les bulles!

Today we went up the mountainside to the fort de la Bastille in the "telepherique"  (cable car), but we just call them "les bulles" (the bubbles).

This was pretty fun, a little scary, especially since it was windy today. The little bubbles start near downtown, take you across the river, and up the hillside to the fort. There is a restaurant there and a gift shop, but not much else that we could tell. there are lookouts for photos, so we took a few and walked around a but. there were paths around the fort but we didn't go out on any of them.

Before going up in the bubbles, we ate lunch at a creperie! I had une gallete du jambon/fromage (savory crepe with ham and cheese) It was great, but I didn't get a crepe au sucre, so I need to go back, so I can see if the crepes in Genoble can even attempt to compare to those of Bretagne!

Tonight we will have dinner a little bit early because the Chinese student, Suxu (sooshoo), staying with us will leave for Rome, then Paris. He got in trouble with Mme Cottave a few nights ago at dinner for not consulting her before making travel arrangements. Apparently, he naively thought it would make sense to take the train to Lyon if he was leaving from the Lyon airport. However, the airport is between Lyon and Grenoble, so this requires taking a bus to the airport from the train station. What he should have done had he any sense at all was just take the shuttle bus from Grenoble to the airport, its so much more efficient and cheaper!! I would have done the same thing...poor Suxu! This means when I make my travel plans for the end of my trip, I will definitely consult Mme Cottave, as to not get scolded for doing something stupid. 

The dinners here are pleasant, there is always at least 5 of us at the table, and I understand things when I am directly addressed...other conversation, not as much. I am not always the biggest fan of the food, I miss the American way of having a separate meat as part of the main course. Here it is usually one or two dishes of various mixed up foods. So obviously in my opinion, the best meal so far has been the one where we had "Gratin Dauphinois" (Au Gratin potatoes-the regions signature recipe) and pork chops. The other meals have been less palatable, but it will just make me more excited for my mom's cooking when I return home! And there is always bread to look forward to.

Thus far I have not gone into great detail about other meals. Breakfast is very good for me because it is just bread with butter or jam. They also almost always have a hot beverage with breakfast, coffee, tea or hot chocolate. I usually have hot chocolate, as to not become reliant on coffee in the mornings. I make my hot chocolate with powder and milk. The milk is very rich here, probably more fat, I think it is great for hot chocolate, but probably not as great for drinking or cereal. For lunch we eat whatever we want, I usually try to find a meal for 5 euro or less. There are probably thousands of sandwich shops in this city, so that is always an option for a fast lunch. If you want a hot lunch you must have a bit more time, to stop at a pizzeria or creperie, or another cafe. They do have a lot of middle eastern quick places selling Kebab, which I think is sort of comparable to a gyro. Pasta Via, is like the Noodles and Co of France in my opinion, you can choose from many sauces, it is ready right there, and it is very good!

Tonight I have a lot of homework, so I better stop procrastinating and get to it.

A plus tard! (See you later!)

food.

I don't feel like writing today, and I have to write in my French journal tonight. So today I''m just posting yummy pictures.

No idea what it was called, but...

NOM NOM NOM!

 Wine in a can? The French would.

Mousse au Chocolat! 

Way too much for one person. But too good to waste!! :(

Today we just had class and went to the art museum, which was nice, but isn't very exciting to talk about. Tomorrow hopefully we will go up the mountainside in these little hanging bubble things. And tomorrow night hopefully we will go out, supposedly Thursday night is a big night here for going out. So I will have lots of things to tell.

when everyone knows you're american...

Yesterday we started our U of M classes, which are from 10-1 this week. This leaves the afternoon wide open for adventures. The class is a typical University of Michigan French class....meaning loads of put-you-to-sleep French and Francophone history. I guess that's why this class counts as humanities credits. Who even knows what we are learning about, just another variation of the same boring history we learned about in 231 and 232...this time we say its focused on immigration. All I can say is that after only 2 days I am bored out of my mind thinking that I will definitely have to bullshit my way through every single discussion and assignment...including the 5-7 page final paper, awesome. I mean for someone who doesn't understand poetry in English, don';t even try asking me about French poetry. I'm a lost cause. I'll just have to make sure Patrick likes me. P.S. he is incredibly attractive, so I wouldn't want him to dislike me, even though there is already a ring on his finger.

Besides the boring subject matter, the pros are that I like my classmates, we are a small class (7 of us) which is nice, and of course: Patrick.

So on to the fun stuff. I've noticed the past few days that no matter where we go, from a hundred feet away, pretty much everyone knows we are American. Perhaps it is the clothes we wear, our camera's occasionally flashing at mundane things (for the French), or our exuberant attitudes. Probably all of the above, along with our maps, our broken french (or when we've given up, our English) and our tendancy to travel in packs. The French people's reaction to us varies.

When I bought my "portable" the woman let me get about 3 broken sentences out before saying, "You speak English?" and we continued from there in English, with much less difficulty. When we order at restaurants we usually do pretty well, because we've had time to figure out exactly what were going to say. But if they ask a complicated question about exactly what we want, well, it all goes out the door. At the Victor Hugo Plaza...there have been incidents. The first involved a group of middle school-aged boys..who as soon as we sat down to do our homework (before we even had our French-English dictionaries out!) began yelling profane phrases at us to try to get some sort of reaction. We attempted to ignore them and stared intently at our papers. Today at the fountain four of us were dipping out feet and wading to cool off, and some obnoxious teens decided to divert the water from the fountain in our direction, to soak us. after the 2nd or 3rd incident, we gave up and left the park. So my impression so far is that the young French people like to bother the Americans because they think our reactions are funny. The older French either find us endearing or just annoying.

After just 3 days I feel I have come a long way; I am more engaged at dinner time, and more confident in my speaking. I think the adjustment to the time zone has been a big factor in my improvement. Today I went swimming at our pool here, but the pool was over 90 degrees, so that wasn't all too refreshing. Tomorrow it may rain, which is a wonderful thing if that means it will cool off finally. The heat isn't terrible because the humidity is low, but it is very tiring. Overall I am adjusting well and think I will really enjoy my time here. Downtown is a beautiful and wonderfully busy place to be (except on Sundays-it is a ghost town). I finally got to run at a park today that Frieda (one of our instructors who lives with me) showed me. I hope to go a few times a week to stay in shape. Although, the amount of walking we do daily could definitely keep me in pretty good shape!

Time to set the table for dinner. Au Revoir!

Victor Hugo Plaza-that I mentioned above

why would anyone want just water?

Strangest cultural experience so far; when you ask for water, people don't even feel right giving it to you. It is so absurd that anyone would want just plain old tap water, that they have to ask you multiple times if you are sure. Here they prefer "eau minerale" in a fancy glass bottle with carbonation. Or "sirop a l'eau", which can be good like juice if you choose a fruity flavored syrup, or really awkward if you let them give you "menthe" flavored syrup...it basically tastes like you are drinking Trident.

Another thing that we noticed was that, since there is no tipping here, the waiters really do not care if you are satisfied, and really take their sweet time getting you things, ESPECIALLY if you only asked for tap water and not fancy water.

It was very hot today, but not too humid. The whole group of students and our profs met. We ate sandwiches and desserts at a cafe. Whatever my dessert was it was amazing, it had raspberries on top and inside of a sort of creme brulee type of thing. We then practiced the tram ride to the university, and where to meet tomorrow morning. There are 6 other students in the 274 level class, so it will be a very intimate class (hopefully easy too). Most of the students seem pretty nice. There is a girl who lives across the street who I will probably commute to class with.

Hopefully tonight's dinner will be good. Yesterdays would have been great, but there were millions of mushrooms in the omlette...of course. We also had some cooked carrots and whatever herbs and spices on them were great! And of course bread with cheese. then fruit and yogurt for dessert. I saw broccoli in the kitchen, so hopefully that is a good sign.

Au revoir!

a different time zone, among other things.

I have arrived. After nearly 24 hours of grueling traveling and waiting, I am finally in Grenoble. Here:

The long trip here was surprisingly uneventful, I found another student from my program after my flight, waiting for baggage, and we teamed up to conquer the train systems. We later met about 6 other students from the program while waiting for the train. We boarded the TGV (Train a Grande Vitesse) and we zipped though the French countryside from Paris to Lyon. I tried sleeping, but the bits or scenery I did see was mostly farmland. We then connected to our train to Grenoble, which was only slightly stressful, because the station didn't indicate the platform until we had less than 5 minutes until departure, but we made it. 

Upon arrival in Grenoble, Stephanie, the daughter of my host mom Francoise, picked my up with her little daughter, whose name I didn't quite catch. We took the brief trip through town to the house and I was thoroughly impressed with the "jardin", the photos do not do it justice. There are many beautiful plants and trees, and there is a view of the mountains just through some of the trees. The best surprise was the dog greeting us at the door. After unpacking my stuff, quenching my thirst, and otherwise settling in, we went for a dip in the pool. The pool is like bathwater, I think because it is covered with a half-cylinder of glass to protect it from debris from the trees.

I am exhausted but content. There isn't much to do but wait until dinner time. Then I think I will head straight to bed.

pre-departure...

Less than 24 hours until departure and I am nowhere near ready yet...but somehow I am incredibly calm. Not sure why the panic has yet to set in. I'm sure I am forgetting something astronomically important. Also, my travel plans for the end of my stay are still frighteningly uncertain. We will see.What I should be most worried about is whether or not I actually know how to speak French.