Grenoble

Okay, tonight has definitely been one of the most disappointing days for me. As some of you may know, I currently have an obsession with the artist Mika to the point where I listened to nothing but Mika this summer and so when I learned he would be playing in Grenoble October 8th, I immediately bought a ticket. Well obviously I have been very excited for it (I had a countdown on my phone) so I rushed to the concert today to make sure that I was there early enough only to learn that it was cancelled because Mika is sick. So I returned back home and spent the rest of my night writing this blog post and drowning out my sorrows by watching Mika videos on Youtube. Fortunately, the concert will be rescheduled for sometime between November and January but unfortunately for my friends, that means a few more months of me talking about Mika.

But anyways, I thought it was about time that I got around to updating everyone about my time in Grenoble so far.

I can hardly believe that I’ve been in France for about 6 weeks now. The program started out with a Paris tour and since my program in Pau ended in Paris, I ended up skipping out on some of the touristy things and visited the city on my own. Being in Paris for the second time was so nice because I felt comfortable getting around and I was able to do some things I did not have the chance to do this summer including going up the tower at Notre Dame, visiting Sacre-Coeur, doing a guided tour of the Louvre, and visiting the Musée d’Orsay. I also went to the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise (which is the largest cemetery in Paris) to see some famous graves including Chopin, Oscar Wilde, and Georges Bizet.

Musée D’Orsay

After visiting Paris, we took the train to Grenoble and met our host families at the train station. I actually live outside of Grenoble, which I absolutely love because I can easily get to downtown and still enjoy the living close to the mountains. I really love living with my host family. My host family is so much different than my family in Pau. They do Airbnb, so we will have different people staying with us throughout the year. I really like having different people staying with us because it’s a great way to meet new people and learn about different cultures.

I finally feel like I am getting used to my classes. I am taking French history, history of French cinema, vocabulary, and French literature along with my French language classes. The first week of classes was pretty rough, especially when you sit through a 2 hour class and realize you understood absolutely nothing. The classes are set up different than how my classes work in the US. For example, our elective classes are only one time a week for an 1 and half instead having them 2 or 3 times a week for 50 minutes. It’s nice having the class only once a week, but it means having to put in more work into the class outside of class.

Place Victor Hugo- Grenoble

My favorite thing about Grenoble is that the people are so active. I also see people running or doing other forms of exercise. The university has many sports that you can do so I joined a running club called trail where we run between 10-15k in the mountains. It’s really intense but running in the mountains is worth it because it is so beautiful. I have also made a few French friends through the club and have signed up for a race next weekend. Also, I signed up for a tennis class since I have never played before so I figure I might as well take the opportunity to learn while I am here.

These past few weeks have definitely had some ups and downs, including having to buy a new phone, not being able to transfer my money from my bank account in the US to my account in France, being sick, and learning that my grandpa is in the hospital. But I am really thankful for my host family and to be surrounded by such wonderful people who make me laugh and remind me that there is something positive in every situation. Plus I have a ton of things to look forward to during my stay in France like traveling, meeting new people, and improving my French! And I know that this experience in France despite all of its ups and downs will be absolutely amazing.