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

Hello from Grenoble!

Grenoble, and la telepherique



Well today was a really good day! I went to school this morning and had a good class. I got back two of the short papers I had written and got pretty good grades on them so that made me very happy! For homework I have to correct them and rewrite them. Then I went to sign up for the CUEF (my school) trip to Nice and to go snowshoeing in the mountains. I am very excited, the Nice trip will be during the Carnival. We will be staying in Nice then having excursions to the musee Picasso in Antibes, the oceanography museum in Monaco (its right on the Mediterranean Sea) and to Cannes and maybe other places. I am also going alone, nobody from my AIFS group is going. I think that will be good though I will be able to meet others from the school and that will make me talk in French more, because students are international so that will be our common language.

I also had to go to the media room and watch a movie for class. "Le Bonheur", not bad, very artistic, but really weird story. It was good that I watched it though and I was happy because I could really understad it!

Also, it was a very nice day and a girl from my program's birthday so we went to the cafe, I ate a gauffre with Nutella and bananas (waffle with nutella and banana) SOOOOO goood. Then we walked around the river while the sun came down, it was really pretty. Tonight, I think we're going out to a cafe for her birthday as well.



I'm going in reverse order, yesterday i went to the Museum of Grenoble. It was good although it took me a long time because it was huuugge. I saw works from Monet (which was my favorite), Vangogh, Matisse, Andy Warhol, and some good other stuff. They had a lot of old stuff, and they had a lot of modern pop art stuff-which I do not like at all. I could have done most of it myself...thats just my opinion though.

Le musee de Grenoble
Have to go eat dinner now, bon soir!

Weekend

Well yesterday was a busy day... I was extremely tired from the week, but got up to go ice skating with the family. It was fun, but there were SOOOO many kids. It was David (the boyfriend's) 2 kids, her friend's kid, and Maxime and his friend. Plus the 200 other kids on the rink since it was the morning kids were allowed to push these little chairs around to help them. Also, it rained yesterday so was extremely busy because the people couldn't go skiing. After that we went to a Chinese buffet restaurant. It was really good-I liked that it was a buffet because I wouldn't have known what to get. I don't really like Chinese but it was basically just everything fried so it tasted good. Then we went to Sherlock Holmes, in French. I enjoyed it but was sooo tired and sometimes I forgot to think about listening. I didn't understand every word but I got the sense of it. I just stayed home and took it easy last night. I was beat after this long week. I researched some places to visit and went to bed early.

One of my friends from class told me that today the museum of Grenoble is free, so I think thats where I'm going to go for today. Apparantly its the next best art museum outside of Paris? I think I'm venturing out alone so hopefully I'll be able to follow, we always had guided tours in Paris.

I think thats all I've got, not too much happens here on Sundays. Most everything is shut down. The soldes (sales) are all finished now though so thats kind of sad...

Au revoir!

Friday

Well today I am very tired! It has been a lot to take on in a week.

Today after class I went to a presentation (required for class) about the French maker Agnes Verda and her film, Le bonheur. This is an older movie but is showing right now because of a film festival that is going on that only happens once every two years. It was semi interesting, and then after class everybody went to watch the movie in a movie theater type place. I could not go to this though because I had a group meeting to go to La Bastille at the top of the mountain. However, it was pouring rain all day and we wouldn't have been able to see anything. So instead we went to a museum. It was a museum that that was built around some ruins 20 years ago that were found when they were digging for the trams. So it had the original wall and some other things that were found as well as some pictures that came from Grenoble a long time ago. Kind of interesting- a lot of rocks. Afterwards of course we went to a cafe-as the French do- and sat around for a couple hours talking.

Since I missed the movie, on Monday I will have to watch it in the media room at school. Its a nice school, although it doens't have the nicest buildings or anything. What is interesting to me though is that almost every classroom I've been in has a SMARTboard. They are up on their technology here.

Tomorrow I'm going ice skating with my host family, and then we are going to the movie Sherlock Holmes. I want to see that movie-but its in French so we'll see how it goes.

Monday I am going to sign up for a trip to snowshoe in a little mountain town-I'm very excited about that. I'm also going to sign up for a trip to Nice which is February 14-18. Hopefully there will be enough room. I will have to miss three days of class, but I'm in Europe and want to travel. Nice is a city in the south, and it has beaches and many people vacation there, but maybe not during the winter as much because its cold!

Tonight I may be going to a kareoke pub so we'll see how that goes!

French day

Today I had a pretty French day. I slept in late and then I went for a jog around where I live just to see what was around here because I really hadn't explored it yet. On my way back I picked up a sandwich and I saw an outdoor market. Thats when I felt like I was really in France. They were selling meat and cheese and bread and vegetables and clothing and candles just outside my house! It was really cool I just walked through it.

After class I took the tram to the center of town and went shopping. I bought a pair of boots (everybody wears them here and I needed some). There are mandatory sales right now at all stores here- it goes for about 6 weeks and this is the last week so I had to take advantage. I found some for ten euros- so I bought a pair in brown and black!

I just got back not too long ago so I don't have anything else to say, I probably won't do much tonight. A friend from the program messaged me and said they were going to a movie in an hour, but it would take me 50 minutes to get there probably and my host mom just started making dinner and I'm hungry. So I'm not going to go. I live in a really nice suburb and I like my house- but sometimes thats too bad.

Tomorrow we only have 2 hours of class because there is a presentation on the life of a film maker and then a showing of the movie, "Le Bonheur". I'm going to the presentation but cannot go to the movie because we have a group meeting at "La Bastille" where we will take the telepherique to the top of the mountain- google it its cool!

Thats all I have for now a bientot!

Well, yesterday for some reason I didn't have internet, so I will have to make up for it.

Yesterday was my first day of class, it was good and seems to be the right level. There is only one other American from Boston in my class-the rest are chinese, japonese, spanish, italian, and brazilian. Our common language is French so its all French! We have four hours of class that are separated by a language lab-we wear headphones and microphones and repeat things and do dictees, then we can go back and hear what we said and work on pronounciation and rewind to listen to things better. Its really great and I think it will really help me but it takes a little getting used to since I have never done anything like that before.

Since I got done with class at 4:30 yesterday, nobody was around. I decided just to take the train back home. However, the train station near school is much bigger with many more trains than I am used to. I was very confused and didn't know where I needed to be or what train I needed to get on. I asked someone, but they said that train wasn't coming for a while, so I just decided to take the tram and figure the train out some other time when I was with someone who knew. Today, actually, I had to take the bus because the trains were on strike (greve) for the day. They use their right to protest and strike very often. The tram ride yesterday was quite long, but I got to see the sun setting over the mountains which was very pretty. No matter where you are or what direction you look here, you can see the mountians. They are surrounding the city, although Grenoble is the flattest city in France.

Yesterday was La chandeleur, a Catholic holiday that the French celebrate by making crepes! So thats what we had for dinner and they were delicious. After dinner, with Nathalie's friend, we sang a little bit of kareoke-mostly in French although there were some English songs.

Today was a good day in class, and after some friends from the program and I went to this delicious sandwhich shop called Natural Deli, which was very good and will probably become my favorite place to go for lunch. Right in the doorway they also have a crepe stand, which we went back to later to eat crepes after sitting in a cafe for a while, walking around in the nice weather, and sitting in a park for a while.

All in all it was a very good day! Tonight we will have lasagna for dinner and then I have homework ; )

2nd and 3rd day in Grenoble

Yesterday was pretty uneventful, there is not much to do here on Sundays. Today I took my placement exam at the school. It was pretty easy to get there by tram and train and I made it alright. I took the exam and checked the results online tonight- I'm in class B1+ whatever that means. I'll find out tomorrow. I don't have to be at school until 12:30 pm tomorrow-it will be nice to sleep in. I will either have school from 8:30-12:30 or 12:30-4:30 during the week.

So far the food I've had here has been good. The first night we had pasta, then last night we had "la raclette" which is this device that melts pieces of cheese for each person and then you pour the cheese on potatoes and eat it with meat. It's a regional meal for people from the mountains after a day of skiing, because it is warm and it fills you up. It was really good. Tonight we had couscous which I didn't know if I would like but it was really good!

Today I met some other peope from the AIFS program, and we took the tram to a cafe and sat around for the afternoon. They planned a trip that they will be taking to Italy since they are in a different program and will get a spring break-I am jealous! I will have to get used to going to class and then hanging around and doing nothing for hours. In America everything is much more rushed and there is a lot to do. It is much more relaxed here and there is much more time to do nothing. Something that shouldn't be hard, but I will have to get used to it.

Tonight we also played on the Wii- Just Dance was the game, and my host family loves it. I was actually pretty good and it was fun, you just dance to the songs- they were all American songs. It was fun!