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!

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