Mountains! and Classes

So because I said I would, and also because it is relevant and potentially a little bit interesting, my schedule of classes.

Monday: I have no classes! I'm going to get spoiled with this three day weekend stuff.
Tuesday: I have FOUR HOURS of French class from 8h30 to 12h30, first "techniques" and then "travaux". Travaux we have three times a week and the prof is lovely and the work is relevant and interesting. The Techniques I don't find very interesting or particularly useful so it's rather dull. Then in the afternoon I have translation, which is supposed to be just for English speakers but also randomly has a bunch of Chinese kids who I think think they speak better English than they do. Personally I would not want to translate from one foreign language to another but to each his own.
Wednesday: Travaux Pratiques again in the morning and then in the afternoon 20th Century history of France with a professor who also happens to be our WONDERFUL academic advisor!
Thursday: This is my day for real university classes. I have a class that's in comparative literature with a really lovely prof. We are starting out with the Inferno and ending with War and Peace but other than those two works I haven't read anything else. The prof was very happy and pleased to see an international student and so hopefully that will be good. The other course I'm taking with some other BU students; the topic is 20th century lit and the focus for now at least seems to be this poet Appolinaire. French students are very judgemental and unfriendly when you are a few minutes late to class and that is all I shall say about that class for now.
Friday: Just Travaux Pratiques in the morning! French Universities usually don't have class the afternoon so people here tend to go skiing and such. Quite luxurious.

Thus, my semester!

This weekend was actually very lovely. On Saturday we had originally kind of planned to go to the Musee de Grenoble but then the weather was so lovely we decided to take the boules (like a gondola thing) up the Bastille! Above see them--so cute!

The Bastille is this fort that was originally constructed in the 17th century but then redone in the 19th, so most of the construction is more recent. There are these cool caves dug into the mountain and all kind of mazelike things so there are beautiful views and crazy places to explore. One imagines it could host a really nuts game of Capture the Flag. 

The views were pretty spectacular too!

The Alps are a pretty cool place, all in all.
After hiking and exploring we stopped for some vin chaud (bien sur!) and then hiked the way down, which was really quite pleasant though occasionally a little steep. That night for dinner we got some kebabs and then felt the need for dessert and so wandered into a cafe that we were maybe a little to riffraffy American for but nonetheless I enjoyed a quite excellent creme brulee.

Missing you all here!
Love,
Miriam

French Health Care Hooray!

So it turns out that that pharmacy trip was far from adequate. By Monday night, I was in quite a bit of pain, and when Tuesday came around and I tried to go to class, I had to go home after my first class because I was feeling so poorly. My host parents got a doctor's appointment for me the very next day at their family doctor's (and my little host sister gave me the good advice to come when they called my name. She's so helpful). By that time I had a fever, extreme pain when swallowing, and I could literally see my tonsils in the mirror when I opened my mouth. I felt terrible. I was missing class, too, which made it worse, and also was so overwhelmed already from being in a new country I just felt homesick (in France! I know! Crazy). Luckily my host fam and actual family were very lovely and helpful.

I walked over the short walk to the doctor and checked in and all I can say that a visit to the doctor's in France, while effective, is very different. First of all, there was no nurse. Secondly, he did a much less in-depth examination--he didn't even take my temperature! He did take one look in my mouth and go "Ah, c'est une grosse angine", and prescribed me four different medications. On the way to the pharmacy I looked up what an angine was and my dictionary said it was tonsillitis or pharyngitis so there you go I'm not really sure but the antibiotics are like MAGIC and I am already feeling so much better, basically now I just feel like I'm getting over a cold! Also all those medications cost less than 20 euro so hooray for socialized health care.

I've also started classes at the University of Grenoble but that will be a whole different blog post (to be looked for next week). Suffice it to say I am very excited about both real French University classes as well as my CUEF classes and it shaping up to be a great semester, now that I am over this initial evil hiccup.

To cheer up this rather dull post, a list of Things French People Like/ Don't Like

Things French People Like
Orangina
Clementines
Yogurt
Giving judgmental looks
Eating MULTIPLE helpings of everything
Talking in class constantly
Ham (for serious, there is a whole ham section in Monoprix. Just ham. That's it.)

Things French People Don't Like
Eating on the go
Convenience
Being late to class
Really curly hair
Vegetables other than lettuce in their salad
Snacking casually

Again, post on classes to follow! Miss you all!
Love,
Miriam

PS For all my darling friends at home and abroad, do let me know about skyping/ talking sometime soon! (this means you Lizabel)

Hockey and Tonsils

So Friday night I went to a hockey game! It was the Grenoble team, les Bruleurs des loups, against Caen, and Grenoble won 6-1!! It was actually really fun--I found I kind of enjoy watching hockey, or at least more than most other sports I've seen. Plus, the snacks they had were way classier--crepes with Nutella. Yum.

This Saturday I went out with some of the other students to explore the city a bit. We went to two market places, one where you could buy absolutely anything from watches to bras to veggies, and one that was mainly food. It was fun to see, but is probably much more fun  in the summer, when there is more variety and vendors. I also tried vin chaud for the first time, which is like mulled wine, and is delicious! It's a local treat and great to warm oneself up on a cold Grenoble afternoon. We went shopping a little to take advantage of the sales this time of year and I got a pair of gloves for about 1/3 of the original price. We also went to this really cute place for lunch and I had some AMAZING chocolat chaud which made me a very happy Miriam.

Sunday was a more quiet day, as I was really feeling quite ill from a cold I'd been starting to develop really the whole week. I did however meet a friend out for dinner, which was nice, but then the fun really started late that night when I woke up with the worst sore throat I'd had--more than that, it hurt to swallow and even just looking in the mirror I could see it was swollen. Luckily, I don't have classes Mondays so I spent today recuperating/ waiting for the pharmacy to open. When it did, I went and it was really easy!  I just told the pharmacist that my throat was swollen and hurt and she gave me anti-inflammatories and throat-soothing pastilles and so hopefully that will help and the story will be done here. But it was cool to see how different the French pharmacies are from back home, as most anything is behind the counter. Hopefully I won't have to go again, but if it persists I'll go to a doctor and see what they think.

Love,
Miriam

Les cours

So this week was the start of classes in Grenoble! Monday we took a placement test which was oral and written comprehension and production, meaning we had to have a little oral evaluation with a professor, which was a bit intimidating but not too bad. The afternoon we opened a bank account, but other than that it was a quiet day.

Tuesday we got our results: I'm in B2, which is one level below what is considered bilingual, so that's good. I had my first class in French yesterday and I think its a good fit. Next, the international program at the Universite Stendhal, the CUEF had its official opening. It is interesting being in an international program, seeing all the people from different countries and hearing the different accents in French. There are some Americans, of course, but LOTS of Asians, especially Chinese. I have met a few Russians and a guy from Saudi Arabia and I heard a girl speaking Italian yesterday-- very diverse. This week and next week is a kind of class shopping period, so we're going to lots of classes and then going to pick from them which ones we want. I'm planning on taking, in addition to the mandatory French course, a translation course, two literature courses in the regular Universite, and then maybe a history class that our academic advisor teaches.

I really like my French teacher. Her name is Gaelle and she is Bretonne--maybe sometime I'll tell her I'm a little familiar with Bretagne and Nantes! We had a good class and everyone seems really friendly; there are a bunch of Americans from the West Coast in the class too so its mostly American. The history class was interesting but it focuses on 20th century France and I do know the first half of that pretty in depth (thank you, IB) but still would be interesting to hear the French perspective. Also had an Art History course which I don't think I'll end up taking, even though it sounded kind of interesting.

Both nights we went out to eat and noticed a little cultural difference: both times we waited for the check andrealized we had to go down to pay at a counter! Whoops. Also still not sure how to tip.

Today is a little more quiet as I have no classes so I'm planning on going shopping for some essentials I still need and wandering around a bit.

Love,
Miriam

Cretins des Alpes

It has been quite a weekend! Friday I took the tram all by my little self to the center, and there we went over all the details of the program, host families etc. After lunch and going over academics we took a tour of the university campus, which is very modern and large. I'll be attending the Universite Stendhal, which is the Language and Literature school, named after one of Grenoble's only famous people, the writer Stendhal (who incidentally hated Grenoble, but everyone here is a little obsessed). After, I went back home and enjoyed a lovely chicken tajine with the fam and watched a movie called "Hollywoo" which we all agreed wasn't that great.

Saturday was a day with the family and also the older girl's 11th birthday. We started out the day early, going to her favorite place for breakfast, which was this hotel buffet. And it was delicious! There were croissants, pains au chocolats, mini crepes, fruit, cheese, butter, Nutella, jams, bread, little local donut type things, coffee and hot chocolate. I enjoyed it, to say the least. After, my host father went back with the girls while my host mother showed me around a llittle and went shopping a bit. Right now is the "soldes" or sales in France, which only happen twice a year so it is a very good time to shop. Sales in France, because they only happen occasionally, are VERY good: I'm talking 50, 60, 70% off. I may have to take advantage of this.

After lunch the girls started arriving for the birthday party. They were at first a little shy but soon were asking a million questions: what do we eat in the US? how do you say this in english? And so on. I watched a movie and had pizza and popcorn with them (popcorn in France apparently means candied popcorn?). It was a sleepover, and this morning they made "pancakes" for breakfast but I didn't have the heart to tell them they were in fact not real pancakes but basically thick crepes and that a pancake isn't a pancake without maple syrup.

Today we as a group took a tour of Grenoble, led by our capable Patrice, academic advisor to us and professor of history and literature at the university. Also genuinely cool human being. He told us lots of cool facts-apparently the Revolution started in Grenoble when the Grenoblois refused to accept the new taxes and then threw stuff on the King's deputies from the rooftops; this caused the Estates Generals to be called that led to the Revolution. Also we saw a place where Napoleon slept on his return from Elba. Now it is a hotel you can actually stay at! Also we saw a place Rousseau lived and where the writer Stendhal was born. 

Next we had lunch at the second oldest cafe in France, which is called La Table Ronde (the Round Table), founded in 1739. IT  WAS AMAZING. First we had kir, which is white wine with cassis, or blackcurrant liquor--my first legal drink, as it happened. Our appetizer was raviole, a local specialty, followed by a choice of chicken or fish or sausage-- I had chicken with bleu cheese sauce which was good but which I couldn't finish. Also a lovely red wine.

For dessert we had vacherin, whcih is meringue and whipped cream with ice cream made with chartreuse, a local liquor. IT WAS delicious. And beautiful:

After lunch, from which we were all EXHAUSTED and ready to fall in to a wine/food coma we climbed up the Bastille, a local mountain with a museum and an old fortification on it. We didn't get up to the fortification as it started to rain but we did have a lovely view from the Musee Daphinois, which is an old abbey and now a local museum. Voila Grenoble!

You can see the Isere river and the red tiled roofs that are ubiquitous here. We walked around a little more in the town center and then that was the day!

It really is amazing here, though it would be more so if one could actually see some mountains because it has been very overcast and occasionally rainy. Thus, not much in the way of visible Alps. Still, I live in hope!

Love,
Miriam

I made it!

So here I am!
In Grenoble!
It seems surreal.
Rewind back to Wednesday, when I got up, flew to JFK, and then had a nice six hours to spend being baffled by Lufthansa's inefficiency/chatting with some other Grenoblais/being really excited. We had an uneventful flight. The in-flight entertainment was rather terrible but I was extremely amused to find that among the books you can listen to was Goethe's Faust. Oh, Germans.

In Frankfurt we had just a few hours, which went by, and it was nice to get a chance to talk to some of the other students--we've bonded pretty quickly, which is nice, and it was good to also meet the Engineering students. Still, I couldn't wait to get to France, and finally we were there in Lyons, located the shuttle and were off. One of my proudest moments in the airport was when I asked a guy for directions in French and he didn't automatically switch to English!

Once we got there, we had a very French experience--we were supposed to take a taxi from the train station but the taxis were on strike. Thus, we ended up invading the tram with all of our suitcases and smelly tired selves, and then walking a few blocks to the center. We got a lot of strange looks to say the least. My apologies, Grenoble!

The center for the program is in this really cool modern building with negative energy output. Plus, the building has red, which I approve of and is appropriate for BU. We were met by the program heads and fed croissants and pain au chocolat which made me extremely happy. Then we walked around a little, but I found myself feeling exhausted. We chilled for a little while more, then finally our families came!!!!

My family is lovely. The parents are kind and have been hosting students for years and the young girls, ages 7 and almost 11 are sweet and funny. We had gratin dauphinoise for dinner which is a local specialy--potatoes with cheese--and is delicious, and a cheese course for dessert!!! Clearly, they know the way to my heart. The apartment is really lovely and I have a nice cozy attic room, with a bathroom basically to myself. I think my French is coming across well, as I've got several compliments on it. My host mother is really helpful with correcting my errors and anglicisms, which I appreciate, and it seems I have more French than a lot of the other students, which surprised me.

Tomorrow we're starting our orientation! It's kind of crazy that this is actually happening.

Love,
Miriam

Just two more days!

Hello everyone! So as most of you know, I'm spending the next semester in Grenoble, a city in the French Alps.  It's the yellow dot on the map:



I'll be studying with BU's program there, taking classes at the Universite de Grenoble, living with a host family, and hopefully traveling around! As you can see, its nicely located near Switzerland as well as Provence and Italy. Pretty good, no?

So far I feel pretty ready. I have my visa, clothes, tickets, and eight years of school French to help me out. I'm looking forward to eating large quantities of cheese and drinking wine--I'll be turning 21 while I'm there, so its like I'm legal to drink a few months earlier than if I stayed in the US! I'm also excited as my host family has two young daughters and I'd like to see what its like to be a big sister for once and not be the one always bossed around.

So here's how the journey will go:
Wednesday morning: Drive to airport. Fly to JFK.
Wednesday afternoon: Fly to Frankfurt.
Thursday morning: Arrive in Frankfurt. Fly to Lyons.
Thursday afternoon: Take shuttle to Grenoble. Then take taxi to  the program center.

As you can see, I'm taking pretty much every mode of transportation except for boat and unicorn, which seemed like more fun, but less practical options. I'm sure I'll be dazed and jet lagged when I get there, but I"ll take lots of pictures (of everything, as promised to my beloved older sister).

I can't believe it's almost here! I've been planning and looking forward to doing this for so long! I'll hopefully be pretty good about keeping up this blog and posting pictures, but if I get flaky about it assume I'm just busy drinking wine and admiring Alps.
And skiing. Apparently that's the thing to do. Should be amusing for the people watching me. . .

Love,
Miriam