Beautiful spring days in France

Hello!

I went to Annecy yesterday, it was short and sweet. Because of the dumb strikes, there were many less trains going. We planned on having about 6 hours there, getting there about one and leaving at seven, but these trains were not running. The soonest we could get there was 2, and then the last train back was at 5. This was too bad because it was really beautiful, but I got to see all that I wanted to. There is a pretty lake, pretty town, a castle, mountians in the backgroud- pretty much about all you could ask for. The lake is the cleanest one in Europe I heard. If we would have haed more time I would have loved to rent a paddle boat or just hang out in the park- oh well. French people really know how to get good use out of their parks. There are always so many people laying around and playing sports- it seems they use them much more than Americans do.

Today I went to a market in Grenoble. It was really cool and big, I've never seen anything like it really in America. The one I went to had food, but mostly clothing and shoes and lots of random things you could think of. I went with a girl from my class, then we ate outside at a cafe. It is a beautiful day here so we tried to rent bikes after lunch, but there weren't any left- I guess everybody else had the same idea. This was really a bummer, it was really something I wanted to do. They close off the street by the river to cars on Sundays, it would have been really fun to ride a bike down there. Oh well.........

Overall, very good last weekend in Grenoble, the weather helped out a lot too! (next weekend I will be in Provence the entire weekend).

I have a lot planned for this week- shopping, eating fondue, going to caves of the Chartreuse (look it up if you don't know) going on a picnic with my class, maybe trying to rent a bike again, and I'm leaving on Friday for Provence.

Me eating my tartine

Okay gotta go

start my homework!

its been a while

I know its been a while, but I just feel like nothing has happened to talk about. The fact is that probably lots of stuff has happened but I'm just used to it now since I've been living here so it doesn't feel like anything interesting to write about.

So Monday and Tuesday I had class all afternoon and didn't do much at all. Tuesday I ate a kebab for lunch and had a really hard time eating it! It was huge! I had chicken in it and tons of fries in it and ranch dressing poured on top and it was REALLY good, but REALLY hard to eat. That is also the first time I've seen ranch dressing here, so it was good to have.

Wednesday was really nice in the afternoon. I sat outside at a cafe, ate at my favorite sandwhich shop, and then went to a movie with a friend. We went to a French movie called "Les invites de mon pere"- The guests of my father. It was about an old guy who married a young immigrant so her and her daughter could live in France. It was very French- makes you think about things and brings up social issues and all that. I kept waiting for something to happen though, like in the movies I'm used to, and nothing ever really happened...it was so so. I like that I can watch movies and also consider it a "learning experience".

Today I had a very hard test in class, but its over so its just downhill from here. After class I hiked up to the Bastille again, maybe for the last time? It was fun, it started to rain just as I started, but stopped and was very nice out. This past week I have noticed the pollution that is around when you look at the mountains. I don't know why I never noticed it as much before. It isn't awful, I think I always just passed it off as fog, but today it was pretty bad, I hope it doesn't get too bad the mountains are so beautiful.

Tomorrow I may be going to Annecy, which is a pretty town with a pretty lake. Sunday I am going to a French market and then I don't know what else, I might rent a bike and ride that around for the day. I have next week left of school and am leaving the Tuesday after that so I have to make sure that I get everything in that I need to!

A plus tard!

Pretty views of Grenoble, there are plenty of mountains in the background, but you couldn't really see them today

Look to the top of the highest point of the mountain, the one in the middle, I hiked up to that.

lots of pictures!

Italy Pictures:

Top of Duomo

Me on top of the dome in Florence

The Pope is up there

Gelato..yummmm and the Colosseum

______________________________

Friday night I went to the faire (foire) in town. It is here for about three weeks (during spring break). It is a big fair and very similar to in America. They have rides and food and games. The carnival food was good and they have barbe a papa (papa's beard literally) which is cotton candy. They also had hotdogs and crepes and donuts with nutella and churros and lots of yummy food. The rides were also huge for carnival rides I though, but maybe I'm just used to smaller carnivals. It was a very fun night!

Saturday morning I woke up early and found out again that I could not go to Dijon. SO FRUSTRATING!!!! They were still striking and most of the trains were back up but not the ones going to Dijon. Tomorrow they are on strike again so I will be taking the bus to school...grrr. It turned out, however, to be a great day! A bunch of the people from my program brought a picnic to the Chateau de Vizille (we went there about a month ago but it snowed). It was a beautiful day, the gardens were very pretty, the flowers were coming out, the grass was green...it was a very fun day! We just got baguettes and cheese and nutella and strawberries and ate and laid around in the sun. It was an enjoyable day and is one of those things that I am going to remember for a long time and that I'm going be thinking after I go back home "I wish I could just have a picnic in the gardens of a castle".

Today it was nice again so we ate lunch outside and i worked on my homework pretty much all day. I have a lot to catch up on after missing a few days to go to Italy. In class we are writing resumes and letters of motivation, in French.

That's all! This week I'm going to hopefully be doing some fun things since my time is starting to

run out!

Italia!

Ahh well yesterday I spent a while updating my first couple of days of my trip, and I think it got deleted, so I'm giving a just a brief overview of this.

I got into Rome on Friday and visited the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palentine Hill. There were so many ancient Roman ruins, it was really interesting! My friend Kimberly didn't meet up until Saturday though, and although it was very interesting, I learned that I much prefer traveling with people!

Saturday we decided to head to the Vatican after Kimberly came. We headed in and wanted to visit the Vatican museums with the Sistine Chapel. It said though, that it was closed at 12:30 on Saturday, and since it was Easter weekend, it was also closed on Sunday and Monday, and we would have been gone by then. This is my one regret of the whole trip, that I didn't get to see the Sistine Chapel. Also, we could not get into St. Peter's Basilica because they were setting up for the Mass that night. We walked around the streets and got some gelato, and then went to sit on the steps of the square. We decided to wait and watch the mass on TV because there were people lining up for mass about 3-4 hours in advance! Write as people were going in, a couple came and offered us their tickets. We decided why not and went to the Easter Vigil in the Vatican! It was very cool and the Pope came to baptise the new people and do thier first communion and confirmation. The Basilica was awesome and it was just a fun night!

Sunday it was rainy, but we still did a lot. We visited the Spanish steps and threw our coins into the Trevi Fountain. After this, we just walked around and discovered so many beautiful Churches. All you have to do is walk around and you'll find something in Rome. We eventually found a really cool park and walked around in that looking at the statues too. That night we had a really nice dinner outside.

Monday morning we headed by train to Florence. There, my friend Sid picked us up from the train station and told us where to go. We were planning on going to the museums that day and spending the next day with him. Then as we headed to our first museum, we realized that all of the museums are closed on Mondays! So we had to come up with something else to do. There is a really awesome cathedral that we went in, and then we took a tour up to the top of the duomo (dome). In the dome there was a really amazing painting of The Last Judgement, it was incredible, and we were up so high and the view was amazing.

Tuesday we went to see where my friend Sid had been living for the semester. I didn't realize that he has been living in a castle- but he definitely has been! Their school's program has a villa, which is just like a castle. They live and have class in there, there is a personal chef, and they have huge gardens- it's so cool! We started off the morning by hiking through the Tuscan hills and finding some waterfalls. It was really beautiful and really cool to see the not so touristy things. We ate some great lunch with him cooked by their personal chef, and then Kimberly and I set out to do all we had planned to do the day before while Sid went to class. We first went to the Boboli gardens which are really expansive and pretty gardens. Then we went to the museum with the statue of David. It was amazing I had no idea. First of all, it was a lot bigger than I expected. It also was soo human-like I am still amazed how he got stone to look like that. There were vains, wrinkles in his skin, fingernail beds, everything that a human had I expected him to walk off the platform. We spent our last night hanging out with Sid at his castle : ) after a very yummy dinner of course.

Wednesday was a day of traveling- alllllll dayyyy longggg to get back. I got back about 12:30 am.

Thursday I had a creme brulee lesson with the host dad of one of the students. It was very fun and I'm glad I know how to make it now.

Today, I was planning on going to Dijon for the weekend with some friends. However, there has been a strike with the trains, and there are no trains to Dijon! It is a huge bummer and I am really hoping that we can leave early in the morning, although they would not sell us tickets because they just did not know. Strikes are sooo annoying, they also made me 45 minutes late to class!

So hopefully this will be my last post until Sunday, because then that means that I will be in Dijon tomorrow. I will put pictures from Italy up soon!

Off to Italy

Well, tomorrow at 4:30 in the morning I am leaving for Italy. I have to take a taxi to the bus station, a bus to the airport in Lyon, and then I will arrive in Rome about 9:00 am. I am planning to do a lot and it should be fun. I'm going with my friend Kimberly and then on Monday we are heading to Florence to visit our friend Sid who is studying there. I will be back Wednesday night, so probably won't blog for a while but will make up for it when I get back!

The past couple days I have just been getting ready and looking up what I want to do...if you have any suggestions write them in the comments. Today I went to a friend's apartment after class to eat lunch. She is Chinese and wanted to prepare a meal for a couple of us from class. It was pretty good there was egg/tomato things, peppers, and some soup with pig skin or something, I didn't eat that. I like food, but Chinese food isn't totally my thing, although it was pretty good and very fun.

I then came back to pack my bags and that is what I'm doing tonight and then going to bed early. I'm excited and hope it all goes smoothly!

See ya next week!

Lundi

Today I had class. It was pretty boring since a new sessions starts tomorrow, so they old people were gone and the new people were not here yet. We did however, talk about something that happened yesterday here, and that is daylight savings. Apparantly here at least there is a lot of controversy over it and most poeple do not really like it, this was news to me. I'm a fan I like the light longer.

After class I grabbed a hot dog, yes American. But what is not American is the fact that it is stuffed into a baguette which is so so good.

I then went up to the Bastille again for a work out and my legs hurt now! It was an extremely nice day and very pretty out and I'm mad I forgot my camera. After I sat in the park, ate a crepe, and read "le petit prince" a book which Mary gave me which I have not yet read yet. It was a very fun Frenchy afternoon.

For dinner we had couscous, and we discussed what my host family does for Easter (paques). It is nothing religious to at least my host family. They are going to decorate eggs, and here they have chocolate eggs with stuff inside rather than plastic eggs with candy inside. Also, she talked about how she would make tiny little holes in each side of the egg, empty the egg, then refill it with chocolate filling, then decorate the egg. They will also decorate hardboiled eggs and when the kids find them they have to see if its chocolate or not. Sounds kind of fun. However, she showed me how to empty the egg...VERY HARD! I broke the first one and succeeded with the second one. We made little tiny holes in each side and then you have to blow all the insides out of the egg. Pretty interesting.

Now I am going to catch up on some stuff and start my new class tomorrow afternoon. I'm also still preparing for Italy! I'm planning on eating lots of pizza and pasta and am very excited!

Not much new

Today it rained all day, I spent the morning sleeping in and reading from the new book Mary got me, Le Petit Prince, which I had not yet read- good so far!

This afternoon I went to La Rafle. It was a very good movie, although that is hard to say because it was not very fun to watch. It was about the many Jews that got arrested and sent to concentration camps by French police who were Nazi accomplices. It was a very powerful movie and it was all true, even the family that it followed was a real family. I am glad I saw it, although it was very sad.

Tomorrow I will probably have lunch at a friends house (sometimes people bring some things to eat and make it all there) it is easier than going to try to get an entire meal on our own since nothing is open on Sunday!

So really nothing new with the rain, just a relaxing weekend

Au revoir!

Geneve and crepes

Well the last couple days have been good ones!

Yesterday I had class in the afternoon and then at night I went to eat crepes for dinner with some friends from class since this was our last week of this session. It was very fun! There was a girl from Spain, Hungary, Mexico, and America. The girl from Mexico is married to a Frenchman so he came with some of his friends later and it was a really great opportunity to speak French with more native speakers. Really good crepes too : )

Today I woke up very very early and we headed to Geneva, Switzerland with my program. It was pouring rain alll morning and it got very cold, so that was a bummer. However, we spent most of the morning inside. We went to the United Nations building, because outside of New York it is the most important place for the United Nations. It was pretty interesting to see how it works and where all of the representatives from all of the countries sit and vote and discuss and see how they communicate. Fact: The only two countries in the world not represented or represented by another country in the UN are.....

Vatican City and Palestine.

Then we went to the Red Cross Museum where the Red Cross was started or their headquarters are there or something.....okay but kind of boring.

Then when we went outside and the sun started to shine! There is a Cathedral called St. Pierre's Cathedral and we hiked the many stairs to the top (not as many as Notre Dame though). Then we went around and shopped for what is maybe the most famous thing in Switzerland- Chocolate! That was fun...we also saw a lot of watches and Swiss Army Knives. Since Switzerland is not part of the European Union, they use Swiss Francs. It is annoying, and everything there is EXTREMELY expensive. However, we could use our euros we would just get change back in Swiss francs. There is also a very pretty lake there as well. Surrounded by the mountains it's a beautiful place. It was a day well spent.

This weekend, I don't really have any plans. I think its going to rain all weekend : ( I may go see a movie called Le Rafle. It's a French movie about the World War II in France and how many Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Not totally my thing, but very important to France right now because this is not really talked about much in France, I don't think it makes France look very good. So it is just an interesting French culture thing I would like to see.

Thats all, enjoy some pictures!

Human Rights Conference going with the UN.

finally

It has been a long time, but we didn't have internet acces much last week and I have been busy this week trying to catch up on homework and regular life again. Yesterday I had a presentation and a test so I feel better about school now that those things are over...

Me and my family (mom, dad, sister, brother, grandma, and great-aunt) all had a WONDERFUL time when they came to visit. Brief summary: We went to Paris, stayed near the Eiffel Tower. We visited Versailles, climbed to the top of Notre Dame, saw Saint Chappelle, visited the archeological crypte, many other fun things! One of the best things was going up the Eiffel tower on a really nice night. Then Wednesday we went to Grenoble. It was beautiful out and there were so many people out! We ate outside at a place here called place de la Grenette. Its a bunch of cafes where you can eat outside, and its very fun. We walked around town a little and then that night we went to visit my house and have dinner with my host family which was fun! Thursday was one of our best days, we hiked to the top of the mountain (where the Bastille is). It was tough but we made it and it was fun, we treated ourselves to some Haagen Dazs before going to get ready for our fancy dinner. We then took the telepherique (ski lift type thing) up to the Bastille and had a really fancy dinner at a really fancy restaurant. It was all good and beautiful looking down at the city with the lights and really fun. The next day we went back to Paris and visited the Louvre. Saturday mom, Madison and I went to Champs-Elysees to look at the shops while dad and Isaac went to the Catacombs. We then met back up at Mont Martre and went to the Sacre Coeur.

It was a fun and tiring trip!

This week I have just been catching up on school work...yesterday I went to a movie for 3.50 euros (it is this film festival going on right now). It was pretty funny. Today it was very nice out so I just walked around and explored town for the entire afternoon, sat at a cafe, ate a waffle- French life is good like that.

Friday I'm going to Geneva, Switzerland so I'm excited about that! Tomorrow I'm going to a creperie to eat crepes for dinner with some of my classmates!

A bientot!

Arrival in Paris

Hello From Paris!!

We made it, it was not an easy trip - but we are here! We left Chicago at exactly 6:28 on Friday evening (right on time). Waited on the runway maybe 10 minutes and we were off. Easily up in the air, had our airplane dinner watched a movie and we were all ready to snuggle in for the remaining 6.5 hour flight. About 2.5 hours into the 8.5 hour flight my aunt Mary said "look at the map on your t.v. screen, we've turned around and are going back". A few minutes later, they come on the intercom and tell us the 2nd computer is down and they are not allowed to go over international waters without a back up computer, so we are heading back to Chicago! So, after 4.5 hours - we are now landing back in Chicago. They kept us on the plane and had maintaince come in and fix the problem. They had to call in a new flight staff and flight attendant crew, and we were off about an hour later.

We were able to contact Brittan when we landed in Chicago, so she made all the arrangements for our apartment in Paris. She then spent the day sight seeing, and avoided the airport all together, not knowing when we would make it. She was at the apartment waiting for us when we got here.

We would all agree that our cab ride from the airport to the Paris apartment was 100 times more life threatening, then any of the plane drama we encountered! I can't even put it into words, so I will not!

We arrived alive to the apartment, and met Brittan. It was absolutely lovely to see her! She is so comfortable here, it will be amazing to spend the week with her! Between her and Madison knowing the language - I'm pretty much off the hook and hanging with them :)

Tonight we went to a cafe for dinner, then walked to the Eiffel Tower. Our apartment is less than 2 blocks from the Eiffel Tower and we are looking right at it from our front door! We saw the Eiffel Tower light up and of course, had crepes right under it! Here are a few pictures from our first evening.

We are very tired and hoping for a great nights sleep. They are in the next room planning our tomorrow, we will try very hard to update every night with a few pictures!

Finally!

Sorry! I have been busy doing stuff, although it doesn't seem like much has been going on to tell...

Monday I went to class and did some errands. Tuesday, we went to the opera. It was well done, but very hot and very long and I couldn't understand what they were saying, so I left at intermission and I still didn't get home until 11:30.

Yesterday I went to class again and did homework. I have really just been doing life, school homework, etc.

I am getting ready to leave for Paris tomorrow though! I am very excited and don't know if I will blog until I next Sunday. My family is coming and it will be great! We're coming back to Grenoble Wed-Friday.

Sorry its boring!

Vizille

Well yesterday we went to Vizille, and it snowed all day! It was actually very pretty in the snow, but it was a shame because there are many pretty gardens that would have been fun to enjoy. It is only about 20 minutes from here so I am definitely going back in April when its nice out for a picnic or something.

Inside the Chateau de Vizille is a museum of the French Revolution...why? Because the French Revolution really started in Grenoble, not in Paris. Grenoble is known to be a town that is more left wing and known for rebelling, and it was at this chateau where everybody met and planned out how they were going to begin the revolution. They decided who was going to go onto Paris during this meeting.

We were supposed to go to a Grenoble soccer game after this, but it was too cold and snowy and the Grenoble soccer team is apparantly really bad...so I decided to go to a movie with some friends instead.

In all, it was a very good weekend!

Today it was cold as well, but at least sunny! We were supposed to have a laser tag tournament at 5:30; turns out our team "captain" told us the wrong time so I wasn't able to go. Tomorrow I am going to an opera. It should be interesting, I've never been to one before. It starts at 8:30 pm and I have heard doens't get out until almost midnight...

LYON!

I love Lyon! It is an awesome city! I went their with my Spanish friend from class and her friend. It went smoothly, it was a great day, we were not rushed and just enjoyed ourselves!

Our train (about 1.5 hours) got to the station about 10 am. We bought a ticket for the tram/metro system for the day because we knew we would want take the funicular (little train car thing) to go up to the top of the hill where there is a cathdral. It was really easy just to take the metro over to the center of town, where we then took the funicular. It was really sunny and nice at the top of the hill (although a bit chilly today). We went into 2 cathedrals. One was very beautiful: La Basilique de Notre Dame de Fourviere. We also saw the ancient Roman ruins, 2 ampitheaters. We hung around there for a bit, took in the sunlight and enjoyed the view. We bumped into another friend from class, Ting-Ting who was there with her mom visiting. After we got down we saw them again, after we got done eating we saw them again! It was pretty funny.

Then we went down and had a gread lunch! It is the gastronomic capitial of France...There are so many restaurants its unbelievable. I read that it has more restaurants per block than any other city. We ate at a very cute place and ordered the menu (when you pick 3 different courses). I first started out with a goat cheese salad which was amazing, and then had sirloin with pasta covered in cheese from the region, I cannot remember the name! And then delicious chocolate cake of course. We were at the restaurant for a few hours, that is how they do it here. It was a very good time, just sitting and enjoying good food.

After that it got very cold and even started snowing a bit. We went to Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon) The architecture there is very very cool, and they have little passageways inside inbetween the buildings that gets you to very cute and colorful apartments. I've never been to Italy, but to me it seemed very Italien. Many of the staircases were on the outside which I think is Italien. It was very fun to walk around this really pretty part of town.

Dedicated to food, do not read this if hungry : )

Today was an amazing day, if only because I discovered a place called, The Waffle House (yes in English) In France, along with crepes, another popular dessert to eat are big waffles (or gauffres). I had one of these from the waffle house, with Nutella on it. I have had gauffres before, they have been kind of hard and crunchy, but good. At the waffle house, I saw them making the waffles with the dough by hand, it had just come out of the waffle maker, it was soft and hot and it was probably the best thing I've ever eaten in my life! Also, I saw that they had a Nutella milkashake, something that I will be trying soon.

I just thought that should be first in the blog. I know I haven't been keeping up very well- I will try to write more frequently!

Last night, I had my first ever French cooking class. It was VERY fun and I learned some good things I can take back with me to the states. We started out with a salad, with deviled eggs (the mayonaisse inside we made from scratch!) It was very very good. Then we had a gratin cauliflowers...Baked cauliflower with a sauce, it was very good too, who new cauliflower could taste so good! Along with that we had chicken (the ladie's house we went to had chickens, so the chicken and the eggs we used were all from her backyard). We breaded the chicken by hand, first dipped it in butter and then crumbled bread and dipped it in that. And then we had cheese of course and then crepes! My part was the crepes and the ingredients inside the crepes. We put honey, chocolate, and apples inside the crepes. I cut the apples, cooked them in butter until they got really soft, and then put sugar on them. The chocolate we made by putting a chocolate bar in a bowl with water, NOT STIRRING THEM (somebody made this mistake) and then putting it in the microwave for 3 minutes and dumping the water out without mixing the chocolate and water, add some butter, stir, yum. It was a great time and really great French food.

Cheese bread and wine, very French.

Today after class I went to the Foire du printemps. It is in a big building and kind of like a home show ...we thought it was more like a market but it was still fun. There were lots of pools and hottubs and furniture and decks being sold, but there was also a huge room with many many reptiles to look at, and a seal show, and food to taste and buy, so it was fun.

Tomorrow I am going to Lyon with a new girl I met from class who goes is from Spain. Lyon is the gastronomic capital, so there will probably be much more talk of food in the next blog too. Hopefully I'll be able to update tomorrow night if I'm not back too late, if not I will Sunday night. Sunday I am going to the Chauteau de Vizilles and a Grenoble football (soccer) match. I hear they are really bad, so we will see. So I will have lots to do and blog about!

This is me trying and kind of failing to flip a crepe...

New Class

Yesterday morning I got up early to go to my new class that starts in March at 8:30. I get there and there is a sign on the door saying that the class has been rescheduled for 12:30, great. So I went back home and did some research for trip stuff. I went back at 12:30 for class. The weather was BEAUTIFUL, but I had to sit inside all afternoon. There were people eating lunch outside and I was sooo jealous. It was about 60 degrees. Then after class I went to the tourism office to get some information about the caves of Choranche that I want to visit sometime.

Today I also had class all afternoon. I do like my new teacher though, and we have been learning some good stuff. There was a big storm in the west of France with lots of flooding and lots of deaths, so we have been talking about weather vocaulary. Not really up my alley talking about all of these bad weather things, but oh well. We've watched some interesting video with pictures taken by Yann Arthus-Bertrand who is the most famous photographer in France right now. His specialty is taking pictures from the sky, it was very pretty.

I'm not sure what my plans are for tonight yet...tomorrow I am taking a French cooking class which I am very excited about!

Monday

Well there is not much to say after yesterday...today I just went to class, a new session began. It was about 55 degrees here though! Although I had to sit in class all day. Tonight I'm going to eat dinner with the family and then finish up my homework.

Here are some more pictures from the weekend:

We drove a bus an hour up the mountain, This is my class

then took the ski lift up on the left (for about

10 minutes) then on the right there was

another ski lift that took you up even farther!

Skiing/snowshoeing

Well this weekend was awesome and tiring!

Saturday I went to St. Pierre de Chartreuse, a ski resort on the Chartreuse mountain range. We took a bus up about an hour, got our skis, and took the ski lift up. It is huge, there were so many moutnains and hills. There was even a second ski lift to go up after you got to the top, but we didn't go there. We just went for a half day because today I went snowshoing! I am hopefully going to go skiing again on Saturday on a different mountain.

Snowshoeing was awesome, but I am SOOOOO tired and my legs really hurt. I have never been up that high and never seen anything like that. The day started out raining which was a bummer, but by the time we actually got to the top to start walking, the rain had stopped. The sun even popped out a few times. I left my house at 7am and got back at 8pm. Total, we walked from 10:45-5:15...that's a long time! We hiked up some really steep mountains and made it to the top of the Vercors mountain for the most amazing view I've ever seen. We got to see the rest of the mountain range, and all of Grenoble down below...it was SOO COOL! I didn't know what to expect, but I honestly expected to wear rackets on our feet, its a little more modern now which is good:

Because of the rock this mountain is made of, there are little holes throughout the mountain. Because of this, the rain goes through the holes, so there is no source of water at all on this mountian...normally there is a lake or something. Instead, the water goes through the holes and there are caves under the mountain. We saw people with hard hats and lights trying to find caves. They had big sticks and were looking for holes. There is a famous one, Les Grottes (caves) de Choranche, where there is a tour of the caves and it looks really cool, so I am planning on visiting that.

I don't have much else to say about snowshoeing is that it was unlike anything I've ever done (I have never really been in the mountains) and now I am absolutely exhausted! My legs are going to be very sore tomorrow...

These pictures really don't do justice. (the right is a picture of Grenoble)

A demain!

Finally Friday!

Well today was a good week, but it was tiring because of school. I'm glad it is over and next week a new session of classes begins.

Yesterday I went to the debate in English, and it was pretty interesting. It was a good time, wasn't too serious, just students practicing their English. Then we went out to dinner afterward. In France dinners take a long time, we got to the restaurant at about 9:00 pm and I got back just before midnight.

Today was a really fun day of class, it was the last day and the grades were already given, so while we learned we also just talked about interesting things. The Chinese and Mongolian students gave us a little lesson on how to write in their language- very interesting! Also, the girl from Spain made a cake. After class, I went to a discount sporting goods store and bought a pair of boots for snow shoeing on Sunday, which I am doing with the CUEF (my school). I'm really really hoping that we will get to go, but the forecast says its going to rain all day, so we'll see. Tomorrow, for a half a day I'm going skiing with some friends, I'm really excited! Were meeting this afternoon to plan...it should be fun! I have to go soon, because even though skiing season goes into spring here, the snow starts melting on the lower mountains and then you have to go up higher where its icy, only for the good skiers. Hopefully if I enjoy myself I will get the chance to go next weekend as well.

Thats all, I'm looking forward to the weekend.
Miss you all!

Typical Grenoble week

Well, not too much has been going on here except for school. School is getting to be A LOT! Four hours of lanuage class a day is hard for the brain to handle. I have also been catching up from my trip to Nice. This is the last week of my class. I will start a new session next week with some new classmates and probably a new teacher. That will be a good change of pace.

Last night we went to the Grenoble hockey game and it ws very fun! They won 8 to 2 and the crowd really got into it. It was a fun time. I just got home from school and was going to go on a jog with some of the other girls, but on my way home it started pouring...so I think I will be doing my homework this afternoon.

Tomorrow there is a debate of French students in English. They ask for English speaking students to come help out. I'm going, and for the first time I think I'm going to sit in the audience since I really don't know how it works, but that should be interesting. It is a way to meet French students.

Thats all for now, It's just getting very busy at school and I am exhausted! I might go take a nap...

Bonne journee!

Happy Monday

It has been a couple days because I have been without internet- that sucks! I have figured out a temporary way right now to have it.

Je suis très heureuse aujourd’hui (I am very happy today). I had a good class and the weather is absolutely gorgeous! I am sitting out on the balcony writing this right now looking at the mountains. It’s very nice : ) Also, my mom sent me a care package which I received today which consists of a chex mix mix, rice krispie roll-ups and microwave popcorn! THANKS MOM!

Not too much has happened since last time. Saturday it was raining in Lyon, so instead I went to the “gare” (train station) to get a 12-25 pass which gets me discounts on train tickets. Then I went to a café and did homework. That night I went to my Brazilian friend’s apartment. There were two other girls from class though and we met her Brazilian friends who were all very nice! It was a fun night.

Yesterday I ran, sat outside, and did homework all day. There is really nothing to do here on Sundays!

Just all of you in Iowa know, its 63 degrees right now! (feels a little colder with the wind though) I was thinking of walking up to the Bastille, but I went and bought train tickets to Paris, then had to go back to school to pick up hockey tickets, and then I came back here to change and by now it’s getting really windy and appears that it’s going to rain (which is in the forecast), so I think I’m going to stay in and do that on Wednesday. You know how I am about getting stuck in storms. I’ve already done a lot of going back and forth today. Here time for travel takes so much longer. So nothing different is going on except that I’m starting to think of some plans about travel s. Tomorrow I’m going to a hockey game with the AIFS group, and that should be fun. Supposedly hockey is a really big deal here.

Au revoir!

more or Nice!

Well Wednesday it rained ALL DAY! Which was really too bad, but I still had a good day. Early in the morning, Thamilla (friend from Brazil) and I just started walking, waiting to see what the weather did. We went into a couple of shops, but the weather definitely wasn't going to get better so we just went on with our day as planned in the rain.

We were going to head up the a castle on a hill where there is a great view, and on the way we saw the marche aux fleurs (flower market), which is pretty famous and huge. We looked around at the pretty flowers and homemade foods there and it was really cool.

marche aux fleurs

We then went to the top of a hill where there were some archeological remains and a really cool waterfall. It also had one of the prettiest views, although not so much in the rain. It was huge and there were so many places and interesting things to see, we got lost. On our way back we walked through the old village with cute little streets, it was very fun. We went back to the hotel to get ready to see the bataille des fleurs, and found out that it was cancelled because of the rain. This was really too bad, because I don't know if I'll ever be able to see anything like this agian, but oh well. Instead we went to the museum of Chegall. I had never heard of him before (he's an artist), but I really liked his stuff! After that we dried off and changed and had a 6 hour bus ride home, and then I had a 45 min tram ride home. I got back about 1 in the morning. It was a great trip!

"On of the most beautiful panoramas of the world"

Chegall

Yesterday I went to class, which I now have to catch up in, and came back and bought some food. Then Nathalie's friend Jacques (who I kareoked with) came over for dinner and we ate fondue- it was SOO good. It is melted cheese in a pot and we had bread and steamed vegetables that we put on a stick and dip it in the cheese.

Today I had class in the morning and this afternoon I have tried to catch up on stuff (cleaning, hoemwork, etc) but have been pretty unproductive. It is raining here today too so I don't have much desire to do anything. Tonight we are having rabbit and gratin dauphinois again! Tomorrow if the weather is nice I am hopefully going to Lyon for the day with Thamilla!

A bientot!

My amazing trip to the Cote d'Azur

Hello!

I got back at one am this morning from my trip. I am extremely tired from 3 and a half long yet great days!

I'll just start at the beginning...

After 6 hours in a bus, we went to dinner Sunday night with the entire group, there were probably about 35-40 people from all over the world...I think we counted 15 nationalities. There was a girl from my class who went on this trip from Brazil, she introduced me to her American friend, who then introduced me to her American friend, and that is pretty much who I spent most of my time with- I know lots of Americans, but they were really nice! Also, I met a girl from Finland and spent a lot of time with her as well. So I met some really great people on this trip.

(Me and the view on the way to Monaco)

Monday morning we set off for Monaco, on the way to Monaco, we decided to stop at the village of Ese, considered the prettiest city of the coast. This is the region that is the capital of perfumes. The weather is perfect for all flowers to grow all year round. So in Ese we stopped at a perfume museum which was very interesting, there you can also make your own perfume. There was also a little village within a castle there which is one of the coolest things I have ever seen!

Then we went to Monaco where me and my Finland friend (Kaisa) went around the oceanographic museum. There was a very cool aquarium. Then we went to through the gardens where they have all types of plants. Here they grow every type of plant in the world here because of the great climate. We then went to the Monte Carlo. This is a very famous and ritzy casino. All the cars are very expensive all the shops/restaurants/hotels are very expensive. It was kind of weird but interesting to see. After our day in Monaco, we got dinner and I was so tired because of the long day.

Tuesday morning we got up early and went to Cannes. Cannes is a very pretty place, there is the beach as well with really pretty and ritzy hotels. Then there is the palace where the film festival is held, although not that interesting while the film festival is not taking place.

Tuesday afternoon we went to Carnavel in Nice. Included in our trip were seats to the parade. There are paid seats and paid standing places, but we had really good seats. This was unlike anything I've ever seen before. The floats were HUGE and everybody was really excited. There was confetti everywhere it was very fun. Tuesday night with my friends we went to a restaurant and had a really nice meal. We all ordered from the menu (which is not just a menu like in Enlish) For a set price, there is an appetizer, main meal, and dessert. There are only so many of each category that you can choose from. You can also order a la carte (just order something you want) but it was fun to be French for a night. It was REALLY good dinner.

Me and my new friends at dinner!

This is just to show you what Carnaval was like...

I will explain Wednesday tomorrow because I have a lot of cleaning/unpacking/homework to do right now...so look back to see what I did on the final day of my vacation!

Last post this week

Well today was fun...

I went to lunch with 2 friends who are still here for the break and then we went to the mall. It was very busy because it is Saturday and there is only one mall here and its cold out. It was a big mall, and everything is very stylish here.

After I got back, I packed and cleaned and waited for dinner which was not served until almost 9...I was starving! It was eggplant and tomatoes cooked with mozzeralla, pretty good. Not as filling as other things though, and I was very hungry. Yesterday I made a cake, Nathalie had me make it by myself. It was 5 spoonfuls of flour, 4 spoonfuls of sugar, 3 spoonfuls of oil, 2 spoonfuls of something I can't remember and 1 egg...hence the name- 5-4-3-2-1 cake. It was okay, we added some almonds to it. We have made 2 cakes and neither time I have eaten it with frosting, its much better with frosting though. I pretty muched finished the entire jar of Nutella by myself in the first 2 weeks here...she bought a new one yesterday, pointed to it and said, look what I got for you! She bought the generic brand though probably thinking I will go through many jars this semester. Nutella is really one of the best things ever created...you can eat it with anything for any meal.

Tomorrow is Nice! I won't have my computer so I won't be able to post until at least Wednesday night or Thursday...I'm very excited although I don't know what to expect!

I know you all won't know what to do if you can't read this everyday, so just google French Riveria and imagine what I would say about it- its going to be amazing!
Au revior!

Merci a Dieu, c'est vendredi (TGIF)

Today was a good day in France! School this morning was challenging, mostly because our new teacher didn't explain it well, but it is important stuff so I will probably try to figure that out tonight.

After class I went to my favorite sandwich shop and then went to a cafe with two friends. I ate a tarte au citron which was very good! Then we went to a different cafe because the one we were at was so cold (this is often the case here because electricity is very expensive)

After that we went around to a couple of shops and shopped. This scares me because my plan for tomorrow was shopping not today. But it is hard not to because there are shops all over and everything is very a la mode. Tomorrow a friend and I are going to the mall. I'm just going to wait out this cold weather and start traveling more when it gets warmer.

I'm getting really excited for Nice. My teacher said that I might experience something VERY rare- snow on the boardwalk of the sea. However, I don't really want to see snow, I want to see a beach, but it will be interesting. There is another girl from my class going on the same trip, Thamilla, she is from Brazil. She is very excited to see the snow because yesterday was only her second time of ever seeing snow...I guess I never thought about it but she had to buy an entirely new wardrobe when she got here. They don't sell winter coats in Brazil. I am happy that she is coming on the trip too.

I'm getting to that point where I'm starting to think in French and my English is getting really bad...for example I couldn't remember if it was sandwich or sandwhich...(I think I got it right) its a really weird feeling but its cool!

Au revoir!

Une tempete de neige

Bonjour!

Well today was actually quite boring. School was challenging, we had a new teacher today. We are learning about thread- really, like the words for knot and untangle, and all that, also there are a lot of expressions that the French use with the word thread (un fil). Kind of weird, maybe it will be useful though.

Then I went into town after school but the weather is pretty terrible here. There was a decent amount of snow, but the snow makes the people go crazy here so the traffic was awful and the tram was running really slow so I just decided to go home since it was too cold. I have not done much else, but now have to get started on my homework.

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to sit on my butt at a cafe all afternoon and eat pastries and drink hot chocolate and wait out this bad weather. Saturday I think I'm going to the one shopping mall here. I wanted to travel around and explore maybe, but it is just really not good weather for traveling right now. Then Sunday is Nice! But I heard it is snowing there which is a really big deal because I guess it never snows there, so we will see how that is..

Okay off to do my homework! bon soir!

Musee Dauphinois

Today was a bit different at school because instead of having morning classes, we had afternoon classes and in the morning we went to the Musee Dauphinois. It was pretty interesting. It was about the history of the people that live here, the ones who lived in the mountains. So it was interesting to hear how they lived and how isolated they were. They made everything for themselves and didn't rely on money. For example, once a year they had a celebration where they would make bread for the entire village for the entire year. Then we had class, so it was a long day of school.

This is some of my class at the museum. (My teacher is the one with the orange coat in the middle)

Because the Grenoblois of the past who lived in the mountains only made bread once a year, by the end of the year it would be really hard so they had to smash it with this. Either that or they would grate the bread.

I came home right after school because its just so cold out...everybody except three other people have left for Italy for the next ten days, so nobodys around, and normally after class I go to centre ville to explore, shop, sit at a cafe, but its too cold to wander around today. I have a pretty good amount of homework anyway. The weird thing is, its been snowing all day, but there is no snow on the ground...I can't figure that out. There isn't as much snow falling at one time but it has been snowing pretty much all day.

I had really good discussions with Nathalie tonight, I got a lot of talking and conversation in so thats good. We had a tart with spinach and goat cheese, and it was REALLY good. I didn't think that I liked either of these things but when baked together and put on a buttery crust it is really good : )

Well thats all!

Mardi

Hello! Well today was pretty uneventful, but I'm just glad I'm getting into a routine. I didn't have class until 12:30, so by the time I was done with a class, I discussed a trip to Lyon with a friend for a while, and then I started back on the tram for dinner. I had to warm up my dinner since Nathalie went out with a friend. I had au gratin potatoes though and they were amazing. They come from this region...this is straight from the internet:
Here is a very yummy potato gratin called "gratin dauphinois", very famous in the Grenoble region where it comes from (an hour east of Lyon, at the foot of the Alps).

Today's class was challening but good. We spent most of the time discussing what "le bonheur" (happiness) is, and read some philosopher's view on what happiness is... Tomorrow for class we are going to the Musee Dauphinois which is a museum about archeology, history, and some decorative arts. I think its tucked up in the mountain so I will get a good walk in. I've heard a lot of good things about that museum.

Tonight I'm going to do my homework which should take me a while and do some research into getting my family train tickets to and from Paris when they come!

Heres a picture of my room