Mushrooms!

Coucou!

I went mushroom picking in the mountains today! It was quite fun until Vivien and his friend Yann (who drove) started talking about all the wild animals that live in that part of the mountain. It was not an easy task searching for the mushrooms, which happen to be neon orange, because it was REALLY steep terrain. Being at such high altitudes is really difficult for breathing as well because the air is so thin, and I was on my hands and knees a couple of times because the danger of slipping (I'm glad I brought my hiking boots). The most rewarding part of the search was that we had them for dinner tonight with garlic and olive oil-yum! At one point we could only find poisonous ones, which are identical to the good ones except for a white stem, so we had a mushroom fight. I got hit on the neck with a particularly moldy one, but then I got revenge by clandestinely pelting them in the back of the head with these stinky green ones on the way back to the car.

In other news, today was Charlotte's tenth birthday. It was not as big a deal as birthdays usually are in the US, but I think they are going to live it up this weekend when she has her party. There was no singing, no breakfast in bed, and no favorite meal, but again this will probably happen later. Twelve ten-year-olds spending the night! I am looking forward to it if I end up staying here this weekend.

Also, I don't think I have talked about my classes yet. I am taking language and translation, which are mandatory, in addition to four electives. I chose French history, French art, French economy, and French culture and society. These are all extremely boring because one sits in a lecture hall with 100 other students and takes notes for an hour and a half. This is probably normal in US universities, but I'm spoiled from my Albion classes with 5 students in them. I have no homework whatsoever in the electives, so the final grade is based solely on the final exam. In my language class, we are graded on our participation and homework, which is written and oral. I received my first grade and it was 10/20...ouch! Before you judge, know that 20 is impossible to receive and 14 is considered really good. Again, I have been very spoiled at Albion, where I do very little studying and still receive good grades-not going to happen here. While the classes that I am taking here may not seem useful in the larger scope of things, I am considering staying in France and these subjects are very important in understanding France and the French people. P.S. I skipped my history class today to go mushroom searching and don't feel one bit guilty because 1. no one will notice 2. I can get the same information by copying someone's notes 3. I have studied the French Revolution countless times and know the dates and names by heart and 4. how many other times will I be able to look for mountains on a mountain in France?

Where does the time go?

Honestly, I mean to post more often but the time flies by so fast that it seems like I post and then a week goes by in a couple hours. I can't believe that have been in France for 5 and a half weeks!

Anyway, since the last time I posted, I played volleyball for the first time in the university club. It was fun but the girls were not too friendly. There were nine of us altogether; 7 French, one Italian, and me. The Italian girl and I got along really well and bonded over the fact that we had no idea what was going on in the drills. The others got really frustrated with us and basically ignored us the whole time. I talked to Vivi about this and she said that French girls who participate in sports are almost always really intense and that they would warm up once we got to know them better. We shall see, but it is fun to play and there are about 30 guys play at the same time, so I can't complain! Afterward, when we were in the locker room changing back into our clothes (because French women never go outside in gym clothes!) I had just finished dressing and then this stream of 30 guys walked into the girls' locker room. I was and still am very confused about that.

In addition to playing volleyball, I decided to join the "choir" that Vivi is in on Thursdays. It consists of 17 or so people and then 10 or so musicians. We are practicing now for the concert that is in May and I'm excited. Not only is it helping with my French accent, but it's a big deal, everyone has parts and we make costumes for it. There's a website with pictures that a photographer takes each week so I'll post the address when I know it.

Last weekend was really fun. I want to be travelling and seeing things outside of Grenoble but I really, really enjoy spending time with the family and getting to know French culture better. I have seriously been considering staying here forever and asking them to adopt me (kidding... kind of). Friday I saw a French film called Le Coach with Vivien and another Albion girl. For the most part, I understood what was going on, but there were still some things that I didn't catch until the end.

Saturday I went bikeriding with Vivianne to downtown Grenoble. It was about 30 kilometers both ways, which wouldn't have been bad but the bike I was riding was about 20 years old. The seat was about half a foot too short and the brakes did not work at all, but we got there in one piece. On the way back, we had to stop at the grocery store so I had a baguette and some meat stuffed in my backpack and Vivi had some flowers and cheese in hers so we were a sight to be seen I'm sure. About halfway back, these black clouds rolled in and it started to sprinkle so we raced to the house and got there literally in the nick of time because when we opened the door it started to downpour.

Sunday we visited Jean-Pierre's family. I knew they lived on the mountain but I thought it would be like us, kind of close to the bottom, but it took us an hour to get to the mountain and then another hour and a half driving uphill to get there. It honestly looked like something from Heidi. The mountain people have a special type of house that they live in where the animals live in the house with them duirng the winter so the houses are absolutely enormous to accomodate all the cows and pigs. We were greeted by one of Jean-Pierre's brothers who yelled "Kiss me! I love American girls!" I found it hilarious and kind of disturbing that every single house within sight housed a family that was related in some way to the family next door, and down the road, and on the next turn, and so on. Of the nine children in Jean-Pierre's family, eight of them live within a 1/4 mile of his mother. There is a ski run that goes literally in their backyard-amazing!

Another adventure in food. This weekend we picked up some boudin at the butcher's. They wouldn't tell me what it was until I tasted it which made me really nervous. I should've taken a picture, but it looked like really dark sausage. Turns out it was coagulated pig blood mixed with milk and spices. They said that one of their former exchange students pucked after hearing that, but it didn't bother me that much.

Oh, I forgot to post last weekend that I went to a broquante (huge village garage sale) with the mom of Vivi. It was amazing-there were probably 300 booths or more. I got a French dictionary for 50 cents, a pair of shoes for a Euro, a congugation book for 50 cents and a scarf for 50 cents. Mami, Vivi's mom, goes garage sale shopping every weekend so she considers herself a pro. If there is a price listed, you always bicker with the vendor. For example, the dictionary was 1.50 Euro and she said to the lady selling it, "1.50, really? I can't believe you're asking that-I wouldn't pay more than 25 cents for that piece of shit." Then they went back and forth until they settled on 50 cents. It was like that for everything-the hands always went in the air and sometimes we would leave and then come back 10 minutes later and remark that the thing still hadn't sold and offer an even lower price. I'm not very good at barganing yet, but she said I was getting there (the ultimate compliment of a French person).

Today I'm not feeling very well so I stayed at the house and cleaned my room, which was much needed, and caught up on homework, which was even more needed. I'm not exactly sure yet, but I think I will be going to Munich this weeked for Ocktoberfest-so I need to figure everything out.

For future reference: floss is super expensive here and it's really bad quality. Being the daughter of a dentist though, I bit the bullet and spent 5 dollars on FLOSS! Therefore, if you plan on spending time in Europe bring floss with you or prepare to pay!

Weekend of firsts

Hello all,

Things are going very well here in France. This week I tried to find a couple of museums that I wanted to see and discovered one frustration with France. You cannot find anything. The signage is absolutely horrible and when I asked people for directions they had no idea. The first museum was the Musee de la Revolution Francaise. I took the train from Grenoble to the stop that was called Vizille-something else. The museum itself was in Vizille, and seeing as it was host to a rather important museum, I assumed that the train would stop right by it. When I got off the train, I walked around and bit and could find no trace of the museum so I asked a middle-aged guy where it was. Turns out Vizille was a ten minute bus ride away. He offered to take my by car since it was not very far and (very stupidly) I accepted. I realize that he very easily could have been a axe-murderer, but sometimes you gotta have a little faith in people.

The other museum that I tried to find (Musee de la Resistance and la Deportation) took me three days to locate. There would be little signs saying Musee with no mention of which meseum it was and then they would just stop. I tried looking at the map on the back of the brochure, but it was missing streets. Then I tried asking people and they either had no idea or they would say that it was just around the corner (which it wasn't). Extremely frustrating considering I was wearing three inch heels and was practically crippled after finally finding it; however it was extremely interesting and saddening because it focused on the French resistance fighting against the Germans during World War II and gave first-hand accounts of people who had been deported to death camps and survived. Interesting fact that I discovered: Jean-Pierre's grandparents hid Jewish children in their home in the mountains and Vivianne's grandfathers were both resistance fighters.

The time that I do not spend at museum's is usually spent at the shopping mall in Grenoble. It's awesome! I found a store called NewLook that has a whole floor dedicated to women over 5'7''. I went a little overboard on pants, and then because I had really long pants, of course I had to get some really tall shoes to match, and then some purses to go with the shoes... you get the picture.

In the future I will be playing volleyball also. I got to sign up with the club at the university and I'm really excited about it. We meet every Tuesday from 6-8 to play games. It's pretty intense because they assign you a team by skill level and positions, but I'm feeling good about it. I'm kind of curious to see if they wear the usual volleyball gear of spanx and kneepads or if that's an American thing.

This weekend I had a couple of firsts. On Saturday, Vivien, Sabrina, a friend of Vivien, and I went to a couny fair. Usually I don't really enjoy that type of thing, but this had skydivers, parasailers, and hot air balloons. I thought there was going to be a really serious injury because the skydivers and parasailers would hit a wind spiral, spin out of control, plumet toward the earth at 100 km/hr and then at the last minute they would pull up into a landing position. The announcer kept yelling "C'est enorme!" and it really was impressive. The best part however was the way that we got there. Drumroll please....motorcycle. Both the guys are really into motorcycles, and these are not Harley Davidsons, they are racing bikes. It was enorme! I wish I would have taken a picture because I was wearing one of Vivien's huge motorcycle coats with protective padding, a huge helmet, and then my brand new three inch high boots. I have a feeling there's going to be a lot more motorcycling in the future.

Another first was in the culinary realm. For lunch on Saturday Vivianne said that we were going to have steak-frites and asked if I wanted my meat "cuit ou tartar." (Translation: cooked or raw) In an effort to be more French, I said that I would take it tartar. I assumed that by raw it would be slightly cooked but red in the middle, but when she brought it out it was really raw. I mean it was a patty of ground beef that had not touched any heat whatsoever. I'm very proud to say that I ate it all and enjoyed it greatly with a little mustard and some Whertchester (not right, I know). The others took theirs with a raw egg, but that was going a little too far for me.

The other first on Saturday was my first taste of Chartreuse. Vivien, Antonin, Antonin's girlfriend, and I went to a pub in Grenoble called O'Callaghan's. I decided to get something that was a traditional drink and oh man! It is 110 proof and a sip of it and you can feel the effects, but it was really good. It's herby and very green, which threw me off a little. But all in all we all enjoyed ourselves along with the 5 thousand other people who were there.

I'm sorry for not posting very often, but it will be every week at the minimum and I'll try to post a couple times a week.

First week of classes

This week has been really busy but wonderful. I had my placement test, which consisted of a listening part, written part, and oral part. The listening started out really slowly, slowly sped up, and, finally, at the end it was so fast that it sounded like jibberish. After they figured out the scores, we were placed in language classes according to our ability. We also get to pick three elective classes, so I'm going to take Econ, Culture, and Art History. I'm finding that I understand everything really well, but when it comes to speaking I just can't formulate what I want to say--it's extremely frustrating, but I expect that it will come with time.

The program consists of all foreigners. About 40% are American and 40% are Chinese. The rest are random, like Swedish and English. The age range varies from 28 to 17, too. There's one Chinese girl in my class who has only been speaking French for 8 months and she's wonderful. It's incredible, but she has been living in France for four months so I guess that gives her an advantage.

This week I've also been exploring Grenoble; it's an interesting city-who knew?! On Friday, I don't have class so I went to 5 museums. They had one floor of a museum dedicated to skiing. If there's one thing I have to say about Grenoblians it's that they take their skiing VERY seriously. I've also learned that it is not appropriate to smile at strangers. They think it's weird that Americans strike up conversation with someone in line at the grocery store and smile at people that they don't know. If you smile at someone you're either flirting with them or you're making fun of them. This was really hard to stop doing, because it's so ingrained in our cultural customs to smile a lot, but I'm getting better.

Last night I learned how to play boules, which is the French acquivalent of bachi ball. This is another thing that the French take very seriously. I must have had beginner's luck because I kept winning every game; this wounded some egos but everyone was still gracious.

And today we are going further up the mountain for a picnic. I'm kind of nervous to see what they mean by up, because the tops of the mountain are above the cloud level, but we shall see.

Bonjour from Grenoble

Hello again!

This is what I wake up to in the morning. I know... it's a hard life but someone's got to do it. I am living in a wonderful house with 8 other people: Vivianne, the mom, Jean-Pierre, the dad, Sabrina, 23, Vivian (guy), 22, Antonin, 20, Cyriel, 18, Ben, 18, Charlotte, 9, two cats, one dog, and a partridge in a pear tree. There's also Mathias, 20, but he has his own house. It is definitely different from the life I have always known, but I have really enjoyed myself so far. Vivianne is what the French call a "mere poule," which translates to "mother hen." She takes her job as a mother very seriously, so when we went shopping at Carrefour, which is the equivalent of a Meijer, she pointed out that I had a blackhead on my nose and suggested that I get a certain cream for it. I explained that I wanted to wait till I had more money because it was rather expensive, and she simply said, "It'll be my little gift to you. French women pay attention to these things you know." She has also given me some clothes which various family members don't use anymore that in the hope that I pick up some French fashion sense. When I pointed out that they were a little sheer, she said that it was fine because it wasn't like they were transparent or anything. If this had been my own mother I would have been furious at the interference, but the fact that this is the French way and they truly have my best interest at heart is extremely reassuring and I don't mind.

The first day of orientation for classes I slept through my alarm and woke up in the nick of time to catch the bus to the campus. I flung my pajamas, day-old undies included, on the unmade bed and ran out the door. When I came back that night, I found my bed made and my clothes picked up and arranged neatly on the dresser. Vivianne came in and said, "I know that this morning you didn't have time to arrange things, but now that you're a part of the household, we expect you to make your bed every morning and clean your room at least once a week." Disorganization is one of my biggest pet peeves, so this is definitely not a problem for me. Actually, it's nice to feel included in the daily activities of the family, even if that includes mundane chores like making the bed and setting the table.

Some other things I have noticed in the three days I've been in Grenoble is that daily habits in France differ just as they do in the US. For example, everyone in my family changes their clothes everyday and takes a shower at least once a day, unlike my previous experiences. My bathroom also has a showerhead that is a normal height. In fact, when I used the shower for the first time, I didn't realize that I had to unscrew the drain to allow water to drain (there's no lip so the shower floor is even with the rest of the bathroom) and I proceeded to flood most of the basement in about a half inch of water. I cleaned it up and told them about it. They laughed and said that they had done that the first time they used it too (that lessened the embarassment just a teensy bit).

Another habit that is different here is the bise (kisses to greet people). In the Loire Valley it is two kisses, first the right cheek, then the left, in Paris it was four kisses, starting with the right, and finally in Grenoble it is two kisses starting with the left cheek. This is a source of continual confusion for me and even the French don't know how to explain the system, so to speak. While staying with the host family outside of Paris, I accompanied them to a lunch with their parents. When I met the grandfather, who happened to be the first in line, I went to kiss him. I stopped after two, but he kept going and we ended up brushing lips. He laughed it off, but I don't want to know what color of red my face was.

Off topic now: there has also been some confusion about why I moved around so much the past couple of weeks and who I was staying with, so I'll elaborate a bit. The summer of 2005 my parents and I found a program on the Internet about hosting European students for one month. There was a list of everyone who had applied and their hobbies, religion, language proficiency, etc. and the US family would go through and pick the student they wanted. In retrospect, it was car-shoppingesque where you decide which model, year, and MPG you want. Elise ended up being the "chosen one." She was the same age as me, spoke French, obviously, and played tennis like me so during the month that she was at our house we really hit it off. To make a long story short I visited her, she visited me, we went to Ireland together, her mom and sister visited us, I visited them last week, my parents are visiting them next month, and we send birthday and Christmas presents to each other every year. The other people in the family are Anne-Marie (mom), Joel (dad), Berenice (sister), and Kevin (brother). After that, my off-campus director planned for the students going to Grenoble to stay with a family in Albion's sister-city, Noisy-le-Roi, which is 30 minutes outside of Paris. I had no idea who I was staying with or what I was doing until I got there, so I really don't know the Schwindling family at all. Currently, I am living with the family which will be hosting me for the year.

Disclaimer: sometimes I forget that people don't always have background on certain things so if something doesn't make sense, please tell me. Also, I realize that I make lots of grammatical mistakes, which have been kindly pointed out to me by an unnamed former English teacher, but please excuse them because I speak French 16 hours a day and then dream in French the rest of the time, so my English is a little rusty. Let's be honest here-I'd rather be meeting cute French guys then proofreading.

Paris Part 2

The next day we visited Versailles (we just visited the city before this) and it was truly incredible. I loved the romantic and neo-classic art that decorated all the rooms, and the gardens were beautiful as well. Definitely a must if you are in the Paris region! The only problem was the immense crowds. For some reason there were hundreds of Japanese tourists there led by tour guides holding umbrellas and flags, and even a pooh bear on a stick. Where there are toursits, there are also gypsies. They would work the crowds asking "Do you speak English?" If you answer yes, they hold up a sign saying who knows what and then proceed to rob you of anything of value while you read it. I ended up losing a bracelet and a sweater. It's possible that they fell themselves, but very unlikely. Good thing I only brought cheap clothing and jewelry! Thursday we visited Sacre Coeur and Luxembourg Garden. The view from Montmarte, the hill were Sacre Coeur is located, is absolutely gorgeous. To get there you must pass through several congregations of street peddlers who are rather aggressive. There were one group of guys who were selling bracelet. They grab your wrist and tie one on so that you can't get it off, and then follow you until you pay them what they want. I was left unscathed because I gave them the evil eye and I know some choice words in French :) Another group sells minature Eiffel Tours on the steps up to the cathedral. We were looking at them and looked away for a split second because we noticed some policemen coming up behind us. In the time that it took us to look back, the peddlers had packed up all their ware in gym bags and were sprinting up the hull. Very impressive I have to say.



Friday I went to Paris alone because there was more that I wanted to see. I got out of the metro station and found myself in the middle of a huge mall. I walked around looking for the exit and literally was lost in the mall for 45 minutes. There would be signs for an exit, but it would just exit into another part of the mall and people that I asked would just point at the signs. Once I escaped I walked along the Seine and got to see all the sights like Notre Dame and les Invalides.

Paris Part 1

It’s hard to remember where I left off last time, but Friday night/Saturday morning I woke up at 5:30 with this ominous feeling that I hadn’t done something. I got on my laptop and realized that instead of leaving for Paris on Sunday like I had planned I was supposed to leave in eight hours. I think it’s safe to say that I haven’t gotten out of bed that fast in years. I packed my things and explained the situation to Anne-Marie who made sure that the train left at the same time, which it did.
We still had time to visit the market in Blois so we off we went with our plastic bags. You can always find your way to the local market on Saturday mornings by following the little old ladies pulling carts behind them. Another way is to follow the lovely odors of food. The smell of fish and cheese is so strong that the taste buds and nose are full of the essence of it. We happened to come across the friend of Elise and his father who were selling various fruits and wine. Seeing that I was a newbie in the market scene, the father took a cherry tomato out of one of the containers and held it out for me to try. I wasn’t hungry so I shook my head, but he said testily that his tomatoes were the best in France and how could I possibly not want to try one! I gave in and agreed with him it was the best tomato in France.
I wanted to buy some wine as presents for my host families in Paris and in Grenoble so I asked him what kind he suggested. He asked me where they lived and how many kids they had and then said that I should get the white. I’m not sure how that information would say white, but so far so good; the first family loved it. And the best part…they were just 3.50 Euros each (less than 5 bucks a pop) . Then I saw them. The escargot were there and Anne-Marie insisted that we buy some escargot for lunch. Not bad, not bad at all. If I hadn’t known before I ate them that they were snails, I would never have blinked an eye. After that adventure in eating, I hurried off to the train station. When it came time to change trains, I did not make that one despite my best efforts. The people who were waiting for me were not happy when I showed up 20 minutes late, but c‘est la vie. I could tell right away who the other girls were who were accompanying me to Grenoble by the size of their suitcases. One in particular had two bags, each of which could easily fit a family of four. Packing is the one aspect of this trip in which I was very organized. I have my backpacking backpack (thanks Kirsten!) one very small rolling bag and a purse. The other girls were amazed that I fit a year worth of things in that amount of space.

The family that I am staying with for the week is very nice and they are the smallest family I have ever seen. I honestly think a strong gust of wind would blow them away. The kids are 12 and 9, but when they asked me how old I thought they were I said 9 and 6. Does you boy remind you of someone? If they ever come out with a Harry Potter prequel they should call him first.

Check out their oldschool toilet.

The next day I visited the town of Versailles and the surrounding area. It really is beautiful, and our “tour guide” was an utterly adorable eighty-year-old Belgian. He explained to the two other Albion students that are here and me that when you’re eighty you just want to enjoy the good things in life like drinking good beer, eating good food, and looking at all the girls. I’ll keep that advice in mind when I get to that age.
Tuesday we went to Paris to sightsee with the Musee d’Orsay first on the list. It was OK, but nothing special. I know I’m in the definite minority, but I don’t care for Impressionist paintings.

It started pouring at the exact moment that we left the museum and I failed to bring an umbrella with me. I was absolutely soaked before I found someplace that sold them, and then paid an exorbitantly high price for one that better last a very long time.

I'm still alive

I've gotten a lot of emails asking if I'm OK, and, yes, I'm perfectly well. I don't have Internet access at the house I'm staying at, but hopefully I will have wifi on the train tomorrow and then I will do a huge post because there's lots to report.