Hello! I write to you from my amazing town of Grenoble, while at this moment I am actually at my host family's house in Fontaine, it's very close to Grenoble, a hop skip and a jump over the river and volia, you're there! I love France so far. It is amazingly different and really you can't even make a comparison because it's so different and entirely it's own amazing thing. There are most definitely things that I am not so big a fan of, but for the most part, everything has been very nice and exciting so far.
I will give you a small run down of my first couple of days here. We arrived Thursday at Lyon airport. drove down into Grenoble and stayed at a lovely hotel on Felix Vaillent ave. took my first shower sans a shower curtain and lived to tell the tale. went on many adventures into town and did some good old fashioned shopping :) perfume in France is just delicious smelling and in case you're all wondering i did buy some and now i smell like a dream :) but perfume aside, the entire town is surrounded (and by surrounded i mean encased) in the alps. the mountains are HUGE. even for me, someone who has lived in northern NH her whole life and visited the mountains out west, these are big. and rocky. and kind of amazing. can't wait to go for a hike.
grenoble is seriously a little european dream. all of the shops and apartments are gorgeous and it's very very french. we went out to eat at a charming little restaurant the first night, ate a lot of food and had my first taste of french wine, which was amazing. (those of you in the US, the drinking age in most of europe is 18 so it's perfectly legal/encouraged here!) the next morning was ours to explore the town. went around and tried to orient myself. me and some of my new friends took the tram to the university of grenoble to see where we would be going to college. it's very different from saint mikes with it's ivy covered brick walls. to be polite i would call it 1980s architecture... it kinda looks like someone gave a different building to a bunch of people to design and it's just different than what i am used to. the location is gorgeous and i love it. after that we returned to town and did a bit more shopping and went out to a delicious cafe for dinner.
saturday was the day we met our host families! we spent the morning exploring more of grenoble and attempting to figure out the trams.... i met my family at 6pm that evening and they have been absolutely delightful so far! their family name is Chamon and they live in Fontaine in the nicest little french house ever. my host mama is called Sophie and she works at the university where i take classes. my host papa is named Herve and he works in the financial sector. I have three french siblings, Charlotte (11), Marie (8), and Arthur (4). I love them. they are beyond cute. charlotte and i watched Pocahontas on sunday morning, in french of course! and then played a series of board games.
the food has been unbelievable so far. I have no idea how french people stay so trim because they eat a lot of bread and do not exercise! but i am happy to eat all of their bread and croissants and whatever else they whip up for me! i have tried some very interesting cheese since arriving here. let me tell you, french cheese, is very VERY different than any cheese i have ever had in the US. much stronger and almost spicy at times. even fairly bland cheese like provolone or mozzarella are very different here! it's very funny to me because after every meal except breakfast, out comes the cheese! it's on a plate and you eat it as straight cheese! you don't add a cracker, some cheeses are acceptable to put on breads, but for the most part it is just straight up cheese!
I had my university level language placement test today. it was much harder than my placement test at saint mikes!! a lot a lot of listening by native french speakers and a lot of reading comprehension. i will find out what level i was placed at tomorrow. after that it's time to pick which seminars i want to take this semester! i am leaning towards french culture and society, history of french cinema, and history of france since 16something or another. i also have my core french classes that i have to take, which i am really looking forward too.
so that's pretty much what's happening right now in France, i've had a lot of new and different experiences so far, from shower curtains to the time dinner is eaten at (8pm or later!), it's all new and for the most part fun!
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