Monday: birthday - take two.

Since the first day didn't work out so well, I redid my Birthday today, starting at midnight in France. I arrived home finally and got to see my family and talk to my most wonderful mother, who always makes me feel better. Next I used 4 euro of minutes to call my wonderful boyfriend who had been in a cellular deadzone all day and unable to email me. He somehow missed me telling him I may be out of communication all weekend so he thought something had happened, and was so worried all day. So, misunderstandings were corrected and I slept well having talked to him. I only got 5 hours of sleep, but woke up surprisingly awake. Headed to class with Alexandra (other American here) Today was the halfway point for the program, so we changed our mini course and we also changed our prof for the French class for some reason. Luckily, The prof was great for the French class, and I was pleasantly surprised to find she was also my prof for my new Oral Perfection class. We did a little improv during class, pretending to be trapped in an elevator with another person, and made up identities and had to talk for 2 minutes before the class.

After class, we ate lunch in the park and then went to get money from the atm, poor Chris' card got eaten, but he can go back to get it tomorrow. Then I did some window shopping in a different part of town to kill time before returning to the university at 4pm to get my forgotten bag. I found a great book store, but it was a little confusing. I bought Twilight in French, because I wanted to read an easy fun book that I already knew well in English, to improve my French. I likely won’t start it until my classes are over, it will be a good travel companion. I looked for a cookbook with regional recipes but came up with nothing, so I might drop that souvenir idea, it would be a hassle to translate anyway (since Laura, not me, is the expert at cookbook translation)

When I finally got home after retrieving my bag and nearly falling asleep on the tram and bus, I took a much deserved nap for about an hour and a half. Then I was called to dinner. We had pork chops and a casserole of bok choy? I think. Then they brought out a bottle of champagne and an apricot tart with 20 candles for my birthday! It was delicious; the champagne (not true champagne because of its origin) is from a nearby town (Die-south of Grenoble) and was a sweet variety.

So, although my actual birthday was perhaps a bit stressful and tiring, today made up for it. I have my wonderful hosts to thank for that. Grenoble may not be the most beautiful city in France, or the most exciting, but the people are welcoming, kind, and patient; and for that I am truly thankful.

Alexandra, Mme Cottave, Frieda and I