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.

The journey begins...

Here's some background on what I'm doing: I will be studying in Grenoble, France for the 2009-2010 school year. I am eagerly anticipating the experience, but at the same time I'm nervous about all the uncertainties of living abroad for so long.

The other day I received the acceptance letter from the Centre Universitaire d'Etudes Francaises (CUEF) to their French Language and Culture Program. I've already started the process of getting ready by emailing people who've gone to Grenoble in years past, but there are major items that are looming over my head. I still need to apply for a visa and looking at flights, both of which are time intensive.

I appreciate any suggestions and comments on what I'm doing and feeling throughout the next year and a half.

Thanks for reading!