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