“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!