Thank Goodness for Overseas Insurance

First of all, I feel like I need to apologize for the lack of updating lately. I still haven’t made a proper post about Geneva, which was now almost exactly month ago, or even any of the other places I’ve visited since arriving in Grenoble. Since then, I have:

• visited the French cities of Aix-les-Bains, Pont-en-Royans, Vizille, Orange, Avignon, Vers-Pont-du-Gard, Annecy, Aix-en-Provence, and Châteauneuf-du-Pape (basically, a tour of southeastern France)

Small map of where I've been in France

•  jumped off a mountain with a professional and sailed over the town of Saint Hilaire du Touvet

Me, paragliding!

• experienced the Grenoble nightlife so much so that the bartender knows my name
• attended 5-people jam sessions in the park, complete with guitar, harmonica, vocal, and dance
• spent absolutely all my free time either sitting in a park, café, or going out to bars (and, you know, that thing called school and homework)
• enjoyed an extremely delicious American attempt at a French dinner with 5 other good friends
• looked for constellations while laying on my driveway in the moonless sky
• had an awkward meeting with my tandem partner and her new boyfriend (the French are very affectionate)
• experienced my first round of tests here at the Université Stendhal - the only round of tests before my final exams in December

And now, the inevitable, I believe, has happened- I’ve gotten sick. Not just mildly sick, but doctors-appointment-taking-blood-staying-in-bed-all-day-worrying-about-my-health-and-future-trips sick. I figured, eventually, the stress, culture shock, and homesickness would get to me, somehow, and so it has. Though, I’m optimistic that if I keep a positive attitude, I will feel better soon.

However, this somewhat bad news has some good news paired with it – now, I actually have the time to update on all of the trips I’ve been taking and general comments about France and my life here! Plus, I have good drugs now, after going to the doctor twice, so I’m in a good mood, however badly I’m feeling. I won’t say exactly what my malady is on here until I know for sure (probably tomorrow), but I will say that it’s viral, so it’s annoying. Don’t worry, Mom! My host mom is taking really good care of me- although, the being sick thing doesn’t really help the homesickness. All I want now is to be at home. But, I’m thriving and surviving. Really, guys, don’t worry about me.

So, next on my adventures list:

Oct 30-Nov 1: Amsterdam
Nov 10-Nov 15: Berlin and Amsterdam (different group!)
Nov 18-Nov 21: Barcelona and Lyon
Nov 27-Nov 29: Strasbourg and Colmar
Dec 4-Dec 6: Milan

Hopefully i’ll be well (or have enough drugs) to get me through the next month! (14 out of 30 days of November, I won’t be in Grenoble. Score!)

Until next time!

Thoughts and Pictures on Grenoble

Since I’ve been living here over a month now, I thought it might be time to give people who read this some of my thoughts on Grenoble and French life in general. So here, my friends, is The List.

1.  I now understand why Europeans never call it a “restroom”. For one, the toilet is in a separate room from the sink and showers. Two, if you ever want to use the toilet in a public place (aka school, train station, bar, etc.), there will most likely not be a toilet seat, rather just a porcelain bowl with a small and usually impossible-to-find button to flush. Don’t expect to “rest” there.
2. There will be bugs. My dear friend the large spider visits me at least once a week, happy to help me wake up in the morning. I squash at least one tiny bug a day in my room, and at dinner, the norm is to ignore all the flies and hope they don’t buzz into your food. One obnoxious fly keeps finding its way into my room, though it’s not hard because the windows are always open.
3. Showers are not a place of relaxation or comfort. Thankfully, my shower has a shower curtain – because most of them don’t, and are in a tub – but I have to hold the shower head, and turn it off whenever I’m not washing something. There’s also no place to put my shampoo/conditioner or body wash, so I have to put it outside the curtain, and am greeted with a burst of fresh, cold air whenever I wish to retrieve something.
4. Laundry is now done in three steps, even though the dryer is taken out of the equation. I hang my clothes, as well as fold them afterwards. Plus, I have to wait a day or two for them to dry, which I learned the hard way… you CANNOT expect to wear jeans the day after they have been washed, so don’t wash all of your jeans at once, or you will have nothing dry to wear!
5. Everyone walks, everywhere. Period. It is the norm to have to leave my house 45 minutes before my class starts, because if I leave 40 minutes before, I will be late. When someone calls me from the city center, I know it will take at LEAST 30 minutes for me to get there, if I run.
6. There will always be food. (Except: See #7)
7. Don’t expect to do ANYTHING on Sundays- go out, travel, anything. Nobody is out, nothing is fresh, and every store is closed. If they happen to be open, it’s only Saturday’s leftovers, nothing new – so it’s hardly worth paying money for. If you want something to munch on in your room that your host family doesn’t have, make SURE you buy it by Saturday, because otherwise, you will have to wait until Monday, when the rest of the French are out buying their food. (See #8.)
8. Carrefour, a French HEB/Walmart/Target, will always be packed, and will always be unpleasant. Never expect it to be empty, and never expect it to take under 40 minutes. Instead, go to local markets or bakeries (aka boulangeries) for pastries and good bread.
9. The French don’t do lines. It is perfectly acceptable to see your friend in a place farther up in the line and join them. This is because there are ALWAYS long lines for the always-present food. (See #8.) Every day at lunch, we wait at least 30 minutes to get food from the cafeteria. Frequently, a large group of French students will cut the line in front of you and you can’t do anything – what would you say to them? “Don’t get in front of me!” And then what? This is where the barriers of language are hard to overcome.
10. Skype is a study-abroad student’s best friend. AIM doesn’t have good video, Facebook chat rarely works and doesn’t even have video, and any other video chat system seems obsolete, to me. Instead of using phones (See #11), you can sit on Skype and wait for people to get online, which they usually always do.
11. Cell phones are a pain – when someone is late, there is always hesitation to call to ask where they are, and the decision is based on who uses their phone the least. Sometimes you don’t call at all, because it wastes precious minutes. Though it is a necessity to have, I use mine rarely.
12. Finally, it is essential to have a good group of friends. Not a group of friends with whom you merely can stand, but a group of good, genuine friends. There will be bad days, and you do have your friends and family at home, but nobody will understand as well as the people right there with you. I am lucky enough to know a group of 5 or 6 people that I can call real friends.

Reading back over that, I realize that was more of a generalization on the French way of life rather than specifically Grenoble, but oh well. There’s not much to say about specifically Grenoble without linking it with the French way of life, anyway.

Now, some pictures of where I live!

view from my balcony!

the charteruse mountain i live on

my driveway

my entryway

the backyard

my doorway

the other way to get to my house

the babbling brook i walk beside

looking back on the small bridge i cross

the green bushes are from my backyard!

my entryway

small sitting room

my tiny square of a shower

my sink, which is inside my closet

my room!

toilet room!

leading to upstairs!

unfocused living room with small tv

stairs that lead to the front door

pretty flowers

from the living room looking into the dining room

kitchen

Next: Geneva!

Last of Paris: Climbing Stairs

September 2nd

Today, we went to the Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, and the Louvre museum. We walked up the Notre Dame, which I hadn’t done before –and I was kind of dreading it, because I heard it was a LOT of steps going up. And they weren’t lying. My god, this was SO MANY steps – and the worst part was, it was going up in a spiral, so I had no way to see how many steps there were left, and I was getting kind of dizzy because there was only a window every so often, blowing nice cold air onto my face. That’s what I need to not feel sick – air. So I was feeling a little bit of vertigo, plus I hadn’t worked out in a long time, so I was pretty winded when we got to the second floor. And there was still more to go.

Me on top of Notre Dame with the Eiffel Tower in the distance

View from Notre Dame

Spiraling Staircase

On the first floor, we got close to the gargoyles, which I had never seen in person before. It was a nice view of the city with old stones and such, but we still had farther to climb. Everything reminded me of the movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame! We saw the huge bell and took a few pictures with it – it totally dwarfs you! After that, we walked up more steps to the second part, and spent more time up at the top. Such a beautiful city!

Nom Nom Nom

The Bourdon bell, Emmanuel

View with Sacré-Cœur in the distance

After spending time at the top, we walked down and went to Sainte Chapelle. Unfortunately, this wasn’t really interesting, especially because half of it was being constructed on, so it was kind of ugly, and pretty dirty. But we stayed a really long time, which I’m not sure why, because the whole place was only that one room with a bunch of windows. It was famous for housing Christian relics including the crown of thorns brought to the site by Louis IX, and was sometimes used for coronation of the queens of France.

Sainte-Chapelle windows

Emily, Becky, Katie, me, Lauren, and Sarah sitting in the Sainte-Chapelle

Next we went to the Louvre! We knew we would have a tour guide, which I was a little worried about because I knew we would be stuck with her for about an hour and a half. And if we didn’t like her, what could we do? We’d just have to tough it out. And I hoped that we would see cool paintings and not just talk about really boring ones that I didn’t like. So we got there and used the same entrance that my mom and I used, and immediately went to the bathroom. This is important. If we hadn’t gone to the bathroom.. then we would have seen Jessica Simpson. Jessica Simpson! The celebrity! The singer! The divorced girlfriend of Tony Romo! The one who went to JJ Pearce High School, who we played in football! How crazy is that, Jessica Simpson being at the Louvre? So we were pretty upset when we came back and everyone was talking about her, and showing the pictures they got of her. She was with 2 friends, and a big Mexican body guard, so the pictures weren’t that good, but still! I was upset that I had missed her. I always like seeing celebrities!

So, we met our tour guide and it’s a Brazilian woman who was able to speak French and English (and I’m guessing Brazilian Portuguese. This is one of the reasons why I shouldn’t write blog posts when i’m tired!), and she’s really nice but she talked extremely slow, which I was getting kind of annoyed with. But, I didn’t know the Louvre used to be a fortress! So we saw parts of the old fortress, and then saw the Venus de Milo, The Nike of Samothrace, “La Victoire de Samothrace” (aka Winged Victory), then the North–South old Prime Meridian line… then just as we were walking towards the Mona Lisa, we saw her! Jessica Simpson! Just standing there. And I looked at her face and I couldn’t believe it was her because it just didn’t look like her at first, because she just looked like a normal person. She looked pretty haggard, actually, at first. I wasn’t impressed but I still get really giddy whenever I see celebrities or know they’re in the same place as I am.

Venus de Milo

Ceiling of the Louvre

Old Prime-Meridian Line

Winged Victory

Beautiful Hallways

Then we saw the Mona Lisa! Of course, I’m gonna say what everybody says, it was really small. But it wasn’t as small as I thought it might be. So I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it was big enough! We looked at that one for a long time. At the opposite wall, there was a famous painting, The Wedding Feast at Cana, by Caliari.

Mona Lisa!

Liberty Leading the People

Psyche Revived by Cupid

After that, the tour was over. I felt a little jipped because we really only saw about 6 paintings in the span of I think was 1.5 hours. I’ll definitely come back! We spent some time figuring out what to do next, and decided that me, Emily, Katie, Colleen, Janine, Isabelle, Delaney, Joel, and Darrell were going to go to this famous restaurant called Angelina’s, to have their famous hot chocolate, which was basically melted dark chocolate. Long story short, we got there and OH MY GOD SO GOOD. And the whipped cream was just perfect. I was in heaven. I tried not to think of how many calories I was having, because oh my god, I think it might have been near 1000. No joke! When in Paris, right?

YUM!

So we got back to our hotel by the metro, which was our first time riding it without an official guide like my mom or Marie, and we successfully found our way back the hotel. I ended up relaxing in the hotel for a few hours, and figured that I’d go to the Musée de l’Orangerie and the Musée Rodin when I came back in the spring. Long story short, that night, I ended up at this cute little restaurant with Emily, Katie, and Becca – as opposed to with 8 other people, which, in my opinion, was too many to try and comfortably have dinner.

French dinners are just so nice. You can sit there for 2 hours and they won’t bug you. They just won’t! They like you sitting there, they like you ordering more food and drinking more wine. I ended up getting the vegetable soup, which was awful, shared some chocolate mousse with Becca, and we had two caraffs of red wine, which is kind of like a medium sized jug. I ended up paying around €16 for my meal, which was a little pricey, but I figured it was my last night in Paris, so why not? We ended up staying from 8:15 – 10:30.

After we ate, we took the metro to the beginning of the Champs-Élysées, where Katie met up with her boyfriend, Patrick, who is studying abroad in Sweden but was in Paris for the week, and we strolled down the long street for about 15 minutes in the rain. It was nice though, and everyone was still outside, eating dinner, so it was a really nice atmosphere.

We found the tunnel to the Arc de Triomphe, but climbing to the top was closed. We could at least go up onto the circle, so we did that instead. I was having a lot of fun, just running around and taking pictures, but we didn’t stay long, because a police woman came over and told us to leave because the whole Arc de Triomphe was closed. Oh, well!

Emily, me, Becca, and Katie at the Arc de Triomphe

September 3rd

Today was our last day in Paris. This morning, we had to make sure everything was packed and ready to go, because we were all checking out that morning, and were leaving our suitcases in a room while we climbed the Eiffel Tower. I had gotten mostly everything packed the night before, I just needed to pack my bathroom things and my pajamas I had worn that night. Becca and I went down to breakfast, ate, and came back upstairs to make sure everything was all packed and came downstairs.

There was a slight problem- the room we were told to put all of our suitcases in was already filled… and not organized. So, there was a lot of space in the back where we could have stored things, if everyone hadn’t piled everything in the front first. So, Becca took the initiative to climb up over all the suitcases and start moving things around to make more room. It took a while, but it worked. Marie was really pleased with Becca figuring out how to make it work!

Becca helping with the bags

Then, we walked over to the bus to the Eiffel Tower. The bus was okay- it was my first time on the bus in Paris, and I was glad I rode it at least once, but I didn’t like it. It stopped too many times and I got a little car sick because I was seated in the back right in the middle. Also it was really stuffy at first and there were no windows open, so that didn’t help at all. Eventually I asked the two people seated next to the windows to kindly open them, and they did.

I sat next to Marie, and tried to speak to her in French. I told her that it was my first time on a bus in Paris, and asked her how to say “car sick” (avoir mal á cœur en voiture). It was fine, but it just took a long time. I thought about what to say about 5 minutes before I actually said it, and made sure I was saying everything correctly and in the right tenses. I’m worried that I’ll do that so much in Grenoble that I’ll just miss my chance to say anything and not speak at all. :/

Anyways, so we got off the train and walked to the Eiffel Tower, which I had already seen the front of before. But this time we were going to go up it instead of just looking at it. So, we started up the stairs. MY GOD. There are 668 steps going up to the second floor. The second floor! Notre Dame had 200 stairs, and I was winded after that. Although, we couldn’t take the stairs up to the top floor because apparently there were too many suicides, so everyone has to take the lift to the top now.

View from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower

The top was beautiful, much like the Empire State Building in New York- you could see everything. It was funny, on the second floor, Sacré-Cœur looked like it was on a hill. On top of the Eiffel tower, it looked like just another monument. We were so high up, we couldn’t even see the hills! It was extremely windy up there, though, so it was a little uncomfortable. Thankfully I was wearing a jacket. I took a bunch of pictures, of course. We stayed up there for maybe 15 minutes, tops. Then everybody was ready to get down. We had to be back at the hotel by 12:15, so we decided to meet at the bottom at 11. We took the lift down, thankfully – I’m not sure if I could have walked down 668 steps!

Sacré-Cœur from the Eiffel Tower

Beautiful views! (Sacré-Cœur in the distance)

Soccer!

Ahh! Heights!

skyline!

Once we got to the bottom, we took the bus back – which was a bit of a mistake because it took about an hour for us to wait for it and then ride it – but then we stopped by this cute little sandwich shop and bought a ham and cheese sandwich. I just love their ham here! I seriously hate it in the states. But here, it’s just cut differently, I guess. Or made differently. Or maybe the pigs are just happier here in france, haha. Good ham comes from happy pigs, right? Or maybe that’s just cows.

Anyways, we got our stuff out of that closet – thank god – with thanks to Becca again, and I attached my suitcases together, and got in a car with Janine, Colleen, Katie, Catherine, and Joel, which was uneventful. We got to the train station and set our bags down, and Marie watched them while we walked around for a little bit.

Becca, Kaycee and I went to this little drug store to go on a ‘gum-run’, because we had both run out of our gum. I bought some Freedent, which tastes a little weird, but it’s mint and is supposed to whiten your teeth like my favorite Orbit gum does, so I got it. Then I looked over at the books to see if there were any books that were translated into French that I knew of – I saw Twilight, Breaking Dawn (called “revelation”), and Eclipse (called “hésitation”), and then the 6th book of Harry Potter! It was huge, and I couldn’t tell how much it was, so I kind of put it back. But then I saw lots of other Harry Potters in French! So I got the first book for €7.50! I thought that was a pretty good deal, for a foreign book. Then there was a little confusion getting on the train and which car we were in and which seats we were in, but we figured it all out.

 

Harry Potter!

And I’m on my way to Grenoble…

Emily and I, psyched for Grenoble!

NEXT: A summary of my first month in Grenoble, hopefully only taking up one post, and then I’ll be back on track! Finally, we’re done with Paris! Onto the rest of Europe!

Palaces, Paintings, and Paris Nightlife

September 1st

Today, we went to Versailles (pronounced Vers-eye), to visit the Château de Versailles, which I was excited about because I wanted to see the place where Marie Antoinette lived some of her life. We took the train, which took about an hour, and walked up to the Château – it was huge! Unfortunately, it was raining, so the gold gates didn’t glitter as much as I had heard they would, and we couldn’t visit the gardens, either.

The Gates of the Château de Versailles

The Gates of the Château de Versailles

Rainy Day in Versaille

The tour itself was very interesting- however, when one is with a group, one tends to not be able to spend as much time in a room or in front of a painting as one wants to. The rooms were still magnificent, and there was a special exhibition on war that was somewhat interesting, though bloody, so I feel like I got a good idea of how the palace was used. I wish it hadn’t been raining, though!

Inside the Château de Versailles

Inside the Château de Versailles

Inside the Château de Versailles

Inside the Château de Versailles

Afterwards, I got my first french sandwich that I bought with my own money, and dealt with ordering food for myself for the first time. It went well!

Isabelle, Becca, and I with our lunch on the train

 We got back on the train and went to the Museé d’Orsay, a famous art museum that used to be a train station. I decided to go off alone and meet up with everyone else later so I could feel like I got a good feel of the museum. However, this plan backfired because I felt weird looking at some of the paintings alone and didn’t know exactly where the famous paintings were, so I ended up getting bored with nobody to talk to.

Thankfullly, Becca called me because she had been left alone, and we found each other and walked to the famous paintings. We looked at paintings by Van Gogh, Degas, Whistler, Monet, Maney, and various other impressionist painters. We got to talking about a lot of stuff that didn’t have to do with art, though, so we didn’t listen to many descriptions with the audioguides we were provided. But, I figure it’s okay, because I’m going back to Paris in the spring with my sister and my mom and plan on visiting again!

Van Gogh

 

Van Gogh

a favorite of mine

Degas

Whistler

Coming back from the museum to our hotel was the first long walk that I experienced in France. I think we walked almost 2 miles, no lie! But we stopped by little shops on the way and got yogurt and fruit, which was nice.

Then, we chilled here at the hotel for a bit, writing on our computers. We decided to meet up with some people for dinner at 8 (I’m so glad dinner is late here like I have it at home) in the lobby and then walk somewhere to go eat. At first it was me, Becca, Isabelle, Delaney, Janine, and Colleen. On the walk over, we met up with Kaycee and Emily, who were walking back from Monmontre, and they decided to go with us. Finally, after looking at a lot of menus outside, we decided on a place that had a big table that seemed to be waiting for us, and sat down. I got the salmon and potatoes, and for dessert I had something similar to my dessert the first night, a kind of chocolate cake with custard crème (crème anglaise) with some hot fudge in the middle. It was goooood. I also had some wine! I didn’t want any at first because I thought I wouldn’t like it, and I didn’t want to pay for it, but everyone kept offering me it so I took a sip and I didn’t cough! And it was actually quite good. We stayed there for about an hour and a half, which is the Parisian way! Working out the bill was fine, because there’s no tax, and we just paid our €20 or what not and figured out what we needed back for change. So, when the change came, we just took what we needed and then added a tip if we wanted to. Technically, no tip is just fine. If you REALLY want to give a tip, 5% is usually good. My mom was tipping the usual American 15%, so I’m sure they LOVED that, haha.

Yum!

That night, Kaycee, Becca and I decided to go to one of the bars near the hotel, to see what a Parisian Bar was like. Since it was a Tuesday night, there weren’t that many people out, but we chatted with the bartender and two other guys that worked there. This was my first experience having an entire conversation with a native, so I was pretty excited! I could already feel myself improving. Speaking was hard, but listening was okay. And sometimes I wouldn’t know what to say, so I switched to English and the guy understood me. That’s what’s going to be hard, in Grenoble, because everybody doesn’t speak English. I was told that my family speaks some English, but I’ll try not to speak it to them at all. I’m here to learn, so there will be difficulties ahead. I have to keep telling myself that! It won’t be easy!

Next: Our last day in Paris!

Sacré-Cœur, La Conciergerie, and Escargots (yikes!)

August 31st

Today was the last day with my mom in Paris. We decided to go to Sacré-Cœur, on Montmartre. It was so big and beautiful! We wanted to have breakfast there at a café but it was 10:30 by the time we got over there (we were a little late starting out), so we just got 2 croissants instead. I got a chocolat, and mom got a café crème. The chocolat was SO GOOD – really really chocolaty though. He gave me real sugar cubes! I felt like I might feed a horse or something.

the view from the café

We finished that and then trekked all the way up the hill to Sacré-Cœur. Of course, we got stopped by these African guys who were selling custom made bracelets. They basically cornered me and told me to hold out my finger, and I did, and they looped something around it and started pulling and twisting. It was obviously some kind of jewelry. The other guy snared my mom in, too. But she told them that we didn’t have any money, which was partially true, because we didn’t have many coins. I didn’t want to pay much for these bracelets, though they were pretty. They asked us where we were from, and we said America, and he asked where specifically, and I said Texas, though I’m not sure he knew where that was. I told him one of my friends went to Africa, to Ghana, and he said “oh, lots of Americans go to Ghana.” Though I’m not sure why. We ended up paying €2 for both of us – €1 each. Maybe we jipped them, but to be fair, we told them we didn’t have any money up front.

We finally made it up (I’ll need to look up how many steps that is at some point…. 225ish?) and went inside, where it was BOILING hot. The weather is SO NICE here, I love it. But today seemed a little hotter than most days; I even had to take off my sweater before we started up the hill. On the steps, someone was playing the violin to “Let it Be”, with some kind of soundtrack playing. Everywhere, there were people lying in the grass just sitting, some on the steps, and of course, people like us taking pictures like crazy. The view was perfect up on the top of that hill. You could see most of Paris – no Eiffel tower, though. But lots of cool looking buildings.

the view from the top

another view from the top

The inside of the church itself was pretty, but it was relatively small. We walked through it in under 10 minutes, though I figure most of the journey is the walk up the hill. We made sure to walk down the other side to see it and to avoid getting cornered again.

We walked down another street that, in the map, was said to be a “market” street, but was really a street filled with fabric shops. We didn’t have much interest in that. So, we found the métro and went to La Conciergerie, which is part of the Palais de Justice. La Conciergerie is famous because, during the French Revolution, hundreds of prisoners were taken from La Conciergerie to be executed on the Guillotine, including Marie Antoinette. This isn’t as cool as it sounds. It was basically just a room – not the actual room where she was – that had mannequins facing away from you, one sitting in a chair, and two guards. And that was it. No furniture that was in there, no rugs, no wallpaper. It was all “recreated” to look like it was. The actual place where she was doesn’t exist – in the sense that the room isn’t there anymore. Instead, a memorial of her husband and herself are in relatively the same space that she was in. We spent very little time here.

me in a small doorway

the names of everyone executed by guillotine in the revolution

the memorial for marie antoinette

 After that depressing place, we went and got lunch, and I had my first croque-monsieur! It’s a sandwhich (sometimes open-faced) that has butter, ham, and cheese.

yum!

Unfortunately, that was all we could do. We had to go back to the hotel and get my stuff together to move me into my new hotel with API, and start my journey with them. I was really nervous – were the people going to be nice? Was it going to be awkward? Would I like my roommate? (Of course, all the answers were yes :D)

Long story short, we got a taxi and arrived at our destination – the Hotel Minerve. I met my program director, Marie, as soon as we walked in. She asked if my mom wanted to come with us on the boat tour on the Seine River, which I was fine with, so we said of course! We planned to meet back at the hotel at 17:15 (gotta get used to this 24-hour time!).

My room was obviously the biggest of them all – the door opened to a short hallway and opened up to the queen sized bed, with a little terrace with tables and chairs outside. The bathroom was really nice, too, and my roommate and I (she wasn’t in the room when I came in) clearly had the best room.

We had a 16:15 meeting, which was fast approaching, so my mom left to come back in an hour, and Becca, my roommate, and I went to the PicCell meeting downstairs with the rest of API. We had one of those icebreakers where everyone introduced themselves and it was sufficiently awkward, haha. We were also told there was no WiFi… oh well. The meeting ended and we went back up to our room for a little bit.

At 17:15, we came downstairs and Marie said, “Okay, everybody’s here, we are just waiting for your mommy,” which made me really cringe, so I went outside to call her – no answer. Went straight to voicemail. So I said it was fine and she’d meet us later, and she knew where she was going. I didn’t want everybody to wait on us. So we got to the métro station and she still hadn’t called back.

Eventually we get to the boat and she STILL hasn’t called. Marie tells me that the boat leaves at 18:00, and I know that… I figure she just wouldn’t be able to get on. So she misses it. The tour was okay – the sun was in our eyes half the time, but the tour was half in English, half in French, so that was nice. And we learned about a lot of the bridges (the shortest bridge in france, the longest, the lowest, the oldest, the most romantic) and the monuments by the river. It was pretty interesting, but everyone was kind of falling asleep.

one of the bridges along the Seine River

Finally, when we pull into the port, I see my mom sitting on the side. I wave frantically, and I motion to her to call me, and motioned back that she tried, and didn’t answer. I felt bad that she had to go on a wild goose chase to find us, but I couldn’t let the group wait for us. She thought we had to meet at 17:40, so we would have missed us anyway. She had a huge bottle of water waiting for me, and that was nice :) it just showed that I really do appreciate my mom, and she always knows exactly what to give or say. I love her a lot and I was sad to see her go. (On the walk back from the port and to the restaurant, we had to say goodbye- I wouldn’t see her again until December!)

The restaurant was a really classic style of French cuisine. So, of course, I had escargots – and liked them! -, bœuf bourguignon, and this really tasty chocolate cake that had hot chocolate sauce on the inside, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The meal was DELICIOUS and I took pictures of everything.

me eating escargots for the first time!

they were really good! it's all in the sauce!

our group - from the left, going in a circle, justin, meredith, marie, me, kaycee, emily, becca, katie, and catherine

bœuf bourguignon!

delicious dessert!

Marie speaks to us in French and English, mostly English for now, and informed us about each of our families and what type of family they are. Mine are very VERY traditional, as in wine every night, and no hands under the table, and don’t take more than you can eat… they also know a little bit of English. I’m not sure how much is ‘a little bit’, but at least there is some hope that I’ll be able to communicate. There was something about another girl living in the house..? Or something? I’m really not sure. I know about Lauren that will walk with me to school at the beginning, or something… but I think she lives next door. Marie is really nice and cute – she forgets words sometimes, and we help her and sometimes she doesn’t quite understand what we’re saying.

As for French, I still haven’t spoken much – just ordering food and such. I keep making up excuses as to why I don’t. Because I’m surrounded by English people, because my mom is with me, because we don’t have to, because everybody understands English… sigh. I kind of can’t wait to get to Grenoble because a) I’ll have my own room, where I can finally unpack all my stuff and maybe even do some laundry, b) I can practice my French, and c) I can work out and you know, go to school, and do what I came here for.

Bonjour, Paris!

August 29th

my first view of France :)

We arrived in France around 9:30 (we lost 1 hour from London), got our bags (they were some of the first ones!), called the number for a shuttle to pick us up from the airport, and continued to wait for about 45 for it to arrive. It was a little sketchy, i’m not gonna lie. There was a girl my age that was studying abroad in Paris, and she was from Penn State, that was in our car. We talked some, but she seemed kind of shy. But she was nervous too, which was good! It made me feel like everyone was going to be in the same boat when we got to Paris and Grenoble. The guy drove like CRAZY, and it made me really nervous that we were going to crash, but of course, we didn’t. We got to our hotel and basically collapsed into bed. I was so tired!

August 30th

In the morning, we went to Rue Cler, which is a little street filled with shops and restaurants. We stopped at one place to eat and had our first French meal – an “American” breakfast, which was ham and over-easy eggs with a small salad, and orange juice, with coffee or tea. I got tea but I wish I had gotten chocolat, which was another option. We finished that, and though I felt a little sick, we pressed on. I figured it was partly jet lag, partly the different cuisine.

We went to the Eiffel tower next. It’s huge! It was so beautiful and the monument was just so MASSIVE. It looks so huge. And it was built in such a short time, I love it. We took a lot of pictures, including infamous jumping pictures. That didn’t really help my upset stomach, but whatever.

I made it!

Yoga in front of the Eiffel Tower

We then went off in search of the Champs-Élysées, to look at the Arc de Triomphe. I knew that we were going to go as a group with API, so we didn’t actually go up onto it, but it was still cool to look into it.

L'Arc de Triomphe

We walked through the city and saw the quaintest little things- there are dogs EVERYWHERE, and they’re all so cute. most of the owners seem really nice and the puppies are SO CUTE! There are also pigeons and tiny birds that fly around everywhere. The leaves are all huge and …leafy, for lack of a better word, and they’re EVERYWHERE. There are flower boxes in every window sill, and every building is unique in its own way. There are so many quaint gardens and quiet places to sit… I just love it. I love this life.

We tried to go into the Picasso museum but it was closed for renovation. So, we visited the Carnavalet museum. It was kind of boring, a “stuff” museum. It had a nice garden, though, and really interesting rooms.

The Courtyard of the Carnavalet Museum

Unique Gardens in the Carnavalet Museum

Next we went to Notre Dame. This was a really neat place – lots of people around, some were sitting and playing music, some were just sitting and admiring the building. There was a huge line to get up into the top and look at the bell tower, so we didn’t go in. The line for the front was pretty long, but it went by really quickly because it was just because of the sheer vast amount of people wanting to get inside. Inside was pretty neat – just like a normal church. They were having mass there, which was weird, because I really felt like a tourist/intruder then.

Notre Dame

Then we went to a Mexican restaurant… yes. A Mexican restaurant in Paris. And my first experience with just sitting outside at those tiny tables and waiting for them to serve us. The lady automatically knew we weren’t French, and we kind of helped her with her English as well. She was really nice. We got the ‘plat du jour’ which was this beef taco sort of thing, and it was pretty good! And I got the apple pie for dessert, which was cold… which was weird.

Then we went to the Louvre – the free part, not the actual inside of the museum. Just to use the bathroom, haha. But we took a lot of pictures outside with the pyramids. I even took pictures for an Italian couple – how they knew to speak English to me, I do not know!

The Pyramids of the Louvre

Inside the free part of the Louvre

Then we went to the Paris Opera Garnier. Phantom!

Paris Opera Garnier

Angels and Masks

Next we decided to sit and have a glass of wine. And by have a glass of wine, obviously that meant have my first official alcoholic drink! They had tequila sunrise on the menu. Yum! It was really sweet. I technically had wine on the plane but I took 2 sips and didn’t even finish it- mom finished it. Oh well. I liked my tequila sunrise. We didn’t eat there, so we paid and went somewhere else in search for food. We didn’t find any until like 30 minutes later, and it was an Italian restaurant, where each of us got some spaghetti and we should have split it. The sauce wasn’t even very good at all. Don’t get Italian when you’re in Paris. Just don’t.

First legal drink!

And so ends our first full day in Paris. Next entry: My first meeting with people from API, and the end of my mom’s travels in France.

Hello, London!

August 29th

I was wondering where my mom was and how we would meet up, but I knew I had to get through customs first. I got off the plane and received a complaint form that they wanted us to fill out because of the poor entertainment on board. I was happy to fill it out, let me tell you. They took us from where they dropped us off, by bus, to our Terminal, where my mom was going to meet us. Customs wasn’t bad. I thought it was going to be a long line, but it moved pretty quickly. The lady asked me what I was doing here and I said that I was meeting my mom for the day and then we were going on to Paris, and she nodded, stamped some things, and I was on my way. I didn’t have anything to claim, so I just went straight through to where the international fliers go out of the airport, and my mom was right there, waiting for me!

It was really great to see her. It felt like a little piece of home, especially after I had done all of that alone. Even though it was less than 24 hours being alone, I still needed the comfort of my parents. I still do. After we met up, we went straight to the Heathrow Express, bought tickets, and rode it to the Picadilly line to visit Buckingham Palace, to go into the State rooms.

After many Tube stops and lots of walking, we finally arrived – but from far away, it looked like a huge mob was crowded around Buckingham Palace. At first we thought that was the line for the State rooms, and thought that was absurd. But once we got closer, we realized it was just about 11:15, when the changing of the guards happens. We thought we could just walk through it, but unfortunately (or maybe not) we had to stay until it had passed. We got a great view, though! We couldn’t believe some people had been there since 9am, and we just got here and got this great view. The changing of the guards itself wasn’t that big of a deal. Just a big band playing and the guys wearing the uniforms passed by. But I think they stayed out there for a while, playing music and entertaining the crowd.

everyone waiting for the changing of the guards

one of the better shots of the guards

how close we were

Mom and I pushed through and got in line for the museum tour.

Mom and I in line

The museum itself was really neat, I couldn’t believe someone actually lived and worked here, and that there were actual prince and princesses in the world. It just seems so cool.

Me, outside Buckingham Palace

Then, we went to the Victoria and Albert museum, which I think had the same exhibit on fashion as one of the New York museums, or something. I definitely knew we had seen that exhibit before. We kept walking around, and it was pretty interesting.. just not SO interesting. We went into one of the movie rooms and took a nap for about an hour, waking up every 15 minutes. It was nice to rejuvenate a little bit after my 3 hours of sleep.

some fashions in the Victoria and Albert museum

How do I look?

Can you find my mom?

Paddling is permitted :D

The small fountain at the Victoria and Albert Museum

After that, we had to start heading back towards the airport to get to our flight to Paris at 7. The time we spent in London was short, but it was all worth it!

Next: France!

Bye, America

The following entries have obviously been written a while ago, but since i’m just now getting settled, I finally have time to write.

August 28th/29th

Sitting in the airport. I changed my seat to be more behind the wing so I could get a better view- I’m by the window- and I’m excited about taking pictures. I bought a new camera battery that’s with my battery in my checked luggage right now, but hopefully the one battery will do for now.

We should be boarding in about 10 minutes. Then I’ll call dad and tell him we are and then I’ll get on the plane and leave America. America! My god. I can’t believe it. I still can’t believe it, even sitting here in the airport. I’m just sitting with some stuff right now. I must be going into survival mode, living day by day instead of month by month like I usually do. I must be really freaked out. But I have to keep telling myself that it’ll be okay, I’ll be okay, and I will survive and prosper.

I’ll see my mom in London and we’ll get a chai tea latte at Eat right there in the airport. Then we’ll run around London for a little bit, and then get on another plane that night and fly to Paris, in seats close to the front of the plane. I’m still next to the window, which is nice. I’m not sure if I’ll write any on the plane, or if I’ll spend most of it trying to sleep. I have a sinking feeling I’m just going to be extremely tired tomorrow, all day. That’s okay. I’ve been through worse days. 2 hours of sleep, and such.

I can see the plane. That’s the plane I’ll be spending 9 hours on, trying to sleep. The physical transition from one part of my life to the next, it’s sitting right in front of me, waiting for me. “Pre-boarding” only now.

“Unaccompanied minors”… I almost got up. Haha! I always envied pre-boarding. And first class. Someday I hope to be that rich to splurge on that kind of airplane ticket.

There’s a non-stop flight to Paris in the same terminal, and I heard a few of its announcements. After the English announcement, there was a French one. I could barely make out “Paris”. Oh, shit. This is why I have my French book. This is why I’m going. To learn this language. I’m going to make mistakes and it’s going to be embarrassing. I’m going to have to get over it.

 Boarding now!

I ended up sitting still next to the window, just a row behind where I was, and next to this 8 year old kid, who didn’t talk. I ended up doing NOTHING on the plane. They were playing 17 Again on the TINIEST TV’s you could imagine… and it didn’t even work that well. They tried to play the safety features on the television but ours wouldn’t even turn on, so I knew something was up. The kid’s tv didn’t even work, it was so dark he couldn’t’ see. Mine was okay, so I ended up watching some of 17 Again until dinner, which was pasta and this weird chocolate cake thing that I didn’t like. So then I figured I should try to go to sleep. After they took away my dinner, I got out my night shade and my neck pillow, and unplugged my headphones from the TV, and tried to sleep. Sleep did not come. It didn’t come for about an hour and a half. Want to know why? RIGHT as I was about to fall asleep, when I felt the comforting drifting of my thoughts and I was at the perfect point of comfortableness, the kid would brush my arm or touch my leg accidentally. Or crinkle some paper. I was wearing ear plugs, but apparently that only drowned out the sound of the airplane, and not anything else. Great!

So I keep trying to just lie still and be far enough away from the little kid that I wouldn’t accidentally touch him in any way – I wasn’t even in his way, he was just fidgety. So I feel that contentness again, but then the PA system turns on. I take out one of my earplugs and listen to the captain as he apologizes for the lights not turning off, but there’s something wrong with our cabin… possibly the circuit breaker. The same reason why the TV’s didn’t work as well. So the captain said he was going to fool around with the circuit breaker and ‘hope we don’t plunge into darkness’ anytime soon. Oh! Okay! Great!

I would have enjoyed the plunge into darkness, because at least then there would have been darkness. No, the lights stayed on for the whole time. The whole time that I’m supposed to be sleeping. I looked at my watch, and we had 4 hours to go, and I still hadn’t slept. And I knew we would have breakfast before the plane landed, so I knew I wasn’t going to get more than 3 hours. Plus, even though I had a night shade, I could still see the light coming from the bridge of my nose.

Thankfully, by some grace of God, I found myself a comfortable position, and slept for about 3 hours not long after that. I woke up because everyone was eating breakfast and some people were opening their window shades to let the morning light in. I felt a little rested – much better than the first time I went to London, when I’m pretty sure I didn’t get ANY sleep. So, even though I got very little sleep, I was pleased, though still slightly annoyed with the airplane. Soon after, we landed, after about 8 hours.

I’m here!

This will be a short entry. I’ve made it! I arrived in London on Saturday, August 29th, and stayed until my mom and I flew to Paris that evening. We stayed in our hotel until Monday, because I met up with the API group and changed hotels, and my mom left Tuesday morning. We stayed in Paris until Thursday afternoon, arriving in Grenoble around 4:30 on Thursday.

So here I am, all unpacked and settled, in my new home for the next 4 months. I have 14 pages in a word document worth of blog from the past 6ish days, as well as just under 700 pictures, so pretty soon here i’ll post those in chronological order with corresponding pictures.

For the meantime, I hope you are all well!

One Day Away

I can’t believe i’m leaving tomorrow! It seems like just yesterday that I recieved my API acceptance letter. My mom is currently in Dublin, Ireland and tomorrow will meet me when I touch down in London, England around 9:00am on August 29th. I lose 7 hours – I hope I can deal with the jet lag. We only spend one day in London, so I don’t want to waste it wishing I was sleeping. I’ve read a lot of things about avoiding jet-lag, and one of the biggest things is drink a lot of water. …We’ll see how that goes.

I spent the weekend in Austin to say goodbye to my college friends and see them off on the start to their semester. It was a little bittersweet, leaving them, because I was sad to go; but it just meant I was one day closer to my departure date. So, right now, I’m doing a lot of laundry and packing, since the clothes I wore in Austin will be most of the clothes i’m bringing on the trip. My suitcase is already half full with my winter clothes, which my mom helped me pack, so all I have left are the summer/fall clothes, toiletries, and free-time activities to pack. I hope it all fits and each suitcase weighs under 50lbs! I’m checking both, and I can’t imagine the smaller suitcase weighing close to 40lbs, so my main concern is my larger suitcase. We’ll also see how that turns out.

This will most likely be my last entry before I leave for my 4 month journey. Next time, i’ll be writing from London or Paris!

Until next time! (À la prochaine!)