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.