I eventually hit it off with a girl from China. Another cool thing about knowing a different language- you can talk to people from other nations who also know the same language. I wouldn’t have been able to talk to her if we both didn’t know French. Sounds obvious, but I think it’s really cool.

We had about this hour and a half drive up one of the mountains (Vercours I think is what it’s called) and the view itself was worth it. This is Grenoble: 

And these are the villages and landscapes further in the mountain:

Absolutely incredible. The mountains to the Grenoblois are like the beach to people from Virginia; the mountains are always there so they aren’t really phased by them, but I can’t get over them. 

We pulled up to this little village with a ski shop and got our skis and shoes. Ski shoes are the most difficult, uncomfortable shoes in the world, worse than heels in my opinion. Our ski guide came and we had to walk in them for about 10 minutes. I’m telling you, I almost died. Even before I started skiing.

I was expecting the big slopes, but we ended up at this tiny little training course that was meant for children. 8 year olds were zooming past me.

Turns out I needed extreme beginner lessons because I couldn’t get the hang of it for the first hour. The hardest part, for me anyway, is just walking with the skis on. At the bottom of the little hill, there’s this moving walkway that takes you back up to the top. The snow right before you get on is kind of slick, and I got stuck. I tried to move forward, but every step I took only put me farther back. I was there for at least ten minutes before the guide saved me. It was bad. 

Once I caught onto it though, I loved it. I guess I just liked being able to control where I wanted to go and how fast, kind of like I was controlling my own personal roller coaster or something. I moved on to the much bigger slope where I actually got to use the ski lift thing, and me and the other people in the group just hung out and skied for a couple hours.

See the little lift? The slope is bigger than it looks, I swear.

Surprisingly, it’s pretty hot up in the mountains because the sun is right in your face, plus the snow reflects the light on you. We had to quit eventually and then we walked around the ski village for awhile while (this is why English is a pain) we waited for the bus to come. I went with the Asian student I had met, a Brazilian girl, and a Dutch couple. Again, there’s no way I could’ve communicated with them if they didn’t know a language other than their own. Granted, most people speak English, but still. Language is key. 

Overall, I was really, really glad I went. I did something new, met people from all over the world, and got to work on my French a ton. I still have a giant bruise on my shin from the stupid ski shoes, but it was definitely worth it.

Speaking of something new, there was an international cuisine feast held at the university the other day. I went to the Carrefour, which is kind of like Walmart but smells raw fish, and looked for American food to bring. I figured since Grenoble is such a diverse city and since Carrefour is so huge, they’d have something I could bring. Peanut butter, Ben and Jerry’s, and Oreos are the only things that comprise the list of American food in that entire store. And peanut butter is four euros! FOUR euros! It’s not even the real kind. There’s no preservatives or weird chemicals or anything. It’s just not the same. 

I ended up making peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Pretty simple, right? My  host family went ballistic over them. They never, ever eat that stuff here and it was just so…foreign to them. Of course all the Americans flocked to the container I put them in. It’s surprising what you miss when everything you know has changed. 

Well, I have my week-long winter break coming up pretty soon. Me and two other girls planned a trip to Berlin, Prague and Budapest and we’re going to stay in cheap, good-quality hostels. Never in my life would I have imagined I’d be going to three countries of Europe in one week. It’s insane. Hopefully, I’ll find the motivation to write a post about it…we’ll see. A bientot!

Lyon

I’m definitely happy that I decided to study abroad, despite my doubts and worries. I’m having the time of my life, and I’m seeing SO much. 

This week I started classes (I kept forgetting that I’m not studying abroad minus the studying part). I had to take a language placement test so they could put me in the right level of French. I was really worried about it because I need to be able to get school credit for my home university. I told Mathilde that I was pretty nervous, and she said something that really had an impact on me. She told me to stop worrying and that they have this phrase in France “La vie est une long fleuve tranquille”. Life is a long, peaceful river. It sounds better in French, but it made me think about how lucky I am to be here and how I should just “go with the flow”.

Classes are pretty interesting, and I understand most of what my professors are saying (they’re all French). I have ten hours of language courses a day, but my professor, Madame Avenier, is fantastic and very laid back.  She’s has the most stereotypical “frenchness” about her. She speaks kind of high-pitched and super enthusiastically, she’s built like a twig, and she dresses in a very “European” manner. On top of that, I’m taking English to French translation, history of France, French art history, and political life of France. We’ll see how that goes...

This is Grenoble by the way. One of my friends here took the picture:

Told you it’s absolutely gorgeous. Amazes me every day.

So this weekend, me and one of my friends, Megan, decided to travel this weekend. We both want to see as much as possible, so we chose Lyon. Neither of us knew anything, nothing whatsoever, about the city but it was only an hour away and pretty cheap. So we just hopped on a train and went. It turned out to be one of my definite favorite experiences since I’ve been here, which is saying something. This is Vieux (Old) Lyon: 

SO pretty. We had no idea it would be this gorgeous, and it was breathtaking. Lyon is enormous too; it rivals Paris and is the second biggest city in size (and population?).

Neither of us knew what we wanted to do, so we kind of just winged it, and it turned out great. When we first got there, we walked around and stumbled on this amazing church:

Legit confessionals!

Coolest stained glass ever, right?

Apparently this is a famous clock, and we missed it chiming by literally a minute. 

After the church, we just kind of walked around. We ended up at this cool place:

We found out that it’s a museum. Not just any museum though. It’s the museum of cinema and miniatures. We weren’t too sure about, but how many museums can you find like this one? Going in was a GREAT decision. Look  at this stuff!

Minority Report costume

Miniatures!! 

Coolest and quirkiest museum I’ve ever been to. When we left, we walked around again and found a big, jolly old man who was making crepes on the street. I wish I could have taken a picture of him. Very stereo-typically French looking. We also stopped into this cool candy shop:T

Then we walked around a took some more pictures of beautiful Lyon:

Even though it was wet and cloudy and kind of cold, I think Lyon is one of the prettiest cities I’ve ever been to. Plus it’s really easy to get around on the metro. Definitely recommend it for the directionally impaired, like me.

We wanted to get to that church on the top of the hill that’s  in the first picture, and we had seen some stairs earlier. So like everything we had done so far, we just went for it. 

When we got to the top I was distracted by exhaustion (we were dying) and the awesome view:

But then I heard Megan gasp, and when I looked up…you guessed it. More stairs. 

And more stairs.

No wonder the French are so dang thin! We were gasping for breath the entire time, but we eventually made it, and this is what we got for our hard work:

(No, we didn’t get death if that’s what you’re thinking…)

Olympic soccer (rugby? lacrosse?) field

Definitely worth the 3 bajillion stair venture. And then of course we found the metro stop that would’ve taken us up for free….but at least it’s on my list of things I’ve done!

We left Vieux Lyon in search of something to eat (because we were starving at that point) and we found this sick mall not too far away:

Isn’t it awesome?! There’s a glass building farther to the left that has a gym at the top and restaurants on the bottom. Kinda counterproductive…but still cool. We bought some cheap ski gear, ate some crepes, bought more stuff, and then headed out.  Lyon is currently my favorite city because we had such a good time without even planning anything. We just happened to come across what we thought were the best places in Lyon. Plus we were proud of ourselves because we navigated around most of the city without getting lost (for the most part). We were both on a Lyon-high for at least the rest of the weekend. I’m already planning to come back in spring. 

Well, time to eat some more of Marie’s awesome cooking. She needs to stop making me food that tastes good. I haven’t stopped eating since I got here. Anyway, a bientot! 

It’s a shame because Grenoble is GORGEOUS. Even though it was pretty cloudy when we first arrived, we could see the mountains that surround the entire city. I’ve never seen anything like them in the States. They’re pretty big (I’m in the Alp region after all) and they’re SO close. You can actually see the line of white near the top of the mountains from when it snows up there. There are several houses dotted around the bottom of the mountains, and it’s just beautiful. I can’t even imagine what it’ll be like on a nice day.

We pulled up to the hotel we stayed at for a couple days, and it was a little hard adjusting. The hotel was a lot different from the one in London, very old-fashioned and adorable, but different. Very French. The showers are pretty French-authentic, too. Miranda calls them the “telephone” shower. There isn’t a shower head  there’s a tube connected to shower thingy that you have to hold with one hand and attempt, attempt being the key word, to wash with the other. The first time I used, water went all over the mirror halfway across my bathroom. It’s definitely gonna take some getting used to.

Miranda gave us a TON of information at orientation in the hotel’s little dining area. It was pretty overwhelming, but I think I’m gonna be just fine here. She wouldn’t tell us the family that we would be staying with though, and it drove everyone crazy. She gave us little hints throughout the day, and would ask things like “would you mind if…?” or “is it ok if you live near here…?”. I honestly think she enjoyed teasing us. 

After orientation, she gave us our tram passes, and we went over to the train station. It’s pretty dang cold in Grenoble too because it’s in the alps, and on top of  that it was raining. It was completely worth it though because the city is gorgeous (I think I’m becoming a city person).

I’m finding that a ton of people in Europe use public transportation, and it’s a hell of a lot smarter than using cars all the time. The tram pass for students isn’t very expensive and you don’t have to recharge it until the end of the month; it’s unlimited all month. Oh, and the tram is kind of like an above-ground subway except it’s cleaner and a little more modern. 2 trams go around the city and one goes right through it, which is really convenient. 

Grenoble has its share of its graffiti like any other city, but it’s still one of the prettiest places I’ve been to. The layout of the city, well frankly, doesn’t exist so it’s a little daunting, but Miranda says we’ll be able to find our way around within a week since it’s small for a city. A lot of the apartments lining the streets look kind of Parisian, some modern, others old-fashioned, and many of the streets are paved in cobblestone. There isn’t a lot of traffic because of the tram, which is nice, and there are cafes and shops EVERYWHERE. I don’t think I’ve stopped eating since I got here. 

It’s true that the French love their wine, bread, and cheese but I don’t mind it a bit. Bread comes with every single meal, and the Italian side of me is rejoicing. Some of the stuff is pretty strange though. The first night, we went to a fancy-ish restaurant and they had this…fish cake thing. I don’t know how else to describe it.   It was a pate (pa-tay) consistency in a rectangle and apparently it was made of fish. But…I ate it so I’m proud of myself.

Saturday night, Miranda FINALLY gave us information about our families. I live with Mathilde, a ten year old talkative and adorable little girl, and her mother in an artsy little house in the outskirts of the city. They’re both extremely nice and make this whole living away from home thing a little easier. The father is a music producer so he travels a lot, but that’s probably why Marie, the mom, is always playing music in the house. I really like it. They have two chickens (one is Rosalie), a bird named Pipette, and I can’t spell the name of the cat that they have. He kind of looks like Garfield and he seems just as lazy. French houses are a lot different than American ones. It’s not really something I can explain. They’re definitely smaller, but the real difference is the “feel” that they have about them. It’s different from home, but it’s nice.

That night, we had dinner at one of their family friend’s house. Jordan, another girl in AIFS, is actually being hosted by them so I got to see her too. It’s a lot easier to speak in a non-native language when someone is in the same boat as you. Well, French dinners usually have 3 courses when it’s a little more formal or when it’s in a restaurant. Everything was delicious, but I really need to get used to how long French dinners can be. It’s not that they eat slow; they just kinda sit there and talk when they’re done eating. They’re really not in a rush, and I wish I were like that, but I guess the American in me just gets kind of antsy. 

Sunday, Jordan’s host-family came over and we did the Galette des Rois. I think it’s a celebration of the new year, but I’m not really sure. It’s supposed to be done on the 6th of January, but they waited so we could participate (see? super nice). Each family makes a cake (cake here is more pastry-like) and they hide a little toy person inside of it. The youngest child (Arthur in this case. He’s adorable) has to hide under the table and choose who gets the next piece. The one who gets the toy is king or queen for the night. Jordan’s host-mom got the first toy aaaaaaand I got the second. They gave me a crown!

Today I had to take a language placement test pretty dang early in the morning. My nerves were flying everywhere because I hate tests and they make me anxious, even though this one isn’t even graded. I honestly didn’t know the interview thing I had with one of the professors was the oral part of the exam. I guess that’s a good thing. The listening and writing was difficult, but at least it’s over. Tomorrow afternoon, I get the results. Fingers crossed!

Admittedly, I got a little homesick today so I went on a run. In 30 degree weather. And it kinda snowed a little. Cuz I’m crazy. Anyway, there’s this loooong path along the river that’s not too far from my host-family’s house. It’s absolutely amazing because the river is on one side and the mountains are on the other. I really can’t wait until the weather is nicer and I can see the top of the mountains. And not freeze to death.

Well, sorry about the super long post (to those impressive 5 people that read this thing). I honestly haven’t been keeping up with it. I’m having a ton of fun and there’s lots going on here. Time for bed for me (it’s almost 11 here. Weird, huh). Bonne nuit et a tout a l’heure!

Ma chambre!

‘

The view from my room. That’s a mountain in the distance. I keep saying this, but I really can’t wait to see it in the spring.

London: Day Two

Today, I woke up early for breakfast (early to me is 8:00), and then we all set out for a tour of the city. Jackie, our tour guide, loaded us all onto a mini-bus, which was nice because London is freezing. We saw the usual must-see places in the city, like Big Ben (beautiful, but not as big as I had anticipated), the Buckingham Palace, the Tower Bridge (often mistaken as the London Bridge), and the London Eye. The Palace is gorgeous and it’s right in the middle of the city. You can walk right up to the gate, so it’s a lot different from the White House. I discovered that the Queen doesn’t have any political power at all. She’s more of a symbol of English royalty. She’s also only one or two years from beating the record of the longest ruling queen. 

The Palace! See the guards? 

One of the gates. All of the decorations mean something (Jackie told us the meanings, but I forgot…), and there are little crowns on all the lanterns.

The square next to the palace

Big Ben and the London Eye in the distances. I didn’t know that the clock is connected to the House of Parliament. On postcards, normally all I see is Big Ben itself. It chimed while we were there, and it was really pretty. I didn’t get to go on the Eye, but Jackie told us it rotates in about 35 minutes and is the second largest ferris wheel in the world. 

Tower Bridge coming out of my head

Jackie also took us to a couple memorials, lots of churches, and showed us how to get around the city. We went to one or two squares I’ve since forgotten the names of, and I only remember Trafalgar Square because our group eventually got lost trying to get to it. 

Statue of Prince (King?) Albert in one of the parks in Chelsea. He was married to Queen Victoria, and the public adored him. He died when he was 45, but he had NINE children with the Queen. 

I don’t remember the exact name for this, but I know that it’s a concert hall dedicated to Albert

The church Princess Kate and Prince William came out of after their wedding

The other side of the church

UN headquarters in London

The Tower of London, next to Tower Bridge. The Crowned Jewels are held here, so keep that in mind if you’re ever low on cash.

After our tour, we were pretty much on our own. We all had maps, but the layout is a lot different in the US. There isn’t a grid system because the roads are all in little triangles, and the the street names aren’t clearly marked. After a getting lost a couple times, we made it to the British Museum, which is HUGE. My favorite exhibit was the African one because it had contemporary African art, and I’ve never seen much of that before.

The Rosetta Stone!!

This is a statue made entirely of weapons. In some African villages, the people are encouraged to trade their guns and knives for things like food and farming equipment, and the weapons received are usually made into art.

After the museum, we HAD to see Platform 9 and 3/4. It’s a Harry Potter fan must when in London. We got on the The Tube, the New York equivalent of the Metro, and went to King’s Cross. I was a little disappointed because the platform isn’t on a pillar, like in the movie. It’s just on a wall before you go down to the trains. I guess it would tick people off if they had to pay to go to it, and it would be too crowded to put it near the trains, but I pouted a little nonetheless. While we were all laughing and taking pictures of the Harry Potter memorabilia, a group of Tibetan monks arrived at the station. They looked us like we were crazy for getting so  incredibly excited about this little cart thing sticking out of the wall. Ah well, c’est la vie. They have Buddha, we have Harry Potter. 

After we left King’s Cross station, we tried to get over to the Globe Theater because a couple of the girls were Shakespeare fanatics, but we ended up missing the tour  by 30 minutes. I got this neat picture from a postcard there, though:

Looks legit, huh?

To get back to the hotel, we had to cross Millennium Bridge, which is a bridge entirely dedicated to pedestrians. It’s sometimes called the Wibbly Wobbley bridge because it wobbled when it was first built. Made me kind of nervous since bridges freak me out to begin with, but the view of the city at night was definitely worth it. I wish my eyes could take pictures because the photos don’t even come close to capturing how pretty it was.

Millennium Bridge, and some strangers who have no idea they’re on my computer. Apparently, London is where people are most photographed. Jackie said a person in London could have his picture taken up to 3,000 times a day without knowing it!

Sadly, I had to get to sleep pretty early because we had to leave for our flight to FRANCE at 4:30 in the morning. London was wonderful and I’d like to visit again, but I couldn’t wait to get to Grenoble the next day.

London: Day One

Wow. Study abroad. I still can’t believe it’s actually happening. On Tuesday, I left home from the Washington, D.C airport and was on a 7 hour flight to London. It really wasn’t a bad flight (got to watch the Avengers!) and airplane food isn’t as horrible as its reputation claims. On British Airways international flights, everyone has a screen and you can watch movies, TV, listen to music and lots of other stuff. I constantly used the flight path thing on there where you can find out where you are because I couldn’t wait to land. A few minutes before we landed, I looked out the window and could see the clouds with the moon above them…and a second later I looked down and saw London all lit up. It was absolutely gorgeous, and it made me even more excited. 

When I got to London at 7:00 am their time, an AIFS representative met me there.  We went over to the AIFS van, and the first thing I did was to open the front door on the right side…and see a steering a wheel. I’m glad I’m studying abroad in France because the whole driving on the right side of the car would completely trip me up. Phillip, the representative, dropped me off at the Copthorne Hotel, which is right next to the Chelsea Football (soccer) stadium. While we were there, there was actually a game going against a team from Wales and there was a huuuuge amount of people (the Welsh one, to the English’s disappointment). 

At the hotel, I met my AIFS London guide, John, who would be helping us while we were there. I finally went up to my room, and I don’t think I’ve been more pumped up in my entire life. I kept pacing the room and saying “Oh my god, I’m in London. Holy shit, I’m here.” I just wanted to leave and see everything I could. I was also kind of freaking out because I couldn’t get the lights to work. I tried literally every switch in the room at least three times and still couldn’t figure it out. Eventually I gave up and called the concierge. When he showed up at the door, he asked for my room key and as soon as he put it in a slot on the wall that I had completely ignored, every single light came on. Apparently, every modern British hotel has this kind of thing. Never felt so dumb in my life.

Stupid light thing

Anyway, my hotel roommate, Caroline, and another girl, Katie, arrived and the three of us decided to go explore London on our own. For a little while, we walked up and down the streets near our hotel. Even though it has a reputation for being gray and dismal, London is actually nicer than most of the cities in the states. The houses are prettier to look at, it’s less dirty, and despite the fact that everyone drives like a crazy person there, there isn’t a lot of horn honking going on.

After we walked around a while, we decided to take the bus further down in the city (we were in Chelsea). EVERYONE takes public transportation by the way. It’s really efficient and clean and it gets you there fast. Those red double deckers that we see in pictures from London aren’t just tourist buses; they actually ride them everywhere. They have these things called Oyster cards too, and if you buy one for 5 pounds (not dollars. Had some trouble with that) every ride is half off and you just load money onto it.

So me, Katie, and Caroline got off and walked around for a while and we eventually got to cool-looking pub somewhere. I got fish and chips for the first time, and I felt really authentic. While I was in London, I also had meat pies and cornish pasty. English food is definitely starchy and kind of heavy, but it’s actually pretty good.

Cornish pasty!

After that, we decided to check out the Victoria and Albert museum, but the jet lag was starting to set in and walking around a quiet museum didn’t help much. We hopped on the bus again, headed for the hotel. Only problem was that we figured the bus went in a loop route, like most of them do at home. We were on the bus for a good 45 minutes, falling asleep, when we heard “this bus terminates at this stop. Please exit the bus.” We found out the hard way that the buses are a way-one thing and we should’ve taken the bus on the other side of the street. It wasn’t all bad though. We got to see a lot of the city, and it was nice not having to walk everywhere. We just relaxed and looked at all the new, different sights of London out the window

When we got back, the rest of the group had also arrived. We hung out for a while, then left to go back to the Victoria and Albert museum again. It was a lot easier this time, and the museum was awesome. It’s an art museum, one of the museums three in Chelsea. The other two are a natural history museum and a science museum. At Victoria and Albert, they had a jewelry gallery, stained glass, iron displays (which I’ve never seen in any other museums), tiny ivory carvings, and lots of paintings. The coolest part where these enormous Egyptian engraved columns that stretched out to at least three stories.

Wasn’t supposed to take pictures in the jewelry gallery. Whoops.

Natural history museum

After the museum, we went out to eat then headed back to the hotel. Pretty much all of us went to our rooms and passed out because jet lag sucks and I think I had been awake for at least 32 hours. Despite the exhaustion, what I saw of London on the first day already convinced me that I loved the city and that studying abroad has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in my entire life.

Tower Bridge