hugless in the country of petit bisous!

Something that I realized yesterday, when I was feeling a bit lonely, is that I haven't had a hug in nearly 2 weeks! Its very depressing, because I am used to getting lots of hugs! Here in France, where the greeting of choice is a kiss on each cheek, you'd think I wouldn't be longing for physical contact. When I mentioned this to my friends today, Maryel sweetly put her arm around me and said "Aww, Melanie do you need a hug!?" I have great friends here, who are very caring, but I sure do miss my family and friends back home.

So if you read this, obviously you care about me to some extent, send me your cyber hugs, I certainly welcome them!

(p.s: a "petit bisou" is a little kiss)

seatless toilets and other frustrations

The last few days have been tiring and a bit stressful. Not that I'm not still having a blast, but, being in class 4-5.5 hours a day isn't the greatest the most fun thing in the world. Adapting to the change in schedule, and the 8:30 am start, has been difficult. yesterday mt alarm didn't go off, and I got up less than 10 minutes before I had to leave, I made it though, in perfect time to catch my bus! My classes are fine, just long, each of the CUEF classes are 2 hours, and my Monday/Wednesday class with Patrick is 1.5 hours.

The other stressful thing, was the sign-up for CUEF excursions. There was a misunderstanding as to which excusrions were covered in our program fee. anyway, we ended up having to pay for the 200 Euro for Cote d'Azur, but the rest of the excursions we chose were covered. So the plans for the next few weekends are more concrete now. This weekend we will visit Annecy on Saturday, with the U of M group. Then Sunday we will visit Chamonix, for a view of Mont Blanc. The following weekend, we will visit Cote d'Azur with the CUEF excursion. We will depart early Friday afternoon and return Sunday evening. We'll be staying in a hotel by the beach, and i believe we will visit Cannes, Monaco...and who knows what else. The best part is that Maryel's birthday will be that Saturday (the 16th) and mine and Olivia's will be Sunday (the 17th)! So we are hoping to have a fete and celebrate Saturday night, on the beach or elsewhere. I'm very excited; what better way to spend my birthday!? The next weekend, we are going to miss the Tour de France coming through, because we will be in Marseille, but I think that will be worth it, and I saw the end of the Tour the last time I was in France. Also, a week from today is the French national holiday, Bastille Day, so we will not have class, and will be able to participate in the celebration. I believe there will be fireworks that night! So there is a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks, so hopefully the fun weekends will get me through the boring weekdays spent in classrooms!

Lastly, I'd like to share a photo of the public restrooms here. Most don't have toilet seats, and some are just holes in the ground that can be flushed...it is awkward, but I figured anything this awkward should be shared! :)

new classes!

This week we started our CUEF classes, which is the French university for foreign students. Yesterday we took a placement exam and chose our "cours a option" (2 courses of our choice, 2 weeks each, 1 credit each). I chose the civilization course and the oral perfection course because the first is more about contemporary France, and sounded like less reading, and the second sounded like a fun way to improve my speaking skills, which is what is most important to me. I'm not a French major, so French literature courses and writing courses aren't really useful, I mostly want to know how to speak French well, and to understand the country better.

Today was out first day of class. I placed into the B1+ class, which means I am about intermediate. We had this class from 8:30-10:30, and it is basically just a typical language class. I like the professor, and I have quite a few friends from U of M in this class. From 10:30-12:20 each day we have our course a option. I'm in the civilization class now, and in two weeks it will switch to the oral speaking class. When I got to my civilization class this morning our professor told us we were going to leave and take a tour of Grenoble! So that was great, instead of sitting in a classroom for 2 hours, we got to walk around the city seeing beautiful sites, and hearing about the history of the city!

Dinner has been much livelier these past two nights because there are 3 french students staying with us now. they know Madame Cottave well it seems, I take it they have stayed here before, so they tease her and joke around a lot. Anyway, it is time for me to do the rest of my reading for tomorrow.

A toute suite!

le week-end!

This weekend was busy, and they are just going to get busier. I had no time to write until now, so here goes: Friday through Sunday, I'll try not to ramble.

Friday: A night on the town turned a night at our usual cafe.
Several of us wanted to explore the nightlife of downtown Grenoble and visit a few bars. However, with a combination of the winding streets of Grenoble, the unfamiliar appearance of everything at night, and the fact that it is really difficult to distinguish a bar from a cafe or restaurant made that nearly impossible. We stumbled upon one bar, saw that cocktails were 9-11 euros each, and opted for wine, which is like a substitute for water here. We split a huge bottle of Rose between the 7 of us and only had to pay 3.60 euro for the equivalent of about 2 1/2 glasses each. Leaving that bar wasn't a brilliant choice, because we wandered around town trying to remember which windy street the London Pub was on, until we finally gave up and went to our cafe, nicknamed "the mist" for the misty fans they use on hot days. By this time we had only 45 minutes until we had to leave in order to take the bus home, which stops at midnight. So we ordered crepes and gaufres and had a lovely midnight snack!

Mon crepe beurre sucre (butter sugar)

 Maryel's Nutella gaufre (waffle)

As a newbie with the Noctibus system, I of course missed my stop...and then the next stop, and finally got off in a deserted, sort of scary area and decided to run and speed walk home with my finger ready to dial 17 (like 911) at any moment. Won't let that happen again!

Saturday: Relaxation, forced procrastination and interesting experiences.

I slept in until 10am, woke up, had my bread and an apple for breakfast and went back to my room determined to be productive. I signed onto Ctools (U of M's course website) and realized the site was down, it said it would only be until 5:20 am (11:20 here) So I waited and cleaned my room. Then at 5:20, when it still wasn't working I read that sometimes they have to do maintenance until 7 am, so I waited and found other things to occupy me. By then it was time for lunch, I met Maryel at "the mist" and we shared a pizza (again, I know, not creative, but it is so good!) She offered to email the reading to me if it was still down. It was, so by the time I got the email it was nearly 4pm and I was tired and not feeling at all like reading. So I just read a few pages. Dinner was at 7, afterward I met a few friends at the internet cafe and printed some of my readings so I wouldn't have to read them on my computer. Then we all went together to a huge park for "Silence, On Danse!" Which is a silent outdoor discotheque (nightclub). We rented headphones, our drivers licenses as collateral, and listened as the DJ's played a variety of dance songs to hundreds of people, in silence! Of course the French like old American songs too much to not sing along, so it wasn't completely silent. It was a very interesting experience though, and I am glad I went.

Freedom-George Michael

Me, Suzanne, May and Maryel

 The stage with the DJs

Sunday: A day in a Medieval Village

We spend Sunday in St. Antoine-l'Abbaye, a tiny medieval village near Grenoble. The architecture was very beautiful, and I will have many photos to show upon my return, but here, I really want to display our amazing lunch, and maybe one photo of the Abbey.

Our yummy salad with strange little hollow ravioli things on top

 

Pork in a sauce,
Gratin Dauphinois (regional specialty-Au Gratin potatoes),

Tomates a la Provencale (tomatoes cooked with breadcrumbs on top) 

Delicious cherry tarte in vanilla creme sauce

L'Abbaye!

It was a wonderful weekend, spent in the most wonderful places, with the most wonderful people.

"Its not a purse, its called a satchel. Indiana Jones wears one."

People watching on public transit is always a treat. Today on my bus ride back home I saw 5 men in my vicinity carrying purses (satchels). All of them were small, and the type that goes over your shoulder (such as the one Alan models above). Men young and old seem to find purses to be quite practical here, perhaps even stylish, since one young man's appeared to be designer. The other day I saw something even more peculiar, a teenage boy with a similar bag that went around his waist, it was basically a fanny pack, but smaller. Anyway, I found the idea of men with purses funny, and when I thought of the scene from the movie the Hangover (or Very Bad Trip in "French") I nearly laughed out loud.

So it is finally Friday, which means a break from work. I had to come home earlier than usual this afternoon to finish a little writing assignment, but now that it is finished and turned in, I am free for the weekend...except the mountains of reading I have to complete at some point. Tonight I will meet some friends of mine from class and we will go out to see what the night life is like here in Grenoble. I will go out after dinner, around 9, and return just 3 hours later at around midnight. This is because I am going out with the frugal students and we do not want to spend money on expensive taxis when the Noctibus stops running at 12 am, and the Trams at 2 am. the other group of students plans to go out to the "discotheque" tonight, which sounds fun, but it doesn't open until 11pm! So they are going to be out very late.

Now I think I will finally go running again, so hopefully I don't come back as a balloon from all of these French desserts and breads!

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.