THIS IS NEW TOO

View from campus.
The building near the bottom is the library.
And no, that's not snow on the top yet, the drought a few years ago here caused the top of the mountain to catch on fire so there's no trees on the top anymore.

Here's the group before orientation at school. We're actually sitting in the hallway there. From the top...
Left is Brandi. Right is Phil.
Aileen Tiffany (she's in the
shadow a little)
Amanda Laura
Sunny

OK, so I just found out that my church put this blog’s address in the Sunday bulletin, so I’ll do a quick recap:

I’ve moved to Grenoble, France (southeastern part of the country, in the Alps, near Italy) to study French language and culture. I’ve been here for one full week now. I live with a French family just outside of the main part of town. They are fabulous and being with them has definitely helped me learn French faster, although it’s really easy to remember and learn new stuff when you’re totally surrounded by it. Grenoble is the most fabulous city. It’s big enough to have a lot to do but also small enough that I don’t feel totally lost. There’s 7 other people in my particular group, CEA, who has set up my living arrangements and everything. The other students definitely represent all different types, which is kind of nice, and our on-site director is incredibly knowledgeable and kind. Classes here aren’t bad, the college is all international students, and we’re put in levels to make sure we’re at a level that’s good for us. Overall I’m really having a good time, though I’ll be looking forward to getting back home in January.

There’s a lot of things I’ve learned about France even in just a week. There are four things the French like:
1) Their language – The French pretty much view their language as the main symbol of their entire nation and culture. If you attempt to speak it they really do appreciate it. Parisians might be a bit short and rude when it comes to foreigners, but if you think about it, New Yorkers are too. In Grenoble I’ve actually been helped quite a few times. They try and do everything in French, but if they speak English they’ll switch to it if necessary. My family has even helped to teach me correct grammar and idiomatic phrases.
2) Wine – The French seem to like any alcoholic beverage, but wine especially. There’s a drink before dinner, wine with dinner, drinks after dinner, drinks out at the bar, drinks at lunch, drinks if you get together with anyone, it’s almost insane. Wine is about 3 € or 4€, which is under $5.00 American. Bottled carbonated water is about the same price, for a lot less actual fluid. It’s really funny. The Grenoble area is famous for Chartreuse, a drink made of hundreds of kinds of plants by monks in the Chartreuse Mountains.
3) Bread – Bread is served all the time. If you were on the Atkins diet you would NOT do very well here. There are boulangeries (bakeries) about every block an a half in downtown Grenoble and even out here where I live, there’s a fresh loaf of bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s kinda nice, because it goes with everything, especially….
4) CHEESE – There are 5 courses in a formal French dinner, cheese being one of them. (The others are apperitifs (drinks before dinner), salade, le plat (main course), and dessert.) At the end of the main course and before dessert out comes a plate of cheese. That’s not just at formal dinners, that’s at every single meal. There’s usually about 4 or 5 different kinds of cheese and you just take a slice of the ones you want, spread it on your bread and off you go. The cheese here is different though. It’s not served particularly cold; they take it out of the fridge at the beginning of dinner so that by the time the cheese course comes around it’s about room temperature. It’s also a lot creamier too. My favorite so far is chèvre, which is goat cheese. It has kind of a strong taste, but it’s really good.

So what are some myths about the French? The women here do shave. It’s not an every single day thing like in the US (God bless them for that) but I haven’t seen a single “hairy” woman… so stop thinking that. The French also dress a lot like Americans. Jeans, t-shirt, sandals… it’s all popular over here. They don’t really wear t-shirts that advertise their schools or a certain place, they tend to be plain or with just random decoration on them, but especially at the university people definitely wear them. I’ve seen more women here with skirts or dresses, but it’s not like required or anything. It’s pretty easy-going for the most part I think. If you want to wear it no one’s going to look at you strangely, the French are a lot less judgmental.

French radio is something altogether different though. How do I even begin to describe this? OK… they have their own French pop and top 40 kinda stuff of course but they also have a few international songs because the population of Grenoble is pretty diverse. But then add in the worst 50 songs in the past two decades of American music. I don’t know how they manage to pick only the worst stuff, but it’s amazing. Especially bad 80s music. That’s really popular here.

Another thing the French like? Their dogs. Well really their pets in general, but dogs seem to be incredibly popular. It’s probably against about a million health codes in every even slightly developed country, but there isn’t anywhere dogs aren’t allowed in this country. Small dogs, big dogs, it doesn’t matter. There’s lots of parks for them to play in and special sections set aside as doggy bathrooms, though no one heeds them it seems. Even in my family they have pictures of their old dog everywhere, like a family member who died. And after dinner we all wind up playing with the cat it seems like. And you don’t really see any strays around. Even the few homeless that Grenoble has have dogs that are fairly well taken care of and fed all things considered. The dogs are also trained really well so leashes are pretty much non-existent except for younger puppies.

So lots of info there, hope it wasn't too much. Laters!