Where's the time gone?

I've realized I'm an awful blogger. Maybe that say something about my commitment to things, I really hope not! I just get so busy and my days are jam packed and by the time I'm home I just want to sleep.

It's been a month since I've updated you all and so much has happened. My mom and I have an incredible trip together. I was so unbelievably happy to be able to share this experience with her. After my mom left I was bummed for a while, missing home and all of its comforts but I easily got back into the swing of things.

Grenoble has been in pleine forme (good shape) these past few weeks. Absolutely beautiful weather, mid seventies and breezy every day. All of the flowers are blooming yet the mountains that surround the city are still covered in snow. I know I've said it a million times but its like a dream. I am so happy that I chose this place, it's the perfect size and my french has improved leaps and bounds since I first got here. I find myself not even thinking but just speaking!

I've been gushing about being happy here but there have been some downs. I've found, as with most of the other americans as well, that making french friends is difficult. I would never have thought that such an animosity would still exist between the french and the americans, but sadly it does. I had hoped that our generation was learning to be tolerant but I've found that I'm not widely liked around these parts. It's surprising to me because I represent an American who is interested in their culture, I came here to learn their language and assimilate myself into their country. I try my hardest to not be a loud American and I am always respectful yet they don't like me.

It's fascinating really that this prejudice still exists. Everyday in the United States I experience racism, I see Americans give people of muslim descent a wary eye, and I see Americans shudder at people speaking spanish in america...god forbid. But I've never once been on the opposite side, I've seen racism at work but I've never been the one being scrutinized. I guess it's my own ignorance or just my indifference but I never really thought of it as a problem. Not until I arrived here did I realize just how unjust it truly is. I hate being judged because I'm American. I've learned so much already about myself and I've grown as a person and I hope that when I go home I will be able to use this new outlook on things in a positive manner and show others what it's really like to not feel welcome.

There is obviously two sides to this story though. I have made some awesome french friends who have done nothing but welcome me with open arms. Just like every story there is the good and the bad. I am happy to say that the good always outweighs the bad when you're living in France. I mean the main food staples are CHEESE, more CHEESE, chocolate, bread oh and did I say CHEESE? How can one possibly be unhappy?

A dieu my readers. I keep promising my diligence but I will stick with it this time. I've only get a short amount of time left and I want to remember everything that I've done here. If I can leave with one parting note, be more tolerant everyone. I'm having a hard time taking my own advice but I think it's really something that everyone can truly work on.

Paris Part Deux

Paris with my mom is SO different than paris with my study abroad group. I am beyond happy that she is here and I get to show her around this beautiful city. Being here makes me miss Grenoble and the ease of getting around, but I can't sit here and say that I don't absolutely adore this place. For example, I am currently sitting in our flat right down the street from the Louvre drinking a glass of wine I bought in Bourgogne...jealous?

This has been an extremely entertaining trip thus far. Being with my mother who literally knows NOTHING in french is both amusing and frustrating. It's helpful that I've become so good at french because its up to me to get us everywhere and buy us everything. Prime example, tonight at dinner in Montmartre near the Sacre Coeur my mom tried to say thank you to the waiter in the restaurant, did she say thank you...no, did she say merci...no, she said GRACIAS. I mean come on mom! We're in France not spain. Gotta love her though.

I've also realized that I've become a snob. I hate americans. Okay that's not the truth, but I really dislike American college students who are studying in Europe and don't even try to assimilate to the culture or try to speak the languages. Today mom and I were getting coffee before trecking to Versailles, there were four american college students my age sitting at the table across the restaurant. Since my ear is keen to english I picked up on all that they were saying, they were being rude to the waitress and became frustrated when she didnt understand what they were asking her in English. uh HELLO you're in France, they speak french here. It's ignorant to think that everyone in the world speaks English. It really irritates me because I am here to learn a language and become well versed in the french culture. My mom keeps calling me a snob which I will admit to being but I guess I should show some more tolerance for my generation.

Tomorrow mom and I leave for Rennes to visit my french exchange student Sophia from high school! I haven't seen her in four years and I can't wait to spend time with her and her mom. We're planning to go to Mont St. Michel and the beaches of Normandy. This trip just keeps getting better. Au Revoir Paris, until next time.

Trop Cher!

Hello everyone!

Sorry I've been m.i.a. I don't really have any excuses except that I've been busy! Geneva was incredible! I went with three other girls from my program and we stayed two nights and had a blast. It's definitely a place worth visiting and now I can tell people I've been to Switzerland but boy was it expensive. Since Switzerland isn't a part of the european union they use the franc still and its close to the same amount as the dollar. So when I was charged 25 swiss francs for a drink at the bar I almost laughed in the bartenders face. There isn't much to do in Geneva so we did whatever we could, we went to the Red Cross Museum which was very interesting and I actually learned alot. We saw the UN and spent a lot of time sitting on benches by Lake Léman.

Being by a body of water made me really homesick. I've never been this land locked before and I miss the ocean and the beach. The water was crystal clear and blue and I can only imagine how much more beautiful Geneva is in the summer. I've been having a tough time with school the past few weeks, my french teacher is a typical french woman and lacks a little tact. She is very upfront about not doing homework and missing class and sometimes when I don't know the answer to a question she makes me feel like an imbecile. Tough love all the way, I guess I am learning a lot because she forces me to rethink what I say and say it the right way, but its disheartening for someone to be so tough on you all the time. I guess I'm more of a softie than I thought.

I spent the past weekend here in Grenoble with my friends but this weekend API is taking us to Dijon...a.k.a. the mustard capital of the world. (or so I lovingly call it) I hope they don't make us go on a mustard tour because dijon mustard here is WAY stronger than the stuff they have in the states, it clears your nostrils right out. Anywhoo this weekend should be nice to get away with my whole group and I don't have to pay for it which is always a plus. My mom is coming in exactly one week from today and we're going to be traversing France together for about 10 days. I cannot wait to share this experience with her, it should help my french too because she barely speaks a lick of french. Sorry for the delay on posts I'll make sure to keep up with my blogging from now on I promise!

The Man Who Licked My Shoulder

Bonjour tout le monde!

I feel like I haven't addressed my social life enough since I've been here. If you're all sitting at home picturing me gyrating with french men at discotheques until the wee hours of the morning, you couldn't be more wrong. I consider myself to be pretty cool, hip, fun to be around...but I don't know how these french kids do it.

A typical saturday night involves eating dinner until about 9:30, heading out for "drinks" around 10. At this point you drink copious amounts of overpriced booze at a somewhat sketchy bar that doubles as a dance club, all the while trying to enjoy yourself while 8 different peoples sweat are mixing on your skin because the place is so crowded. Am I painting a good enough picture?

Did I mention a french man licked my shoulder. Some of you might shudder, others might gasp but apparently this is normal here? I've gotten cat calls before and had to tell a guy to leave me alone but no ones taken it this far. I guess it's my fault for wearing an off the shoulder dress, but after telling some man non merci for about the fifth time I turn away and he LICKS ME! Full on tongue meets shoulder people.

Luckily, that night we left promptly after I was salivated on. After the bar we went to the discotheque. More like a buidling full of discotheques, 4 different ones with coat rooms, smoking rooms, bars, people having sex in the bathroom etc...We danced our butts off for a good three hours, it only took me until I went to order a beer from the bar to realize why everyone gets so drunk at the bar before the discotheque. They wanted 5 euro for half a pint, thats like 8 dollars for a small cup of beer, thats highway robbery! For me however this wasn't a problem because I love to dance regardless of whether or not I've been drinking.

At around 4:30 we called it a night and took a taxi home. The next day I found out that french bakeries open at 4:30-5 oclock every morning and thats the best time to get fresh, hot, steamy, delicious french pastries. I'll have to do the night club thing at least one more time while I'm here just for the bread afterwards. So if you think you can handle the nightlife better than I can please come visit me. I'm having a blast, heading to Geneva this weekend with the girls, I'll post when I come home!

Elation

Hello everyone! Coming in on a month here in Grenoble! It is FLYING by. I'm already bummed just thinking about having to leave France. I'm obsessed, this place is everything I wished for and more. I am elated everyday just living this life, it's like a dream!

I know it sounds corny but its true! I've met some amazing people both American and French and I really feel like I'm putting roots down here. I can't imagine being home again. Don't get me wrong, I miss the comforts of my own home, laying on the couch with my puppy and playing with my little brother but if only one could feel how I feel right now. It's incredible. I'm taking in all of this experience as best as I can.

This weekend I am going to Geneva, Switzerland with three other girls from API. It barely cost us 20 dollars to get there by train and we're staying in a hotel right in the center of the city. Just a casual trip to another country for the weekend! It's crazy that people actually do this here!

I'll write again soon, I know it will hit me soon enough how much I miss my family and being at home but right now all I can think about is waking up tomorrow and living each day to its fullest while I'm here. If you're reading this I most likely love you and miss you very much! Talk to you all soon!

Grenobloise

Sorry for the delay my avid readers, lifes been crazy busy! I've started school, been settling into my dorm, going out on the weekends and getting coffee with friends practically everyday. Unfortunately I can't write that much today because I have some homework to accomplish.

I love Grenoble, this city is so beautiful. Every street you walk down at the end it opens into a cobble stoned courtyard full of restaurants and cafés all complete with breathtaking views of the french alps. School's going pretty well, I was placed into an advanced section and I'm struggling a bit but I think it is better to be challenged. I love my teacher her name is Béatrice and she's a nut, she claims she eats 3 pain au chocolat (the most amazing french pastry) a day, yet she's still a size double 0. All the women here are SO skinny and so fashionable, I strive to be like them everyday.

Occassionally someone will come up and ask me for directions thinking I'm a native of Grenoble, often it's americans who do it too and I'm very flattered. I think the fact that I wear so much black is the main reason why people think I'm french.

My friends and I have been trying to stay active because all we do is eat SO much bread. Our favorite bakery is so perfectly named "pour l'amour du pain" literally for the love of bread in english. Couldn't be any more perfect right? We've done a couple of hikes to burn off all the carbs and discovered some of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. Just the other day we started off on a hike in the woods and about 30 minutes in the woods opened up into rolling hills in the french countryside with the mountains as their backdrop. Around the bend we stumbled across a castle! Is this real life? I feel like I'm living in a fantasy world, I half expected the Vontraps to come running out of the castle singing.

I'll write again soon I promise! We're trying to plan a trip to Geneva, Switzerland this week and my mom comes in about a month and we're going to traverse France together!

Oddities

Here's the start of a list that I will be compiling to describe some "cultural differences" between France and the U.S.

1. Instead of pulling open a door to go inside you push instead (poussez in french, prounced poosay haha)
2. At school there are only holes in the ground for toilets, they're very clean and my quads get a good workout each time but my question is...what happens if you have to go number two?
3. The so called world wide web isn't world wide. A lot of the sites I use at home only work in the U.S.
4. When drinking tea, tea bags are put directly into the tea pot with the hot water instead of putting the tea bag in your cup first then pouring the hot water over it
5. It is polite to say Bonjour and Au Revoir to literally every single person you see, yet if a woman with a stroller runs over your toe on the bus, causing massive amounts of bleeding and some choice swear words in both french and english, she will NEVER say excuse me
6. Smiling too much is considered weird. If a girl smiles at a guy in a bar in france that's an open invitation!

Paris Je t'aime

Bonjour tout la monde! I'm in Grenoble, finally! Many long days of traveling and stress but I've finally made it. Of course I get nearly all settled in and I'm having a severe case of insomnia. Sleeping in new places is not really my thing. I'll contribute my lack of sleep to traveling, living in a foreign country, the language barrier, and being a dorm room all by myself for the first time.

All you blog readers out there, Paris was incredible. I forgot how much I love France and that city. The first day was insanity, since I missed my connecting flight and arrived a day later than everyone else, it was my responsibility to get myself to the Hotel Minerve in the quartier latin. I took a taxi parasien, which ran me about 60 euro ($75)! Crazy right! It was about an hour long cab ride and I was so relieved when I finally made it to the hotel. I tried to nap for about an hour but I was too anxious to meet everyone. I showered quickly then trekked on my own to the metro. I took the metro to La Musée d'Orsay, the impressionist museum...right up my ally. Unfortunately I was too exhausted to appreciate the art, hopefully when my mom comes to visit in Februrary I'll be able to drag her through there.

Later that day, me and some of the girls in my group went up to Montmartre and climbed the stairs to the Sacre Coeur, a church perched at the very top of the tallest hill in Paris. The view from the top is spectacular. The rest of our time in Paris was spent riding the metro, visiting museums, climbing l'arc de triomphe and taking pictures from the top of the eiffel tower (with a few crepes and some wine in between).

The trip to Grenoble, was très stressé. SO many people. I guess I should have done some squats and stretches prior to boarding the TGV train, because I sure wasn't cut out for what I was in for. I lugged my two ENORMOUS suitcases weighing about 110 pounds total and my duffle bag which is about another 30 pounds about a mile in the train station. Marie our resident director who we lovingly refer to as our french Julie Andrews from The Sound of Music walks like there's a constant angry pitbull chasing her. Keeping up with her usually causes me to break a sweat and re-evaluate my physical fitness.

The three hour train ride to Grenoble was pleasant enough, the public transportation in this country is so efficient I was extremely impressed with how fast we got to Grenoble. Ma vie à Grenoble is starting and the ups and downs are already hitting me. This experience is going to not only teach me a lot about france and its culture but also teach me a lot about myself. À demain, I am very tired!

Layover

Made it to Montréal, going to have to wait a whopping 5 hours for my connecting flight to Paris. I practically took a slingshot from Boston to Montréal, a fifty seat jet that shook the entire way. I resisted the urge to kiss the ground when we landed safely in Canada. Dealt with some very pleasant (note the sarcasm) customs officials on my way to the gate. I'm already overwhelmed by all of the french! The t.v. in front of me has been playing Canadian news in french and every passenger that walks by me has been speaking french. I love it, I cannot wait to get to France to hear it 24/7. I think I should have been practicing more before my departure though, I'm a little rusty. Hopefully getting thrown right into it will do me some good.

Here are my absurd, yet valid fears. I don't ever make it to Paris, everyone in my study abroad group has already made friends and they view me as "that girl who couldn't figure her flights out", I starve to death because I'm too anxious to leave the gate to venture out and get food, people in Paris will look at me funny because I know I already smell from traveling.

I haven't even begun to write about the AWFUL customer service that Air Canada has. On my second trip back to Logan, the woman at the luggage check in gave me a hard time about one of my suitcases being too heavy! Is she FO REAL? Honestly after all the hassle I've been through they should have let me ship my freaking car for free. I sat on Air Canada customer service for thirty minutes trying to finagle my way into business class. I guess I should have known that if they wouldn't let my luggage be over weight then they most definitely weren't going to bump me up a class. The woman so rudely told me that it wasn't their fault that my plane was delayed and that she couldn't help me! What's with these people, I work at a restaurant and if a customer so much as hints that they don't like their meal they get it for free! Blast, looks like I'll be roughing it in the back of the plane riding coach with the rest of the cool cats.

For now, I'll suffer in silence knowing that in a mere 10 hours I will be in Paris, France the most beautiful city in the entire world. Let the jealousy really sink in, it'll be worse when I start posting pictures of the eiffel tower....

Air Hell

Ah the joys of air travel. My plane to Montreal was delayed an hour so I sat in the Air Canada terminal at Logan for a total of 5 hours today and didn't get anywhere. Lots of stress and tears but I'm safe back at home for the night. The earliest flight I could get was tomorrow at 1:45 to Montreal putting me into Paris on Tuesday at 8:45 am. Looks like I won't be making my orientation meet up time at Charles de Gaulle.

I've never even flown by myself before so this lovely day full of air hell was quite the experience. At least now I know that I'm really not quite as cut out for the Amazing Race as I have previously thought. I need to build some thicker skin I guess. I figured everything out, dealt with the air personnel in the politest way possible. Looks like I'll be getting there late, but late is better than never. Wish me more luck on my travels, hopefully things go smoother tomorrow.

Bonne Journée

One week and I'll be in France! I've been spending my days watching Audrey Tautou movies, listening to Edith Piaf, and updating my cheat sheet with useful words (it seems a real lapse in my french education that I've never been taught the word for spoon). How am I supposed to eat my glace de chocolat without a cuillère!) My obsession with France and everything french has and always will annoy the hell out of my family. My stepfather so poignantly calls the french "frogs" and cannot for the life of him understand why I would ever want to spend 4 months in a country that despises everything American.

Ironically enough, I'm watching An Education at the moment. A film I've never seen before about a young innocent British girl who falls for an older man. She is equally as obsessed with everything Français as I am. Is this how annoying I am? Every other word in her sentences are french, snobbishly placed there to make her friends think shes cultured. What she really doesn't know is that her pronunciation is atrocious...well that really was me sounding snobby wasn't it.

Any-who, in the attempts to prepare for my vie en rose I've made myself extremely sick to the stomach. I can't stop thinking about worst case scenarios, missing my plane, getting lost on the metro. AH, this girl in this film just said that's "beaucoup trop chere pour moi" and the woman she said it to completely chastised her. Excuse my side note, but its irritating. I've got to make a conscious effort to only speak in English around people who speak English and attempt to speak french around my soon to be french friends.

Well I've rambled long enough, I hope this rant didn't make you not want to read my blog about my trip. I'll be in Grenoble, France for four months and if you like reading amusing anecdotes about foreign cultures here's the place! I'm hoping to do some traveling around Europe and the countries bordering France. Wish me luck on my travels, I'll post from Paris when I make it there!