Dos Dias en Barcelona

So there we were, in a train station in Barcelona at 6 am with nothing to do, nowhere to go, and 8 hours of crappy sleep on a cramped, cold bus; the obvious thing to do? Have naptime in a corner of the station! Fortunately no one told us we had to leave (not like I would have understood what they were saying had someone told us that); this brings me to another important point: I speak about as much Spanish as we learned in a semester of high school, which I took 3 years ago. We made it through pretty well with what Spanish we did know, but unfortunately, we had been speaking French not 12 hours ago, so it was really easy to respond with a “merci” instead of a “gracias.” I’m pretty sure everyone we encountered in Spain thought we were loco. Anyway, we ate breakfast at the McDonald’s in the train station because it was the only place open (and had the “American breakfast combo”) and had managed to waste enough time to lock up our luggage at the train station and head to the Sagrada Familia. We were pretty close to the front of the line to get in and going that early ended up being a great decision, since it was pretty packed by the time we left, just an hour or so later. The cathedral itself is certainly impressive and amazingly detailed, though I do now understand why the world “gaudy” was influenced by “Gaudi.” We took the elevator up to the top, and since the sun had come out, the views of Barcelona were amazing. After the cathedral, we walked around in search of much-needed coffee. We found a place where we got coffee and ate lunch (tortilla for me and paella for my mom); we were near the beach, so we spent some time enjoying the sunshine and the Mediterranean for a while, which was absolutely glorious, especially since that’s the last time we saw the sun in Barcelona. There was a metro near our hotel, but from the train station it would have required multiple line changes, and we figured that walking with our bags would be easier than trying to maneuver them onto and off of trains; although that may have been true, I don’t think we realized quite how far it was to the hotel, so we were pretty tired (and tired of our luggage) by the time we got there. We took naps and recharged for a while in the hotel; by the time we had eaten dinner, the rain had started, and we got caught in a torrential downpour. We turned in pretty early after that, with plans to start anew the next morning. Unfortunately, the rain hadn’t left by morning, and it was way colder than expected, which always puts me in a bad mood. Our first plan of the day was Park Guell, so we took the metro near there and found a local diner-like place to eat breakfast (bocadillas con queso y café con leche). We eventually found the Park, after a little wandering/direction-asking (in Spanish), and even though I was still pretty grumpy for the first bit of it, it ended up being fun despite the rain and cold. The park was really cool (it would have been more so in the sunshine, but I’ll just have to go back I guess :D); again, some of Gaudi’s things would have been a little too much somewhere else or in larger quantities, but for the park they worked. After some more coffee, we headed back to the area where we had eaten lunch to find “the elephant” and see their Arch of Triumph (Arc de Triomf). We wandered around the park a little, and when we couldn’t find the elephant (I knew about it because 2 friends of mine have taken pictures with it when they were in Barca), decided to ask a passer-by. Which ended up being the highlight of my day. We said, in Spanish, excuse me. The guy replied, in French, that he wasn’t familiar with the area. So I asked, in French, if he had seen an elephant (It sounds way dumber now in English than it did in other languages haha). He then told us that he was Canadian (causing Stephanie to do an internal happy dance) so we concluded our conversation in English; it was just really cool to be able to speak, albeit not perfectly, in 3 different languages. We found the elephant, took our pictures, and wandered around the rest of the park before heading more into the city center; once there, we attempted to find the cathedral (talk about anticlimactic) and went to the FC Barcelona store to buy my brother a Thierry Henry jersey because we are an awesome mother/sister like that. We wandered down some small, residential streets off the main road, which made me think that maybe living in Barcelona for some time could be really cool. Guess we’ll see…we ate dinner at a café (owned by a Spanish-speaking Chinese lady) across the street from our hotel before heading to Chupitos, which came highly recommended from multiple people. All I’m going to say is that if there were a Chupitos near me and the drinking age weren’t retarded, I would spend so much time and money trying all of the 200 shots, and I would have every birthday party there for the rest of forever. However, since our time was limited to one night, my mom and I only tried 3 each; I had the Bob Marley, the Furby, and the Barça while my mom had the Carolina, the Boy Scout, and the Cherokee. Our flight to Milan was pretty early the next morning, so we couldn’t spend too much time out and had to turn in just as Chupitos was starting to get a crowd. Overall, Barcelona would have been a lot more enjoyable had it been warm and sunny and had we had more time there, but it was still a beautiful and fun city that I definitely want to go back to and spend more time in.

Ma Mère et Moi à Grenoble

My last week in Grenoble was pretty standard as far as move out weeks go; I said goodbye to some amazing people, which was tough, but it’s easier when we’ve already made plans to see each other again :) It was weird being the last one from API Intensive (at least not in the extended program) to leave, but luckily Maguy and Darrel and Zainab were still around so I didn’t go completely insane with boredom and loneliness haha I packed up everything and was all ready to move out Friday morning before meeting my mom at the train station in Grenoble. Marie came to help me move out and even dropped me off at a tram stop so I could get into town; unfortunately, France was still France, and the public transportation workers had gone on strike for the 4th or 5th time this semester. Normally, there were reduced trams/buses, but there was always something running; of course, they would go on a complete, debilitating strike the day I was carrying 3 months’ worth of belongings through town. I called Marie, and Sarah came and drove me into town; it ended up being a good thing though because I got to tell Sarah goodbye too. The person who got the shortest end of the stick with the strike was my mom; for the 2 days she was in Grenoble there was a strike and then a national holiday and therefore not a single bus or tram running while she was there, so she couldn’t see any of the things outside of city center that were out of walking distance (i.e my residence and school). Luckily we were staying in city center and could walk most places, even if it took a little longer than expected. I dropped my bags off at the hotel and ran some errands until close to time for my mom’s train to arrive. It was so good to see her again; I was so excited that she had finally gotten to Europe and couldn't wait to share my “home” with her. We got checked into the hotel and set out to wander around Grenoble; there aren’t a ton of touristy things to do in Grenoble, so 2 days was an adequate amount of time. I gave her a tour of what I knew to see, and we did the téléphérique up to the Bastille both days (it was cloudy the first, so we went the second in hopes that it would be sunnier. It wasn’t, but it was still amazing).

Overall, it was really nice to be able to let my mom experience at least a little bit of what I had for 3 months; my mom tried different French foods (croque monsieur, crêpes, Nutella coffees, paninis) and saw some of the cultural things I had talked about first-hand. It was also cool for me to keep using my French in regular conversation with people and to show my mom how much French I had learned. We got a lot done in such a short amount of time (even though, like I said, there isn’t that much to do in Grenoble), partly because my mom is a champion of jet lag; seriously, I don’t know how she did it, but I think it definitely made things easier for her not having to sleep instead of sight-seeing. Our bus left at 10 pm, but we weren’t sure what time our train to Lyon would be, so we got up to the train station with our bags around 5 (and so began the battle with our luggage). We bought our tickets (after a little confusion and some less-than-friendly workers) and ate dinner before our train left around 6:30. We got to Lyon about 30 minutes before our train was to leave, and even though we were really stressed about whether or not we would find the bus depot, we got work done and found it in no time. We got as settled as you can on a bus and slept on and off through the night (I think I slept better than my mom did) despite the bus driver’s decision to put The Wolfman on – loudly and in Spanish. We were awakened when we got to the Spanish border and had to get our passports checked by France and then Spain; we were about the only people who didn’t get questioned (ah, the power of a United States passport), which was just as well because we didn’t speak enough French to discuss border crossings and such and didn’t speak enough Spanish to do much of anything besides order in a restaurant. We made it to the Barcelona Nord train station around 6 am, but I'll continue with Barcelona in the next post :)

Belgium: waffles, fries, chocolate, and Bruges, which is NOT "a shithole"

Okay, let me just say, I love Belgium. Despite the gauntlet that it was getting there, it was a really great weekend. We started in Brussels, and even though our very first impression of the city was Shana getting pickpocketed on the metro, the weather (sunny, warm, PERFECT) and the city itself really helped keep us in good moods. The coolest thing, I think, about at least big cities in Belgium is that they mix so many languages; in Brussels, we spoke English and French, plus people spoke Dutch and German and Spanish, and usually one or more languages were mixed together on signs and stuff. We were able to walk from the train station to the hostel through the financial district, which later was cool to compare to the historical city center. We used "2 Go 4," which has multiple hostels in Brussels and throughout the major cities of Europe; overall, they were really helpful and professional and their hostel was clean and well-located, all for a reasonable price; I would recommend them to anyone. We had to wait for our keys since we were supposed to check in the night before, so we walked around the city some. The awesome thing about Brussels is that it's small enough that you can walk to most places in about 5 or 10 minutes. We walked to the "Bourse" (a.k.a Stock Exchange), which is the center of things, and ate lunch, which was delicious (but no fries yet). We then walked to "Grand Place," which is like the old square with 4 of the most beautiful, ornate buildings on each side. We had a map done by locals for "young travellers" that ended up being really helpful; it recommended getting a free view of the city from some random parking garage, which was so cool. Then we saw the Manneken Pis, which really was much smaller than expected, but still cool to see (I'm not a fan of them dressing it up though because it just looks ridiculous haha). We went back for our keys, used their internet to get back in touch with the world, and headed to our hostel, which ended up being right off of Grand Place in the best location I could have imagined. The room itself was so cool, and much nicer than expected for the price; Shana and I were exhausted, so we took naps before heading out to meet our new-found friends at Delirium, one of the really popular bars in Brussels. We were at the main part of the hostel when we met Josh and Ravi, both of whom were stuck in Brussels trying to get back to California and the UK, respectively. We ended up having a pretty fun night just talking and trying some of the 2,000-something beers at Delirium; we also went to another bar where I got somewhat peer pressured (okay, not really) into trying absinthe...which is legal in Europe and which also didn't do anything because it was just one shot haha the next morning, Shana and I headed back to the train station to go to Bruges; despite some confusion at the ticket counter with the "retour," we got everything worked out and to the train in time. We met this couple from the UK who were going to Bruges (as a lot of people seemed to be) on the way to get a ferry back to the UK, since flying wasn't an option for them at all and trains were all booked up. It only took an hour to get to Bruges, and once we got there, the owner of the bed and breakfast where we were staying came to pick us up from the train station. He and his wife own the B&B just as a hobby, and they were both such amazing people. I could rave all day about "Jaak and Rose" (Titanic anyone?). The house that we were staying in was really awesome too, and in a great location; we were staying there with a Finnish couple and a French couple, and it was nice to get to interact with them, however briefly. It was only noon, so we walked up to the main square of Bruges (the former market), and were immediately enamored with the city. Seriously, I love Bruges. We got some fries from a stand with some kind of sauce that I can't remember the name of but that tastes like curry and mayonnaise (a.k.a good). Then we climbed the 366 windy, skinny stairs to the top of the tower; it was pretty different from how it was depicted in the movie "In Bruges," but it was still a really nice view. After lunch, we walked back to the bike rental shop we had passed earlier and rented bikes for the afternoon/evening; there was supposedly a trail that would take us to the beach, and even though we ended up getting lost and not taking that trail, what we did see was absolutely enchanting. We were pretty tired after about 3 hours, having climbed the tower already, so we turned our bikes in, grabbed some food, and headed home. The coolest thing about Bruges was how quickly even I learned my way around; if you don't know, I'm really directionally challenged, but I learned our part of Bruges really quickly. Bruges doesn't have much of a nightlife so we spent the night in watching "In Bruges" (Shana's first time seeing it after I had been quoting it obnoxiously all day haha) and drinking the beers we had bought in Brussels (I bought cassis beer since cassis is my new favorite flavor...but not in beer haha). It was, once again, a great movie, and it was really cool to see places we had been; p.s the B&B we were in was where the film crew had stayed when they filmed it...holla! We were tired from the combination of tower-climbing, biking, and beer-drinking, so we went to bed after a quick chat with the Finnish couple (who were totally adorable and the girl looked like Marketa Irglova from "Once"). The next morning, Rose came and made breakfast for us (like a real, huge breakfast, not the French idea of breakfast), so we ate with the 2 couples (I'd like to reiterate that as much as I love Shana, we are NOT a couple. Though I don't know that everyone quite understood that haha) before we all went our separate ways. Shana and I still didn't know for sure when and how we were getting home, but the trains we had seen online were for around 4 pm from Brussels, so we had a couple of hours still in Bruges. We decided to do a boat tour through the canals, which ended up being a great idea; it was so beautiful and the weather was, once again, perfect. We were on the boat with French-speakers so opted to not be the only ones to ask for the tour in English (because that's so obnoxious and "American" when we understood in French anyway). We were reminded so many times this weekend how, even though we aren't fluent in French, we can understand the tours and information given to native French-speakers, so we should be pretty proud of our progress. We had to leave Bruges and the B&B much sooner than I would have liked (definitely going back there because it's so charming and small enough without being too small). Not a "shithole" like they say in the movie :) so my assessment of Belgium (or at least Brussels and Bruges) is that it's small but really diverse in the best way possible; we didn't try any waffles, but the fries are good and the chocolate is amazing, which might have swayed my love for it a little ;) I want to go back to Belgium and see more of Brussels and Bruges (since we only had one day in each), but also to see other cities and some of the countryside. Despite the hell that getting there and back was, Belgium was totally worth it, and I'm so glad we went!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

By the end of the weekend, Shana and I had utilized every major mode of transportation (well, apart from planes, which was the problem in the first place): train, bus, car, bike, boat, trams, and on foot. I'm just going to comment on the "adventure" it was getting to and back from Belgium this weekend, and I'll save the next post for Brussels and Bruges :)

So our flight was to leave Lyon at 4 pm on Friday afternoon, which would have given us plenty of time to go to class in the morning and take the 1-hour bus ride from Grenoble to the Lyon airport. However, on Thursday night and Friday morning, we were hearing all about the volcano canceling flights, and even though we kept checking our flight status online (which always said "operating"), we wanted to go ahead and get to the airport so if it did get canceled we could get a train or something before everyone else on the same flight did. We skipped class and left Grenoble at 10 am Friday morning. Remember that time. We got to Lyon and immediately went to the EasyJet terminal to see what was up. We kept checking the boards and they all said that the other flights for Brussels (including one 5 minutes after ours) were canceled but that ours wasn't; weird, I know. So the guy told us it wasn't canceled but to come back in 2 hours (since that was our original check-in time) and see. So we went back up to the main part of the airport and had coffees and lunch and just killed time. When we got back to the EasyJet terminal, the boards still said our flight was operating, so we thought we were in the clear. Finally, 1 1/2 hours before we were to leave (after we had been checking it since 6 am the morning before, btw), they told us it was canceled. At this point, Shana and I decided we still wanted to try and go since we had already paid for the hostels and would be getting refunded for our flight. But in order to do so, we had to take a bus to the Lyon train station. We got there amid a huge mess of people and were able to get a train to Brussels through Paris leaving at 5 pm, arriving in Brussels by 11 pm. Now, may I remind you, that every train we arranged, negotiation we made, etc. was at least partly in French until the person switched to English if they spoke it. I don't mean to "toot my own horn," but I'm pretty freaking proud of myself for not only figuring out to get there and back, which you will see was way more complicated than necessary, but to do so in a foreign language. Anyway, we were feeling pretty good because the lady at the SNCF (train) counter was super nice and patient with our French, and we were feeling in the clear as far as getting there at a reasonable time. We got on the train and got to Paris, no problem, but our next train to Brussels required us to go from the Paris Nord station to Paris Gare de Lyon in only 45 minutes, but the nice lady at the ticket counter had assured us that was "suffisant"; luckily my mom had texted me that we just needed to take the RER, so we thought we would be totally fine. What we forgot was that France is in love with strikes. After buying our tickets and standing around for 15 minutes (we weren't the only ones though), we discovered that we weren't actually going to have an RER train to take us to the airport because they were too busy whining about some probably insignificant social matter (for example, in Grenoble they went on strike for pregnant women's rights; don't get me wrong, I think they deserve rights, but they already have the best in Europe if not the world in France. Strikes for them are unnecessary). We already knew we had missed our train but took a taxi from one gare (train station) to the other to see what our next move was; once we got to Paris Gare de Lyon, we looked at the board and saw that the next train to Brussels was at 6 am - 8 hours from then. We talked to the lady at the ticket counter, explaining that the strike (and France) screwed us over, but she was less than sympathetic ("what were you doing for an hour that made you miss your train?") and couldn't do anything but put us on a train in the morning and give us an unhelpful suggestion of where to stay for the night. At this point, Stephanie has yelled so many obscenities about France, trains, the world, volcanoes, etc. (not at anyone though) and simultaneously laughed/cried at the situation we were in. Shana too is upset, but has learned to handle her emotions better haha there were a million hotels by the train station, so we were just going to ask around and try to find a reasonable price (which, for Paris, we expected to be like $150/night). Luckily, we found one for 35/euros per person (about $100/night), that was owned and run by the cutest Frenchman (who thought we were Dutch?). It was a really frustrating situation, having already paid for the hostel for that night and having to pay for another place, but it was hard to be too angry when we were in Paris, which I dreamed of going to for 15 years, and we could see the spotlight from the Eiffel Tower :) the next morning, we got up early to catch our train at 8 after much-needed coffee and breakfast (pain au chocolat!). While huddling for warmth on a heater in the train station, we met some American ex-pats living and teaching in France who had driven back from Morocco; everyone we encountered throughout the weekend had it way worse than we did, so that helped put things into perspective. We were in first class on this train because with the student discount it was cheaper than second class, which didn't offer a student discount; first class? Oh darn ;) but that did mean that we got breakfast, and food is always something good to not have to pay for if you can put some bread or something in a napkin for later, which I did haha the train was only an hour and a half, putting us in the Brussels train station around 9:45 am, almost exactly 24 hours after we left Grenoble the day before. We knew how to get to our hostel from the Brussels Midi station, but we were in the Brussels Nord station, so we "just" needed to take the tram a couple of stops down. Shana and I both had limited amounts of change left, but we had just enough to get our tickets for the metro; unfortunately, we've gotten spoiled with Grenoble being so safe and had kind of gotten absent-minded about pickpockets. Some guy took Shana's wallet out of her bag, and we tried to follow him and get it back, but what can you do? Some (possibly crazy) Belgian lady was telling us to wait for the police so we could get it back, so we waited for like 15 minutes with no police. And then, the weirdest thing of all, the guy brought the wallet back; he had taken the cash, but left the credit cards. So weird. The lady was badgering us to call the cops, but I figured there was nothing they could do since he 1) gave it back and 2) looks like every man walking down the street. Shana needed to call her bank, which wasn't open because it was like 3 am West Coast time, but we still decided to go to the hostel and regroup/use their phone (because I can't call from mine outside of France and Shana's was 1) on low battery and 2) really expensive), however, we no longer had enough change to buy 2 tickets for the metro, and the machine wasn't taking my card or bills (and there are no change machines in Europe even though everything takes nothing but change). After having a little bit of a temper tantrum (this will be a common theme for me throughout the next days. I'm not proud of it, but whatever, I think I'm allowed to be a little upset), we were able to get change for my 5 euro bill (the last cash that I had) to buy our tickets. We got on the train, in such a fluster, and realized we were going the wrong direction. At this point, it was just funny. We got off and ran across the tracks (sorry mom) to the other side; an hour and a half after leaving the one train station, we got to the other haha luckily it was a beautiful day, but more on that later :)
The return trip was significantly less eventful, though it still took a lot of effort to negotiate each leg, and because we had already paid for tickets from Bruges back to Brussels and from Lyon back to Grenoble, we didn't want to pay for those twice, so we had to arrange the trip from Bruges to Grenoble in kind of a weird way. The problem on the way back was with money; Shana had been able to use her card in some places, but for the most part, I was paying for 2 people's tickets and things, plus the hostels, plus the $450 I had already paid for our plane tickets. Because people are assholes and want to make a profit off of others' bad situations, the prices for trains had been jacked up, so we ended up paying to get home what our round trip plane tickets had cost, after already paying more to get to Brussels. It was really stressful, and I still don't relish the thought of how much freaking money I spent this weekend, but I am still glad we went (more on that later too). We took the train from Bruges to Brussels and had to go from Brussels to Paris, again going from one station to the other with the RER. Once we got there, we found employee and made sure there wasn't a freaking strike ("Est-ce qu'il y a une grève aujourd'hui aussi?"), but she was really helpful in helping us go the right way. Once again, Shana had no cash because the ATMs weren't taking her card, and I had cash but no change for the ticket machine, (well, I had enough for one) so we both just ran through the turnstiles on my ticket; normally, I wouldn't condone it, but we had no change and no time to get any, so thank God no one saw us. We got on the RER (which isn't any more impressive when it IS running; that was the hottest, stinkiest public transportation I have ever been on). We did work, navigated the metro, and got to the other gare in plenty of time; once again, I'm proud of us because 3 months ago, I don't know that I could have done that as quickly and efficiently. Or in French. The train from Paris to Lyon was uneventful, but once again, we were at the Lyon train station and our bus tickets back to Grenoble left from the Lyon airport; that meant another ticket to buy and another bus to ride on. One cool thing though was that there were a couple of guys from Turkey (with no option but to rent a car and drive home. Holy crap) who didn't speak French, so I served as a translator between them and the bus driver. I have to say, even though it wasn't perfect, it was a really cool thing to be able to do that. We got back to the airport at 9:35, missing the 9:30 bus and having to wait for the 10:30. At this point, that was just par for the course, so instead of being angry, we took advantage of the airport being nearly empty (because it was shut down) to have a little singing session haha we FINALLY got back to Grenoble at 11:30, and by the time I walked to Victor Hugo, got a taxi, and got home, it was 12:30, meaning it took us 12 hours to get home; not the 24 it took to get there, but 36 hours of travel for a long weekend? Craziness. All in all, it was extremely frustrating and expensive, but I do think we learned a lot, and I am pretty proud of us and of myself for doing as well as we did. And I'm also glad we still decided to go because now we don't have to wonder what could have been :)

Planche à neige? No, just say "snowboarding" with a French accent.

Living in the Southeastern United States, there aren’t many good ski resorts nearby without going up to West Virginia or New England or all the way out West; I have actually only been skiing about 3 times but have enjoyed it every time, and I wanted to try on slopes that were better than the ones in North Carolina, which are usually icy. One of my goals this semester, since I’m living in the Alps, was to go skiing, though I have to say, I wish I hadn’t waited until this late in the semester to go. I was debating between skiing, which I know I like, and learning to snowboard, which I had never tried but always been curious about. Because I went with Shana, who is a pretty avid snowboarder, I decided to try snowboarding, and hey, it’s not a bad story to tell when asked, “When did you learn to snowboard?” We went on a Monday, skipping class, because it was the day in between months where the new students take the placement test, so for those of us continuing with the program, it’s pretty much a wasted day with little to no curriculum taught and no attendance taken. Shana and I met at the bus station around 7:30, with no idea about whether or not we would actually be able to get tickets for any of the buses to Les Deux Alpes (our first choice of ski resort). Luckily, there were plenty of buses and plenty of tickets (for only 3,80 each way too), making things far less complicated than I had anticipated. While we were waiting for the bus, we ran into Kelly, another member of our program, who was also going to Les Deux Alpes; we were actually planning to go with him the day before but just by coincidence neither of us went Sunday and instead skipped class to go Monday. The bus ride was longer than expected, 2 hours by the time we got there, and I would have tried to sleep but was too excited :) The town right around the resort is a cool little ski town with tons of ski shops and cafes and hotels; Shana and I weren’t really sure how to approach the rental thing, getting more discouraged after we went in the first place and couldn’t convey to them in either French or English that we wanted to rent snowboards. Luckily the second place we went into was more successful (probably because it was a Billabong store and therefore awesome haha), and we were able to rent our boards and boots for 17 euros for the day (I have no idea if that’s good or not). After somewhat awkwardly making conversation and putting on our boots (snowboard boots are not easy to be graceful in under the best circumstances), Shana and I were ready to go. We weren’t sure how to get to the bunny slopes, so we asked someone on the street; he was really nice, speaking in English and tolerating our French, and helped us get our lift tickets (which were only 31 euros with the student discount; much cheaper than expected) and telling us where to go. We found out he is from Biarritz in the southwestern part of France, and from how he talked about it, I would definitely like to go there; it sounds like a pretty cool surf town. Unfortunately, the language barrier somehow caused confusion about the fact that it was my first time touching a snowboard (even though I know I said multiple times “Aujourd’hui est mon premier fois” or “Je n’ai jamais fait du snowboarding”) so he took us up to literally the top of the mountain, where he said the runs were really long but “easy.” No, they were not; my first day I went on what ended up being a blue run so that was special. I was already nervous, and once I saw where we were, I was convinced that I was going to die.

"feet, i'd like you to meet a snowboard; snowboard, meet my feet"

First of all, because we were at the SUMMIT of a mountain, it was super windy, and the snow was stinging our faces and making it really hard to see. Immediately after the flat part where we strapped on our boards there was a pretty steep drop with certain death (i.e a cliff) on one side of the trail. Now, normally that wouldn’t be a problem except that I didn’t know how to 1) stand up 2) stop or 3) steer. Basically, I knew nothing. Eventually we got to a little flat part where I could even stand a chance at getting upright, but the whole day it was alternating little flat part with giant steep hill, so I spent a large part of the day walking or sliding down hills on my butt. It took us literally 4 hours to do the run, but it was absolutely beautiful and Shana has the patience of a saint, so I think we both ended up enjoying it, despite everything. Once we got to some flatter parts, I did get the hang of standing up and later of how to stop without immediately resorting to falling on my butt; “Instructor Shana” seemed really pleased with my progress even though I felt like a failure walking down the slopes, so I guess it was a pretty successful first time. Unfortunately, even though sliding down the slopes on your butt is technically easier, it’s also significantly more exhausting, so between that and having to pick myself off the ground every time I got close to a steep hill and wanted to stop (i.e a lot), I was absolutely exhausted by noon. Since we were on one of the longest runs, we kept hoping the lodge would be over the next hill, and it was…about 5 hills later haha at this point in time, I’m absolutely exhausted (with my butt and wrists being the most sore), and I look a hot mess with my hair literally frozen in places, and face chapped-but for some reason, I was still in such a good mood, probably because I was so stubborn about wanting to learn to snowboard and actually did :D We ate lunch at the lodge, which consisted of the most expensive but also most delicious pizza I may have ever had. We were going to try another, more beginner run after lunch, but by the time we got up to the téléphérique (gondola thing) and rode it down to where the next run began, I realized that I was far too exhausted and that we were too cramped for time (since we didn’t know when the last bus left) for me to spend another 3 hours on a run haha I rode all the way down to the lodge, which ended up being really beautiful and scenic, and planned to wait for Shana at the bottom. It turned out that the run she had gotten off at required transversing another run or something and then going down a more difficult one to get to the lodge, so we just decided to call it a day. We turned in our gear and walked around for a few minutes before the bus left at 5 (I successfully made it into and out of both a Billabong and a Roxy store with buying anything…anyone who knows my obsession with surf brands will appreciate my struggle haha). On this bus ride home I slept with no trouble, still excited like I had been in the morning, but my exhaustion was dictating everything by this point. I would say that I am sufficiently hooked on snowboarding; I love skiing, but I want to get better at snowboarding, and think it’s more my thing :) I guess I’ll have to live somewhere where I can surf in the summer and snowboard in the winter! I’m so glad that we finally did it; the mountains were absolutely gorgeous, even more so than in Grenoble where I was already enamored with them, and I really did like the runs, just would have preferred those more geared towards my level. I’m so grateful that Shana was so patient and helpful with me; she says it’s not a big deal, but it really does mean a lot to me because I’m sure she could have had a much more enjoyable day of snowboarding without my slow self stopping all the time. I would love to go back if time permits, but I am so grateful I got to go once and that I finally learned how to snowboard :D I was sore all night and woke up the next morning more sore than I have ever been before, but that and the goofy goggle tan lines that I still have 2 days later were unquestionably worth it!

Och Aye Land

(The title is a reference from the Georgia Nicolson series which you should read if you haven't because they're hilarious)

The fact that we went to Scotland is a bit of an odd thing because it was a “Plan B” (or even C probably) when our trip to Morocco didn’t work out, but it ended up being such an amazing trip and so many things fell into place without any doing on our part, that we think it was a little bit of destiny ;) The only flights that we could find for this weekend from Lyon (the largest city close to Grenoble) to Edinburgh left Thursday and returned on Tuesday, which meant we were missing 4 days of school; normally, I wouldn’t condone missing school, but considering my near-perfect attendance at USC, the fact that I’m not really receiving credit for these French courses, the fact that you don’t get to live in Europe and go to Scotland every day, and the fact that I’ve spent upwards of 10 hours in the language lab trying to compensate for missing said days, I figured it would be worth it. The first thing that fell into place for us was lodging; we looked around at hostels but were struggling to pick one because we were trying to be conscious of both money and safety (it’s hard to find a room for just 3 people without it costing way more than the 8 or 10-person dorms). Luckily, Shana has “relatives” (really close family friends of her grandma lol) in Edinburgh who very generously offered to let us stay with them and even fed us 2 out of 3 meals per day. You honestly can’t get a much better situation to be staying in a city, especially when the people having you are as amazing as Alan and Sheena are. The second lucky thing was the weather; normally, Scotland is rainy and cold (especially this winter when they’ve had 6 weeks of snow as opposed to the normal 2), but we had sunshine every single day we were there and only encountered a sprinkling of rain once or twice. The third lucky thing happened our first night in Scotland; we made it to Edinburgh around 4 pm (despite some punctual incompetence on my part that made me almost not get to Lyon in time for our flight) and met Sheena at the airport. On the way home, she mentioned that she would be gone for part of the night because she takes a Scottish Highland dance class which was meeting that night; of course that piqued our interest, and we asked if we could come along. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly from the second we walked in the door, something that’s a little different from French people who, in my experience, take a little more time to warm up. It was thoroughly enjoyable watching the dancing, which is a little like Irish step-dancing but more relaxed, and even though it looked easy, when they had us join for a couple of dances, it was not at all haha though I’d love to learn…the next morning Sheena drove us into town and took us to Edinburgh Castle; the views of and from the castle were beautiful, and the history of a building that old was really hard to grasp for me, especially since everything in America is so “young.” We toured the castle, saw the crowned jewels, toured the prison, and ate lunch in a café in the castle. We then spent a ton of time in gift shops laughing at all of the crazy souvenirs (coffee mugs shaped like kilts?) and looking for the “perfect” tartan pattern for our scarves; Shana and Cecilia both got one of the tartans for Shana’s clan (MacLean) while I got a blue/green/white pattern that apparently goes well with my eyes/hair/whatever and just happened to be the Gordon clan. We walked around the Royal Mile and were all in a state of infatuation with Edinburgh. When we got back to the house, Sheena and Alan’s grandsons, Callum and Ewan, were there, and we thoroughly enjoyed playing with them :) one thing that we noticed is how much more proper even children’s English is when it’s “British English” versus “American English,” even though both of the boys have especially impressive vocabularies for 7 and 4 year olds. The next morning began our 2-day Highland Tour, and throughout the first day we saw the William Wallace monument, which offered some nice views; Hamish the Highland Cow (“Hairy Coo”), my new favorite animal; drove by various historical markers and places, including the castle where Monty Python was filmed, the place where the Clan MacDonald was murdered; and saw the Highlands, which are absolutely beautiful. We were staying in the little town of Fort William, which basically consisted of a million bed and breakfasts/hotels, some restaurants, and a bar or two. Not somewhere that I’d like to stay extensively, but it was on a lake (loch?) and was perfect for one night The bed and breakfast was only 22 euros a night for each of us to have single rooms and breakfast, and the B&B itself was really clean and really nice (plus the most adorable old lady ran it); another good life decision by Cecilia, Stephanie, and Shana! We went to dinner at a hotel restaurant, and one thing that is definitely preferable in France is the relationship with food; although everything I ate was pretty good, I didn’t have any meals in Scotland that were particularly impressive after living in France for 2 months (with the exception of shortbread, of which I ate ridiculous quantities in 6 days). We went to the bar our tour guide recommended, but England and France were playing for the Six Nations Cup in rugby, so it was all guys and none of them were paying us any attention haha Shana and I got Irn Bru (which is Scotland’s national drink, after whisky of course) with vodka, which wasn’t anything spectacular, but was good nonetheless. We were all surprisingly tired from sitting on a bus all day and had an early morning, so we just watched BBC TV and hung out until we went to bed. Day two of the Highland Tour included the Castle of Eilean Donan (which is supposedly the most famous in Scotland), Loch Ness, and more beautiful Highlands and historical goodness; my only complaint was that we spent more time at Eilean Donan than I would have liked and not enough at Loch Ness, but at least we saw them at all. Overall, the tour was good; I think I was more impressed with what we saw than either the guide (especially his motion sickness-inducing driving and Negative Nancy stories) or the company itself, but I could still recommend using Timberbush Tours to someone else just because we did enjoy the tour itself so much. We were all pretty wiped out by the time we got back into Edinburgh, despite sleeping sporadically on the bus, so we took the bus and Alan picked us up from the stop. Although we never did make it into town for a pub crawl, we did have fun spending the evenings learning about Scottish and British culture talking with Alan and Sheena and watching “Coupling,” the British version of Friends (which is raunchier because they can get away with a lot more on British television). The next day was our last in Edinburgh, and since we had only seen the Castle, we had a lot that we wanted to do, starting with a driving tour by Sheena, who was really well-informed because her father used to do a lot with tourism of the city. We then went to Holyrood Palace, which was really beautiful and interesting and actually preferable to Versailles, which I find too ornate. One of the security workers in the palace overhead us speaking “Frenglish,” to avoid losing it after so much English for 6 days, and started talking to us about where we were from, studying in France, being in Scotland, etc.; it turns out that of the places we’re from (Shana from Seattle, Cecilia from Connecticut/New York, and me from South Carolina), he had only been to South Carolina (Hilton Head for golf), which definitely surprised me but made me a little prouder of my home state. After the palace, we ate lunch in their café, and then toured the Queen’s Gallery, which included pictures from Antarctica expeditions; it was interesting, but we didn’t have a lot of time, so I mostly looked at the nature photographs, which I prefer over the ones of the crew. We walked along the Royal Mile again in the beautiful, warm sunshine and decided that our next stop would be the Scottish Whisky Experience; now, I wasn’t a big fan of whisk(e)y and still am not, but when in Scotland, you do as the Scottish :) the tour was interesting since I know nothing about whisky, and it was fun tasting the different kinds (fun, but not necessarily tasty). Since it was about time to head home, we did some last-minute souvenir shopping, and again took the bus home (p.s Edinburgh buses are much preferable to Grenoble’s because they’re 1) plaid and 2) double decker). Our flight left early the next morning, so that was all that we got to do in Edinburgh, but I think we all plan to return both there and other places in Scotland someday because it was a pretty big hit with all 3 of us. It was really nice because it was a good mix between American culture and European culture; for example, whereas peanut butter is really expensive in France and Nutella is expensive in the States, you can get both reasonably priced in Scotland! Haha It was also really nice to learn some of the differences between Scottish culture and British culture; it’s easy to lump everything into “British,” but Scotland has so much identity and pride, especially with things like the Highland Dancing and the representation of their clans. I didn’t really know what to expect of Scotland and Edinburgh, which is perhaps why I wasn’t at all disappointed by either of them, but I definitely would like to live in Scotland at some point, at least for a little while.

“Courage is the quality most essential to understanding the Language of the World." - The Alchemist

I’m just going to throw it out there that experience like this might be the greatest thing ever haha but seriously. Any travel, if used correctly, lets you not only learn about new cultures and new countries but also teaches you things about yourself and your own country, so an experience where you’re living in a new culture for any extended period of time just takes that potential and multiples it. Of course I’m learning a lot about myself and “what I’m made of,” but I’m also starting to appreciate aspects of myself that I never did before. I haven’t been this proud to be an American in a while; it’s so easy to get cynical about it when you’re constantly surrounded by Americans (or when you go places like Canada and the only other Americans fit all of the stereotypes), but here there are times when I’m the only one in a room of Chinese, Italian, Brazilian, Mexican, Japanese, Iranian students, and I feel a duty to be an ambassador of sorts to the United States. Because of the diversity of my classes, we do spend a lot of time discussing the differences among our cultures and our countries, and as much as I love hearing first-hand about things from all of these other countries, I find myself getting really excited to share with them what it’s like in America (granted, people from other countries have a better idea of American music, television, politics, etc. than we generally have of theirs, but it’s still an exciting prospect). It also puts pressure on me to know what I’m talking about and to not misrepresent myself or my country; of course it’s one American’s perception so mine isn’t necessarily accurate just like any of their perceptions aren’t necessarily accurate representations of their countries, but it’s interesting nonetheless. And in addition to my being American, I’ve also gotten really interested in my heritage, especially since it is so predominantly German; I find myself really wanting to learn all about Germany (better representations of it throughout history, for example) and definitely wanting to learn to speak German. My mom and I are planning to go to Munich, which is where some of our family is from, when she visits (that’s another blog post too), and I’m looking forward to standing on some of the same soil they did; even though yeah I technically have done the same in the United States, it’s just so much more exciting to be standing where they came from and where they called home. And everyone here talks about their heritage more than back home because most of us are ancestrally(?) from countries right around us; it has made me realize that it’s so much more complex than “American” and that being American isn’t an uninteresting thing (in fact, French guys think it’s exotic. Go figure). Another thing that I used to find “boring” that is actually not at all is being a native English speaker; I can’t believe how many people here either speak English or really want to. I feel so lucky to have learned it as my first language because it is hard and because I got to learn one of the most useful languages in our society today without even trying. That being said, I think everyone, especially English speakers, should still make an effort to learn at least one more language (and no, not just Spanish to “talk to the Mexicans.” So much ignorance.), especially since it’s so much easier than going from a completely different alphabet like the Chinese, Iranian, and Russian students in my class are doing (and doing well, might I add). I can’t even convey how many times in class there will be a word in French that someone doesn’t understand that is a cognate to English, which makes my life so much easier because probably 1/4 of this new language is similar enough to my first that anyone could figure out the meaning, much less someone who’s been studying and living in France. Of course learning languages isn’t easy, but I want to take advantage of the...advantage...I have by speaking English to learn French, German, Italian, Spanish, all of which are supposedly similar to English (Latin-based, holla!). There is honestly no excuse for how lazy and behind the curve American society is with learning languages. Yes, you speak English. Congratulations. Now use that to your advantage, open some doors for yourself, and learn a little bit about the world outside of America. We did one of those hokey, “get to know each other” activities in my class last month, where there were 3 Americans, and one of the questions was (in French of course) “Who speaks the most languages?” It was a 6-way tie among the non-American students with 3 each and then the 3 Americans only had English and French; I’m not going to lie, it was embarrassing. Of course there are plenty of people in the US who speak multiple languages, but as a whole there seems to be an idea that because we speak English there’s no need to learn any new languages and there’s an expectation of everyone else to know how to speak English too. I know not everyone has the opportunity to have an experience like this, and I do realize every day how lucky I am, but I just hope that other cultures and other languages will become more of a priority in American society because it has been and will continue to be for me.

Un Week-end...Interessant

Well I can say that this has been the most interesting weekend I’ve had in France…it certainly wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the best weekend either. Thursday night started out really fun because we went out for Cecilia’s birthday; after dinner and wine at Shana’s house, we made the usual rounds of London Pub, Le Couche-Tard (so sketch!), and then went to check out a Discotheque. Overall, it was a successful night, but we were out until 4 am, so I spent the night at Cecilia’s house and decided to forego class in 4 ½ hours. We had an API excursion Friday afternoon to the Chartreuse distillery, but even by 1 pm when we met with them, we were not in the best shape from the night before haha and we were going to go drink more alcohol in the form of Chartreuse samples. It still ending up being a good time though; the GEM kids were there too, so I got to catch up with Jack for the first time in a while, which was really nice. P.S Chartreuse is gross. There were different kinds to try, the most popular being the more traditional green or the sweeter yellow; I started with yellow, which was tolerable but did not care for the green at all haha after the distillery, we drove to the monastery about 30 minutes away; even though the inside was closed, we hiked up a trail (in the weird, sporadic hail/snow) to see it from up on a hill. Most of the group literally climbed up a snowy, muddy hill to a cross up at the top to get a view; it was slow going and not the most graceful thing I’ve done, but the view was worth it! After Thursday night and Friday, we were all so tired that we opted to stay in Friday night instead of going back out to the bars, a decision which I think my body thanked me for. Saturday morning Shana was going to meet her friend in Paris, so Cecilia, Sarah, and I met up to look for somewhere to go for the day. We had planned on Valence, which is only about an hour from Grenoble, but Cecilia’s host mom suggested Roman instead, and since it was also both closer and cheaper, we bought tickets for Roman for the day. Since we had a couple of hours to kill before our train, we went in one of the museums in the center of Grenoble that had an exhibit about the first photographs taken of Grenoble; it was interesting, but somewhat disappointing, so at least entry was free (entrée gratuit). By the time we grabbed some lunch and got to the gare, it was just around time for our train to leave…except that it was delayed haha luckily we all can entertain ourselves with conversation for infinite amounts of time, so we were only concerned that we wouldn’t have sufficient time in Roman. Once we did get on the train, people had taken up twice as many seats as necessary, so we had nowhere to sit. We sat in the baggage area, which ended up being relatively comfortable, and Cecilia “got all New York on everybody’s asses” haha it was one thing that I have to say would have been different in the States, not necessarily because people would have been more considerate, but the train companies usually require people to make room for other passengers. Once we got to Roman (which, btw, is the shoe capital of France and also known for their ravioles), we wandered the almost-empty streets for a while until we stumbled upon their Carnaval celebration. Now, I would be a liar if I said that I didn’t think it was really weird but in retrospect, it was a lot cooler than at the time, probably because we were all in a weird state of mind. There were crazy costumes everywhere (more on the adults than the kids actually), and there were different booths selling crepes and beer and all kind of foods. The kicker, though, came when they had the “Key Ceremony,” and the mayor came out and gave the key to the city to…Satan. There were creepy fire carnies and crazy costumes and demon children with Silly String and firecrackers(!) and then a giant devil puppet…if anyone has seen the scene in Halloweentown right before Cal turns everything super evil, this literally felt just like that. It was terrifying. After our search for ravioles at a restaurant ended unsuccessfully (everything freaking shuts down after lunch and before they eat dinner at like 9 pm), we wanted a little and grabbed some more food before our train home. With the train delay, we only had about 4 hours in Roman, which ended up being okay; it wasn’t that it was a bad city, it was just between where our moods were and between the unexpected Carnaval, we were just tired and kind of weirded out. Luckily on the train home we had seats, and Sarah and Cecilia slept while I thought about home; I’m not going to lie, Saturday was the first day I’ve wanted to be home, which probably contributed a lot to my weird mood. It was just because it was Upper Division Orientation, and I wanted to be there anyway, but especially when our day ended up being kind of disappointing. And then I felt bad for wanting to go home because I honestly don’t want to leave, but I don’t want to wish away a day here either; it’s just more of the constant emotional roller coaster than an experience like this is, and Saturday was just one of those days where the roller coaster was mostly going downhill. Once we got back to Grenoble, we parted ways for a bit to recharge, and then met back up to go see a movie; however, by the time I got into town with the bus/trams, it was kind of late, and we were all kind of hyper, so we opted instead to just walk around, which of course led to a bar, and this time it was O’Callaghan’s. I got my “usual” Irish Coffee, and we sat talking and watching the Olympics as we drank; we only had a little bit of time before the last buses to Sarah and my respective homes, but it was still a good night (and of course if any alcohol is involved, Cecilia and I have a good time bonding with each other). Sunday morning was a really early one because we were meeting the CUEF for snowshoeing (“racquetting”) at the train station at 8 am (which meant leaving the residence around 7 for me to wait for the bus). We didn’t actually start snowshoeing until around noon because of the time it took to drive up there, get equipment, and take time for some coffee and gaufres (waffles). It had started raining when we first got to the little town where we were leaving from, but luckily it stayed away for the rest of the day. Now, I’ll be honest, I totally underestimated snowshoeing because it looks SO EASY; let me tell you, it’s not. I’m more tired and sore from a day of snowshoeing than I have ever been from skiing. It probably didn’t help though that we walked all the way up a mountain and back down, and since you’re walking on giant planks and can’t climb straight up the face of a hill, it takes a lot longer to gradually weave up it. And here the honesty will continue: for a large part of the day, I was not the happiest camper; some part of my body was hurting me throughout the entire day, and there was sheer exhaustion and the potential for death (we climbed up to the summit on giant pieces of plastic staring a drop-off and certain death literally in the face), BUT the views on the way up and down and definitely at the summit were absolutely spectacular. I think the biggest problem was just the lack of information given to us before we left (which is such a French mentality and the one cultural thing that really drives me crazy); Cecilia and I had gone to sign up for the excursion multiple times throughout the week, but never got to for one reason or another until Vincent (the guy who was heading it up) called us Friday afternoon and gave us the bare minimum of information on the phone. Everyone else had been given a slip of paper telling to bring like hiking boots and a picnic lunch, and no one relayed that information on on us; I will take some of the blame because we should have asked, but it just added to the frustration because if we had known to expect a full day of it, we would have been better prepared (like with food). Overall, it was one of those things that I’m glad I did, but honestly won’t be doing again for a while; we can laugh at it already, but by the end, it was so hard to keep going, especially since our guide didn’t seem to be very patient and understanding that Cecilia and I needed to go more slowly because of former knee dislocations and tumor surgeries, respectively, and wanted to go more slowly to really take in and enjoy the scenery. It just added insult to injury that we had to walk back down to the town instead of taking the bus, so by the time we turned our stuff in, I literally was about to the breaking point; my feet even now are in kind of weird condition, and any recovering my body did from Thursday night has been completely reversed haha overall, it was a pretty good weekend; like I said before, it wasn’t the best I’ve had here, but it was probably a combination of emotions, especially being at the one-month mark, the weather, which was cloudy all weekend, and frustrations with our planning.

Plaisirs Simples

The other day was one of those days that are such good days for no particular reason (well for a lot of little reasons). First and foremost, it was sunny outside for the first day in a while, which meant I could actually see the Alps; there’s a very strong correlation between the amount of sun available and my mood anyway, but being able to see the Alps again made it even better. Not only was it sunny, but it was actually pretty warm; I think it got up to like mid-50s, which I wouldn’t have thought warm 2 months ago but now totally appreciate. Another nice surprise was a package from my mom that had a ton of things I had been wanting/needing – there were some more socks, which meant I didn’t have to wash mine as urgently, some food from back home that I haven’t had here, a few practical things that were nice to have, and some little extras like peanut butter M&Ms (the best kind and the first peanut butter I’ve had since coming to France). Plus it was nice to know that someone back home is thinking about me and looking out for me :) since I didn’t have class until 12:30, I went into town and spent some time at the FNAC (basically like Barnes and Noble), which automatically puts me in a good mood; I looked at some books and bought a cookbook for students so I can hopefully learn to cook and make my own meals some while I’m here, which is an exciting prospect for me. Plus I got asked directions from 2 different people, and even though I couldn’t really help them since I’m still kind of new to the city, I took their asking me as a sign that I sort of blend in here and don’t immediately look American. I got onto campus half an hour before class and got a Panini from the place right next to the tram; delicious, as usual. Also, I unknowingly had a conversation with a deaf guy (I’m such a spaz), but it was still nice because I gave him my last euro towards his campus charity, which just makes you feel good inside lol also, I got to see Cecilia and Shana before class, which was super exciting because I missed them like crazy while we were apart haha unfortunately class kind of sucked because we had a substitute, and I had to try and catch up from 3 days of being absent, but I just reminded myself that I had been in Nice, so that made things easier. After class, I met Cecilia at her apartment so we could chat while she made a traditional Polish dish that I can’t currently remember the name of…we always have a lot of fun together because we’re both totally silly and ridiculous yet also have really mature discussions about life. Her host mom came home while I was there and invited me to stay for dinner with them and her boyfriend; even though I knew I was going to be my usual awkward self, it was a good opportunity to practice French and get some French culture. It ended up being really nice despite the fact that I’m so self-conscious with my French that I barely talked; I did understand almost everything, so that was a little reassuring in my French skills. It was really interesting though because we talked about things like music/movies and then politics; so it was definitely a cultural experience. Plus the food was “dumb good,” as Cecilia would say, and it meant I didn’t have to find food for myself for a night. Since we didn’t finish with dinner until 10, I had to leave soon after to get home and do my homework and such, but overall it was a really good day! I think a lot of my excitement has come from finally getting a hang of the pronunciation of the letter “r” in French; I know it sounds really random, but they pronounce every “r” using a sound that I’ve never had to make before, so I’ve had to teach myself and my throat muscles how to make the sound. It’s actually really hard, so until recently, I couldn’t do it and essentially spoke with the equivalent of a lisp. But I’ve been practicing, and I’m finally starting to get where I can do it more and more easily; I think once I’ve got it down, it will help my pronunciation so much and is really the difference, I think, between sounding like you know French and not.

La Côte d'Azur

It’s currently Carnaval, and since Nice has one of the biggest Carnaval celebrations in the world and is only about 5 hours from Grenoble, the CUEF decided to take a trip there; API is going the last weekend in April, but since half of us aren’t in the extended program and will be gone by then, we got to go on this trip instead as a sort of “make up.” Although I was really excited to be missing 3 days of class and to be there for Carnval, I do wish that Cecilia and Shana could have come too; though I did get to spend a lot of time with Sarah, whose company I enjoy more and more every day. The bus ride down there went more quickly than expected thanks to my iPod, frequent naps (catching up on sleep from Geneva), and the French countryside, which is every bit as beautiful as portrayed on film. I did learn a few fun facts from our tour guide/trip organizer, Vincent. For example, of the 3 mountain ranges that surround Grenoble, only the Belledonne are Alps; the Vercors and the Chartreuse are technically “pre-Alps.” Also, the autoroute that we took to Nice is the most heavily traveled highway in the world. It was dark by the time we got to Nice, so even though we couldn’t see it in all its glory, it was still pretty at night. We went to a restaurant that Vincent knew and everyone got the menu, for simplicity’s sake (there were about 30 of us). It actually ended up being really good with a salade Niçoise (salad with tuna, eggs, tomatoes), steamed veggies, bread (of course), fries (lol), chicken, and a super chocolaty éclair. Afterwards, some of us just walked around looking at the Carnaval stuff until we found a bar we wanted to go to (ironically, it ended up being the “American Bar,” but since there were more non-Americans than Americans, that’s not why we picked it haha). Sarah, Brittain (another girl from AIFS intensive), and I shared some wine, which was so relaxing and prompted me to go to sleep as soon as I got back to the hotel. The next morning we ate the hotel’s continental breakfast (which included a ton of “pain au chocolat”) and everyone took a bunch of food to eat later haha we drove by the Mediterranean to get to the autoroute, and oh man was it beautiful. We drove along the road that follows the cliffs and the coastline, which offered so many great views. The little town of Eze is on the way to Monaco, so we stopped there for a couple of hours to eat lunch and look around; we toured a perfume factory, which would have been more interested had it not smelled so strongly that I got a headache. Afterward, Sarah and I just walked around the town and up to the “fort,” which is where a lot of the little streets are; the best way to describe Eze is “charming.” Then we continued onto Monaco; most of the group went to the Musée Océanographique, but Sarah, Tamela, and I decided that we wanted to spend what time we had there looking around and not in a museum. We walked through this beautiful park (it was pretty warm and the sun had come out!) which was next to the water, so the views were amazing; I kept thinking how much my Grandma would have enjoyed seeing it…then we saw the royal palace (where Princess Stephanie lives, represent!) and the changing of the guard. We spent the rest of the time walking through the streets and just enjoying the weather. We got back on the bus and went to Monte Carlo for about an hour and a half; it was “très riche” like the rest of Monaco, so it was an interesting juxtaposition with quaint little Eze. By the time we got back to Nice (what should have been a 45 minute drive took a lot longer because of traffic), we were all tired and really hungry; I would have eaten anywhere, but Tamela and Brittain were looking for something more specific, so it took longer than I would have liked. However, the place we went ended up being really good, so it worked out fine. Afterward, we just went back to the hotel and to sleep after a day of tons of walking. The next morning was the same deal with the breakfast (and stealing it haha), and then we got on the bus for Cannes. We had about 3 hours there, so we spent most of it at the fort/church on top of a hill and on the beach. I liked the city of Cannes a lot, but it was a little anticlimactic since I was hoping for more about the Film Festival; it was only the building and a “walk of fame” of sorts with a lot of people I didn’t really know. The hill provided some nice views (despite it being cloudy), but my favorite part was the beach; we spent a lot of time walking on the sand and sitting out on the rocks nearby, which was really therapeutic. We got back to Nice around 1 before the parade started at 2:30 (it was, after all, Mardi Gras!); before we even got to our seats, we were assaulted by confetti and Silly String and all sorts of crazy costumes. It was such a fun atmosphere with music and dancers and people and such an amazing and beautiful parade; I’m so so grateful that I got to experience that. Easily one of the coolest things I’ve seen. All of the floats had some sort of underlying political message, and there were even balloons of Obama and the Statue of Liberty; I never want to hear anyone say that the French hate us again because I have so much evidence that they don’t (but more on that later!). After it ended, we walked around looking at the various Carnaval-related things (like an actual little carnival) before getting a coffee. We went out on the beach (which is made up of millions of smooth, beautiful rocks and so different from what I’m used to) for a while and decided to have a picnic the next day for lunch (my idea, btw lol). We went to the same row of restaurants we had been to the night before and found the best little restaurant; the food was amazing, it ended up being cheap since Sarah and I shared a pizza, our waiter was such a fun guy, and I laughed my ass off at Sarah’s hysterical self. Yet another good life decision! I watched some TV and took a shower since Lexi wasn’t in the room and then went to sleep again before she got back. Sarah, Tamela(Brazil), Brittain(Iowa), Kaïsa(Finland), and I decided to get up kind of early so we would have time for our picnic and the bastille before the Bataille de Fleurs (“Battle of Flowers”). Unfortunately for all of our plans, the long-promised rain had arrived, so our picnic was already out of the question; we still all managed to climb the hill, which afforded a nice albeit cloudy view, and spend some more time on the beach. The Bataille de Fleurs ended up being cancelled, which was disappointing, not because of the 10 euros it cost, but because that would have been so cool to see. Mais c’est la vie. Even though we had 2 ½ hours before the bus left, I was so tired and frustrated and my feet were soaked, so I headed back to the hotel. It ended up being pretty fun because some of us in the group played Uno (which was interesting in French haha), and Sarah and I bought snacks/food for the bus ride home so we wouldn’t have to pay more for them later. The bus ride was pretty routine; lots of sleeping on my part, and once again it went by quickly. When we stopped for dinner, the Olympics were on so we watched some; it’s funny because I feel so detached from the rest of the world over here. Not that France doesn’t have access to all the things the United States does, it’s just that my lifestyle here doesn’t make things like news and TV shows and all that as readily available as back home. I really did have such an amazing time, despite the weather, but I would love to go back when it’s warmer and sunnier; I took a ton of pictures, and none of them do the amazing scenery justice. France as a whole is such a gorgeous place; not necessarily more beautiful than the US, just novel to me, which is nice (haha get it?). And weirdly enough, I missed Grenoble after only a few days; I’ve already formed an attachment to it as “home,” so it was nice to be back “home.” I also missed Shana and Cecilia, who I haven’t not seen for more than a day since I met them; though it was really nice to meet some other people from other places where, once again, our only common language is French (well, most people speak English too).

Day Trip to Genève

Since Geneva is only about an hour and half from Grenoble, we decided that would be a good first trip to kind of test out the trains and our dynamic and everything without API. It being so close also allowed us to see the city without having to get a hostel for a night, which probably saved us a lot of money in a city as expensive as Geneva. Shana, Sarah, Cecilia, and I bought our tickets from the SNCF office Friday afternoon for about 30 euros roundtrip. Our bus was leaving at 6 am the next morning, and since Grenoble's public transportation doesn't start running until about that time, Sarah and I wouldn't have been able to get into the city before our bus left. Luckily, Shana and Cecilia could put us up in their host homes for the night. We met up around 5:45 and walked to the train station (since it was close and walking was faster than waiting for the tram would have been). Jack was supposed to come with us, but when he was trying to work out his tickets, they tried to charge him like 60 euros for a day trip to Geneva so he understandably didn't want to pay that much. I was still pretty excited, so I talked poor Shana's ear off for a little while before we all went to sleep haha both the bus ride there and back were mostly in the dark because of the time of day, so I didn't feel guilty sleeping through it. Overall my impression of Geneva is that it's a beautiful city, but it's both expensive and confusing. The expense for us personally was because we had only euros, and they still use their Swiss Francs because they haven't joined the EU; so we would pay with Euros, which was fine, but we would always lose some money if we got change (which we didn't with some of the stupid machines) because it was in Francs, which are about the same as the American dollar. It was confusing even to navigate the train station and certainly to find the office of tourism, which was our first stop to plan things to do for the day. Also, the weather was less than ideal; somehow we all underestimated how cold it would be (it snowed on us all morning) so that quickly influenced our plans toward something indoors. Since we only were there for a day, we wanted to see as much of the city as possible; we opted for a bus tour that would take us to all the big sights (UN, WHO, the lake, etc.) and was in a warm bus. I hadn't planned on paying for much once we got there (we even packed lunches and stuff to not have to buy food), so I was a little mad about paying 30 Francs for it, but I really do think it was the best decision. Our tour didn't start until 1:30, so we walked around and went to a watch museum (when in Switzerland, you know lol), which was really interesting, but again we had to pay for it. Then we stumbled upon a market, where we looked at some of the stands and talked with some guys our age about a music festival they're trying to bring to Geneva. We ate lunch in a Starbucks (oops) and headed out to meet our bus. The tour was exactly what we needed to see the city; it wasn't the best circumstances for taking pictures, but it was definitely a lot better for seeing the city as a whole. And it was warm. My favorite things to see were the United Nations building, the World Health Organization building, and the UNICEF building; that's definitely my favorite part of Geneva. We also saw a lot of other buildings that I don't have time to talk about right now but will come back to. The tour ended at 3:30 and our bus didn't leave until 6, so we went in some gift stores and chocolate stores :) and just killed time until the bus driver would let us back on the bus (not until 15 minutes before we left and it was super cold outside). We slept on the bus ride home since we were all somewhat delirious from fatigue and cold, but again, it was dark so we didn't miss any scenery. Overall, it was a beautiful city in terms of the architecture and the lake and everything, and we had been forewarned about the expense, so that wasn't a bad surprise. It was really cool because everyone spoke French, un-accented English, and probably German too; in fact, some percentage of the population of Geneva (I want to say it's like 25%) is comprised of people from other countries. I don't think I would want to live in Geneva (unless I somehow swing a job with the UN or WHO), but it's definitely a nice place to visit. Despite the cold and some frustration, it was a really good day, and I can't wait for our next trips :)

Laser Tag, Bar Hopping, Teaching Foreigners "That's What She Said" Jokes, and a Blizzard

The past few days have mostly consisted of class, trip-planning, and conversation at cafés, coffee shops, etc. Shana and I found this one coffee shop (appropriately named French Coffee Shop) that I think will be where I spend a lot of time and money over the next few months; they had a drink called a Chocotella (chocolate + Nutella), which I think should justify things completely. And unlike the majority of the last couple of weeks we've been here, the weather lately has been consistently cloudy and colder; most days have been snowy, but it hasn't stuck to the ground. Until yesterday. Shana and I met at another favorite restaurant, Pain et Cie, for what turned into breakfast and lunch haha we got coffee and croissants for breakfast but realized that we would need more food and more warmth to brave the cold for class, so we ate soup and bread until we were both about to explode. It had already been snowing for most of the day and was starting to stick, so we knew to expect at least some accumulation. By the time we got out of class at 4:30, it was starting to snow harder and was, I think, actually colder. We had to meet at one of the tram stops for our "Laser Game" at 5:45, so that didn't give us time to go home first. Shana, Kelly, and I got to the stop, which was more in the center of town than the university, and it was coming down really hard and the wind was blowing like crazy; Samantha had said to Ashley that it was a blizzard, and at that point we believed her. It was far too cold to wait outside (especially since I hadn't brought gloves or a scarf in my hurry out the door and was also wearing Converses instead of boots because I knew we were playing laser tag) so we found the nearest café, and sat in the warmth for as long as possible. We met some other kids at the stop and went to the laser tag place to wait for Marie; eventually there was a pretty good group of us, despite some people getting stuck on trams and in traffic because of the snow. Laser tag was awesome, of course, and running around for 45 minutes thawed out my toes. I came in 3rd overall, which was pretty awesome, but I think everyone had a good time (Shana quote of the day: "This is the most fun I've ever had!"). We were all hungry so were going to go with some of the Language and Culture kids to get pizza, but instead Lexi, Ashley, Sam, Shana, and I went to this café right near Place Notre Dame. Getting there was pretty bad; we had to wait in the snow for the tram, cram like sardines onto the tram, walk through the snow and slush (still wearing crappy shoes), and decide where to go. This place ended up being totally delicious and worth it; we all got their "menu," which was a ham, egg, and cheese crêpe, a salad, and some kind of alcoholic cider drink for like 10 euros. After dinner, we went to the first bar, London Pub, which I had heard good things about and been wanting to go to. It's such a cool place; good music, all of this tacky but awesome British shit on the walls, the people speak English, which comes in handy certain times, there were a lot of cute guys, AND I got a glowstick in my drink! Sam's friends from class Kuba(no way I spelled that right), who's Polish, and Maui(again, probably wrong), who's Spanish; we all talked and explained to them what a "That's what she said" joke is haha it was a lot of fun. We then wandered for a while trying to find Darrell's bar (this guy who used to be in API and stayed here on his own but still hangs out with API people lol), Le Couche-Tard; meanwhile it was still snowing, and I was having more issues than normal with coordination (we were on a sidewalk that was in between a car and a wall and there was a lightpole in the middle of the sidewalk; I misjudged my width and thought I could fit through but got caught right at my hips, which did leave multiple marks haha). We got to Le Couche-Tard (which is the French phrase for someone who consistently stays up late), which wasn't as awesome as the London Pub, but at least Darrell got us free shots. We crammed everyone to a table, but I was sitting on Shana's lap, so when someone at the table next to us left, I scooted over thinking the bench kept going...and ended up on the floor with yet another bruise down my back. I promise I hadn't been drinking that much; I'm just not a graceful person under any circumstances. Ashley, Maui, and I had to leave to catch the last Noctibus back to the dorm, but I would still call it a successful night out, especially since we braved the most snow Grenoble's seen in a while (according to "Mama Goose" Marie).

"Ma tête est fatiguée"

The days now are getting less significant; not in the sense that they don't matter to me, but in the sense that the things that are happening aren't anything I think anyone else would be interested in hearing about haha I'm starting to make connections in my head of where things are located in relation to one another, and I'm enjoying exploring new parts of my new city :) Class continues to be good; we got some new students who changed levels and there isn't really a set syllabus or anything, so we still haven't gotten into much of a routine yet. The workload is super easy, especially in comparison to nursing, but the class itself is mentally exhausting from constantly having to actively listen and translate. (P.S "ma tête est fatiguée" means "my head is tired" and was said by Shana one night as she was trying to talk to the waiter haha she's adorable.) I've also been frequenting the API office before or after class; I usually need to ask a question of Sarah or Anna or Marie, but even if I don't, I'll probably find an excuse to go anyway just because I like it there haha I've been spending most of my free time with Shana, Cecilia, and Sarah just hanging out various places around the city (in coffee shops, on trams, at host families' houses). Oh, but Cecilia, Sarah, this guy Terrell (who's in the Language and Culture group), and I went to what we thought was a jazz concert (the pamphlet mentioned Wayne Shorter so we thought we were getting a great opportunity to see him perform) but actually ended up being a lot of old French people listening to this guy ramble on and on about who knows what and be really awkward; and also, his "jazz band" was not even as good as Lexington High School's. It was disappointing, but at least we made the most of it and now have a funny story to tell. We're starting to plan out some trips; Sarah and I are going with API to Nice this Sunday (more on that later), but I think Sarah, Shana, Cecilia, and I are going to Geneva on Saturday :) it's our first non-API outing as well as our first non-France outing so I'm pretty excited to try it out for ourselves. The rest of the week should be pretty much class and casual hanging out; API is playing laser tag on Thursday (it's on like Donkey Kong, btw), and then I think a lot of us are going out afterward, so that should be a good time. But um...yeah I think that's all for now. Next time I have nothing to write about, I'll comment on life in the residence thus far, and I want to write a post about French culture and their perception of Americans, but I think I need to do some more "research" for that one first. A bientôt!

I am such an idiot.

Sometimes you do things that make you feel like you're so much more capable and mature than you originally thought. And then other times things you do make you realize that you're still a stupid little girl who has no business living abroad. Tonight I met Cecilia and Sarah in town around 5; we rode around Grenoble, talking and planning some trips. Then Sarah had to go, so Cecilia and I went back to her host mom's apartment to just hang out and talk. Well I had checked the time of the last regular bus, but I would have had to leave in like an hour and figured the night bus wouldn't be a problem as long as I checked the schedule. So it gets to be around 11, and I get to the bus stop in plenty of time. Well, in true Grenoble fashion, the public transportation is nonexistent after dark and especially on Sundays; so, no bus, but the trams were still running. I map out the extremely out of the way route and get on the tram; it's not until I get off the tram that I realize the next tram line I need doesn't run after 9. Fantastic. I wait at the bus stop in the middle of East Jesus Nowhere for another 15 minutes with some of the creepiest people I've ever seen (granted, I was a little paranoid). Now I'm back to Victor Hugo with absolutely no public transportation to take me home. At this point, I'm deciding how long it would take me to walk home and how likely I would be to get mugged, or worse, when Cecilia, my knight in shining armor, gives me the number of a 24/7 cab service. I call them but of course, they speak no English, and I'm far too flustered at this point to remember any French. So I make terrible conversation and somehow by the grace of God, get a cab arranged. Also by the grace of God, there was an ATM nearby because I had like 5 euros, which would have gotten me like down the street a ways instead of back to Houille Blanche. The guy was super nice, also doesn't speak English, and he got me home really quickly, which I certainly appreciated. On the phone, I thought I heard "quarante euros," which is forty, but it was only "quatorze euros," which is fourteen; I just hope I tipped and thanked the guy enough for most likely saving my life, or at least my sanity. It worked out fine, much better than expected, because I honestly thought I might die or be assaulted in some way; even though Grenoble is exponentially safer than Columbia, I'm never alone at night in Columbia, or if I am, it's at least way more familiar. I'm mostly just really mad and frustrated at myself; I honestly should have checked the bus schedule more closely and just left early. But thanks to Cecilia for being such an amazing friend, and to who or whatever was watching out for me because it could have been a lot worse. I can kind of laugh at it now that I'm safe, but I will definitely remember this and learn from it so to avoid this complete stupidity in the future.

"Le Bonheur" is ironically named...

After waking up late yesterday morning and frantically getting to class, it turned out that we didn't have class that morning. We have schedule which tells us when and what room we have class each day, just like in American universities, but the difference is that they often change our schedule at whim without any kind of approval or email notification. Now this wouldn't be a problem because I've been in class every day, except that where I'm at with my French right now, allows me to understand most of the words and then take what I know and make assumptions about the rest of what they're saying. Usually, this is totally fine, but unfortunately, this time it wasn't; what I understood to be an optional movie-watching class after our original class was actually our class for the day. So Kelly (who has been sick for 2 days so he got my crappy relayed information) and I had 4 hours before class started, and since he takes the bus for like an hour each way, he wasn't going home; now I could have easily gone home, but I 1) felt like it was my fault he was there at the wrong time and 2) thought maybe it would be better to be out in the city than sitting like a recluse in my dorm room. So we rode into town and eat breakfast at McDonald's. Yes, McDonald's. It was good though; b-fast at McDonald's has always been the better option, especially now that I drink coffee lol then we walked around the Ste. Claire Market to get some vegetables and fruit since my diet is currently lacking them. After that we decided to head back up to campus and check out "la piscine" which is where you can sign up for clubs and where there is actually a pool lol unfortunately by now, it hard started raining and was colder than when I left for class, so by the time we walked back to the API office, we, or at least I, looked a mess haha we hung out in there for about an hour and a half with the Language and Culture kids, which turned out to be fun. It ended up being nice because I got to talk to Kelly and find some things in common (like loving surfing, the Caribbean, and How I Met Your Mother!), since he's the one I know least well in the group. We both reluctantly went to class, where my professor, whom I normally love, talked for like 35 minutes about the movie before we even watched it. Then, we all GOT ON A TRAM to get to the cinema. This was a legitimate field trip, apparently, which I had interpreted correctly, but assumed that I hadn't. The logistics of all of these people awkwardly getting to, onto, and off of the tram was just absurd. I think I got hit with like 5 umbrellas and was not happy about it. We walked from the tram stop, still in the freezing rain and still with wet feet on my part, to the theater were it took another 30 minutes for everyone to get seated, for someone else to talk about the movie, and then to actually start the movie. We got to leave as soon as we were done instead of at the set time, so naturally I wanted things to hurry up, especially since I had expected to be done with class at 12:30 instead of just starting it then. And then the movie...Le Bonheur (which means "the happiness") is kind of to French culture what Gone With the Wind is to Southern American culture: everyone knows it, can reference it, names their children after it. Let me summarize the plot for you: man loves his wife and kids (despite both parents being kind of terrible and neglectful when they're too busy being "in love"), man meets a hottie with a body who looks remarkably like his wife, man falls in love with her and starts having an affair, man tells wife he's having an affair but convinces her he still loves her, wife dies/kills herself(I couldn't tell which), man is sad for like a day and then, here's the kicker, brings in mistress to be replacement mommy like nothing ever happened. Kelly and I discussed the movie afterward and honestly couldn't find any redeeming qualities; I don't mean to be insensitive to French culture because maybe there's some underlying thing there that I'm missing, but I didn't like the plot, the acting, the camera work, the music (which was Mozart so it was nice at first, but they played one song over and over), anything. We have an assignment to pick our favorite scene and tell why, and the only one I can come up with right now is "la scene dernière parce-que j'ai enfin pu partir," which means "the last scene because I could finally leave" lol I'm hoping our discussion in class will shed some positive light on it, but probably not, since I most likely won't interpret it correctly anyway ::sigh:: With the weather and the day's events, I was already frustrated, so when I got home and found that the package my mom sent me was ready to be picked up, I thought maybe that would be a nice change. Nope. The notes they gave me were in French, which I expected, but it was hard to translate them and understand what I needed to do; I went to the front desk to ask, but the communication barrier made it impossible to determine what I needed to do. But I felt a little better after I watched Lost and vegged out a little before Lexi, Ashley, and I went into town. We went to O'Callaghan's, an Irish bar in case you couldn't tell, but none of our group was there yet. So we walked around for a bit and found another, classier bar where I unintentionally got the biggest gin fizz ever haha it was good though, and we just took our time there. By the time we went back to O'Callaghan's, Kelly and Christian had already left, so we talked to the Language and Culture kids some before heading back home courtesy of the Noctibus. Not the most successful night out, but it was our first time trying; we still have plenty of time :) Today we're going on a mini-excursion with API to the "Grottes (caves) de Choranche;" I'm pretty excited because even though it's raining and cold and, you know, caves already are those things, it's with a good group of people, and it's an API excursion so I'm sure it's awesome!